________

Site Feed

 
Mmmm frothy banana smoothie with hints of strawberry and orange. Made with fresh fruit from the west side market. Kate and i picked up some giant bananas after visiting the GLBC. You could call them steely dan bananas. Anyway, this particular smoothie has a lot of entrained air giving it a very soft feel and a light taste.

For those of you keeping track at home, this entry won't be a manic stream of consciousness ramble. I'm writing it furring commercials on during Boston Public. David E. Kelley sensationalism, but I cannot turn away. I think I'm drawn to it as I'm drawn to almost everything New England. It's a nostalgia that I wouldn't describe as homesickness, but it's some sort of admission of being displaced. My home is in New England. I'm drawn to New England in profound ways. From the rugged faded colors of the coastline to the rising mountains and alpine flowers of the interior, Northern New England is my home. There is something in my blood that draws me to these sights and sounds. Of course I can't complain. The compulsion to even just read words of New England drove me to Linda Greenlaw's delightful memoirs. I should watch A Perfect Storm again, now that I know that I shouldn't dislike her.

This weekend was rather fulfilling. It was great to spend time with Kate, and I certainly miss her. It was great to revisit one of my favorite movies, Dr. Strangelove. I just wish it was longer, and that there was less structure to shape our experiences. Somehow the weekend with 8 hours of driving, a speeding ticket, two Phish shows, and Cincinnati opened itself up a lot more to inspire some deeper experiences. Eventually I'll figure out why. Phish shows are magic, but even though I think they can ripple goodness backwards and forwards through time I don't think they can explain it all. That weekend was superb, well above average when we saw each other daily, and certainly the best since she moved to Boston.

What makes a weekend? Is it great events? Surely this weekend had some great planned and unplanned events. Formal, BBQ, movies meals out? The prior weekend Kate was in town had the two concerts, meals outs, a visit to an aunt and a city to explore. We also watched a similar time span of movies, admittedly all in the body of one epic film. Could it be flexibility? My Phish experience makes me think that was part of it. How meaningful can improv be if t has to end and go into a composed section relatively quickly. For evidence in terms of music, consider the jams in encore Halley's Comets and YEMs compared to the improv in the songs during the body of a set. I think the difference is why it is rare for these tunes to pop up in the encore spot. Maybe this weekend I had too many places to be at certain times, and not enough room to really stretch out and see where things would go. I'll have to take not of that, and maybe someday I'll find the recipe for a perfect weekend. But then if I simply followed a checklist of requisites for perfection, I'd end up with a different baseline for my weekends and they'd stop being satisfying. The joy comes from the journey, the diversity and the combination of good and bad.

Now I'm left wondering what I'll do for entertainment in the near future. The John Scofield Band at the Agora on 4/4, Jazz Mandolin Project and Leftover Salmon on 4/8, and Medeski, Martin and Wood on 4/10. These are all jazz shows. I've seen JMP and Scofield. JMP was amazing in a mellow, and technical way. Scofield was jazz meets techno and transcendental by building enthusasim and keeping feet moving. MMW has been on my must see list for a while, but I've been lazy about getting tickets. Any fearless readers want to go to a show?
posted by Ben at (0) comments 9:26 PM

 
There's something about syncopated harmonics that gets me introspective. When music takes a journey, I tend to follow it, even into the deeper nether regions of my psyche. There aren't too many boogeymen there, but there might be a giant flying frog or two. I'm writing now as some sort of procrastination, or perhaps as an exercise to gain focus and control my thoughts. I need to draft my showCase poster by 1:30 tomorrow, so I really need to do it to night so that I can recode a program and develop some visuals.

The big event of the weekend was the fraternity Formal. I had a lot of fun at the 2000 formal despite some hilarious drama, and Kate being on a bus coming back from Chicago. 2001 was a splendid event. I skipped 2002 because Kate was at her Harvard interview, and I would much rather be at home than stag wishing she was there.

