annotated living

recent photos

Sun, 26 Sep 2010 18:12:29 GMT

Finally got around to uploading photos from the last year. Here are a few...

From the trip to Berlin:

From some recent hikes:

From the trip to Eureka:

From Dresden:

the most plausible explanation

Tue, 18 May 2010 14:30:38 GMT

"Daniel had a gift for eliciting undignified behavior from women. She had never seen his appeal herself. She accepted the fact of his attractiveness as she accepted the existence of gravity -- it was the most plausible explanation for various phenomena that would otherwise have remained mysterious -- but by her own judgment, Daniel was a most unimpressive specimen."

zoe heller ~ the believers

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:42:07 GMT

"Embarrassing the prejudices of your countrymen was never quite as gratifying as you thought it would be; the countrymen somehow never embarrassed enough. It was safer, on the whole, to enjoy your moral victory in silence and leave the bastards guessing."

zoe heller ~ the believers

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:43:36 GMT

"Where's Mr. Sonnenberg?" said Kovistky. There was no response.

So he said it again, this time in an amazing baritone that nailed every syllable into the back wall and startled all newcomers to the courtroom of Judge Myron Kovitsky: "WHERE IS MIS-TER SON-NEN-BERG!"

Except for two little boys and a little girl, who were running between the benches and playing tag, the spectators froze. One by one they congratulated themselves. No matter how miserable their fates, at least they had not so fallen so low as to be Mr. Sonnenberg, that miserable insect, whoever he was.

---

tom wolfe ~ bonfire of the vanities

computer, the expletive

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:42:27 GMT

"An older example of this process is the French word for computer, ordinateur. It was a creation of IBM France, which in 1954 found it had a problem with the word computer in French. Said with a French accent, the syllables of computer sound like a combination of the two worst possible insults in the French language: con (cunt) and pute (whore). A professor of Latin at the Sorbonne, Jacques Perret, proposed the term ordinateur, a religious term referring to God as the one who imposed order on the universe. IBM trademarked it, but the word caught on and became a generic term."

nadeua and barlow ~ the story of french

femme, meuf, feum

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:15:04 GMT

"The language used in les cités is an important source of new vocabulary. The main form of jargon is a word-crunching system called verlan, whose origins date back to the seventeenth century. Verlan has been popular in France's suburbs since the 1970s. It consists of reversing syllables and writing them phonetically; the term itself is verlan for á l'envers (in reverse). It has produced one of the most interesting expressions of the political landscape in France: les beurs, verlan for rab, the Arabic term for Arabs, referring to French of North African descent.

The jargon of the cités is evolving constantly and regularly entering mainstream usage, often through publicity. Suburban kids don't speak of français but rather céfran. The beurs who make it to the middle class are now calles les beurgois. A femme (woman) is meuf, a flic (cop) is keuf, mère (mother) is reum, père (father) is reup and a prof (teacher) is a frop. Verlan goes as far as reverlanizing its terms, so that Arabs, first beurs, have become rebeus, and femmes, first meufs, have become feums. Comma ça (like that) was first verlanized as comme aç, then as askeum, and then as asmeuk."

~
nadeau, barlow: the story of french

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:23:43 GMT

"You see, I've never had a group of people lie to me about my dead father so that I'd hang around. I mean, I think it's great."

10 Items or Less

new website

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:43:21 GMT

As a small weekend project, I just put together a new personal wiki: jon.appspot.com. This replaces the old infogami site I used to use now that they have closed shop.

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:52:54 GMT

well you know there ain't no doubt
when the feeling finds you out
you know you can try to run
i tell you it still will come

when you feel your body shake
trip and fall you can't walk straight
baby then you know it's done
you can feel your heart is stung

you're the one that i saw
you're the one that i want

--
sleater kinney ~ dance song '97

off to a good start

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:14:09 GMT

The snippet from this book's opening pages has piqued my interest. Looking forward to the rest of it...

"Counterinsurgencies have been called learning competitions."

the us army, marine corps ~ counterinsurgency field manual

best of 2009

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:44:27 GMT

Best movies: Bad Lieutenant, In The Loop, The Hurt Locker
Best TV series: Prime Suspect
Best album: The Body, the Blood, the Machine by The Thermals
Best fiction: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Best non-fiction: What is the What by Dave Eggers
Best "fun book": Lush Life by Richard Price
Best history: Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner
Best concert: Vivian Girls at Independent
Best museum: TerrorHaus
Best city: Budapest

Prior best-ofs: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004 & 2003.

solution to american apocalypse

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:08:12 GMT

"I had this dream, see, where I saw the whole world melt. I was standing on La Cienega and from there I could see the whole world and it was melting and it was just so strong and realistic like. And so I thought, Well, if this dream comes true, how can I stop it, you know?"

I'm nodding my head.

"How can I change things, you know? So I thought if I, like pierced my ear or something, like alter my physical image, dye my hair, the world wouldn't melt. So I dyed my hair and this pink lasts. I like it. It lasts. I don't think the world is gonna melt anymore."

