netflix hates insomniacs

3 a.m. is the cruellest time to throttle streaming video. they must know it, the sadists.

sitting watching the percentage load count up, ever so glacially, leaden seconds ticking on– 1%… 2%… 4%… 5%… 8%…

and then half the time it gets to 100% and hangs.

the truth is I resent being buffered ever, in any fashion. buffering, bah. it’s just more grueling in the small hours.

reading lately

: people who actually MAINTAIN their blogs (unlike some of us– quelle notion).

my favorite thing lately is this low impact means of catching up with long distance friends via their delightfully unique/beautiful/hilarious blogging about kids and mates and other life stuff.

Jen’s BabyX2: my tiny friend not only managed to carry to term and deliver two beautiful babies but also blogs about their developmental and fashion progress in typically hilarious style.

Sarah’s Quince and Quire: Sarah, a poet and book artist friend, consistently renders and reflects on her life in gorgeous, precise, and lovely patterns and hues.

Wilson’s Mate Expectations: an engaging and wryly honest narrative about coming to terms with the order in which life dictates events must unfold.

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the problem with facebook

Sarah Townsend
… is feeling bittersweet, conflicting emotions as she views one niece’s posted photos of the eldest niece’s wedding this past weekend, which sarah herself was unable to attend.
… experiences a moment while brushing teeth in which the mirror face comments, sotto voce but unmistakeable, so-called bloom of youth vanished.
… ‘s boyfriend tickled her out of bed rather than allow her to wallow indefinitely in a weepy slump.
… often feels overwhelmed by the myriad glimpses of other people’s lives and psyches crushed together in the virtual realm.
… isn’t entirely certain to what extent she continues to “know” people she was once friends with in a different time and place.
… doesn’t altogether recognize, in a real, concrete sense, family members and other loved ones, when seeing them or reading them in decontextualized slivers.
… has an unsettling array of uncertainties and questions.
… is hyper-aware that depressives are a serious drag.
… settles too often for the too-familiar, too-human unspiffy personal truth.
… is mushing forward, struggling to feel okay.

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o tannenfish

Your sheets are how faithful!
You do not only become green to the summer time,
no also in the winter, if it snows.
O fir tree, o fir tree,
Your sheets are how faithful!
O fir tree, o fir tree,
You can please me much!
How often has already during the winter time
A tree of you me highly pleases!
O fir tree, o fir tree,
You can please me much!
O fir tree, o fir tree,
Your dress wants me which to teach:
Hope and stability
Courage gives and
Kraft at each time!
O fir tree, o fir tree,
Your dress wants me which to teach!


ah, the mysterious babelfish. it speaketh in tongues of absurdity. ich liebe.

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all my internet friends

this is awesome– forwarded to me by my friend laurel: her friend amanda french sings about the kind of culture we know here on vox.

All My Internet Friends

Monday afternoon I gave a presentation to the staffKicked off with a knock-knock joke to liven up the charts and grapThat crowdNever laughs out loud
But all my internet friends were tickled pinkThey put animated smileys when they passed around the linkThey said Hey, girl, here’s another awesome thing we foundSarah Palin getting smacked down With a Prince song in the backgroundBetter watch it quick before they take it down
Wednesday night I figured I’d go out and buy a DVD Walked into a store and walked right out again immediatelyThis sucksThey want thirty bucks
But all my internet friends give things awayThey just really like to make stuff even when it doesn’t payThey say, Hey, girl, here’s a picture, here’s a poem tooHere’s a blog post, here’s a podcast Here’s a song and here’s a lolcatAnd an iPhone application all for you
Saturday I had a date with Dave the software engineerTold him bout the time I got my headphones wrapped around my earI swearHe just didn’t care
But all my internet friends they listen wellThey make sympathetic comments when I say that I’m in hellThey say Hey, girl, what’s your status? I say, Omigod,I’m not sleeping, I’m not eating I can’t take another meetingWith the clean, well-meaning morons at my job
There are those who say I spend a little too much time onlineSometimes I agree, but on the whole I think I’m doing fineClick, buzzI feel strong becauseAll my internet friends are here with me Saying Love and information want only to be freeAnd we’ll take no crap from anyone who says that they know betterWe won’t stand for that because we all came here together We’re remaining interwovenWe’re a net, and we have chosenTo be knotted tightly to each otherYou be client, I’ll be server We won’t ever have to be alone

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comedy is a family value

tina fey is a fairly new hero of mine– just started watching episodes of 30 rock on the web this summer– awesome, sweet, and hilarious. and bravo for snl, which gives comedians the stage to voice some searing and very funny commentary on current events. this skit with tina fey and amy poehler takes the cake– and it irks me no end that youtube keeps being compelled to yank it. fortunately, the populace is not content to let it go and continues to repost it. so if the video below fails to play for you and you haven’t seen it yet, just do a search in youtube for “palin clinton”, and one or two copies should show up. bravo for populist insurgency!