Welcome to the Monkey House

Ohayou~ Lily desu.

James-kun is in the shower (clean boys ftw), so 'tis updating time. :)

Yesterday was a blast. I love how when you're with people you get along with, you can always find fun things to do. I say this because we were due to arrive at the Way of Safe at 4:00 p.m. Before that, the schedule was free.

He practiced drums (he played In the Air for me!!  I recognized it from the hi-hats in the beginning, so when he asked me at the end if I could guess which song it was . . . :D), we wandered around the neighborhood a bit (holding hands <3), and then came back to a refreshing lunch of cheese, cherries, and muffin.  We still had some time, so we watched the MST of "Manos:  Hands of Fate," played Speed, and then spent the rest of the time flinging the Queen of Spades at each other.  My card catching skills have improved, lol.

That took us all the way to 4:00, so we journeyed to Safeway to recycle cans and buy pop for the summer (Safeway is having a buy 2 get 3 free sale on 12 packs.)  We picked up 15 12-packs, if you can believe it.  I got to meet many of his co-workers there, although we were moving so quickly that for several of them it was more like "Hi!"  They all seem really nice, though~

Speaking of nice, his family is composed of nice people, hurray.  They started arriving around 5:15 or so, so we all hung out, eating fruit and drinking pop.  His nieces and nephews are cuuute, too, although a handful, it seems.  Oh!  And I heard an ice cream truck!  They stopped coming to our house, so I was excited.  If it comes around again, I may have to flag it down.  :)

After dinner, which was delicious hamburgers cooked by his dad, we chilled for a bit and then headed over to the riverfront to see the fireworks.  We still had quite a bit of time before dusk, so James and I listened to the live country cover band until their soundboard got out of whack and they started sounding like Arwenguls.  To escape the shrillness, we wandered around, looking at everything and eventually heading down to the water, where we threw stones at a red thing.  I throw like a girl (how saaaad), but James hit it.  :)

If I use many more smileys, it may become blinding.

Oh!  And James spotted a girl wearing a L'Arc shirt!  Sugoi, ne?

The fireworks were fun . . . they weren't *all* that impressive (although I kept wanting to say "Fireworks, Gandalf!  Fireworks!"), but the company was wonderful~

The plan for today is to go figure out what's wrong with James's car, eat at IHOP (<3), and then go to Silver Creek Falls and hike.  It won't be too long of a hike, I think, because the longest trail is 7.5 miles, but the trail is supposed to be gorgeous.

Ah!  And now I better go.  Mata ne~

I forgot it was Friday a number of times today, and just now the pop and
whiz of fireworks scared the crap out of me. AMERICA? Is THAT where I live?
Shocking!

iCiNG (http://galadarling.com)

I don't even know how to describe the fabulous Ms. Darling.... she is like a
pixie and a goddess and diva and fashionista all rolled up into one humble,
tiny, New Zealand-y body.

Her blog, iCiNG, is more like a New York City of style and fashion and wit,
with tons of great photographs and advice. She is currently in New York City
(the actual place, not a manifestation of her blog) doing SOMETHING
FABULOUS, probably at this VERY SECOND.

OK, I am finding it impossible to describe her or anything... just check it
out. I especially love her Things I Love Thursday posts, and her Daily
Outfits. I'm not exactly a beacon of style and taste myself, so it's
refreshing to see another perspective. Style-wise, she is like Carrie and I
am like Charlotte. THERE. I think I've alienated all my male friends. Well
done, me!

And now, to eat some more gumbo. It is, after all, the 4th of July.

Hi!  Just posting to let you all know that I arrived alive and well.  I'm currently typing on James's computer, which is located behind his (beautiful!  holy cow) drumset.  Since I had *quite* a few adventures getting here (and a couple here already), I'll try to update later on, but I think he's just about done with his shower so I should probably be succinct.

Basically today's plan is that in the morning we'll go for a walk and/or he'll play drums.  Then we'll head over to Safeway to recycle cans (oh boy!) and I can meet all his co-workers at the Way of Safe.  At 5:30/6:00ish, we'll get together with his family, have a bbq, get interrogated, and then watch fireworks.  Sounds fun, ne?  I'm ridiculously excited about recycling cans, actually, because apparently they have these spiffy reverse vending machines for them, and I'm really curious.

