Art thou not Romeo and a Wolverine?

Hey-o. Just got back from visiting Kyra in Wisconsin. To get there and back I took ...The Ferry. I highly recommend this mode of travel. Instead of dealing with this, this, or, heaven forbid, something like this, I got to read, half pay attention to How to Train your Dragon, dine on overpriced but tasty café food, and in general enjoy 2.5 hrs of this [peaceful seagull noises]. Also, if you don't have anyone to carpool with, it's not much more expensive.

I had a lovely time with Kyra. Madison's like the love child of Ann Arbor and Columbus [Wolverines and Buckeyes everywhere bristle, spit, and cross themselves] -- it has the attitude, style, and look of A^2, but it's bigger, with big shiny new University buildings along the main stretch like C-bus. We hit up Summer Fest before leaving Milwaukee, saw Toy Story 3 (Spanish Buzz ftw), went window shopping, poked around in an art museum, got ice cream, got thai food, got french pastries.... llullll....mmm.

Good times, guys. She asked after everyone; give her a call if you get a chance -- she'd love to hear from you.

A Lesson in Doing Your Research

Submission to my POB (a Calvinist publishing company):

Calvinism: A Road to Nowhere
This book is needed because more and more Christian churches, seminaries, and individual believers are under pressure to accept the doctrine of Calvinism. This theology is more philosophical than doctrinal and lacks the scriptural support that should be required of a system which distorts the very Person of God, restricts the gospel message, limits the atonement of Christ, eliminates a real response from man, totally undercuts the worth of a man, and imposes unsubstantiated divine imperatives such as irresistible grace, effectual call, and saving faith as gift from God….

Not even a Methodist assistant's gonna save you here, buddy. This submission was officially Stupid.

Uh

The music video for Alejandro was ...not what I was expecting.

Head... spinning....

It has been SUCH A CRAZY WEEK. Like, good crazy, with lots of seeing people and hanging out, but I've been spending the whole evening tonight just catching up on chores and correspondence and random tasks. I'm starting to feel a little more on top of things, but my to-do list for the weekend is still long.

(I feel like such a lame-ass talking about how overwhelmed I feel when half of my friends are PhD candidates. Sigh.)

Tomorrow concludes the Week of Birthday. A couple friends and I have a tradition of kidnapping each other for birthdays, often blindfolded. Tomorrow's activities, I am told, will not include a blindfold, but I've been instructed to wear old clothing and bring a change of clothes including underwear. The suspense is killing me. Usually we just go a restaurant or movie, but unless it's a restaurant that features food fights with pudding-filled water balloons... but that still wouldn't explain the underwear. Update to follow.

Strong Bear must wear pants for modesty

Nothing makes me want to pick up my sketchbook like seeing somebody else's really cool sketches. And for some reason, the rougher the work the better, if the artist is talented. Here's today's inspiration (are you familiar with the webcomic Wondermark? David Malki is amazing), which I thought was just amusing enough to be worth sharing:

There must be a way to do hovertext on paper.

He's got more posted on his twitpic account if you're further interested.

Fortunately? Unfortunately?

...this has got to be photoshopped. But it's still 100% awesome and perhaps the 2nd best thing I've seen today.

Qapla, sir.

Weekends are when I get to pretend I have a life

This weekend, I...

-Planted the last of the flowers I bought for my balcony.

-Bought pants that fit (YAY).

-Spent several hours pleasure-reading.

-Explained to a middle-aged woman who Badfinger is.

-Got coffee with my mom and had a heart-to-heart.

-Pulled ahead from 100 points behind and in last place to hand several people their asses at Dutch Blitz.

-Watched the best movie ever. (No, really.) (PS: 10 points and my eternal love to whoever can figure out who currently owns the rights, so I can start a letter writing campaign to get it out on dvd).

-Ate ice cream twice.

Not at all bad. Two years ago I just watered my unplanted flat of impatiens all summer, and last year I didn't even try. Improvement! Also, I'd almost forgotten how really, really nice it is having pants that fit. Comfy clothing FTW.