either/neither

"the unnatural pronunciation ither and nither is to be traced back to George I's (Reign: August 1, 1714 – June 11, 1727) ignorance of the English language...that George I handled the English language, which he learned late, clumsily (because of which he had no interest in English literature), is well known. He pronounced the words either and neither in the German fashion, which the courtiers, not to correct the King, took over and put into currency...The Oxford Dictionary, in its volume of 1907, still gives it second place, remarking that, though it is not in accordance with with the analogues of Standard English, it is in London somewhat more prevalent in educated speech than is eether."
-On the Pronunciation of "Either" and "Neither," American Speech, Louise Pound, 1932.

ancient sesame seed canister found in kitchen cabinet

today in my kitchen i found an unopened tin canister of sesame seed, safeway brand, stamped 99 cents on the top and exp. date june 17, 1984 (two days before my birthday) on the bottom. i tried taking a picture to upload, but i couldn't get a good pic with my shitty 4 mp digital camera.

so ill describe it more: the top of the label is a rich semi-dark orange with bold simple type saying SESAME SEED, the bottom is painted to look like mohogany wood and in white lettering says, Crown Colony, and has the classic circular 'S' safeway symbol.

Forbidden Lies

A REALLY AWESOME MOVIE. it is the perfect remedy for the pervasive anti-muslim sentiment that is so often the lens through which people in america are exposed to islamic cultures.


(do not read the material below if you are worried about having the plot spoiled).

Forbidden Lies is documentary about a writer, Norma Khouri, who fabricated a story about an honor killing in Jordan. the movie delves into a labyrinth of lies as the filmmakers try to uncover the identity of the supposed victim of the honor killing in khouri's novel forbidden love. in addition to numerous factual errors, such as that jordan borders kuwait, the audience discovers the majority of her claims in the novel are false including: all jordanian women must be escorted by men whenever outdoors, they must also wear the hijab, thousands die per year as a result of honor killings (i think the number is around 20) and the government condones such murders.

quote from Ralph Nader's father

"Capitalism will always survive in the United States as long as the government is willing to use socialism to bail it out."

Money as Debt

I was reading the latest on the exploded bubble in investment banking

Of course the absurdity here with the 700 billion bail outs is that the very industry that profits off the debts of others is now bankrupt and being bailed out by federal/(quasi) public funds.

and I was also reminded of a really wonderful video on how debt is deeply rooted in the creation and functioning of money under capitalism: Money as Debt

thus we see this bubble/beast of unchecked greed is nothing new and cannot be fixed through light reform, but rather must be put to sleep.

state run beer

Word of Mouth Fills German Brewer’s Steins, Rothaus-Baden Wuerttemberg

I wish we had state run breweries this good and this cheap. Maybe when California secedes its first move could be socializing the beer industry.

Viking Afterlife

When Viking warlords died they would be buried in a stone shaped ship along with their weapons and other vital possessions. In the afterlife place of warriors, Valhalla, warriors would first be escorted by female vikings to a mead hall where they would prepare for the final battle with the Gods, the battle of Ragnarök.

russian brunch

brunched at a russian bakery/restaurant called cinderella with george. it's actually closeby, on balboa street, but it was my first time going there. george spoke some russian and got constructive critiques on his accent. the waitress secretly thought his effort to speak russian was cute.

beer battered alaskan cod

beer battered fish is hard to do. plus i made slightly too much, and left over fried fish is not possible/good. kind of frustrated.

9/13

i feel like i'm 17 again, and unsure how all of a sudden I ended up at the age of 24. time is marching on against my will, yet also galvanizing a sense of youthful urgency within me.

9/12

got my mom some books for her birthday, a very small mobile latin american spanish phrase book for her trip to argentina, a book called 100 places every woman should go, and this book called divisadero that she wanted. dined at this super delicious nepalise restaurant called metro kathmandu.

toto

sad that my dog is dying. the x rays turned out to show no signs of cancer, but i still know her energy level is dwindling. she is also occasionally overtaken by these ominous gasps or choking, where I'm sometimes overcome by sadness as I think that she might be just moments away from death (or the equally terrifying thought that I'll wake up the next day to find that she has passed away). she used to be the cutest and most lively little cairn terrier in the glorious days of my youth.

Friday

i like listening to Friday I'm in Love on Friday.

Friday

not going to work today. trying to recover mental, physical, and spiritual faculties.

will start with a nice hearty brunch (though I always hate having to choose between breakfast and lunch).

rogaine

Side effects of Rogaine:
sudden, unexplained weight gain; swelling of the hands or feet; unwanted facial hair growth.

Symptoms of a Rogaine overdose are not known but may include very low blood pressure (fainting, dizziness, confusion); an irregular or fast heart rate; headache; and flushing (redness, warmth) of the skin.

I should probably switch to some sort of natural/herbal hair growth product.

9/11

my mom's birthday is today, 9/11.

eastward migration

i think i need to move eastward.

9/11

it turns out the random 2 panels of photos, depicting random corporate men in suits with celebratory faces, are of corporate mergers which would later fail.

9/10

slight pain in my eye sockets. maybe it's from staring at a screen too long. had to interview a mechanic in person today in order to write a short bio on him-super awkward.


the other day the boss commented on one of the bios, saying he enjoyed the one about the former medieval scholar mechanic, and that he always wants his mechanic to offer him lectures on chaucer while repairing the car. the boss excels at making references, it's a skill of his that i've speculated is probably the type of thing emphasized at Princeton, where he attended college. the mechanic actually had a degree in Renaissance history, but no matter.

9/9/08

my blood feels very warm today and my body aches.

general work malaise 2

spent the day taking to and writing bios on auto mechanics and auto engineers (and the compiling office chairs).
one of them was a hybrid engineer modifier dude who studied renaissance history in college.

i was previously working doing covert marketing/spamming/solicitation on yahoo answers (but was eventually banned).

i think if i was working at this place full time i would lose my mind and soul. it is all just endless streams of data, like researching an car problem and question on a particular make, model, year, yet to me it is all substanceless. streams of empty signifiers.

general work malaise 1

The office:
internet 'start up.'
the building is a retrofitted loft style factory
everyone in here is silent and immersed in some infintismal technical task. I contemplate doing a comparative study of alienation in the industrial era and our current internet era. It seems to me that the division of labor has accelerated to absurd proportions in our current era/ isn't this why much of our economy is built around abstract things like speculative hedge fund ventures and investments?

In this particular office, I've noticed an emerging computer tech proletariat, granted this proletariat makes a decent wage (not sure yet just how much). Many of them are either young nerdy people who never got a college degree or computer tech people imported from China. Meanwhile, the owners of this firm appear to know none of the technical code jargon that makes up terrifying percent of the labor force for the site, and instead handle the business and investment side from their spacious panoramic view upper floor offices.