shuttering

oh, and another thing ...

almost forgot ... BIG NEWS! my friend lindsay here at the j-school is a goddess. last thursday, she dragged me out of bed at 5 o'clock in the morning (after i had been at the kaimin until 2), stuffed me in her malibu (so tiny after herri!), and made me drive most of the way to vancouver (who am i kidding? i love to drive) where we attended a SNOW PATROL CONCERT.
i admit wholeheartedly to being only a casual fan of theirs prior to seeing them live. but after their song "run" made me actually weep in public, i must call myself obsessed everafter. have been listening to nothing but them and their opening act, augustana (also so very very good!) since we got back from vancouver friday evening.
gah. great show, great music, great trip. had an absolute ball with lindsay -- and i hope she can say the same about me. :) you learn so much about people when you travel with them. i was originally drawn to lindsay because she's from minnesota and sounds just like all my cousins, even shares their sense of humor. but the more we hang out, the cooler she gets. and she got some brilliant shots of the show (she won a press pass, the lucky duck), which can be seen on her flickr site ... hopefully she won't mind me pimping her shots ... :)
aaaannndd ... that photo blog i've been threatening to launch is gathering itself for flight ... pun intended, since it will be called "Bird by Bird." it will be linked from this page, and i'll do a post once it's all ready to go. there will be quite a bit of backposted images, if i can figure all that out, so be sure to explore ...

the return of noah

so the writer of one of the most beautiful blogs i've ever seen has finally returned from his moving-to-dublin-induced hiatus! breaking out the happy dance ... :)
he had some gorgeous photographs here (click back three times, s'il te plait), and a link to possibly the funniest thing i've ever seen.
and this is lovely and makes me wish for a rainy day and hours to spend with my new zealand journals ...

You may have to look a little deeper for it these days, though, but I think the “real Dublin” is still very much there — aside from all the sights and monuments that every non-Irish person associates with Ireland (many of which, I suspect, exist more nowadays for other imports like me, than for anyone born and raised here) — but here, in the old alleys between the busy main streets, in the cracks between the cobblestones, in the twisting trees of St Stephen’s Green, in the soft salty roar of the “cold mad feary father,” in the freckled milk faces of the old and young, in the smells and the weary winks of Moore Street, in the bitter sinking heft of a pint of Guinness, in the way of both welcoming and questioning someone at the same time, in the sarcasm and in the quality of its silences, in every curse and shout as much as in every cloud parting over the perfect green hillsides of the Wicklow Mountains — I think the true stubborn and sublime spirit of Ireland endures, too deeply for any amount of American “cleansing” to scrub out so easily.

snooping through photoblogs all afternoon has me itching to start one of my own. i've set up a domain name and everything already, i just don't have any of the design work or the flag made yet. and i don't know how likely i am to take a shot every single day worth posting, either. maybe this summer that will change ...

heh, especially since I WILL BE INTERNING at new west with mark this summer.

ETA: they are playing baseball in the basement of the journalism building with a yardstick(the bat), the top of a desk that was stolen from the media law classroom (home plate), and a roll of toilet paper that keeps coming unravelled (the ball). have i mentioned lately that i love my life?

heh. funny.

found this site while trolling through montana blogs the other day ... made me crack up in the lab and get weird looks. but i'm always doing that. i think my classmates are used to it by now. :)

After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form, called a "gripe sheet," which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The Mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then Pilots review the "gripe sheets" before the next flight.

Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Qantas' Pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.

By the way, Qantas is the only major airline that has never had an accident.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute
descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what they're for.

P: IFF inoperative.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

And the best one for last..................

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget
pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.

pink flamingos

so i leave my truck in the hands of my sister for the weekend, and i come back to find poor herri filled with plastic pink flamingos which the forestry hooligans have stolen from the lawns of gawd-only-knows how many unsuspecting missoulians. gah. i don't know where these guys come up with this crap.

in other news, my weekend: tk came up from bozoman and we headed for ellensburg thursday night. friday, in cas' car, we drove to portland to this bar to see BEN FREAKING TAYLOR for the third time. do we qualify as groupies now? heh.

