Nuraido mentioned to me that I've been absent from blogging and chatting. That'll all come back next week. This week I was moving into a new house and covering a game conference all week. For those of you not fortunate enough to work in the game industry, that means a lot of networking and panels followed by heavy, heavy drinking. More importantly, for me this week, it meant this. I spent Tuesday evening filling the drinking portion of the conference by touring Richard Garriott's two houses and watching marines shoot at aliens. Sometimes, life just works out for me.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Saturday, September 8, 2007
B.A. Zoo Double Plus Good
I must admit, I didn't have very high hopes for the zoo located 6 blocks from my house. I never really visited until today, after a failed gym session (not for lack of effort; the gym closes for four hours in the middle of Saturdays for a siesta). Once I set aside all of animal cruelty concerns (you really have to if you're going to visit any zoo), I quickly realized that the Buenos Aires zoological garden was the coolest zoo I had ever visited.
First of all, you know how in American zoos, squirrels and sometimes peacocks will wander around the premises. Well, you'll never guess what loving critters wander around this zoo freely, begging for food. Nutrias. That's right, Nutrias, from the Scientific Order Rodentia. The Smed panic scale immediately jumped to a red alert upon seeing these giant rat-looking creatures, and remained elevated at orange throughout the rest of my zoo visit. After all, I first became acquainted with nutria by seeing them swimming in ditches in southeast Texas. Terrifying.
But here, the nutria is a beloved creature. Children run up to them to pet them, and then the nutria dance a bit, begging for food and wagging their humongous rat tail. I could only stare at this scene and frantically look around me about every minute and a half looking for attacking nutria.
After I got used to the nutria, the rest of the zoo did not disappoint. Every animal is extremely active. It's not like US zoos, where you walk around looking at various animals taking naps. Oh no. I watched a lagoon of hippos for 20 minutes because they were literally leaping out of the water and throwing themselves onto each other as part of some hippopotamus frolicking game. There was even a baby hippo who would jump out of the water and nibble on his mother's (I assume) snout. Argentine hippos have so much more energy than US hippos. Either that or US hippos are kept drugged up and calm.
The rest of the animals were just as entertaining, but for a different reason. Basically, zoo patrons can feed almost any animal at the zoo. The zoo has placed grooved ramps between the safety fences and the animals so that people can roll pellets to the animals. But most people directly feed the animal or throw the feed into their mouth. Animals you were allowed to feed included elephants, zebras, camels, baboons, and a host of other strange animals.
The baboons would take turns sitting at the various feeding ramps and showing off in return for some food. The camel stood right at the fence with its mouth wide open. No, you couldn't feed the big cats, so instead they would put huge hunks of meat in their cages to keep them lively. And lively they were.
Reason #1093 to visit Buenos Aires: Crazy rule-free zoo where children cavort with nutria and laughingly feed howling monkeys.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Shaping the future, take one
Today is my first day teaching at MC, and it's been fairly eventful.
Predictably, I overslept and underestimated the horror that is morning traffic, so I was frazzled and running crazy late. It took me over an hour to go the ten miles from my house to the parking garage. The faculty parking lot was a war zone. I actually had someone mouth "What...the....fuck!!!!" at me when I turned in (she wasn't actually in a lane) all slow motion-style, just like in the movies. And so I was 15 minutes late to class (awesome first impression). Then, the department chair neglected to leave the syllabus for the class for me as he promised, so I showed up, 15 minutes late, sweaty and frazzled, with no syllabus. What did I find when I arrived? All of my students (amazing - apparently they don't know about the 15 minute rule) and a locked classroom. Which I don't have a key to. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my class was "that" class today. We've all been on the other side, watching the idiotic young professor who tries to make jokes to cover up for their incompetence. Today, that idiotic young professor was me.
So, that was a bust. I let them leave, and used the next hour to figure out how to fill an hour and 15 minutes without a syllabus, and the mysteries of unlocking the door. I accomplished both, and my second class was fantastic. I LOVE the kids. They're from all over the world, they don't have entitlement scrawled all over their faces like students at places I've taught in the past. They actually did what I asked them to do, and seemed to have fun doing it. They seem kind of excited to be in school. It made me remember that I do in fact like teaching. So, we'll see how tonight's class goes, but I'm jazzed about it.
