Chicago: They paved a fetid swamp/and put up a parking lot

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/The_Gerry-Mander_Edit.png/573px-The_Gerry-Mander_Edit.png

I covered one notebook with Edgar Allen Poe and Beatles quotes.

And I used to blow up aerosol cans in the trash burning barrel.

Holding a flaming plastic bottle on a stick was fun b/c as the plastic melts, pieces fall off, making a cool zzzzzzip! sound. One time a molten ball plastic from a Downy bottle landed on the back of my hand.

In middle school I got suspended for gerrymandering.

the sport of kings

In middle school I was too busy drawing metal band logo on my folders to quote lyrics and such.

Gerrymandering sucks.

i had a teenage obsession with REM too. i knew exactly how many seconds to rewind the tape to get to teh beginning of "you are the everythign" to listen to it again and again.

i had nightswimming in my head the other day and was quite pleased.

True story, I absolutely hated R.E.M. with a passion until my senior year of high school and there was a copy of Automatic for the People permanently stuck in the cassette deck of the pizza delivery car I drove. After that I began to like them. The main reason that I hated them was that my obsession with pop radio and burgeoning interest in music in general coincided with "Stand" being played on the local top 40 station every other hour, with occassional airings of "Superman", and I dismissed them as a "joke" band.

Sorry R.E.M. lovers.

Eh, long low time ago.

My teenage obsession band (at least, of this nature) was Dinosaur Jr.

that was not "my teenage obsession band" by any means -- more like tween

I was cool with the fireworks until about midnight--the more distant ones were fine, but all of sudden it would sound like the front lawn was under mortar attack.

i was really into them when i was in like 6-9th gr (beginning of 9th gr), then i toughened up substantially

My REM love started when I caught a video or maybe studio performance of Driver 8 on MTV, so around 85, which would make me about 12-13, depending. I remained a devoted fan girl through college. My interest waned at Monster (although maybe I would like that one if I listened to it again) and I don't think I've heard the entire albums released after that.

I will still occasionally spend a day listening to their entire catalog from Murmur through Out of Time (Automatic doesn't do much for me).

I am pretty sure I have related this before.

Hey ppl familiar with advanced degrees: let's say someone thinks they want to pursue a doctorate in some field but then decides that academia is not for them. Can they just get a Master's degree in that area instead? Like take enough classes for the Master's and then call it a day.

And what can one do professionally with Master's in something like history or English?

the one i still enjoy the most is dead letter office -- a must!

1) i don't know
2) teach history or english at a community college?

Hey ppl familiar with advanced degrees: let's say someone thinks they want to pursue a doctorate in some field but then decides that academia is not for them. Can they just get a Master's degree in that area instead? Like take enough classes for the Master's and then call it a day.

And what can one do professionally with Master's in something like history or English?

― phantoms from a world gone by speak again the immortal tale: (Jenny), Tuesday, July 5, 2011 2:34 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yes i am an example of a person who has done this. there's basically nothing the master's is really good for, but when there used to be an economy i heard tell that some of these people were able to get corporate jobs that were reasonably well-paying based on some nebulous criterion of smartness.

what you have to do to earn the master's varies by program. at u of c it was just two years of coursework. some places also require a thesis of some kind.

most ph.d. in humanities programs have career services staff devoted to counseling students who decide on careers outside academia. ime that counseling is of limited help, but maybe some programs do a better job of it.

2) teach history or english at a community college?

^pretty much, judging by my friends who have mfa's.

hey n/a, i ended up seeing bill callahan on saturday night (on the terrace). really enjoyed it even though i didn't know the songs, esp. the big free jazz-ish freakout they did as a transition. i have got to get a linen suit one of these days.

Cool, thanks! This is not personal career advice, btw. I have enough student loan debt.

Yeah, in my program you had to complete the Ph.D. coursework and a seminar paper (i.e. thesis)

Also, I have not been 100% satisfied with my primary care physician (the spouse of my ob-gyn...and I love my ob-gyn, which is awkward). I can't put my finger on it, but it makes me a little wary. However, I learned today that Dr. K IS now covered by BCBS HMO, AND my ob-gyn is in his medical group, so I can keep her, too. Huzzah!

these chilean students really take overwhelming student debt seriously
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJAmHgUvd_c&feature=youtu.be

My post re: health care made no sense. I apologize. Clearly, very excited about my reunion with Dr. K

On the health care tip I am looking into getting a corneal transplant to fix my f'd up right eye. I'm not afraid of surgery but I am a little weirded out by the notion of having someone else's parts grafted onto me.

sorry for levity but I misread that as cornmeal transplant at first

I hope that you find a donor and all goes well!

HAHA! so did i

good luck with the transplant though ferreal.

yeah I basically have no idea what is going to be required, just going to talk to the doc and see where things go

cornmeal transplant would be good too, think we got a bum bag of masa the other week

Hey all--I have four free tickets to an advance screening of "A Better Life" at AMC River East this evening at 7 p.m. Jesse and I are going, but I still have 2 tickets if anyone wants them. Let me know.

Katie just IMed me to say that she is not going to be available, so I should field any requests for the tickets.

I hope your transplant works out well, Dan. I didn't know your eye was fucked up.

it's not my transplant yet, I am just exploring options and it looks like the most likely answer

I meant the whole process, from now through a hypothetical transplant.

aaagh i have been waiting all g-d day for a package to be delivered and it is still not here
to think of the places i could have gone

speaking of eyes, check out this cool photo of geronimo's eye from 1904
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5191/5890980020_e4a11ce2d5.jpg

hey guys, i'll be at the whistler again on thursday night. can't afford to take any time off work though, so no breakfast at kuma's on friday. ;_;

hey n/a, i ended up seeing bill callahan on saturday night (on the terrace). really enjoyed it even though i didn't know the songs, esp. the big free jazz-ish freakout they did as a transition. i have got to get a linen suit one of these days.

― hardcore oatmeal (Jordan), Tuesday, July 5, 2011 2:08 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

chicago show was amazing. he wore the same linen suit. i thought the noise freakout was a little unnecessary but i was glad they actually transitioned into the next song instead of just having it be the obligatory end-of-song freakout. did they play "america!" in madison? that song is ridiculous.

doubt i'll make it to the whistler, been going out and spending lots of $$$ these days, but maybe?

hey someone posted high-quality vids of the first couple of songs at the chicago show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vNrEDkGO9k&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uaN0y8YWTM&feature=related

i guess he probably played the same set in chicago and milwaukee since he had to coach the band through the encores

first video has a pretty hilarious "rock face" at about 3:41

He sure loves tonguing the mike.

Ugh gross.

did they play "america!" in madison? that song is ridiculous.

they played it...right after the huge fireworks display over the lake (ie directly behind them).

summer appears to have reached that point where it's just constantly hot for days on end

Eh. It's 80-ish. No big.

The web girl in the next office is watching episode after apisode of old "Inspector Gadget" cartoons, and I'm about to go strangle the life from her body.

Eh, it's a cartoon. No big deal.

OH WAIT maybe different people have varying levels of tolerance for heat and stupid cartoons!!!