email updates

i love when our IT department sends out emails regarding the functionality of our website. it makes me feel like i work a very high-profile, very top-secret, very dangerous job:


Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 12:40 PM
To: ala-allstaff
Subject: ALA Web Site

This morning our web site came under attack again, causing the site to be slow to the point of non-responsive.  I should say that it came under heavier attack than usual, since we're always under attack.  The extremely short version is that we were the target of a denial of service attack, that is, a huge number of requests were sent to the web site, from a rotating series of sources, making it impossible for the servers to keep up with the requests.  Since the source of the requests isn't fixed, blocking those requests is more difficult.

We're currently stable, and are watching closely.

good city morning

this morning was like any other morning; in other words, unremarkable. yet it was a perfect morning. the bus window in the back where i was sitting was open, and rather than gust of air, it was a refreshing breeze. every encounter favored the positive aspect this morning. people smiled and said good morning, the bus came right away, and all the walks sign hit in my favor. if it could have smelled delicious or noxious it was the former. the bakery on chicago was going full force and filled the bus with sweet carb-y goodness and the shopping cart man collecting bits of other people's trash smelled neutral, which compared to his potential, is fantastic. that was what made this ordinary morning extraordinary, though. the homeless man was still there, we had to wait longer than usual at the milwaukee/chicago intersection, i got off a stop early...but, for whatever reason, every banal encounter was surrounded with some sort of beauty or optimism, and before i kill that with some sarcastic comment about how sentimental and fuzzy it all is, i'll just stop writing.

sometimes i sit on the bus and think. other days i read. today i did both.

by 8:15 this morning, i'd already had several striking realizations: (this, in itself, was a striking realization seeing as how i usually don't have any realizations at all during the day.)

-at age 24, i've finally hit my stride with reading

-oprah taping on michigan ave is like a real-life version of rex manning day and probably attended by the same women

-98% of the time it's really good that cats don't have opposable thumbs. the other 2% of the time, however...

couldn't have picked a better book myself. seriously. i couldn't.

a friend gave me the road by cormac mccarthy for my birthday. it comes at a perfect time: just finished an interesting, action-adventure book that was fun, if not fluffy. the wild girl was relief after reading 660 pages about somewhat worthless, allwhat depressing characters in seven types of ambiguity. not that that book wasn't excellent, because it was. there were passages that made me feel like perhaps truer words had never been spoken about the human race. (sorry mr. shakespeare.) it was also very inter-connected and layered, which one might expect with a title like that...nonetheless it was a long, descriptive book and i was looking for some punchy writing. then along came the road, and knocked all my teeth out.

not only is this book a stark contrast from the past 1500 pages of reading i've done, it's pretty much unlike any other book i've read. this man describes gray in more ways than the eskimos name ice. not to mention he infuses suspense into pages where the same thing is happening, which is more or less nothing. i'm only about 70 pages in, but i'm hooked. also, the guy doesn't use apostrophes in contracted modals like couldn't, shouldn't, etc. i feel like that's on par with salinger's use of italics in dialogue. and even though i don't like salinger, i can still recognize his genius.

also, i can't read this book before i go to bed anymore.
because it's gotten scary.
and i'm a little girl.

words of wisdom

"Upon the paper would be the words, in ancient script spun into curlicues and banister shapes: 'Thou must want to be bigger than big, as big as a life-sized map of the Himalayans. Thou must be flamboyantly big or not only will greatness be impossible, but it will be laughably thin and tinny, and feel like a clammy grope from a disgusting wino with smelly pants and a toothless smile. Greatness is making people want to get sweaty together, wanting to glitter and get gold. You will know it when you see it so get to work.'"

