just got home from a long weekend in wisconsin. emily kimberly wants my full attention NOW, even though i'm trying to write and listen to NPR.

tuesday is back to work :( and neko case show :)

got tix to see animal collective at prospect park in august. victory!

The last few weeks of anti-social behavior and lugging around heavy prep books to various neighborhood Starbucks definitely paid off. I took the GRE on Saturday and I surpassed my goal (which was basically not to score so low as to embarrass myself). I bagged a 680 quant/740 verbal, and I promised myself that I wouldn't retake if I score at least about 600 on each. I'm not tossing the prep books just yet, in case there's a disaster on the writing (and I did run out of time on the first question, so I'm not terribly confident), but overall I'm satisfied and glad it's done. I've been putting off this test for 5 years.

Thanks to the long weekend, we were able to go apple picking on Sunday and today I used my day off to completely decompress and cook applesauce. It's shocking easy. I just peeled and coarsely chopped a few of the more sour-tasting apples, dumped them in a pot with a bit of water, the zest and juice of one lemon, apple spice spice and a bit of brown sugar. I brought it to a boil and then reduced to a simmer and covered for 20 minutes. At that point, the apples are easy to mush, or leave chunkier. The first batch was a bit too sweet, so I made a second batch with no sugar and added it to the first batch. It's still a bit sweet for my taste, but then, I'm used to unsweetened applesauce from the jar. Anyway, it's super easy and a good way to get rid of a lot of apples at once.

Tomorrow, it's back to the grind and the beginning of Docfest.

I watched the entire Sarah Palin interview, albeit online, at 1:30 am. Holy crap, she has NO clue. Listen to her talk about the economy and her (non)plan to cut spending. She offers ZERO specifics. None. She has the panicked tone of someone who's been caught in a terrible lie and is now cornered.

This concerns me, not only because she's horrendously under-qualified to be president, but because it's shameful that the McCain people didn't even do their due diligence and give her some damn talking points. I mean, how hard is it to memorize a few key facts? I guess pretty hard if 100% of the material is completely new to you.

Seriously. I'm an excellent bull shitter and always have been. I recognize bull shit when I see it. She was BSing, but not well. Charlie Gibson had a look on his face the whole time that said clearly "is this for real?"

GOD HELP US if this country does not WAKE UP. Can we, for once, place a high value on intelligence and not elect anymore proud ignoramuses to our highest office?

so i finally registered for the gre. this has been 5 years in the making. i bought my first gre book so long ago, that the test completely changed. so now it's time to take this thing so i can finally apply to grad school. i am ridiculously unprepared. merely purchasing gre study materials doesn't qualify as test prep. i'm just hoping that a solid date will help motivate me to actually study.

Brian Krakow is the saddest person ever. That is all.

AV Club My So-Called Life Rewatch

So Friday night was amazing. So amazing that when I got up on Saturday morning, I put on There, There and just decided that I had to go again. I got on Craigs, found some sympathetic soul who couldn't go on Sat., met up with Ofi, got the ticket and headed back to Jersey. It was a lot more crowded, but we snuck around the left side, right up front during the end of the Animal Collective set, and somehow pushed our way to the very front. We maintained the position through Kings of Leon, pushing even closer to the middle. We're talking, aggressive, wall-to-wall people, but we were determined. I've never been so close at a big show like that. It was incredible.

The set list the second night was even better than the first. They played the same In Rainbows songs, but a lot of different older stuff (but they did repeat There There, which is one of my faves and Idioteque). They also seemed to be having a little more fun the second night. Thom did a lot more dancing. And of course they played Airbag, Planet Telex and the Bends, just for me. They are so good live.

I'm exhausted and sore, but still feeling the Radiohead afterglow.

[quote]

tomorrow i'm taking ange and mikael to all points west to see radiohead! i'm really excited to hear all of in rainbows, and my other songs wishlist is:

airbag
planet telex
the bends
karma police
street spirit (really anything from the bends)
[/quote]

UM, RADIOHEAD MUST READ MY LIVEJOURNAL BECAUSE BETWEEN LAST NIGHT AND TONIGHT THEY PLAYED ALL OF THOSE, EXCEPT KARMA POLICE. I WAS IN HEAVEN. more to come.

tomorrow i'm taking ange and mikael to all points west to see radiohead! i'm really excited to hear all of in rainbows, and my other songs wishlist is:

airbag
planet telex
the bends
karma police
street spirit (really anything from the bends)


got that, thom yorke?

even if it rains, it's still going to be great. and if neko is there with the new pornographers, that would be amazing. and if i could simultaneously hear grizzly bear and new porn., that would be amazing-er.

something i saw the other day made me think of this teaching incident i posted about back in 2004:


yesterday i read 'when sophie gets angry...really really angry' and we talked about times when we've felt angry and what we did to make ourselves feel better. here's a sampling of their answers. very telling.

- when my brother hits me. [how do you make yourself feel better?] hit him back.
- when my mom won't buy me something from the store.
-when my baby brother pulls my hair.

pretty benign, right? then...

-when my parents fight.
-when my mom hits me.
-when my dad hits me.

when i asked them what they think makes ME angry...

-"when your mom hits you"
-"when your boy hits you"

yeah, that last one hit me like a ton of bricks. i was speechless. so i asked for clarification.
"my boy?"
"you know, your boy-friend"
"i would not let my boyfriend - or anyone - hit me"

that's all i could think of to say. that might be one of the saddest things i've heard this year. you like to think that you're a role model for little kids, especially little girls. but instead, some of my students are operating under the assumption that i'm an abused girlfriend.

my brain's soundtrack: Lay Low - My Morning Jacket