Oh!  But he likes the bowl!  I gave it to him last night at the airport (I couldn't wait any longer), and he likes it!  Not that I was *horribly* worried, but yay~

Ah, *now* I should go.  Jaa ne!

*a side note*  were I talking in code language, I could say that I'm in Oregon to see Oregon, lol.

Right now I have him pegged down as Victor, but I'm not sure about it...what do name do you think he looks like?

PandoraFM (http://pandorafm.real-ity.com)

This site combines two of my favorite internet radio options, Last.FM (
last.fm) and Pandora (pandora.com). I was going to post about them
separately, then I was like "NO NEVERMIND" and this happened instead. You
can go to each website and see what they're all about in depth, but here's
the short version:

Last.FM - tracks your music listening habits via a downloaded scrobbler that
hooks up to your iTunes, then creates a radio station based on your
listening tastes. Allows you to join groups and do lots of Web 2.0
shenanigans, etc.

Pandora - You create a music station based on a song or artist you like,
Pandora's extensive music DNA robot picks other songs you may enjoy. I'm
sure there's a huge Web 2.0, interconnectivity aspect to this but in all
honesty I am still at work and am waiting for Revit to finish installing, so
I don't want to really get into it. I don't deal with that end, in any case.

So PandoraFM's premise is this: if you are listening to Pandora, what if you
want that music to be scrobbled on Last.FM? That way it can keep up with
what music you like, and continue to recommend tracks there as well. AND
WHAT IF THAT'S WHERE YOUR FRIENDS ARE, TOO? (Hypothetically, of course) Well
then they could still keep up with you too! Magic!

The internet elves are always busy whenever I find a song I like on
PandoraFM, too.

[Post to be edited later with links, tags and proper LOLINTERNETS icon]

When I went over to Creative Kiln today to tell them that I couldn't pick up the bowl on Sunday because I'd be in Oregon, the guy behind the counter told me it was ready now!

Now, I guessed from the manager's earlier rant that this was her step-dad, who's always messing up, so at first I thought "Um." However, it did look throughly glazed, and I believe him when he says it's food-safe. The reason why it wouldn't be ready is because she was going to fire it again (which I knew.) It would be smoother if she did that, because usually some bisque is left open if you don't fire it again. I did check the bowl thoroughly, though, and looks and feels good, so I think, miraculously, that it came out okay. I took it from them and this means . . . I get to give it to James personally! That means a lot to me, actually. I didn't expect it to . . .I guess it's because I did put a ton of work into it and it's pretty rare that I get to give him anything in person.

All of that aside, I bring you pictures!

Hey there LJ Land, this email comes to you from the magical desk of my
internship. I've a bit of downtime and it's highly likely that after the 5+
hours I spent staring at my computer yesterday Mum would physically harm me
if I make a move towards the computer tonight. SO, I'll post my WebJunkie
July link now!!!

The Hype Machine

This is a little bit of magicalness Ms. Anna (camera_de_ana  )
showed me earlier (this summer? this fall? I don't know) and I have spread
its gospel with a religious zeal. It's essentially an aggregator for music
blogs, even though my Musical March didn't make a blip on its radar. Which
is probably for the best.

Anywhoo, you can read about exactly how the HypeM works here, but I like to believe that internet elves
(who must clean the tubes when they become too clogged with lolcats and fake
motivational posters and shaky home videos) look at me through my computer
screen, and say "that lady is having a bad day, she needs a good song" and
often this song is a popular one. One that is likely to have been posted by
any number of intarnet blarggers that I just don't know about, as my life is
taken up with jet setting and spontaneous dance parties and fights with my
mother. Also, sleeping. So these elves, they collect these songs and subtly
get me to find them, by playing them on iPod commercials or making them
terrible songs I unironically enjoy ("This Is Why I'm Hot," "Crank Dat") and
I think to myself "I'd sure love to hear that song any time I wanted" and
then I go to the HypeM and it's usually THERE.

