go_team

Across the river, Manhattan shimmered in the moonlight — miles of white buildings sparkling like a forest of fireflies.... Manhattan, a cage of white ribs and a mass of glowing crystal, seemed nearly alive. The beauty in it lifted them far above their enemies and their troubles in the world, as if they were looking at life from the vantage point of the dead. Suddenly overcome with affection for the people they loved, they saw before them the city of sunshine and shadow, now covered in moonlight, and they loved it so much that they wanted to hold it in their arms. (520)

Dang! Saudi Arabia just put one in! At half time, it was Tunisia 1, Saudi Arabia 0, and more importantly it was Tunisia's first World Cup goal since their 3-0 victory over Mexico in Argentina 1978, which made them the first African team ever to win a World Cup game. So go them. If I knew how to say "Go Team!" in Arabic, I would. Especially now that it's tied and the U.S. commentators are still a bunch of dickheads, as always. As much as I enjoy disagreeing with them, they're also frequently annoying enough to make me switch to Univision.

In other news, German police have already started arresting Polish soccer hooligans, and I just saw a report that said two rival groups of Polish Hooligans arranged a practice fight before today's match against Germany, which I'll be missing because of work. I have yet to call in late to work on account of the World Cup, but I've been plenty late a few times already. Today I might've been on time except for that last goal, dangit. I should probably just tell work to not expect me in before 11 any time next week.

Ok, really going now.

Really.

From springbok1 via her friends list:

"Were there monkeys? Terrifying space monkeys?"

When you see this on your Friends page, quote Firefly in your journal.

P.S. We have our tickets to the midnight opening of Serenity on pre-order; are you all ready for Friday's awesomeness? Extra bonus: Mirrormask! (It looks like it won't get to Oregon until October 14, and then at only one theater in Portland, so all you Los Angeles and Bay Area and Cambridge and DC and NYC people are going to have to go see it for me this weekend so it gets into wider release, mmmkay?)

Ami and Amie (the masculine and feminine words for "friend", respectively) seem to me to come from the verm aimer, which is "to like/to love". So I can, if I choose to, literally translate "friend" as "beloved (one)" or at least "beliked (one)". Or am I just making shit up with my non-native-speaker weirdness? Similarly, famille (the word for "family", and pretty clearly the source of the English word or at least a cognate or whatever; I'm probably misusing the jargon but I'm tired, okay?) seems to have a form of aimer built in as well? All this comes up because I was trying to translate the phrase "friends and family" into French, and the asinine wordplay part of my brain started taking over, and I figured better to go all hyperanalytical than try to make puns in a language I'm really only barely conversant in... but I could be wrong or maybe not even wrong, on many levels. Must. Sleep.

So um, who's read The Dispossessed and wants to geek out about it lit nerd style? Extra bonus points if you find a copy of Samuel R. Delany's Jewel-Hinged Jaw and read his essay about The Dispossessed first. Right now I'm at the stage where I'm taking notes on the novel and getting myself psyched up to read the essay before it tells me I'm all wrong and a grotesquely ugly freak, so you've got time to get your reading on and catch up with me, especially if you've already read The Dispossessed, which I hadn't until earlier this month because I'm defective or something.

Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 15:03:01 -0700
From: Independent Study/Onlinecourse <indstudy@byu.edu>
To: A.T. van Cort <email address excised>
Subject: RE: question for Mary Greer

Tracy,
You found an error in my answer key and I appreciate you pointing this
out. the correct answer: D, should read: Both A and C are possible, even
though one or both are not realistic". This was a typo and I wonder why
it hasn't been found earlier. Thanks so much Mary Greer

I win! Unfortunately the student affected by this isn't coming to tutoring today, but still, woohoo! The evil problem of suckitude is explained! Hurray!

