I know I don't update often. I go up and down. But I just have to share this.
I'm at a roleplaying session of a game called Exalted, and we're currently digging a gigantic hole. This hole was so huge that it sunk one of the nearby buildings, turns out it was one of the private libraries of the mayor, who also would have killed us on sight if he knew what we were. The mayor came out to complain at us.
What's funny is that the musical member of our group tried to distract things with a soothing song. Being a fan of roleplaying, he began by strumming his guitar and saying "You know, that reminds me of a song about libraries collapsing..."
And later, there was "Oh, sometimes you gotta crush the head of your rickshaw driver, and sometimes you gotta not kill the guy playing the guitar..."
Just felt that this was too funny not to tell y'all about.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
My Experiences So Far In NYC
All right, the poem wasn't that good.
New York City was, and is, a blast. In brief, I've been to Central Park, the Museum of Natural History, Little Italy, the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater, Ground Zero, Radio City Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Rockefeller Center, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, the Garment District, Hell's Kitchen, the New York Times building, and a massive comics shop in Midtown (named Midtown Comics).
In length:
New York City cabbies are about as ridiculous as everyone says they are. Lanes are treated as mere suggestions, and the horn is indeed a surrogate for the brake pedal in many cases. Cabs miss other cars and people by mere inches. This was while I was in one (we've taken two), and they're even more intimidating outside. But they demonstrate such an unparalleled mastery of their vehicles that it really isn't that terrifying. They may miss me by an inch with their horn blaring all the while, but I still feel completely safe. Which is interesting. Rides with NYC cabbies are like two-dimensional roller coaster rides - you may go all over the place, but you don't feel like you're in any actual danger.
Restaurants in New York City are easily a cut above any other restaurants I've been to anywhere. Not that they're all superior, I've been to some REALLY nice restaurants, but in general, the average in NYC is much better than the average anywhere else. There was this Irish pub style place where we were still walking towards it at 6:00 - and had our meal, after appetizers, at 6:15. And it was delicious. I haven't had a bad meal since I've been here. I'm making a dedicated effort not to go to any place I've ever been to before, rationalizing that it's a waste to fly all the way to the Big Apple and eat at Subway.
The subway is at the same time enormously confusing and enormously useful. I can't help but think of it as described in some 1900s-esque period sci-fi novel where the protagonist, in the far-off year of 2000, sees a marvelous system of trains that go underground, that shuttle millions of people around every day, for a mere pittance. Once, we got lost and ended up in Brooklyn.
Central Park: We both agreed, my father and I, that it would be much more interesting in the spring when everything wasn't all withered and leafless. It was still pretty nice, but, y'know, everything's dead or hibernating. It's still forty degrees out. Not spring yet. There was a playground and a bunch of rocks to climb on, and the whole place was flanked with horses, making it practically impossible to get in for me.
Museum of Natural History: Awesome. Dinosaur skeletons, a planetarium show, a butterfly exhibit where we got to mingle with hundreds of butterflies. It was 80 degrees and 80% humidity inside the butterfly enclosure. People were panting, sweating, complaining, wiping their foreheads, I just shrugged and said that this is my existence for four or five months out of the year.
Little Italy: Practically invisible to us until we found twelve or thirteen Italian restaurants in a two-block diameter. The one we went to was excellent. I actually had manicotti with sauce, and enjoyed it. See? New York City is broadening my horizons. I may yet embrace sauce.
The Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater: An improv theater, a small underground place (literally and figuratively). We went for two hours of the most gut-bustingly hilarious improv I've ever seen, that blows any Whose Line? sketches out of the friggin' water. Well, maybe not Sound Effects.
Ground Zero: Sad. Full of construction. Apparently they're building a new building that'll be some sort of memorial, or maybe a replacement, I wasn't too clear on the details.
Radio City Hall, Carnegie Hall, Rockefeller Center: Were closed. Or unavailable. We stopped outside, oohed and aahed, then left.
Times Square: As big and flashy as I've ever seen it. I tried and failed to pinpoint the exact location where the sailor kissed the nurse in that famous photograph (if you don't know which photograph I'm talking about, get a friggin' clue and look it up, it won a Pulitzer for God's sake). We got to see a fight between two big guys, which the police broke up relatively quickly. My father started counting when the first punch was thrown; the police showed up 32 seconds later. Commendably fast. Giuliani really did make a difference.