Maybe the intervening years had built up my expectations for formal a little too much, I remember the last formal being the most fun I'd had at any sort of dance. Knowing almost everyone, feeling completely free to enjoy ones self, and having a well organized experience. I was a wee bit disappointed overall. The food was great, the room was nice with splendid table settings, h'ors deuvres, floral arrangements, etc. The dinner was also wonderful. It was chicken in some sort of cream-sauce with shrimp on top and asparagus and rice on the side. Very gourmet, quite tasty, much better than the overpriced meal at the last formal. Bahige's connections, through his dad, really provided us with a very nice hookup at the Sheraton. Event attendance was very good, with only one active brother absent, and a couple recent alumni showing up for good measure.

the highlight of the night, for me, was the "Little Boy Band" of Wayne, Oscar, Niles, Pabin, and Thraller as they sang "Happy Birthday Roperbear" to celebrate Roper's 21st. Niles, Oscar, and Thraller were hilariously pimped out. Niles in his Tom Wolfe suit, Oscar in Wayne's leather jacket and a cowboy hat, and Thraller pulling the sport coat over a crazy shirt thing that I busted out at casino night. Thraller spent the entire musical number with shades over his eyes, armed cross, a motionless testament to the art of regulation. It was a very funny, and lighthearted number. It was also great because the more eccentrically dressed band members needed a fair amount of arm-twisting to attend. It was nice to see them come out.

the dance portion of the evening was a little less than satisfactory. After the first 15-20 minutes it was rare to find more than 60% of attendees on the dance floor. I think there were two contributing factors. One was that event planners neglected to consider the issue of dance lighting. There were no colored lights, strobes, or swirly things. In fact there was nothing but slightly dimmed house lighting to establish an atmosphere. It was like breathing on Mars. The other came from the DJ's theory of song selection by attrition. He'd play with one style until people were noticeably tired of it, and move on for 3-5 songs. When in doubt, it was back to hip hop. Admittedly, Hip hop doesn't usually inspire me, but it isn't the basis of my complaint. I think a DJ would better shape the energy of the crowd by refusing to allow them to become noticeably disinterested with the song selection. If DJ Gomar played the same material in an order which better emphasized a diversity of style, I believe that more people would stay on the dance floor and that energy would have been up. Of course, if he'd played some swing, or First Tube things would have been even better, but it isn't sporting to evaluate a performance by complaining about numbers that weren't played.

I must say that I did find it funny that people called P-Funk hippie music, as it is music born of urban Detroit, and p-funk samples provide the music to a majority of hip-hop songs. It was also amusing that people tried disco dancing to it, since funk music was contemporarily regarded as un-disco.

Background Music: Leo Kottke/Mike Gordon – Disco, June, I am a Lonesome Fugative, Clay Strange, Middle of the Road, Whip With; Trey Anastasio – Alive Again, Cayman Review, Push on to the Day, Night Speaks to a Woman, Flock of Words
posted by Ben at (0) comments 11:01 PM

 
I'm talking about the Midwest as I get geared up for formal. Yeah.

Roper and I went out and about cruising for flowers, but apparently no one in the City of Cleveland buys flowers on a Saturday afternoon, as all of the florists were closed. We traveled from high to low, and deep into the ghetto. Our quest concluded at Tops. Kate liked her Holland tulips. Roper had them jerry-rig some form of rose bouquets. I think it ended up looking nice, hopefully Roper's date feels the same.

Today Kate and I went to see "A View From the top", I think I liked it better than she. For some reason, the story, the comedy, and the many jokes about Cleveland resonated with me al ot more than i expected. I also enjoyed the camera work. Candice Bergen was wonderful, and Gweneth Paltrow's mildly confused style fit the character quite well.

Last night, the chapter sponsored a BBQ to celebrate the coming of good weather. It was a fun time, but possibly a little premature as the BBQ was assaulted by the Clarke Tower wind vortex as a cold front brought memories of winter back to Cleveland. I hear that it might snow tonight. That should make for an exciting formal.

At midnight, Roper turned 21, so we took him to all three bars on Coventry. Panini's->The Winking lizard->BW3. I think that the Rope dogg had a good time. Panini's wasn't really our scene, but it did have 30 beers on tap. the Lizard was more mellow, but the kitchen had closed. By the time we got to BW3s that was winding things down as well, but they did sell us some cheesy potato wedges. Mmmm food. Maybe someday, I'll get RD to the Great lakes Brewing company for their happy hour and pub pizzas. Kate and I had their 3x3 Friday afternoon. Three types of meet and three types of cheese. It was very pleasant, and went nicely with our smooth dark beers.

