Yuccacentric

"If God were a french fry, He'd read this blog..."

with Guest Host Stentor Danielson

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7.13.2001

*** Hi. Overhaul central. Population: me.

I'd like to thank Stenny for his blog-sitting, and despite myself being officially "in-charge" again, it should be a few days before I'm back in the swing of things. I just finished paper two (of 5 page long fame, and therefore insignificant compared to paper one of 17 page fame) a few hours ago and have now managed to catch up on numerous and sundry websites of which I am a regular reader. Either way, I'll be spending the next few vacation days with my roomate and his girlfriend before heading back to MA to start working a real job yet again. On the plus side I shalt seek many a concert, and music store.

(And of course the badgering of Stenny to get his own blog can officially begin...now. Email him post-haste, my good (wo)man!)
posted by David Wininger 3:57 PM | link |

*** Apparently I'm the cornucopia of weird musicliciousness.
posted by Stentor Danielson 10:11 AM | link |

*** My last big post. Woo.

Tonight Dave invited Kevin and I to help him with his radio show (he was just filling a time slot for PhiLL, who's trying to get summer DJs). He let Kevin do a lot of the work, because Kevin is going to be one of the summer DJs. Dave was trying to help Kevin find music that is obscure enough that WRCU would own it, but that Kevin would like. We made Kevin play "Danny Boy" by John Mars and "Cat House" by some artist with a Japanese name that my tired mind cannot recall. I brought along a few CDs of my own, so anyone who was listening could have heard "Blow Up The Pokies" by the Whitlams, "Gravity" by the Superjesus, and "Not Afraid of Romance" by Machine Gun Fellatio (Kevin liked saying that name on the air an awful lot).

I'm tired, so I'll stop now. A nice short post will ease the transition into not knowing anything about my life (unless you make the effort to email or IM me directly).
posted by Stentor Danielson 2:52 AM | link |

7.12.2001

*** I just called US Air to reconfirm my flights for this weekend. I've decided I don't mind speaking to a machine. So now there is a reservation located for passenger: Last name: D! A! N! I! E! L! S! O! N!, first name: S! T! E! N! T! O! R! -- US Airways flight: 4! 67! on June! 13! leaving: Syracuse? and arriving: Washington National Airport.
posted by Stentor Danielson 7:40 PM | link |

*** Tonight's special event:
Stenny (of guest hosting fame), myself (of regular hosting fame), and Kevin (formerly of Blah, Blah, Blog/Fish Gone Bad) will be hosting a radio show off of http://wrcu.colgate.edu from 10pm to midnight EST. Kevin might bring some CDs, but otherwise it's a strictly college radio affair. So, if you want to put a bunch of voices to um...text and so on, this is your chance. Plus the antenna just got fixed, so this is pretty much our only shot to be heard by anyone (everyone else is under the impression it's still broken). So, come. Listen. Maybe even request something. We might even have it. If nothing else, it will be the first ever broadcast of 2 out of 3 of us, so make the others feel welcome or something, eh?

Back to paper writing.
posted by David Wininger 6:05 PM | link |

*** And we move to a different post to tell the rest of my day.

1) A few other brunchers have livejournals, but since I'll be giving up the blog on Friday I won't bother putting them in the template. So enjoy the thoughts of Kailet and genuine artificial.

2) Today I finally decided to stop waiting for Ryan to plan for The Maroon-News orientation issue and do it myself. After ranting to Marty about what a slacker Ryan was, I ran around all day talking to Res Life, the Dean of First-Year Students, and Student Activities. They all told me that Ryan hadn't contacted them yet, so I assumed I'd have to take over planning for the issue. I spent all day working on it, including sending out an email to our editors asking them if they were going to be back for the issue (it runs the week before classes start).

In her reply, Commentary Editor Sarah Compter told me she had been in touch with Ryan all summer over his secret cell phone number and he has everything under control. Gah!!! So I'm going to call him tomorrow, and probably find out that if I had just been content to not take responsibility, everything would have worked out fine. Commence banging head against hard object ... now.
posted by Stentor Danielson 12:12 AM | link |

7.11.2001

*** I think there's something seriously wrong with me.

Today my friend Adam from high school kept IMing me. But it was always when I had stepped out of the room for a few minutes, and he would sign off when I didn't respond right away. Then Trevor IMed me, and I was actually in the room. Trevor told me our friend Matt Snyder committed suicide. He hung himself in the woods in Franklin Township, and somebody at a little league game found him.

I was shook up a bit when I first heard (mostly because it was so unexpected), but pretty soon I was back to downloading Blueshift and looking at Jesus Christ Super Store like nothing had happened. This reaction isn't abnormal, either. For example, two years ago my dad woke me up early on a Saturday morning to tell me my grandfather (his dad) had died. I basically said "ok," hung up, and went back to sleep. When I finally woke up on my own, I went about my day as if nothing had happened. The worst emotion I felt through the whole thing was the discomfort I felt the next day in church, when everyone was expressing all this sympathy for a loss that didn't really bother me emotionally.