the show was amazing, despite that fact that the "headliner" (ben taylor and tristan prettyman are touring as co-headliners, but apparently the doug fir overlooked that and gave the honor position to tristan. dumbasses.) tristan prettyman has really obnoxiously rude fans. they utterly ignored and talked over the top of the opener, a lovely folk-sy singer named sera cahoone, and ben had to tell them (ineffectually) to shut up, like, six times while he was playing. the assholes.

anyways, back to the amazingness. they played a few oldies from the first album, and all of my favorites from the new album (but live they are so much better than on the cd! faster and jazzier and, well, from the lips of HIMSELF as well), and soooooo many marvellous new ones. he covered a paul mccartney song and a macy gray song (that may have originally been written by his dad, we weren't sure). at the end of the set, he and the bassist sat down and played three acoustically, and then ben sang by himself just one song about a cute girl who has a really nice boyfriend ... the song goes through and the final chorus is about the speaker realizing he doesn't like the girl after all, he likes her boyfriend. heh. he closed his set with, "hey, my name's ben taylor and i'm really straight. thank you and good night!"

we decided to protest the prettyman part of the show because we are inveterate skanks, and instead attempted to lounge coolly against the bar clutching our cds, posters, and tee-shirts waiting for ben to emerge and sign autographs. he did and it was marvellous, but we were too chickened-out to ask for another picture. sad day when the future world dominating triumvirate (or three stooges, depending on who you ask) are too embarassed to ask a pretty boy to take a picture with them.

saturday we spent a lovely day with michelle mcnulty's parents near salem, then went and played on the coast of lincoln city. my first sight of the sea since new zealand, and i honestly felt light-headed. eee! was so marvellous to be back to clambering around on the rocks, picking up shells, watching the tide roll in. made me miss red rocks so badly it hurt.

for the drive back to ellensburg, we tricked cas into driving over the astoria bridge. heh. amazingly enough, we survived. though the subsequent 48 hour drive home, through the night, was a near thing. though it wasn't so much our lives in danger but our friendship. i think we made it through fairly amiably, though, or at least until we three are trapped in a small vehicle again.

sunday we went wine tasting and discovered what a true snob cas actually is (just kidding). i wish we'd had the whole day to wander through the vineyards. is a very intriquing process, the creation of wine -- even if i don't particularly like wine, myself.

so yes, marvellous weekend. i should have an album of pics up pretty soon. as soon as i finish all the other crap i've been putting off all semester... sigh.

but enough procrastinating.

winter olympics pitchas

another album-full of forestry club hijinks... heh. this past weekend was "winter olympics" (events: skitching, ski biking, plywood bobsledding, and marathon drunkenness) up at lubrecht experimental forest. pictures may be found here. again, feel free to steal (i can email you higher res copies if you wish) -- just make sure you let me know!

FORESTERS' BALL!

every semester i get a little better at procrastinating

found this on a livejournal that i lurk ... made me giggle in the journalism lab and get strange looks.

If you are like me, we are always looking for that special cookie recipe to share with our families for the holidays. This is the one I personally make on Christmas Eve to be able to deal with the "families" on this joyous occasion.

TEQUILA COOKIES
1 cup of dark brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup of granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups of dried fruit, such as dried cranberries or raisins
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila (silver or gold, as desired)

- Sample the Cuervo to check quality.

Take a large bowl, check the Cuervo again to be sure it is of the highest quality -- pour one level cup and drink. Turn on the electric mixer...Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.

Add one teaspoon of sugar...Beat again. At this point it's best to make sure the Cuervo is still OK, try another cup.... just in case.

Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Pick the frigging fruit off floor... Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a drewscriver.

- Sample the Cuervo to check for tonsisticity.

Next, sift two cups of salt, or something.

Check the Jose Cuervo.

Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find.

Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.

Don’t forget to beat off the turner.

Finally, throw the bowl through the window, FINISH the Cose Juervo and make sure to put the stove in the dishwasher.

**** CHERRY MISTMAS ****

a shameless plug ...

mandy spencer, a friend of mine who's a photographer across campus in the art school just set up a new website this summer.  i can't get over how cleverly designed it is -- she uses her photography as site maps with which to navigate her site.  very cool.  and her photography itself is wonderful -- eloquent, serene, and sort of timeless and ethereal.  so go, run, check it out and if any of you know people who buy photography by poor college students like us, tell them to support mandy and check out her work!