The Statue of Liberty: Did you know that the copper exterior of the Statue is only as thick as two coins? Most of it is an iron frame. Anyway, not much to say - it was a statue, it was impressive, the gift shop shilled it for everything it was worth. The ferry ride over and back was fun. Plus, New York's feral seagulls and evil pigeons duked it out for bread crumbs. That was entertainment in and of itself.
Wall Street: I didn't get to see any of the fun parts of Wall Street, you know, with lots of smartly besuited people waving bits of paper and shouting their lungs out. Apparently that's forbidden to the public. I got some good pictures in front of the New York Stock Exchange building, though.
The Garment District: Lives up to its name. Holy crap, are there ever a lot of clothes stores. There was one Macy's that dwarfed any department store I've ever seen. (Maybe Harrod's in England was bigger. I really couldn't say, it's been nigh on a decade.) I didn't end up buying anything, though.
Hell's Kitchen: Did not live up to its name. Wasn't really that terrifying, to be honest. There was a flea market, at which I bought some VHS tapes my father will convert into DVDs for me, since I possess no VHS player.
The New York Times Building: Got a picture in front of it with me rolling my eyes derisively. Stupid New York Times. They charge $5.00 for a Sunday edition that's two-thirds advertisements and wonder why they're losing business.
Midtown Comics: I now have a reason to live in New York City, and that reason is this store.
Overall, I'm loving it, and I'll visit other things like Fifth Avenue and the Empire State Building later in the week. I definitely want to move here after law school. It'll be fun!
New York City was, and is, a blast. In brief, I've been to Central Park, the Museum of Natural History, Little Italy, the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater, Ground Zero, Radio City Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Rockefeller Center, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, the Garment District, Hell's Kitchen, the New York Times building, and a massive comics shop in Midtown (named Midtown Comics).
In length:
New York City cabbies are about as ridiculous as everyone says they are. Lanes are treated as mere suggestions, and the horn is indeed a surrogate for the brake pedal in many cases. Cabs miss other cars and people by mere inches. This was while I was in one (we've taken two), and they're even more intimidating outside. But they demonstrate such an unparalleled mastery of their vehicles that it really isn't that terrifying. They may miss me by an inch with their horn blaring all the while, but I still feel completely safe. Which is interesting. Rides with NYC cabbies are like two-dimensional roller coaster rides - you may go all over the place, but you don't feel like you're in any actual danger.
Restaurants in New York City are easily a cut above any other restaurants I've been to anywhere. Not that they're all superior, I've been to some REALLY nice restaurants, but in general, the average in NYC is much better than the average anywhere else. There was this Irish pub style place where we were still walking towards it at 6:00 - and had our meal, after appetizers, at 6:15. And it was delicious. I haven't had a bad meal since I've been here. I'm making a dedicated effort not to go to any place I've ever been to before, rationalizing that it's a waste to fly all the way to the Big Apple and eat at Subway.
The subway is at the same time enormously confusing and enormously useful. I can't help but think of it as described in some 1900s-esque period sci-fi novel where the protagonist, in the far-off year of 2000, sees a marvelous system of trains that go underground, that shuttle millions of people around every day, for a mere pittance. Once, we got lost and ended up in Brooklyn.
Central Park: We both agreed, my father and I, that it would be much more interesting in the spring when everything wasn't all withered and leafless. It was still pretty nice, but, y'know, everything's dead or hibernating. It's still forty degrees out. Not spring yet. There was a playground and a bunch of rocks to climb on, and the whole place was flanked with horses, making it practically impossible to get in for me.
Museum of Natural History: Awesome. Dinosaur skeletons, a planetarium show, a butterfly exhibit where we got to mingle with hundreds of butterflies. It was 80 degrees and 80% humidity inside the butterfly enclosure. People were panting, sweating, complaining, wiping their foreheads, I just shrugged and said that this is my existence for four or five months out of the year.
Little Italy: Practically invisible to us until we found twelve or thirteen Italian restaurants in a two-block diameter. The one we went to was excellent. I actually had manicotti with sauce, and enjoyed it. See? New York City is broadening my horizons. I may yet embrace sauce.
The Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater: An improv theater, a small underground place (literally and figuratively). We went for two hours of the most gut-bustingly hilarious improv I've ever seen, that blows any Whose Line? sketches out of the friggin' water. Well, maybe not Sound Effects.