-sean moeller 

funny ha ha

Dear Film Club Members: It’s true, Ang Lee has made a movie that is not a suicidally depressing meditation on impossible love. His new movie, Taking Woodstock, is, rather, about happiness. Please come see it anyway. Happiness, it turns out, is not a particularly normal subject for American movies, when you think of it. American movies feature protagonists, who experience conflicts, overcome obstacles, and, by the end of the movie, engage in heterosexual sex with women portrayed by actresses who, on average, make about one-third of the salaries of their male counterparts. The other male actor featured in American movies—the antagonist, who is paid between one-fourth and one-half of the male star’s salary—is either dead or humbled by the final act. These laws are buried deep within the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences bylaws, and can only be broken through special dispensation. And they result in films where what is achieved by the time the final credits roll is, as a rule, relief. I’m all for relief, and even exultation—their mass production is the economic engine that drives our entertainment industry. Happiness, however, is a more elusive cinematic goal: it is not an achievement— it is not the result of a victory, nor is it a prize. But it is a feeling that Ang wants you to share by the end of his film—and sharing is indeed the essence of it, the essence of the small taste of the Woodstock experience he celebrates. And so our protagonist, Elliot Tiber (played by the inimitable Demetri Martin) is an accidental one, at least by Hollywood standards. Stuck in his parents’ dumpy Catskill motel three miles down the road from Max Yasgar’s farm, he has goals, obstacles, dreams, frustrations—just like all of us. But, for one weekend, he and his family also have 500,000 friends show up in their back yard to help them sort out their destinies, to remind them of the power of love, a power that both clarifies and dissolves all goals and dreams. If Elliot never quite makes it all the way over the hill to Max’s that weekend, he takes a trip that takes him—and we hope, you—even farther. Peace, James Schamus, writer/producer

french friday

comme tout le monde sait ce que on n'utilise pas, on perd. pour cette raison j'ai décidé d'écrire en français ici de temps en temps, même si le poste est plein de fautes comme résultat.

alors, une langue différente mais toujours le même problème: de quoi j'écris?  peut-être juste un petit sommaire du semaine? comme d'habitude il me semble qu'il y a beaucoup de coïncidences. je sais que souvent c'est simplement la tête qui reconnais et donc fait cette connections--qu'il y a toujours des événements qu'on peut reconnais, et c'est seulement quand on veut les voir qu'ils deviennent un .  n'importe! 

mardi j'ai déjeuné en dehors avec une amie de boulot. après nous avons fini, elle est allé pour faire un visite à trader joe's pendant que j'ai cherché un bon coin dans le soleil. le petit tache que j'ai trouvé c'était sur les étages de l'église où se trouve une autre amie de boulot que j'ai voulu voir pendant pratiquement le mois d'août entier. nous avons parlé et puis un homme avec qui j'ai eu se croisent. hier soir, c'était même chose sauf qu'un autre homme. mes parents et leurs amis, nous avons en train de manger au resto. en rentrant de la salle de bain, mais voilà-- il était là aussi, avec une fille belle. ça suffit de mon passé pour quelques jours. 

le prochain hasard est beaucoup moins mélodramatique. juste une décision de préparer du quinoa pour le dîner. pendant que je le mangeais un ami me dit que ce jour était la première fois qu'il a entendu de ce grain! un peu bizarre, non?

il y avait un ou deux de plus, mais j'ai les oubliés.

j'ai vu le film cœur en papier ce semaine. au début, j'étais un peu déçu. la vedette, charlyne yi, me semble complètement affecté--comme hyper conscient de son apparence aux yeux des autres même si elle est fameux pour ne penser pas de cette choses. mais, comme le film a déroulé j'ai oublié ce criticisme pour penser sur les idées que le film a nous présenté. à la fin, il n'y a pas des grandes conclusions au sujet d'amour. quelle surprise! mais j'ai trouvé une consolation dans ces personnages familiers--mêmes émotions, mêmes problèmes... et là dans cette confusion était la clarté.  pour maintenant je ne cherche pas; seulement prendre plaisir dans ce que j'ai. et avec ce qui je l'ai.