The Terrydactyl

Yes

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:34:54 -0500

Go. Now. Read.

Simple Cause and Effect

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 21:06:42 -0500

What you get when you put a copy of Business Today in every student mailbox: a Mixed Paper and Cardboard bin full of copies of Business Today.

A pretty underbridge

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:02:40 -0500

A pretty underbridge

Kitten Kaboodle

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 19:52:28 -0500

Kitten Kaboodle:

The trippiest cats I’ve seen this side of the Mississippi.

The Daily Blarg (500 words)

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 19:32:00 -0500

Sorry, hale and dedicated readership, for not posting a blarg in 1+ weeks. When I named this thing that I’m doing right now the Daily Blarg, all I meant was that it happens on a day (as does everything), not that it happens every day. Get it straight, people. Anyway, I’m feeling a bit stressed right now, but not over something healthy like my upcoming microeconomics midterm (but then again, who would worry about a paltry pulpy pittance like that?). I’m just overcome with a vague but at times overwhelming sense of dread and pressure. This must be what it felt like when we thought the Commies were going to drop a nuclear bomb all over us at any moment.

Anyway, the specific things that are weighing me down are: my summer, my diet, my life, and my choices. Firstly, I don’t have anything lined up for this summer, let alone next summer or the summer after that or my adult life. This is really the time when I need to be squirrelling those things into my den for the winter of existence. Anyway, it’s getting to be that time when applications for summer things are due. A few really good opportunities have already passed. One of the worst feelings I know is the feeling of missed opportunity. That’s because I’ve never experienced famine or apartheid. Anyway, I don’t even really know what I would want to do over the summer. In high school, there were so many things that called to me, but it seems like those were mostly because I wanted to impress colleges and get into the best one ever. That last part has been accomplished, but now I have no overarching vertebral goal here. Do I want to pursue something in government, politics, publishing, French, Arabic, any other language/culture, writing, literature, or maybe something like marine zoology in Turks and Caicos? There are so many choices, and the way either inertia or momentum, I don’t remember which, is taking me now, I won’t end up picking any of them.

As for my diet, well, let’s just say that my feelings re: it can be expressed by the first three letters of that word, or that its success so far today can be expressed by those letters. I’m on the slow-carb diet, so nothing processed, nothing sweet, no dairy—basically, eating vegetables forever and ever. It’s clear to me that I am not cut out for this diet. In all fairness, it’s clearly not suited to vegetarians. The meat part would be the only part that would redeem the vegetable and legume parts of this diet. Okay, I’m calling it. DIETàDIED, just now. I’ll just try to eat more asparagus and whatnot from now on. I’ll actually bite into one of the stalks before scraping all of the asparagi into the compost bin in shame.

My life and choices: well, frankly, I just need to make some friends. I’m pretty alone and I don’t always like it.

Including the original Waterfall City (from Dinotopia, of...

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 04:11:26 -0500

Including the original Waterfall City (from Dinotopia, of course). One question immediately comes to mind: why haven’t we built one of these yet? Come on, scientists and architects! Get your acts together.

I'm Bringing Flexy Back

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 02:05:56 -0500

I'm Bringing Flexy Back:

This video is single-handedly practicing civil disobedience in fascist countries and saving my marriage. Not really. But I do feel slightly flexier.

The Daily Blarg (500 words)

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 22:51:00 -0500

It’s been a slow day. I don’t know that I’ve had many particularly fast days, except for yesterday, when I went into the city with a few friends.

I was just reading The Hobbit, and it strikes me that the second third of the book (and potentially the last third of the book as well; I haven’t gotten there yet) are much more interesting than the first third. I might just be feeling that way because I’ve seen the movie, which covers the first third. But still, I love Mirkwood, the wood elves and Lake Town. Just look at the pictures below to get a feeling for my love of cities on water. Lake Town is built on a lake, on bridges. I just wish I could go there for real, although seeing it in the movie is going to be pretty rad as well.