Ground Zero: Sad. Full of construction. Apparently they're building a new building that'll be some sort of memorial, or maybe a replacement, I wasn't too clear on the details.
Radio City Hall, Carnegie Hall, Rockefeller Center: Were closed. Or unavailable. We stopped outside, oohed and aahed, then left.
Times Square: As big and flashy as I've ever seen it. I tried and failed to pinpoint the exact location where the sailor kissed the nurse in that famous photograph (if you don't know which photograph I'm talking about, get a friggin' clue and look it up, it won a Pulitzer for God's sake). We got to see a fight between two big guys, which the police broke up relatively quickly. My father started counting when the first punch was thrown; the police showed up 32 seconds later. Commendably fast. Giuliani really did make a difference.
The Statue of Liberty: Did you know that the copper exterior of the Statue is only as thick as two coins? Most of it is an iron frame. Anyway, not much to say - it was a statue, it was impressive, the gift shop shilled it for everything it was worth. The ferry ride over and back was fun. Plus, New York's feral seagulls and evil pigeons duked it out for bread crumbs. That was entertainment in and of itself.
Wall Street: I didn't get to see any of the fun parts of Wall Street, you know, with lots of smartly besuited people waving bits of paper and shouting their lungs out. Apparently that's forbidden to the public. I got some good pictures in front of the New York Stock Exchange building, though.
The Garment District: Lives up to its name. Holy crap, are there ever a lot of clothes stores. There was one Macy's that dwarfed any department store I've ever seen. (Maybe Harrod's in England was bigger. I really couldn't say, it's been nigh on a decade.) I didn't end up buying anything, though.
Hell's Kitchen: Did not live up to its name. Wasn't really that terrifying, to be honest. There was a flea market, at which I bought some VHS tapes my father will convert into DVDs for me, since I possess no VHS player.
The New York Times Building: Got a picture in front of it with me rolling my eyes derisively. Stupid New York Times. They charge $5.00 for a Sunday edition that's two-thirds advertisements and wonder why they're losing business.
Midtown Comics: I now have a reason to live in New York City, and that reason is this store.
Overall, I'm loving it, and I'll visit other things like Fifth Avenue and the Empire State Building later in the week. I definitely want to move here after law school. It'll be fun!
Monday, February 23, 2009
I Wrote A Narrative Double Sonnet
I was assigned in my poetry class to write a narrative double sonnet that's a retelling of a famous myth or legend. I chose the myth of Icarus. I followed the Shakespearean rules for sonnets - 28 lines, a-b-a-b-c-d-c-d-e-f-e-f-g-g rhyming, in iambic pentameter. Tell me what you think.
A sparkling wave broke forth across the sea
Lashing and foaming, pounding far below
As Icarus stood, small heart filled with glee,
At all the great lengths Daedalus might go
To gain their freedom. Great wings, wide and proud,
All flighted with the feathers of those birds
(Except, i’faith, he should have wove a shroud,)
Whose clarion calls could every day be heard
Across the island. Daedalus called heed
To his young sun, snapped his fingers fast,
He bade him listen to his words of need,
“Flap not too high, lest that flap be your last.”
Fixed Icarus with flutt’ring wings, quite light,
Kissed him once more, then both of them took flight.
The sun upon their faces warmed their heart
More than their bodies. The cold ocean spray
Would often foam up, forcing them apart
With bitter, icy fingers. The boy’s play
Took them into a squawking flock of gulls
Enraged at this invasion of their space,
They drove old Daedalus down near ships’ hulls
While Icarus soared up to the sun’s face,
But then, the sun, cruel master that it is,
Shined down its burning rays with terrible strength,
Melting the wings of poor young Icarus
Robbing his flight of its remaining length.
He plunged into the unforgiving sea,
The birds, still heedless, flapped away, still free.
A sparkling wave broke forth across the sea
Lashing and foaming, pounding far below
As Icarus stood, small heart filled with glee,
At all the great lengths Daedalus might go
To gain their freedom. Great wings, wide and proud,
All flighted with the feathers of those birds
(Except, i’faith, he should have wove a shroud,)
Whose clarion calls could every day be heard
Across the island. Daedalus called heed
To his young sun, snapped his fingers fast,
He bade him listen to his words of need,
“Flap not too high, lest that flap be your last.”