So help me, I cannot remember figuring out the concept of mathematical inverses (multiplicative and additive), let alone when they were first introduced to me. I guess at the time I didn't even think it was cool, probably because it was only explained to me in terms of how to solve simple algebra problems, and not in terms of "ok, so this is one of those basic recurring concepts that'll keep turning up to interconnect all the math you know". Which is a shame. I'm trying to explain to my pre-algebra student about addition and subtraction are kind of the same, only opposite, and multiplication and division are the same, only opposite, and I don't know if I'm getting through at all. I'm trying to put it in terms of turning math problems inside out so they look prettier and easier to solve, but I don't know if that's the right thing to do. Part of the problem, I think, is that he's still struggling with complicated multiplication and division. Part of me wants to stop and work on those, but mostly I want to give him a calculator for the arithmetic and work on the concepts, since they're ever so much cooler. What I remember most about pre-algebra is Mr. Gelfand, who taught it: I swear, the man had a different suit for every day of the month, but he seemed particularly fond of a burgundy-red number that he wore with a yellow shirt. Also he apparently had a really bad toupee, but I never noticed. I'm kind of unobservant about that kind of thing; hairpieces have to be really, blatantly fake (like a different color from the rest of the person's hair), or else on someone I know to be bald, for me to pick up on them. But I digress. I digress so much, in fact, that I just took time out to write one of the few people I knew in middle school who might remember Mr. Gelfand and/or even be able to tell me when we learned inverses. I'm dork-tacular.

In other news, I still need a haircut, and Mother Kali's Books is probably going out of business, which means it's time for me to buy a copy of all the Alix Olson CDs they have in stock, because ack! Nowhere else has them in stock! I might complete my Dar Williams collection and finally get me some Toshi Reagon, while I'm at it. Did I mention waaaah? I knew Mother Kali's hadn't been doing well for some time, and that they'd gone through a horrific traumatic reorganization last fall, but wah!

Um, what else? Contact improv tonight (yay hippie dance!) and I should probably go get myself some binders and stuff to better organize my tutoring course materials and suchforth (plus, any excuse to go play in office-supplies land! Woo!) Maybe a trip to the library as well. Also food. Yes. Food would be good.

...is a very, very good breakfast. It's also incredibly hippy and D-I-Y, but really, that's what makes it so good for me. I can't believe I went for so long thinking applesauce involved some kind of long, complicated process. But no! Apples, water, rice cooker, potato masher... and like an hour later I'm all set! Woo! Anyway, I got up this morning and tried to work on the rental application for the place we looked at on Wednesday, but I got all freaky-stressed out about it (that'll teach me to try to be productive before breakfast). I'm feeling much better (although still a little nervous) now that I've showered and had my tasty, tasty breakfast treat. Mmmm. All I need now is a pot of tea and I'll be ready to give the paperwork another shot.

In other news, I got paid yesterday! Woo! This tutoring thing is, like, a real job! Woo! My second student (the one I accidentally ditched on Tuesday) was totally cool about the fact that I stood her up, but I apologized about a million times anyway. And conic sections are my bitch. So if/when I get sick of working on the rental application or my renter's resume or the cover letter (we really like this place we're applying for, so we're going kind of buck wild trying to impress the landlord and lady) I might switch to working on business cards and/or posters advertising my tutoring services. Anything to distract me from stressing about my first day at the Glenwood tomorrow. I'm so nervous... ack! Must stop thinking about it! I know, I'll go make some tea...

But I'm not alone, oh no. There's plenty of discussion on the InterWeb of, by, and for people similarly afflicted, and it's curing me of my obsession quickly enough, mostly because hot diggety people can't spell or punctuate worth a damn! Ack!

So far I've read through entirely too much of IMDB 's message boards on the movie (this was because I read in an AlterNet article that Cornel West has a part in Reloaded, which I had to verify, and sonofagun he does!) and wow. It makes me feel incredibly literate, really it does. Sigh. Anyway, I'm just about done rotting my brain on that, although I'll probably have to give in and download me the Animatrix episodes I've missed. And then maybe I'll be able to do some dishes and get to the library and generally approximate having a life. Maybe.

Edited to add: I'm still sorting out the plot of Reloaded at this point, since I think at times I got too distracted by the shiny to actually catch what the hell was going on. Of course, "what the hell happened?" blurs into "what the hell did that mean?" in my brain entirely too easily. Sigh. One thing is clear, though: Hugo Weaving rocks so HARD! Mitzi the Malevolent --- I mean, Agent Smith --- was one of my favorite things about the first movie, and in Matrix Reloaded he just looks like he's having all the fun! Yay actors looking like they're having a good time! Yay! Ok, done now.

In non-Matrix-related news, I might have another student soon --- this time, high-school pre-calc stuff. Whee!

And finally, a big LiveJournal welcome to poppydos.