Background Music: Charlie Hunter 2/26/03 Set I.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 5:32 PM

 
I scored a 30% on the "How Cleveland are you?" Quizie! What about you? Thankfully 5 years in this city hasn't harmed me any more.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 8:20 AM

 
Well seminar went well, I'd guess. Dr. Feke didn't make it because he was in a defense, but he managed to keep Dr. Landau and Dr. Edwards tied up at the same defense, which is all good and well for me. While I enjoy Dr. Landau as a Prof. I don't really know how my thesis work relates to electrochemistry, and his questions would undoubtedly stump me.

Kate's here for the weekend. Yay! Formal Formal Formal, and Roper's Birthday.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 10:34 PM

 
Tomorrow's the big day of my department seminar. Hopefully it goes well. I've got Kienitz' laptop, and I'm ready to present. I'm not sure if I know how to connect it to the projection system, but I'm sure that someone somewhere will know the voodoo. After that, Kate'll be coming to visit for formal and to enjoy Cleveland one last time. Unfortunately, or perhaps thankfully, she'll be touching down just as I present.

I don't have any exciting plans for the weekend aside from formal. I'm sure we'll figure out something to do. She wants to beat Pikmin. I'll probably revise my thesis while she does that. Hopefully formal goes well. I'm sure it'll be fun, but I hope the music has some variety. It seems like a lot of current popular music is based on one or two very similar beats. That'll get old rather fast. Actually a whole night of 4/4 music will get to me. Unfortunately, I missed some sort of deadline to submit a song list to the DJ. The announcement of the deadline was rather buried in an email, and I must of skimmed it. Hopefully my suggestions could still be passed on. I don't see why not. If it's an issue of the DJ needing to find obscure tunage, I'll be making a CD of most of the tunes with their glorious polyrythyms. Of course, this will be based on CD ripping and not lossy mp3s which really sound like garbage on a good system. The other possibility is that the DJ wanted the list so he could sequence the evening with a complete play list. Put it all in a computer, and press go.

That would really irritate me. The chapter could easily have rented equipment and a few brothers could sequence on their own. It's not that hard to make a winamp playlist (winamp does play waves). There could even be cross fades and the like.

It's no secret that I prefer live music to recorded, but it would be really disappointing if DJs give up any semblance of spontaneity and pre-sequence their sets. I respect DJ's who actually spin vinyl, sample and sequence their own techno stuff. That's pretty cool, not completely original, but still demonstrating talent and encompassing some moment. The idea of a pre-sequenced dance seems sterile and artificial. The DJ ought to work to shape the experience bringing the tempo up and down, shaping the energy of the crowd in the same way a good live band would, responding to the audience. Scripting much more than the first few numbers would be too contrived. You never known when Tim and Michelle's swing dancing will get contagious. Will the crowd be in the mood for 80s bust outs? What about old school hip hop? Or heaven forbid some music with syncopation? Maybe people would enjoy some music that they don’t really know, something jazzy, or maybe something from a band from Vermont. First Tube is quite a dance tune.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 11:18 PM

 
Nothing pleases me more than the fact that I am capable of starting conversations with techniques other than trying jokes. Humor has it's place, and I do appreciate it, but it is a spice not a hen with unlimited culinary potential. It amuses me when people strain with joke after joke trying to break into a real conversation, but incapable of flat out saying their piece. They want attention, but only on terms which are very comfortable, and protective. I joke which illicits little or no response is a casualty with much less weight than a statement which reveals ideas, emotion, or exposes an individual. Without that shield of humor, or sarcasm, who dares stand naked before their peers. How could words of truth, reflective thought, and honesty protect one? Maybe they don't, but it's certainly easier to build great buildings on a firm foundation than it is to construct a house on shifty reeds. It may work for some people in South America who live on mats in a great big lake, but for the average Joe I'd suggest using concrete. There are only a few who can effectively construct meaningful structures of thought or form from anything but a solid, and honest beginning.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 11:30 PM

 
It is happening!