Magic!

Haha, oh snap, I almost forgot to post the very first day of July!

Del.icio.us

This is a free social bookmarking site, which I love because when you tag things you can not only find all of your similarly tagged items, but ones that  other people tagged with the same name, and popular ones as well. Now you don't have to worry about having your favorites saved on different computers! The interface is clean and easy to navigate, and there's a browser extension for Firefox that makes remembering a website as easy as right clicking! It also lets you know if you've already tagged something, so you don't wind up with doubles. Plus, if you don't want to share it with the world, just click the "do not make public" box! Ticky ticky clicky clicky!!!

I'm not linking mine, since that's where most of my WebJunkie July links are coming from. I MEAN NO THEY'RE ALL ORIGINAL.

I finished the subtitles for Episode 5 by lunchtime (w00t!) and have spent my time between when I returned from lunch at 1 and now double-checking them and importing them into DivX Author, which thankfully can indeed read Japanese fonts. I think it's good that I'm preparing the project as I go so that I have less work later on and so that I can tweak the subtitles now if I need to. After I finish this entry, it's on to Episode 6!

I briefly chatted with Ruby before work and she suggested -- brilliantly -- that I take the Greyhound to Washington D.C., thereby potentially sparing me hundreds of dollars and my friends a much longer drive than they'd like to take. I checked, and the times were just about perfect, so I bought the tickets at lunch time. Isaac kindly agreed to drive me back from Roanoke on Tuesday, too, so I only have to take a taxi on Thursday (I do need to do that, though, because I'm going to need to leave around 3 a.m.)

Hmm. DivX is still taking its time. I decided to split the files in two. Generally you have two episodes per video, but I think it would be better to have all the episodes separate so that when choosing chapter options you can choose which episode you want to watch rather than which set of two. Splitting it takes a few minutes, though . . . it claims, however, that it's 81% done, w00t.

Ah! It's done. Mata ne!

Yes, I'm quoting "A Heart Full of Love." *Someone* (*looks pointedly at a certain cousin*) got it permanently stuck in my head, and now I have the strange urge to listen to it on repeat. Last.fm is going to be an interesting place this week . . .

But want to know *why* I chose that title? Do you? Do you really? Scroll down to find out!! 

Since most of you pseudo-intellectuals seem bent on not reading Marx or Deleuze and Guattari, I decided to perform an addendum to our gregarious reading of Marx. Here is a close reading of a section from Anti-Oedipus, which you will see is a wonderful addition to Marxist theory.