I don't want to think that I'm a heartless bastard. But the evidence seems to say otherwise.
posted by Stentor Danielson 11:50 PM | link |

*** Big day in the news today.

Scientists Use Embryos Made Only for Research I think they're hurting their own cause. The debate over using embryonic stem cells for research has understandably (but, as I see it, illogically) become polarised along the same lines as the abortion debate. Pro-lifers see the embryo as a person, so destroying it to get some cells from it apalls them. Pro-choicers don't ascribe this kind of sacredness to the embryo, so they have no problem supporting research that could lead to cures for a variety of chronic diseases -- Altzheimer's, Parkinson's, etc.

But a provision of the proposals currently under consideration removes stem cell research from the life-or-death realm of abortion politics. President Clinton immediately rejected any proposal that would allow embryos to be created specifically for research purposes, and I somehow doubt President Bush would be inclined to consider such a measure. Instead, the proposals currently on the table limit stem cell research to spare embryos created during fertility treatments -- embryos that would be destroyed anyway. If research is limited to embryos that would not survive regardless of what is done with their cells, the nature of the debate shifts. It's no longer to destroy or not to destroy. It's to use or not to use the remains. That shift was what prompted a large contingent of pro-life officials to support the plan for federal stem cell research. It offered hope that both sides could agree that if we're destroying embryos anyway we might as well make some good come of it.

But now the waters are being muddied by people who are destroying embryos that wouldn't be destroyed if not for their research. They say they hope it will jolt Bush into making a decision, but if they return the debate over stem cell research to the abortion arena, I suspect a pro-life Republican might not make the decision researchers are looking for.
posted by Stentor Danielson 8:50 PM | link |

*** Fully functional comments!

Now you can let Stenny know how much you appreciate him...
posted by David Wininger 8:44 PM | link |

*** "Now we're getting to the point where you can't tell a pongid from a hominid."
posted by Stentor Danielson 7:02 PM | link |

*** You know, I'm really doing a crappy job here. First, I haven't finished these damn papers, and second I won't shut up on this blog when I told Stenny specifically I would. In any event, I'm only making important interuptions...which of course make it difficult for Stenny to be in any degree funny without most likely feeling like a clod (this is an assumption of course, I've been in the computer lab for three days), but those are the tough breaks that come with guest hosting.

So, here goes again. I'm not religious. I don't believe in God and so on. It would be far too long of a diatribe to go into, so let's just leave the opening at that. So, what brings me here to tell you this? Some of you do is the simplest answer. And although I myself don't believe (and see no prospect of doing so) there's always the chance that I'm wrong. That's why I'm probably more effectively agnostic than athiest (although the definitions I've heard always make it seem so ambiguous...). In any event, this goes out to those who are religious and feel prayers can be answered. One of my better blogging friends is currently in dire straights and (here comes my optimism again) I have the utmost hope that she'll get better, maybe it will take something extra. That's where you come in. It seems almost silly, asking for random audience assisstance, but I've seen it happen in forms before and...I don't know. This comes into one of those categories where I'm not quite sure what is right and also falls into one of the many occasions where I can't quite put my thoughts into words.

So, maybe this served no purpose, maybe it will. But if you pray, leave a little (or a lot if you're feeling particularly generous) portion for Mollie (UPDATE: link to site no longer exisits, but on the plus side she's ok now). If you don't, then just hope. One thing that I am willing to accept is more possible is that everyone is tied together on some level and maybe if everyone focuses on one thing...who knows? I'm sounding far too new agey for my tastes, especially since I have neither the time nor energy to explain it all properly.
posted by David Wininger 2:16 PM | link

*** It occurred to me today that The Hunger Site and its sister The Rain Forest Site ought to have used an equal-area projection for their animated maps of the world, instead of a Mercator projection. The problems they're addressing are more prevalent in tropical areas, but the Mercator projection distorts the size of polar regions. The overall effect is the diminish the size of the focus area. Upon further consideration, the Mercator projection isn't so bad for the Rain Forest Site, since expanding non-forested land makes the surviving area of rain forest look even smaller. But I think the Hunger Site's graphics would still have more impact if the countries flashing black were bigger.

I'm just a geography dork.
posted by Stentor Danielson 9:18 AM | link |

*** I bought a "UFO Peach" today at Tops (PLU #3113). It was hockey-puck shaped. But it tasted like a normal peach.
posted by Stentor Danielson 12:34 AM | link |

7.10.2001

*** Random Philanthropy from your regular host:

Hey there, remember me?

