Absquatulate

The Farm Begins

The Farm Begins
Originally uploaded by absquatulate.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

The first pickup for the Foodbank Farm was today and the sense of RELIEF is unbelievable. I've been holding my breath all winter and through most of the spring waiting for this moment; nervously watching the weather forecast, worried that too much rain would put the Farm behind its schedule, wondering how things were going. And while I may do this for the whole summer (not a thunderstorm to pummell the strawberries!!!) recieving the first share was a welcome event.

The first few weeks are usually a little meager in terms of variety but I was surprised by the volume we got! That whole bin is the greens alone; we also got a head of boston lettuce, spinach greens, and a bunch of scallions. We have to eat that whole bin in one week.

To get a jump start on the eating I just enjoyed a big bowl of plain greens with some of the Tahini Rising salad dressing that is also made right at the farm, and it was delicious. Splitting a farm share is the best thing I could have done; $220 well spent for a whole summer (and most of the fall) of fresh, organic vegetables that taste amazing and make you feel good after eating them, and plenty of opportunities for preserving and freezing veggies for the winter. The e.coli spinach scare, the lettuce/green onion scare, those pass me by as I enjoy greens fresh from the dirt rather than the cellophane bag.

If you have a local CSA or community farm you can join do so! I love that I can shake the hands of the people who grow my food and highly recommend it.

It fits.

It fits.
Originally uploaded by absquatulate.

Time to get my graduatin' on.

It's gonna be on hell of a day kids. Expect lots of insane photos of people you don't know.

Shotokan, representin'.

Shotokan, representin'.
Originally uploaded by absquatulate.

Get better soon, Christina!

Tell the World

LOLZors!  I don't know what this is for, but I think Swatee needs one. :)   Amazon.com: I Love Curro Sweatshirt: Apparel.

We're all going to Hell.

Well said Jessica, well said: indexed: We're all going to Hell..

Graduation is a solemn occasion

Oh man, next week is going to be awesome.  Thanks UMass, for agreeing to award an honorary phd to Andrew Card, thereby ruining my graduation: Threat Level - Wired Blogs.

Elderly sign up for Wii

This warms my heart, and I hope a researcher somewhere does a little study on the effects of video game playing on fitness, mood, cognitive ability, and alertness: DailyTech - Wii Invades Retirement Home.

Sweet Mother of...

Yesterday, at 5:45pm, my master's academic career ended.

The entire class was a little edgy. We sat, entertained the last two presenters who did a smashing job of educating us on Resonant Voice Therapy and plied us with cookies! Dr. A then D R E W O U T T H E S U S P E N S E regarding our exam grades... Oh that exam, the exam where she changed her tried and true format from multiple choice, short essay and case study, to ALL long essay. We were panicked. And after a 10 minute summary of what she was really looking for on question 9, she handed them back, and thank ye gods, she was kind.

We filled out the course evaluations, took a photo on the front steps of Arnold House to commemorate the place of our professional birth, and it was over. OVER! LET'S DRINK BEER!

Off to ABCs (for the third time this week!) for appetizers and a drink. We stayed out late, even though by 9am the yawning struck almost all of us. Today I slept in late (no trips to Worcester!), handed half of my paperwork, picked up a paycheck, picked up my regalia, and I have one more person to run for the experiment we're doing in the lab. I can hardly believe it. My life has returned. Start packing? Sure why not! Go for a nice long walk? Play a video game? Read for fun? I'll take Life for $1000, Alex.

Jobs will come, I have health insurance until July 31st, and meager savings to make it for a little while. I'm going to miss these ladies (and gent) with whom I've laughed, cried, fought, rolled eyes at, and hugged with for the last 2-3 years. I feel like I've been through a bit of a wringer, and I've made it through and am finally hanging out to dry in the glorious sun of success. Thank the universe for that.

I passed.

Orange Belts
Originally uploaded by absquatulate.

As a matter of fact, we all passed. Everyone in the club went up a rank, and the awesome Miss Clausen went up TWO because she's got a super secret green belt in another style and completely kicks all sorts of ass :)

And to boot, I passed with flying colors. While I still have so many many things to work on, it's nice to see I'm making progress.

Speaking of passing and progress, today I had my last exam of my master's career. Tomorrow I hand in my last project, and a ton of paperwork. It's all so close I can taste it.

Shotokan Karate

I had my first belt test today in the campus center ballroom at UMass. A handful of diehard fans (read: family!) came to watch 30 or so of us take our respective tests, do alot of lunging about, and generally do alot of yelling. What was frustrating was that Sensei Grimes is a softspoken woman, and the room was very large and there were welcome, yet loud fans in the corners making almost everything impossible to hear.

Four hours later and it was done. My portion of the test only took about 3 minutes top, but there was practice beforehand and much watching of the higher belts doing their thing. Much of it looked really really cool. Afterwards we invited the folks from Brown and UMaine-Orono for dinner at ABCs. The camaraderie was high, everyone was in good spirits on this sunny spring day, and we all enjoyed a beer and a turkey burger. :) Hopefully this week there is a yellow belt in my future, and a whole summer to practice heian nidan and heian shodan.

I'm really hoping Christina will send me photos that Trina took during our test! (*hint hint*!)

Freakonomics - Baby Boomers - Aging - Middle Age - Economics - New York Times

I wish I was way more alert and awake to take on this article than I am at 9:35pm.  I only just half heartedly read it in a post-training stupor and can't quite muster the energy to detail all the reasons why I think this article is such crap (for example, only enlisting economists to comment on why people cook for themselves...), but perhaps some of you out there would like a shot at it.  Take a gander: Freakonomics: Laid Back Labor- New York Times.

Map of the Online World, As We Know It

In case you get lost in the Sea of Memes, or unexpectedly find yourself stranded in the Viral Straits, here's a map to help you get to QWGHLM: online communities map.

Mnemonic MonKey Pirate

Mnemonic MonKey Pirate
Originally uploaded by Ape Lad.

Not much else to say, really.

Audience Participation

Audience Participation
Originally uploaded by absquatulate.

A while ago a few folks were chatting about which concerty they've attended was the best they've ever been too. I had a hard time coming up with one... I haven't been to a ton of concerts, but they all sort of melted together and I couldn't come up with a good answer. Moxy Fruvous was really good. Billy Joel was good. Pink Floyd was good. But which was the best?

I'm ashamed that I couldn't come up with They Might Be Giants. I saw them in college at the Water Street Music Hall in Rochester, NY and Oh My Gosh, did they roxors teh hoxors. At the end they had the whole place in a HUGE conga line! So when I heard they were coming to The Iron Horse (a delciously small venue in Northampton) I implored a friend to get tickets.

THIS my friends, is the best concert I've been to. TMBG, after all these years, still have unbelievable stage presence, they rock it out as hard as they can (or they put up a great front) and really get everyone involved. It looks like they're really into it, the band is tight, each of the Johns is going frantic on the guitar or on the accordian or keyboards, and everything is just ROCKING.

If you haven't seen them do yourself (and your brain) a favor and go. A great band that writes really smart music and gets everyone up on their feet. How can you go wrong?

Angel Of Crows

AngelOfCrows
Originally uploaded by absquatulate.

This imposing angel resides at Forest Hills in Boston. As we approached the statue, a huge cacophony of objections arose from the trees. A large murder of crows was unhappy that we decided to investigate this awesome bronze and took off from the trees en masse; a large black swarm of them retreating to the next group of pines to harass other shutterbugs.

The sight was unnerving: a murder of crows angrily cackling away at us as we approached this stern angel. As they flew away I wondered if somehow they'd managed to grab my soul in the process.