The end.
Could it be? Is it she?
That's right kids, I give in. I come to you in submission, bowing down to the blogging goddess who has so loving taken me into her dirty dirty grasp. Why have I resisted her temptations for so long you ask? Pure fear. Fear that I would become exactly what I am right now. A wart on the derriere of society, sitting at her desk, inhaling a box of wheat thins, avoiding the mundane work that she should be doing. So I surrender, since putting around on the computadora is clearly more fun than writing a cognitive evaluation.
So let's chat. How are you? Heard any good jokes lately? Ok, I suck at this. Who exactly am I blogging too? Is this some sort of online diary, and if so, why are people allowed to read it? This breaks the cardinal diary rule. I do not understand your twisted little world blog! I'm sorry, I don't mean to get testy, it's just that I have a so much to tell you yet I'm afraid of how you will react. Will you reject me blog, will you tell me I'm not good enough and that I write like a five year old, will you hate me if I don't know the headline of today's Washington Post (never mind, I do, Pavarotti died, that's actually pretty shitty).
Oh dearest blog, you and I, my sweet sweet friend, should take our relationship slow. I mean, really, do you expect to know all my deepest thoughts on our first encounter. Patience my sweet, patience, it will all come out eventually. A little taste you ask? Ok, here it goes... I have a weakness for peg legs, adult braces, crazy looking professors, and tofu. My big plans include ridding the world of carrots because they are disgusting, adopting a Mongolian yak because their milk is liquid gold, and moving my crew to Vancouver where nerds like us roam free. Are you satisfied blog? Oh blog, I think you and I have a whole future of love and admiration ahead of us. Get excited, cuz mama's home!
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
What can I say?
As burned out as I am on Iraq right now, Keith Olbermann, my future husband, still gets me all shivery when he gets all indignant and starts yelling at Bush. If you didn't see Olbermann's Special Comment on Countdown last night, you should watch it here.
He's brilliant, and he's right.
In case there's any doubt left that the surge is a terrible idea, you should read Hilary Hilzoy's post on Andrew Sullivan's blog here.
The analysis is smart and, as far as I can tell, goes unrefuted by anyone in the Bush administration.
Finally, there's this story in Salon today about Jamie Dean. Jamie was in the Army, came back from Afghanistan with PTSD, was receiving treatment for the disability through the VA and had applied for disability status, and was recalled. He went a little nuts, the Maryland cops lost their shit, and they shot and killed him. It's incredibly sad.
Moral of the story? Bush is a lying coward with purely political motivations for prolonging this conflict. On a strategic level, none of this is working, and more people will just continue to die as we make things worse. In the mean time, the troops that are injured in the unending war don't get the help they need, and inefficient bureaucracy means that they needlessly die. Awesome.
Happy Birthday!!!
Jack Kerouac's On the Road
They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Weekend exploits
It has been an eventful couple of days around the House of Nerds. Below the jump are the highlights.
As of Thursday, Tommy had been in town for almost a week, and things had been relatively low key. A few tense Risk games, a lot of intensive LSAT studying, some chillin' on the porch, and that's about it. Thursday night, mathgimp left for the Houston wedding, and the insanity began.
David was Chinatown bussin' it down from NYC on Thursday after class. Sadly, his bus left about 45 minutes late, putting him in DC 20 minutes after the metro stopped running. So my brother, who's always thinking, suggested that David ask the bus driver to pull over and drop him off at the College Park exit. David being David, and the Chinatown bus being the Chinatown bus, he was left on the side of 295 for us to come collect. A little odd, but saved us about an hour and a half of our lives.
Friday night, Shween flew in after her insane week of interviews, and we proceeded to live it up at Solly's on U Street. Shween now refers to herself, and will be referred to by us, as Ol' Girl. As in "Ol' Girl knows. She's been around the block. She's seen all there is to see." Allow your imaginations to roam freely, gentlemen. It was nice to be reunited for the first time since Tommy's graduation, and good times were had by all.
While all of this was occurring, mathgimp found himself in the unlikeliest of spots: planning an entire wedding in 24 hours. I hear he's for hire, if you're interested...but that post is his to write if he'd like.