I am aware that it was mentioned that I wasn't going to show up until next week, but I have reasoning behind it. I'll save trip stories and anecdotes for later and just cover the important stuff for a bit. I first got back and started catching up on random blogs/websites which I check up with on a regular basis and saw links to something called to the 24-hour Blog-A-thon. the navigation wasn't set up as well as it could have been for me to figure out what the hell was going on all that expediently, but eventually I got the gist. I was still rather non-commital as I never really thought about a charity to support. It's the classic issue of which one is worth the money? The American Red Cross or the American Cancer Society obviously does a great deal for a great deal of people, and of the blogs I've had a chance to look at that I generally read I saw two other worthy charities, Rabi's help for the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation (which my band did a fundraiser for last year largely under the work of Gary Braham) and having played music for most of my life and being a lover of music in general it is a worthy cause and Mollie's support for the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Campaign, which has also been an issue I have had to deal with and certainly a very worthy cause. As much as I believed in those charities and their merits and many other charities (the list could go on for quite some time, I assure you), I never would have thought of them myself...it's kind of hard to explain, but despite a seemingly close connection to many a charity I just didn't feel connected to it. That won't stop me from donating, but it just feels different raising money on behalf of something that I don't feel strongly tied to.

So, I hadn't felt all that interested in actively participating beyond giving donations out (and they are coming, I assure you...just need to finish these damn papers and get on the ball), until a thought occured to me in hour 15 sitting in this lab writing about the structural geology of the Seminoe Mountains (I can't imagine why my mind would wander, can you?) and suddenly one occured to me. I have no idea if I ever mentioned it before, but within my family is a incurable genetic disease known as Huntington's Disease (sometimes also known as Woodie Guthrie Disease as he was one of the more prominent individuals to die from it). It works in traditional punnett square fashion as a dominant trait. If you have it, you have a 50% chance of passing it on to your children, if you don't have it there is a 0% chance of it going any further. In 1988, my grandfather died of the disease and it was kept as a family secret unbeknowst to me until I started exhibiting similar symptoms 10 years later. A nurse let it slip by accident in the patient interview and it snowballed from there. As it is incurable and terminal, beginning with a loss of motor control and ending with insanity, pain, and death I was understandably shaken. After numerous inconclusive tests (although never a definitive gene test as discrimination laws based upon genetic information were not yet in the books, but that's a whole other issue) it was decided at least that I did not currently have it and based upon my EEG and MRI data, would not have it for a significant amount of time if at all. I personally think I'm not going to come down with it, in part because of that data and in part because on occasion I have streaks of optimism about myself.

However, not everyone in my family has as good a chance as I do. My father's brother, who disappeared in 1982 for reasons which I won't go into at this time came down with the disease in 1987 and coupled with his reasons for disappearing felt too much shame about his disease to contact anyone. At my grandmother's funeral in April, he finally contacted us and will be dead within a year at best. At the funeral I met his children (my cousins) for the first time and talked with them the most. At this time it was unknown whether he had the disease or not, but what was clear is one cousin had two children and the other has one on the way. My brother also has a daughter and not any data to back up that he might have it. I almost feel selfish as I'm selecting something for a charity which may potentially benefit myself and those I care about, but it is a disease which gets little attention and also is far from causing a painless death, so that's the impasse I'm at. So, unless I get an email from Cat Connor of frykitty.com telling me my charity is a fraud or that I missed some form of technicality I will be blog-a-thoning on behalf of the Huntington's Disease Society of America. As a note, this was all impromptu, so if anyone knows anything disreputable about this charity (it appeared the best one I could find in a half hour search) please let me know. Any other comments would be appreciated. As for the other charities mentioned, I want to reitierate how worthy I think they are and the individuals supporting them are among some of the people who I most highly respect on the web or anywhere else so even if you disagree with my motivations or charity than I recommend at least checking out the ones they support.

Once again, I haven't yet recieved a confirming email, so that's why there are no fancy buttons at this time, but hopefully there will be some soon. And whne I get a free moment I will make this into a seperate page so that the links are more accessible. Finally, an application for my insomnia (what? you didn't expect me to remain serious the whole time, did you?)

No Stenny news at this time.
posted by David Wininger 1:24 AM | link |

*** Nothing much to report here. I did another information session for prospectives, and in trying to explain the CORE curriculum, I drew a complete blank on the name of 151. And I paid a visit to Dan and Bethanie, which consisted of talking about chemistry and watching Dan pay Diablo. He still can't get to the Cow Level. Bethanie has graciously agreed to give me a ride back from the airport, which I am very happy about.

Dave has been doing geology write-up stuff all day. I had thought he was doing ArcView the whole time, but he wasn't. Which is a lucky thing. That much ArcView will destroy your soul.
posted by Stentor Danielson 1:22 AM | link |

7.9.2001

*** I talked to Marty on IM today. I asked him if he was a lush now, after spending a semester in Germany. He replied "Oh God yes. Oh sweet mother of the Christ child yes."
posted by Stentor Danielson 12:44 PM |