I have some hard decisions to make soon. I have space at our department's little art gallery and I need to decide which pictures to put up.

I have a web page with the narrowed down possible pictures:

http://thorn.as.arizona.edu/~kak/Pictures/Gallery/Gallery.html

If you could comment here on which ones you like best (or would want to see printed out and framed), please do so. :)

(yeah, I have a terrible time making decisions!)

My friend at NOAA said today at church that there would be snow in town tonight - the first time since Easter 1999 (which I wasn't around here for). The snow level would be down to 2000 feet.

Driving home at 5pm, there was snow (big lovely fluffy flakes!) in the Tucson Mountains - covering the ground and the saguaros. I didn't have my camera, but the local paper went out to take some pictures (click on the slide show to the right):
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/165610

Then this evening, I read jamiam's post where she said it was snowing in town, so I looked outside and there was a layer of snow over everything.

A few pictures are here:
http://thorn.as.arizona.edu/~kak/Pictures/TucsonSnow/TucsonSnow.html

For some reason, most of our favorite bands have put out albums recently (and I've picked up some new-to-me music at the used book store).

Barenaked Ladies are Me:
I love these guys and this album is quite good. Several songs had me laughing outright. :) Though if I'd downloaded it from iTunes, I would have gotten the extended version of the album which isn't due out in stores until a few months from now. argh... but I love getting the lyrics in the actual CD version.

Indigo Girls - Despite our Differences
Great as always! And our favorite new singer, Brandi Carlile, sings backup on Last Tears. We got the extended version with 6 extra songs - some of them live since their live versions always seem to be better than the studio ones. So glad we did!

Weird Al Yankovic - Out of Lynwood
I *love* the song "White and Nerdy"! It's been playing in my head for several days now. The video is also incredibly funny:
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/video/whitenerdy
I also love the parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" as "You're Pitiful", but it was unable to be included on the album. But you can download it from Weird Al's website:
http://www.weirdal.com/

Alanis Morissette - random songs from iTunes
I'd been thinking about some of her songs that we don't have on CD (we only have Jagged Little Pill), but that I've heard on the radio and loved. One of them, I never hear anymore ("Precious Illusions") and really loved a lot - it's a great song about those illusions we have and letting go of them, but also how they comforted us. (like the "knight in shining armor")

Miles Davis - Porgy and Bess
I've wanted this ever since I heard a snippet of it in my Jazz History class in undergrad. I found it at the used bookstore. It really is as beautiful as I thought it would be. It's wonderfully lyrical with Miles' trumpet playing the vocal parts and an orchestra behind him. So amazing!

And the gem of our findings:
Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys
This is a wonderful collection of authentic songs sung by a wide variety of people. The opening song, "Cape Cod Girls", is sung by Baby Gramps who was described by NPR as "a Tuvan Pop-eye". If you've never heard Tuvan throat singing, it's an amazing sounding technique full of overtones, weirdness, and just plain coolness. My love can do it and was asked by a professor in our department to demonstrate it to his class (as they didn't believe him that a recording was one person). Bono's song "A Dying Sailor to his companions" is so gorgeous!!! He opens by humming the song and wow! And it's just a perfect song for him! Sting also sings on the album: "Blood Red Roses". We've only listened to half of this and we want to tell everyone about it! :)
(one drawback for this album: some of the songs are *authentic* - meaning they are quite bawdy and filthy - one of them "The Good Ship Venus" has the unfortunate fault of being incredibly catchy. I know we'll be singing it for a long time... yipe!)

It's 108F out today.

ugh...

There's an interesting interview with Nobel Prize winner, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, in the NYTimes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/science/04conv.html

I found this part interesting... for several reasons:

"Q. Every article I've read about you mentions that you bake an incredible chocolate cake. Why is that?

A. It's true! They want to make sure "she's still a woman." There is terrible prejudice against women who are successful. If she's beautiful, she must be stupid. And if a woman is smart, she must be ugly — or nasty. I think it makes some people feel better to learn I bake good chocolate cake."

More on this later.... feel free to comment though.

So the speech in this entry:

http://bitchphd.blogspot.com/2006/04/boo-radley.html

says a whole lot about feminism that I've often tried to say, but couldn't find the words for. I really like the parts about not comparing it to poor people, that the social structure was formulated by people and people can change it, and the importance of personal stories.

wow....

Thanks trogon!

With the lack of rain this year, I despaired of seeing any flowers this spring. However, I think a few have responded to the late coming sprinkles of a few weeks ago. There's now some pink and white Fairy Dusters, some yellow globe mallows, and some pretty purple flowers blooming along the road. Some of them are a little hard to see, but it makes for some nice slowing down and taking time on the way into work. On the other hand, the Perry's Penstamon on the back porch is blooming really well (though it has been well watered!). :) Pictures to come... someday. I also love this time of year since the palo verde trees bloom all yellow. There's not that many blooming in the desert, but in town they're, well, busting out all over! It reminds me of the long beds of bright yellow forsythia back at PSU.


A fun iPod-based meme:
( Read more... )

I've only seen a few episodes of this, but I'm sure some of you out there (*cough* smor *cough*) may find this amusing. ;) My fiance got Sam as his. I always did find Daniel cute.

Your results:
You are Daniel Jackson

Daniel Jackson 75% Samantha Carter 62% Thor 52% Jack O'Neill 41% Dr. Frasier 40% Teal'c 37% General Hammond 30% A Goa'uld 13%

You are sensitive to the needs of others and are a good communicator. You always stand up for the little guy.

Click here to take the Stargate SG-1 Personality Quiz

Yep, the two girl kitties tried to kill me tonight.

I'm just sitting here on the couch, watching Monty Python - when out from behind the TV comes a blur of fur and I'm in their flight path. They use my leg as leverage and then my ear as a launch pad. My leg has normal kitty scratches, but my ear... it's still bleeding.

I did want my ears double pierced, but this was NOT the method I had in mind.

ow.

Oh, and the cats are all asleep and looking innocent right now.

harumpf!

[P. thought this was just hilarious. (though I must admit I did the same thing when Ashel gave him his big scar)]