First and foremost I think its important to remember that Felix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze were concerned activists, who were deeply effected by the Paris Student Uprisings of 1968. They saw this as an opportunity, or an event if you will, that carried with it the possibility of radical social transformation. In an essay entitled, "Psychoanalysis and the Struggles of Desire" Guattari explains that it was the first time it could be conceived that students concerned about the conservative academy, workers fighting for socialism, gays fighting for equal rights, people affiliated with anti-psychiatry, people concerned about abolishing prisons, were all marching side by side. This was huge! This is one aspect of the "connective-machine" and the spirit of '68 that, in my opinion, is always in the background and at times explicitly expressed in Anti-Oedipus. This disgust over just how "fascism" seeps into everyone's daily lives. They are trying to build sympathy with causes based on radical transformation of society. All or nothing.
Ok, we've said this many times. BUT this is a new kind of machine that they are implying. One that is therapeutic. Asking, what would happen if you took the stuffy practices of psychoanalysis and moved them away from the austere couch, placing the schizophrenic on a walk, into a flow. This sort of revolution at the level of praxis, constructing a new praxis that is first a challenge to what is thinkable, what is possible, this is always interesting to D&G and is always in the background of AO. The book IS systematic while always challenging what it means to have a system at all. IT is not a willy-nilly collection of quotations, as it is often misunderstood.
Becoming is not always a human becoming, there is becoming animal, mineral, mountain, etc. to think for a moment as an animal, to get out of the stress of being a servile being... even if it is only a momentary glimpse of an other reality.
"Schizophrenia is like love"(p.5) it is in a sense indescribable, it happens it is an extreme state of mind, and when it happens it shakes you to your core. No amount of calculative logic or scientific explanations showing hormonal changes in the body can explain "love" or "schizophrenia", its an intense experience, more often than not it is inexplicable.
They then move into a Buddhist kind of understanding of the self, "Industry is then no longer considered from the extrinsic point of view of utility... Not man as the king of creation, but rather as the being who is in intimate contact with the profound life of all forms or all types of beings, who is responsible for even the stars and animal life... ceaselessly plugs an organ-machine into an energy-machine"(p.4)
Production as a process overtakes all idealistic categories and constitutes a cycle whose relationship to desire is that of an immanent principle. Immanent (being-there) as opposed to transcendent (going beyond). it is not a thought of surpassing to build a better human-being, but living with what we are, as we are, what Antonio Negri would call "Potentia" or "the power to be" rather than "potenza" which is "power over another".
or even more sophisticated is "potestas" the "power of resistance" which happens, but is not a matter of raising consciousness as Marxists mistakenly believe. Antagonisms are always-already there, in existence.
Product/producing, "producing is always 'grafted onto" the product; desiring production is production of production, just as every machine is a machine connected to another machine" (p.6) foreshadowing its repetition on p.31 "Desiring-machines, on the contrary, continually break down as they run, and in fact run only when they are not functioning properly; the product is always an offshoot of production, implanting itself upon it like a graft, and at the same time the parts of the machine are the fuel that makes it run"
This machine consumes itself. It is slightly different from the machine as a tool of capitalism, in capitalism the machine runs on what Marx called raw materials, coal, fuel, burning wood, etc. raw materials are like food for the body, they are an extra cost to the capitalist and create a higher price for commodities when the product comes into the market. This 'desiring-machine' is a bit different. It consumes itself, the material that propel it to work are internal to its becoming as a machine. Nothing need be added. It lacks nothing, it is productive. It is also a way of expressing a certain continuity between the factory, the life of a laborer, and their psyche as being subsumed by capitalism. Desire, as representative of the unconscious, is mechanized like factory.
There is a LOT there. A lot that I did not get too, but this is such a beautiful book!

FACT: It's the last day of June! That's crazy!

AND I LOVE EXCLAMATION MARKS! But you already knew that, didn't you, flist?

In other news, at this point I'd welcome an office like the one in The
Office, if only it meant that I could laugh and talk at some time other than
lunch. I'm 97.4% certain my fellow interns think I am a raving lunatic,
because the only time they see me I pose questions like the following: Have
you ever thought about the fact that no animal cannot be made awesome by the
addition of saber teeth?

The first thing everyone around me went to was SABER-TOOTHED PLATYPUS, which
was deemed the best animal ever. Although the thought of saber-toothed bees
puts the fear of the LORD into me.

ANYWAYS, things are happening in fits and spurts here. Like... a car that
cannot quite start, another thing that happened here at work. Oh zany
adventures, how mundane you truly are!

Ah yes, the thing I actually meant to post about: I've settled on a theme
for July. It was going to be something like a drawing a day, but I just
don't think I could do that right now. Even though, technically speaking,
July is the best month for me attempt such a thing, as August = crazy moving
around month, September = fear of god thesis intro, October = death for
certain, November = is there a holiday break? thank god and December = I
will surely be dead by my own hand. So yes, TECHNICALLY July is the best
time for this but I am LAZY and FORGETFUL and I hope to spend this holiday
weekend backdating all of my missed entries. can you believe that at the end
of July I'll be halfway done with this little experiment? I CANNOT.

Oh, wait, the theme. Should I wait until July to tell you? I'll probably
forget it by then if I do. So... it's WEB JUNKIE JULY! I already spend a
ridiculous amount of time on the internets, and now you'll get to have some
idea of what I'm up to. But only SOME idea, the full frontal of my clicky
clicky habits are disturbing.

Well, it's taken from that last ecstatic post to this tired one to actually figure out how to do what I already thought I knew how to accomplish *but* I have just created my first video with subtitles.  Congrats to me, w00t.