I'm not sure how many Phish shows I'll see this summer. Maybe the Gorge shows with my bro, or maybe the Alpine Shows if Kate's cool with rescheduling visits to her family around them, and maybe the Pittsburgh show if I decide that I really want to hear Bittersweet Motel. Of course the It admission is really about all I want to spend on Phish Tickets this summer. Maybe if Zzyzx's 200th show is at the gorge... I really hope the band plays Alumni Blues for his 200th, as he hasn't seen it yet, and they've busted it out a couple times in recent years. Nothing post-hiatus, but enough to make it seem unjust. Of course, they could play Destiny too... as I recall he's only seen that one twice. Hmmmm.....
posted by Ben at (0) comments 8:09 AM

 
Dance words in my head. Dance some square dance or polka top freedom. Joyously spring forth and be free. No longer must you bounce around in my head raising hell or procrastination. Go forth unto the world, be fruitful, multiply, bring back bell bottoms. It matters not to me, as long as you don't bring it to my front porch and demand that I refrain from grading measurements labs, doing homework, or redrafting my thesis. I banish you. Be happy bee free, but be banished.

My practice run through of my seminar presentation went very well. I am quite pleased. I need to make some subtle changes and add some photos from prior experiments to string interest along.

If I weren't full of cookies, I would really enjoy a burrito right now.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 11:35 PM

 
This morning I awoke foggy, rather groggy on Thumper. I don't think I've spent the night on thumper before, I've fallen asleep during a movie or two but I've never spent the night on that steroidal futon filled bean-bag chair. It was a positive experience, and is a true Phi Tau rite. The whole experience has me tempted to write a Phi Tau purity test. I can't believe it took me so long to crash on thumper. It was a good sleep, but waking up to find Calvin asleep on an adjacent couch was a little surprising, until I remembered how rarely Calvin sleeps in his bed. I haven't really explained that behavior, but it may just be a habit he developed when he started passing out in Thraller's bed from exhaustion last year.

Last night Niles tried to organize a big dinner out so that the old guys could spend time with new guys. He really has a great heart, and wants the young guys to feel connected to the guys who will disappear this spring. I think that is great, unfortunately the event wasn't as creative or beneficial as I'd have liked. It was a good time, but I don't really enjoy going to "dinner" and not placing an order until 9:40. We went to Applebee’s, halfway down Mayfield. The chain doesn't really thrill me, and the Guinness decor combined with a lack of Guinness on tap confuses me. This was a fraternity event so there was no drinking, but the combination disturbs the force in hilarious ways. I think the food would have been better, and there wouldn't have been a 30-40 minute wait if we went somewhere else like the Flat Iron Grill, or if we must do the chain thing, the Macaroni Grille. The events other weakness was the lack of associates. Only one showed. Now I like Brian a lot, and enjoy dining with him. I spend a fair amount of time with him and Nikhil, it's Paul, Lux, and to a lesser extent Chris that I need to get to know a bit better. Bottom line: Great idea but the execution was slightly lacking. I don't hold it against Niles though, he did far too much for casino night. Maybe the next major outing will be some place that can handle the crowd. Maybe I'll have to act to motivate those actions.

I'm looking forward to next weekend, with Kate in town for formal, Roper's birthday, and fraternal build towards Greek week, it should be a fun time.

I spent much of the day working on my seminar presentation. I really think that it will be a good presentation. We'll see how my group responds to it tomorrow. I also spent a little too much time on homestarrunner.com After a year of reading fark, I finally checked out this website last week. It was funny, and this weekend I really immersed myself in it. I also got Kate hooked, which is funny. She has brought some insight to the discussion. I hadn't stopped too thin about how much Marzipan is like Rachael. Now that she mentioned the humor has doubled. Not only am I laughing at great gags but I can also make fun of someone I know. Awesome.

I haven't been paying much attention to the war today, but it seems as though things have gone ugly. The wacko attack, combat casualties and POW situation are downers. I am interested to see how the investigation of this camouflaged chemical plant proceeds.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 11:33 PM

 




Which Homestar Runner character are you?

this quiz was made by jurjyfrort

Dear god, no. There must be some sort of error here. The system must be down. That is all.

posted by Ben at (0) comments 11:42 AM

 
What is that xylophone doing here? Ten cents on the dollar now. This utopian fur is in Bangor tweezer land, happy St. Patrick’s day spaced out mutants of music.