Fixed Icarus with flutt’ring wings, quite light,
Kissed him once more, then both of them took flight.
The sun upon their faces warmed their heart
More than their bodies. The cold ocean spray
Would often foam up, forcing them apart
With bitter, icy fingers. The boy’s play
Took them into a squawking flock of gulls
Enraged at this invasion of their space,
They drove old Daedalus down near ships’ hulls
While Icarus soared up to the sun’s face,
But then, the sun, cruel master that it is,
Shined down its burning rays with terrible strength,
Melting the wings of poor young Icarus
Robbing his flight of its remaining length.
He plunged into the unforgiving sea,
The birds, still heedless, flapped away, still free.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
My Web Site Is Actually Online Now
Originally this post was called something like "So My Web Site Will Be Online Very Soon," but then I checked my email and my instructor had put it online already. So here it is:
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/homepages/s09/moreau%5Fl/
For best results, view in Firefox, it loses some of its luster when it goes to Internet Explorer. It's very basic, but I built it myself and it is mine. And it's not that bad.
I remember being terrified when I finally finished it then ran it through an XHTML validator, and got back like 25 errors per page. Fortunately, most of them were just that I forgot to close one tag and then it just caused errors to cascade. I had to make a total of like five fixes to solve 100+ errors.
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/homepages/s09/moreau%5Fl/
For best results, view in Firefox, it loses some of its luster when it goes to Internet Explorer. It's very basic, but I built it myself and it is mine. And it's not that bad.
I remember being terrified when I finally finished it then ran it through an XHTML validator, and got back like 25 errors per page. Fortunately, most of them were just that I forgot to close one tag and then it just caused errors to cascade. I had to make a total of like five fixes to solve 100+ errors.
And I think I'll get a decent grade on it, so I'm in a good mood. And Megacon is next weekend, so I'm in a better mood. And a friend of mine just got something she's wanted for a very long time, so I'm in a great mood.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
I Built A Web Site
Tremble with fear, brief mortals, for now I have a basic competency with XHTML and CSS. I used it to build a Web site for class, which I'm handing in in, oh...an hour and a half.
It has pictures, and borders (I do so love the border declaration), and humorous title tags on each and every picture. And a background made of bubbles. Since I have absolutely no way to host it, though, I can't show it to you, at least until I get back home or go to Megacon or something.
Rest assured, it's decent-looking. I'm actually kind of proud of it.
It has pictures, and borders (I do so love the border declaration), and humorous title tags on each and every picture. And a background made of bubbles. Since I have absolutely no way to host it, though, I can't show it to you, at least until I get back home or go to Megacon or something.
Rest assured, it's decent-looking. I'm actually kind of proud of it.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Between Classes
I was looking at the tuition for UF's law school. $10,800 a year for residents. Blech. And here I was hoping I could get out of college without owing tens of thousands of dollars in student loans.
But the average salary for UF law school graduates in their first year was $72,000, so that makes me feel a little better. Those loans'll go away in no time.
My stomach is feeling fine. I have class in a few minutes. I can't wait for Megacon, I already ordered the trench coat and am going to the mall this afternoon for the hat, scarf, and gloves. May have to order the gloves online...I hope not.
But the average salary for UF law school graduates in their first year was $72,000, so that makes me feel a little better. Those loans'll go away in no time.
My stomach is feeling fine. I have class in a few minutes. I can't wait for Megacon, I already ordered the trench coat and am going to the mall this afternoon for the hat, scarf, and gloves. May have to order the gloves online...I hope not.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Oh Really?
Just because I go a little while - a little while packed with drama and intrigue and crap, mind - without responding doesn't mean I'm gone.
I'm still here.
In fact I was in town this weekend. I can only assume that the last person to comment was someone who knows me from home. Well, I was there.
But, uh, yeah. Last few days have been pretty crazy - I couldn't think of anything but what was happening. Lots of drama.
Right. Stomach hurts. Gotta take a shower. Gotta write this stupid proposal.
I'm still here.
In fact I was in town this weekend. I can only assume that the last person to comment was someone who knows me from home. Well, I was there.
But, uh, yeah. Last few days have been pretty crazy - I couldn't think of anything but what was happening. Lots of drama.
Right. Stomach hurts. Gotta take a shower. Gotta write this stupid proposal.
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