LIFE!

Natalie Fox Covin was born today at 3:50am, weighing 8lbs 7.4oz, safe and sound like her mama. She could not have been born into a more adventurous, kind, loving household. Congratulations, Molly and David!

And welcome, kid. I cannot wait to meet you.

traduttore traditore

I am translating a few pages of Giacomo Leopardi’s Lo Zibaldone for an unrelated (someone else’s) project. A philosophical tract with sentences that neither end nor make sense, meandering on and on and ON.

What a pain. On the other hand, it’s fun. On the third, fourth and fifth hands, I do not understand some of these sentences at all. How am I supposed to translate them?

Sigh. Philosophers. :)

oh. and.

I haven’t known whether to blog about this or not: I’m just on the periphery of this one. But it is affecting my community, and some of my dearest.

Kevin “Frostbyte” McCormick, 29, died last Sunday, it seems from a heart attack. He was a brilliant light artist and an MIT alum. He fostered community, was generous with his time and his energy and his art.

I might have more to say about this later. For now, I am just glad that at this year’s Burning Man festival, I finally got to have a conversation with him after having seen him around for years, and to join in the chorus of appreciation for his light.

misc.

I’ve been in a slump of varying sorts. Luckily, it’s ending.

Work is going… well, it’s going. At least some of the projects that had been stalled, are moving. The way this was accomplished means a lot more work for me, but at this point I’m happy to do it, rather than battle communication issues.

I’m terrified of the impending end to the grant period (not until June, but still!). We’re running out of time. On the other hand, this makes things exciting, and now when I say “X has got to be done now” people can’t ignore me, or tell me to go take a chill pill.

Submitted an abstract for a conference right on the due date (of course), and a book review somewhere between a few days and two weeks late (depending on how you look at it… considering the book is 450+ pages long, and dense, I’d say not bad.)

Got sick on Monday with whatever it is that Ethan has. He’s almost over it; I managed to sneeze myself into a half-hour long nosebleed yesterday, and coughing hurts like a… a thing that hurts a lot. Have you ever tried to cough gently when sick? Yeah, doesn’t work too well.

My poor, long-suffering mother has to find yet another person to help her take care of gramma (who is at home with Alzheimer’s). This will be the fourth: the woman who lives with her currently has to leave for personal reasons. Sigh.

Been getting back into music while working. Don’t know why I took such a long hiatus, but finally made an iTunes playlist of all my songs with no lyrics (635 of them). It helps me work, it does.

Two good friends are due to become parents any day now! Making beef stew for them to throw in the freezer (which is, reportedly, full of tasty goodness made by various folk) was by far the culinary adventure of the month. I haven’t made food with so much intention in a while.

The world keeps spinning. Dick Cheney stuck his foot in his mouth big time – BBC’s article is fairly neutral, but the photo speaks volumes. The story of Sony’s viral software is more than meets the eye, says Wired – it’s a great article on corporate bullshit and companies that make virus “protection” software, please read it.

When I grow up, I want a hidden door in my house.

Speaking of labyrinths, Nick Montfort has released another interactive fiction piece, his first in a while, called Book and Volume. Looks interesting. I was kind of indifferent to his Winchester’s Nightmare and absolutely loved Ad Verbum. Haven’t played any IF in a long time, perhaps it’s time to start again? :)

Burning Man 2005 has been photographed from above, and someone posted a particularly beautiful shoton Flickr.

Just because I haven’t posted any more November-photo-month pictures, doesn’t mean I haven’t been taking them. In due time.

Time to catch up on work.

overheard

Ethan, while doing homework, to Aki’s latest move in the Cats’ Campaign Against Literacy (wherein he will walk, sit or lie on just the book or magazine you’re trying to read):

“You are going to interfere with my anaerobic fermentation. Because you are a contaminant. So I’ll have to remove you, dilute you, find something that complexes with you…”

Bush is one out of touch dude.

Via friend Harlequinaide:

Washington Post writes about Bush’s visit to Howard University. Just…. just go and read it. Wh… just…

How is it that anyone still supports him? How?

current mood: insanely angsty, for work-related reasons. it’ll be All Better this afternoon.

NaNo…. no, wait. Na… something.

My friend Daneel suggested that, since NaNoWriMo is here, and since a picture is worth a thousand words, it might be fun to post fifty photos all taken in November, on some topic or not.

Behold, I have begun. (Here’s the Atom feed for the tag, if you’d rather.)

bedtime conversation

*happy sigh* “I love face masks. Love ‘em. They make me feel like a girl.”

“Funny; they make you look like a zombie.”