Anyway, I was supposed to go back to school today, but decided not to—it really doesn’t make a difference. I love how I can just come and go whenever while there are students from Romania or Louisiana or China, what have you, who have to have the entire shindig planned out and booked in advance. I have no idea how to ride on a plane by myself, which trains or subways to take—I’ve never traveled on my own. That may be an advantage for the people who are forced to do so, but for now it’s just a big ballyhoo that I don’t have to worry about.

Anyway, it seems like I could really only get actual work done when it came down to the dotted line and I was looking at the prospect of months without any prolonged stay at home. The house and people associated with it have been itching at me these past few weeks, but at the same time I’ll be sad to be back. Or maybe I’ll be glad. Who knows? The freedom of college is unparalleled and exhilarating for me. The only problem is that I never take as much advantage of it as I think I should. I fantasize all the time about some kind of time-slower that would stretch out a day like syrup, lodge all the events in amber—it’s a hazy daydream that I sometimes have as I’m biking to or fro or here or there.

Well, I can’t think of much else to say. Just think of how exciting the Daily Blarg will be once I’m back at college and actually doing things with my day. At the same time, I’ll have much less time for blarging. A classic conundrum. I’m afraid to call anything ironic anymore without thinking about it, and I don’t really feel like thinking about it right now, but I’ll just go ahead and say that it’s ironic anyway because no one’s reading this except me, myself and Marge. The days where introspection would be most useful are the days when we have the least time for it.

He's a Piece of Meat!

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 20:55:19 -0500

According to the NYT Magazine and various other places, people have Googled “Paul Ryan shirtless” nine times more often than “Paul Ryan budget.” There’s a play-on-words to be had here with Paul Ryan voting yes on the fiscal cliff package, but I don’t know what it is.

My Future House

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 20:34:16 -0500

My Future House:

Apparently this house isn’t available for tours on Chester County Day. Well, it should be.

I was laughing like Anderson Cooper is in the last minute,...

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 12:33:19 -0500

I was laughing like Anderson Cooper is in the last minute, except throughout the entire video. How punderful.

New Year's Resolution

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 10:28:05 -0500

I’ll be taking on the 100 Book Challenge. I’m not sure if it’s an official challenge, because the first website that comes up when I google “100 Book Challenge” looks pretty corporate and/or kid based. But really, I don’t think I’ll need some kind of company or organization to do this. I think you just read a hundred books. First up: The Hobbit.

Just Got

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 08:22:39 -0500

A check for fifteen hundred and fifty dollars.

Life is good.

I've got a fever

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 06:17:06 -0500

(◑‿◐)

DISCO FEVER!

(◑‿◐)

(╯◕‿◕)╯

(╯◑‿◐)╯

╰( ◠‿◠)╯

Actually, it’s cabin fever.

So much better than rock, paper, scissors.

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 04:11:38 -0500

So much better than rock, paper, scissors.

YLNTED

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 02:06:07 -0500

YLNTED:

So a knell is just a gloomy bell, it seems.

To Watch (Movies)

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 20:55:00 -0500

1. My Dinner with André — Watched

2. Glengarry Glen Ross — Watched

3. The Queen of Versailles — Watched

4. Argo

5. Beasts of the Southern Wild

6. The Master

7. This is Forty

8. Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

9. Never Let Me Go — Watched

10. Life of Pi

11. Silver Linings Playbook

To Be Read

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 18:49:00 -0500

1. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain

2. Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman

YLNTED*

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:44:00 -0500

YLNTED*:

*You Learn New Things Every Day

Desyllabizing: A Hobby

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:40:00 -0500

So, one thing that I’ve found myself doing for fun is cutting or squeezing or mashing syllables out of people’s names. I feel no ill will towards the bearers of these names, of course, and they don’t seem to notice—or if they have, they haven’t point it out to me.

The most prominent example I can think of are the two Karens that I know. They’ve become Cairns to me—yes, they’re heaps of stones set up as landmarks. It sounds slightly southern when I say their name that way, like when I work “y’all” into an otherwise normal conversation with another Northerner. Maybe people just assume that I’m from Little Rock.

Anyway, some names (Karen) lend themselves easily to this hobby, but some don’t. How would you go about desyllabizing a Magenta? And some names are already monosyllabic. Those are no fun. Mark and Pam and Tom can go dance in a corner somewhere else.