That first video will *not* be my final product for that video, because it's shoddily and quickly made -- essentially I just designed it to test my theory about how to make the subtitles show up.  Well, it worked, and now I can finish the rest of my subtitles with confidence that I can put them on a video.  After I'm done, I'll work on making it look spiffy.

I think I'll translate for a bit first, though.  Mata ne. 

Since we've been turning this community into a "Debate Club" of sorts, I thought I'd try to bring it back to its original intentions. Which was to facilitate close readings of classic texts in philosophy.
I was recently perusing my well worn copy of Grundrisse by Karl Marx, a classic indeed! There is also a great secondary text by Antonio Negri called Marx Beyond Marx that was intended for revolutionary groups to study and discuss, sparking class upheaval! In Grundrisse, on p.96 Marx says "Before distribution can be distribution of products, it is: 1. the distribution of the instruments of production, and 2. which is a further specification of the same relation, the distribution of members of the society among the different kinds of production. (Subsumption of the individuals under specific relations of production)"
In Marx Beyond Marx, I think Negri wrongly interprets this section of Grundrisse. He says, "identity is split into difference, and difference is acknowledged as antagonism" and the concludes that the point of this section is to articulate a point about, "Differences, differences, antagonisms". This is entirely true. Capitalism is based on creating various social ghettos if you will, everybody is positioned in a proper place. But are these differences necessarily antagonisms? Probably, but I'll let that be a point to debate. I think the underlying point Marx was making was that the social distribution is done by various institutions such as Universities. Going to college is not about enlightenment or learning, but rather figuring out who will play what role within the capitalist mode of production. The honor roll students will conceivably be managers, bosses, and the PHD's, MBA's and the like will be CEO's. Measly high school grads, and bottom rung students will sweep floors and empty trash cans. There is always an economic, functional purpose to a social institution. Negri, being a post-modernist revolutionary, views such theories of Marxist functionalism as robbing Marxism of its revolutionary fervor, and so he challenges this functionalist reading of Marx. My opinion is that Negri is wrong, but on the other hand, perhaps reducing Marx to an academic school of thought makes him an academic philosopher who contributes to this "social distribution" that goes on at universities, but we can debate this further. I think that you don't have to make a choice between these two things, marx was an excellent sociologist as well as philosopher and revolutionary... but that's just me.

I got it!  I think I got it!  *claps excitedly like a Sim seeing a turkey for the first time*  I think DivX Author is going to work!  I had to convert the subtitles to .srt format, *but* even if they are all in one color, it's a good color, and I got to specify output size, so it won't be huge, and I'm subbing it right now, and I think it'll work!!  Of course I haven't seen the output file yet, and I'm using the English translation, so I don't know if they handle Japanese fonts (that could be fun, hah), buuuuut as for now, success!!!  To make it even more exciting, they let me crop off the last five minutes or so of the video, which are useless *anyway* and I've been -_- about my inability to take it off for a long time *and* it looks like since the program is designed to make DVDs, I'll be able to have all my videos w/ subtitles in one project and create menus and titles, and kyaaa!!!  =D

It is 22% done.  That means it'll be complete by the time I get back from lunch, w00t!  Oh, I hope it works out, I hope, I hope.  *crosses fingers*

Okay.  I've successfully determined that only one color is possible with .ssa files.  I'm disappointed, but honestly at this point I'll be happy if I can just hardsub the stupid files.  

Ah!  DivX Author has downloaded!  Let us go investigate.  Be back later, either frustrated or triumphant.

This entry shall be top secret from him until the deed is done . . . or until I break down and tell him anyway, so shhh, all. *looks secretive*



And now, off to work!  Jaa, mata ne~  

( Butts )

FACT: Today Yazoo the Chihuahua turned either 10 or 11. I don't know, he's a dog, he won't tell me.

ALSO, I've had "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" in my head for approx two days now. I know all the words! I can't tell if this is good or bad.

FACT: Today's upset tum and mild headaches added up to a glorious weekend.
OH WAIT I MEANT THE OPPOSITE OF THAT.

In other news, Doctor Who is killing me. WHAT? WHAT?