On Saturday, we weren't feeling so hot, but we had accidentally announced that we were hosting a BBQ, so there was planning to be done. Tons of people showed up, we all ate incredible amounts of food, and it was actually a ton of fun. We narrowly escaped the long arm of the law, who apparently get cranky when people who may or may not be associated with my house set of fireworks at 2 am. Hmmm.
Sunday was beautiful, so we headed into Old Town Alexandria for brunch and to walk along the shore. Rhonda and I now have the goal of dining at every restaurant along King Street, and you're all invited. We dropped Shween off at the airport, and decided to lay low Sunday evening. Mathgimp came home, rejoicing was had.
Yesterday was the last day of David and Tommy's visit, so we figured we'd deviate from the previous patterns of only eating a lot and then drinking a lot and instead go for a hike at Great Falls. It was to be our undoing, because as we were turning into the parking lot, I got rear ended. The right side of my car is a bit banged up, but other than a few aches and a little stiffness we're all fine. We sat in the damn parking lot for 3 hours, using 5 cell phones (Mathgimp and Rhonda were helping us out remotely), and managed to accomplish absolutely nothing. The police officer refused to assign liability for the accident to the woman that hit me. After being on the phone with my insurance company for an hour and fifteen minutes, I actually said the following: "Ronald. I am frustrated and disappointed with you, and with this organization. I pay you to advocate for me, Ronald. You're not being my advocate. I need you to give me information I need to make decisions, and you're not doing that, Ronald." Well, by said I kind of mean yelled.
The only thing actually accomplished in that three hours is that mathgimp successfully ordered us Chinese food and wine, which arrived about 45 seconds after we got home. The moral of the story? Don't try to do things when you can instead eat and drink at home.
This morning I went to sleep at 2:30 am, drove Tommy to the airport at 5:15 am, ate breakfast with David, and then stumbled to work.
It was an adventure filled weekend, but I'm pretty worn out. And I need a massage for my aching muscles.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Spring has sprung!
It appears that winter is out and spring is here in B.A. I wore a winter coat yesterday and a t-shirt today. Highs in the 60s all this week. Things are really going to start getting good here...especially since Pete and I decided, spur of the moment, to split a plane ticket for him to come visit me in less than two weeks. Wahoo!
Turtle on the ankle
Here's the new tattoo.
I think it's pretty hot. Tommy, though, says I can't tell new people why I got it - he says the story "keeps friends, not makes friends." Benjamin says that the turtle is fine and all, but I should have picked either the Celtic knot or a cute, adorable little turtle and gone with one or the other. I wish both of my brothers had decided to express those views before I modified by body forever, but I actually don't care, cause I love it. Yay, turtles! 
Sunday, September 2, 2007
I am an American
Some of you might be worried that I am losing my American sense of identity here in Buenos Aires. At first, I feared the same; for instance, I started calling myself a "Northamerican" (That's what we're called here - BLASPHEMY). However, the events from Thursday and Friday indicate that in my heart, I remain an All-American girl.
It was the birthday of one of my new friends, Felix, and in his honor we decided to have a birthday party. I invited every exchange student at our university and asked them to bring libations. And voila, that night we had a genuine college-throw back "rager." OK, so it wasn't completely a Northamerican party - there was more Spanish than English, and we played reggaeton instead of...ummm...whatever young people in the US play at ragers. However, I must say, it was a pretty rocking party, complete with a birthday cake and a rendition of "Happy Birthday" (In English, dammit).
But the following day is the particularly patriotic portion of this post. Victor and I woke up, not feeling particularly well. We decided we needed some AMERICAN food; I was a bit tired of empanadas. After some internet research, I realized that not many American chains have reached South America (yes, yes I realize that is a good thing). But guess what - TGIFridays has made its way down to Buenos Aires. I put on my burnt orange Texas hoodie and a baseball cap. Victor didn't look much better (sorry, V). We made our way to the mall, ate some fried food at TGIF (and yes, the waitresses have the flare here as well). It tasted terrible, but at that moment, I was so proud to be an American. And I also increased my vocabulary: "Estoy de rezaca." (I have a hangover.)
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