I'm not to reassured by her tone...

---
bret easton ellis ~ less than zero

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:58:24 GMT

"But, so what. So what if I'm a bad person. I've noticed that, in general, if a person feels nasty in the morning but is full of plans and dreams and vigor in the evening, he's a very bad person. Mornings, rotten; evenings, fine -- a sure sign of a bad type. But take someone who's full of energy and hope in the morning, but overwhelmed with exhaustion in the evening -- for sure he's a trashy, narrow-minded mediocrity. That sort of person is disgusting to me. I don't know how he strikes you, but to me he's disgusting.

Of course, there are those for whom morning and evening are equally pleasing, who are equally pleased by sunrise and by sunset. These are simply bastards. It's sickening even to talk about them. But then, if someone is equally repulsed by morning and evening, I really don't know what to say about him. That's the ultimate cocksucking scum."

venedikt erofeev ~ moscow to the end of the line

So, that makes me a simple bastard.

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:05:04 GMT

After Bhima has been fired from her job as a house servant and has been told to pack up and leave:

"She looks desultorily at the meager possessions she keeps in a cardboard box in a corner of the kitchen -- a soap dish, Pond's talcum powder, a blue comb with a tooth missing, her metal glass, her tobacco tin. As she lifts the box, the tears fall fast and hot. She looks around at the kitchen, every inch of which she has swept and cleaned so many times. So many evenings she has entered this room without bothering to turn on the lights and still she has known where to find every fork, every dish, every pan. She taks in the cobweb that is forming in the corner near the window -- she had meant to clean that web off yesterday. She feels a second's pride as she notices the shine on the pressure cooker, which she washed earlier today. She sighs as she looks at the high ceiling, such a welcome change from the oppressive weight of the low roof of her hut, which she has to bend to enter."

thrity umrigar ~ the space between us

slum dogs

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:29:52 GMT

"Instead of the gratitude she knows she ought to feel, Bhima is shocked to feel a deep resentment at Viraf's words. Easy for him to talk about getting rid of Maya's baby, she thinks. After all, he and Dinaz baby are going to have a child of their own, a child who will never know what it is to have adults plot its death. A child who will be welcomed into the world. Who will never cause his parents shame or dishonor. She feels a moment's blinding fury that is so large it encompasses Maya, Dinaz, and Viraf. All these young people, all these children about to be born. She is tired of it all -- tired of this endless cycle of death and birth, tired of investing any hope in the next generation, tired and frightened of finding more human beings to love, knowing full well that every person she loves will someday wound her, hurt her, break her heart with their deceit, their treachery, their fallibility, their sheer humanity. Bhima feels dried out, scooped out, as hollow and wrinkled as a walnut shell. She has nothing left to give, no love left to spare. For this reason, she refuses to feed a morsel of leftover food to the stray dogs in the slum colony, who wag their tails and sigh expectantly each time she steps out of her hut. She cannot stand the sight of their matted, mangled, crippled bodies, their heartbreaking eagerness, the hunger for love in their eyes."

thrity umrigar ~ the space between us

with apologies, from these mean streets

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:47:29 GMT

no no no
no no no
no no no no no no no no no
no no no no no no no no no no no
no no no no no
no no no no
no no no
no no no no no no no no no no no
no no no no no no
no no no no no no no no no no no

vivian girls ~ no

i feel the tension

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:32:28 GMT

i feel the tension
i feel the tension
i feel the tension
i feel the tension

vivian girls ~ tension

social games

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 03:43:41 GMT

"I'm most terribly tired. I didn't sleep a wink last night. I've got a marvellous new lover."

I began to put out the tea. Sally gave me a sidelong glance:

"Do I shock you when I talk like that, Christopher darling?"

"Not in the least."

"But you don't like it?"

"It's no business of mine." I handed her the tea-glass.

"Oh, for God's sake," cried Sally, "don't start being English! Of course it's your business what you think!"

"Well then, if you want to know, it rather bores me."

This annoyed her even more than I had intended. Her tone changed: she said coldly: "I thought you'd understand." She sighed: "But I forgot--you're a man."

"I'm sorry, Sally. I can't help being a man, of course... But please don't be angry with me. I only meant that when you talk like that it's really just nervousness. You're naturally rather shy with strangers, I think: so you've got into this tick of trying to bounce them into approving or disapproving of you, violently. I know, because I try it myself, sometimes... Only I wish you wouldn't try it on me, because it just doesn't work and it only makes me feel embarrassed. If you go to bed with every single man in Berlin and come and tell me about it each time, you still won't convince me that you're La Dame aux Camelias--because, really and truly, you know, you aren't."

christopher isherwood ~ goodbye to berlin (1935)

perspective on climate change policies

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:31:25 GMT

This is the most interesting article about climate change policy I've read in a long time: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21494. It really puts things in perspectives and has altered my impressions of the different options.

In the book being reviewed, the author is an economist that models the purely financial impact of a variety of climate change policies over a hundred year period, independent of the environmental changes they produce. The options are business-as-usual, the Kyoto Protocol, an optimally chosen carbon tax, the Nicholas Stern proposal (strong emission limits), and the Gore policy (strong but gradually applied limits, e.g. 90 percent cut by 2050). The other option is a low-cost backstop (e.g. low-cost solar, nonintrusive climate engineering, genetically-engineered trees). The results...

"""Here are the net values of the various policies as calculated by the DICE model. The values are calculated as differences from the business-as-usual model, without any emission controls. A plus value means that the policy is better than business-as-usual, with the reduction of damage due to climate change exceeding the cost of controls. A minus value means that the policy is worse than business-as-usual, with costs exceeding the reduction of damage. The unit of value is $1 trillion, and the values are specified to the nearest trillion. The net value of the optimal program, a global carbon tax increasing gradually with time, is plus three—that is, a benefit of some $3 trillion. The Kyoto Protocol has a value of plus one with US participation, zero without US participation. The "Stern" policy has a value of minus fifteen, the "Gore" policy minus twenty-one, and "low-cost backstop" plus seventeen.

...

The main conclusion of the Nordhaus analysis is that the ambitious proposals, "Stern" and "Gore," are disastrously expensive, the "low-cost backstop" is enormously advantageous if it can be achieved, and the other policies including business-as-usual and Kyoto are only moderately worse than the optimal policy. The practical consequence for global-warming policy is that we should pursue the following objectives in order of priority. (1) Avoid the ambitious proposals. (2) Develop the science and technology for a low-cost backstop. (3) Negotiate an international treaty coming as close as possible to the optimal policy, in case the low-cost backstop fails. (4) Avoid an international treaty making the Kyoto Protocol policy permanent. These objectives are valid for economic reasons, independent of the scientific details of global warming."""

A corollary is that it's in the world's economic incentive to spend up to 14 trillion dollars on researching the low-cost backstop technology. I get the impression that we are not spending that much money on it though...

this city this city

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:10:48 GMT

Feeling an ambivalence of sensory overload and spiritual apathy, combined with an ambivalence of too-much-structure and too-much-freedom, I think I just achieved some kind of release. Racing up some blocks and sprinting down others, I just ran up to Buena Vista park and back, with earphones blaring Of Montreal. This city, will not defeat me, this city, it is my bleeping playground. And now I feel more genuinely happy.

Things that have occurred in the last few months:

Grandfather and his wife passed away.
Saw the play Osage County. Wow that was good.
Nearly attacked by an elk up near Eureka.
Got a traffic ticket for driving through a stop sign. In San Francisco. Like as if.

you have to sleep late when you can
and all your bad days will end

the flaming lips ~ bad days

conscious undemonstrative distrustfuless, or death!

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:27:33 GMT

E. M. Forster reviewing Billy Budd in 1947:

"""He also shows that ... innocence is not safe in a civilization like ours, where a man must practice a "ruled undemonstrative distrustfulness" in order to defend himself against traps. This "ruled undemonstrative distrustfulness" is not confined to business men, but exists everywhere. We all exercise it. I know I do, and I should be surprised if you, who are listening to me, didn't. All we can do (and Melville gives us this hint) is to exercise it consciously, as Captain Vere did. It is unconscious distrustfulness that corrodes the heart and destroys the heart's insight, and prevents it from saluting goodness."""

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:16:17 GMT

"Stepan Arkadyich was dressed in brogues and leggings, tattered trousers and a short coat. On his head was the wreck of some hat, but his new-system gun was a jewel, and his game bag and cartridge belt, though worn, were of the best quality. Vasenka Veslovsky had not previously understood this true hunter's dandyism - to wear rags but have hunting gear of the best make. He understood it now, looking at Stepan Arkadyich, shining in those rags with the elegance of his well-nourished, gentlemanly figure, and decided that before the next hunting season he would be sure to set himself up in the same way."

leo tolstoy ~ anna karenina

life in the desert

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 06:34:04 GMT

"""
"...and he hates me because I let Jill die."

"She let herself die. Speaking of that, that's what I do like about these kids: they're trying to kill it. Even if they kill themselves in the process."

"Kill what?"

"The softness. Sex, love; me, mine. They're doing it... They're burning it out with dope. They're going to make themselves hard clean through. Like, oh, cockroaches. That's the way to live in the desert. Be a cockroach. It's too late for you, and a little late for me, but once these kids get it together, there'll be no killing them. They'll live on poison."
"""

john updike ~ rabbit redux

one two three

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:30:00 GMT

"It's pretty safe to say that I am the only person in the history of Virginia to be elected to statewide office with a union card, two Purple Hearts, and three tattoos."

~ Jim Webb

dreaming of a bed of one's own

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:46:10 GMT

they can tell me what to read.
they can tell me what to eat.
they can beat me and send me the bill,
but they tell me what to feel.
i might need you to kill.

the thermals ~ i might need you to kill

while i still have eyes,
wait for me, wait for me.
while i still have feet,
wait for me, wait for me.
while i still have faith,
if i ever had faith,
wait for me, wait for meeee.

the thermals ~ returning to the fold