Last night I spent some quality time at the fraternity's spring semester philanthropy event. This year we held a casino night, and i think that it might actually come back next year. Turnout was significantly more than I expected to see, given past turnouts for spring philanthropy events. So this event beat the Mario Kart Tournament, Salsa Fest, and DDR fest. For those who don't remember, the Mario Kart tournament had way more people than it should have attend. At least, twice as many people as we had brothers. Salsa fest was a well envisioned but poorly executed event that actually won an IFC award for bets campus event. I think that the award application was turned in before the event actually happened. I suppose that I could check calendars, but it was a late march event and award aps are due before spring break... DDR Fest was hyped up to be the greatest thing ever, and it clearly wasnt. So in summary, trendy pipe dreams of one member fair poorly but events that a number of brothers would be interested in attending do well. Who would have thought.

I must say that Niles and Roper did a great job fabricating high quality casino tables. the only problem was that demand for table space (especially for craps) exceeded availability, and these guys made at least eight tables. The great thing is that Niles designed these tables to be easily stored and reused.

I think that part of the turnout came from the fact that we booked a campus a capella group, and they told their friends to come. I hope that the chapter doesn’t forget the impact this had, and remembers to book campus groups again.

There were some rough edges to the event, under priced (in play money) raffle tickets, poor sound distribution, etc but all in all it went well, and had a good crowd for the entire night. I hope the boys decide to keep it for next year and more fully realize their vision. There was talk of Mock-tails, costumed people acting like gangsters, etc. It think it would be great if some of these things were brought to the fold. There was also some talk of making an open mic night of the entertainment. I think that would be great if there was some quality entertainment also scheduled to play. They could bring their friends etc. Maybe we'll have a PKT house band... the Taylor A. Boradaile All Stars.. Niles and Wayne were jamming some before the event kicked off on six and 12 stings respectively. Maybe I should bring my bass and try to play 5 against their 4. I don't even know if I can play mixed meter, but it would certainly torque the blues stuff they were jamming on in an interesting way.

Background Music - Umphrey's McGee 3/17/03 - Utopian Fur, Professor Wormbog, Jimmy Stewart
posted by Ben at (0) comments 1:08 PM

 
"It is the earnest wish of the Allies even at this stage, that further conflict could be averted if Saddam Hussein should be overthrown by those around him, or decided to leave. "

This was in the latest BBC war correspondent blog post. i sweat that I've read every owrd of that line before on the internet, but couldn't find it with google. Anybody know where this is from, or is this profound deja vu? I could have recited the line to you this morning.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 2:58 PM

 
The war goes on. I seem to be the only one of my friends at CWRU who feels strongly about supporting this action. Maybe it's the New Hampshire Republican in me, maybe it's because I am skeptical of the government but don't subscribe to the idea of fashionable distrust. Over the past decade, we've received a lot of mixed messages from the international community? Are we a sort of international police force? Most nations wanted US forces to be more involved in Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Somali, etc. We have the power to step in and make these terrible situations better. Our military might is unquestioned, but our ability to make judicious decisions about it's application has been the subject of incessant debate. We are not an arrogant nation that sticks our nose where ever we'd like. We are a nation that recognizes the importance of minimizing international conflict. We do not want to choose sides between ethnic groups, redraw maps, or resolve conflict with the arrogance that European lead groups used to resolve WWI and WWII. It those poorly considered and arrogant actions, which contributed to the conflict in the middle east and the violence in the former Yugoslavia. America is not a nation that occupies countries and leaves them with an unstable government. Few of Europe’s former colonies have stable governments, but the nations that US forces occupied and reconstructed like Japan and S. Korea have very strong governments and economies. Their cultures haven't been eliminated, or replaced by Americanism. Europe once had the relative power that America has, and they squandered it arrogantly redrawing maps to create unstable countries, perhaps to permanently cripple the former Ottoman Empire, and to punish the people involved in the pan-slav movement. The Europeans deal with their implicit guilt by assuming that their ancestors and leaders were corrupted by the power, and did were not intentionally arrogant or hurtful. Thus the sentiment is that America has also been corrupted by it's power.

This, however, is not the case. America was settled by people interested in building a city on a hill, a beacon to civilizations that proudly displayed people living, and working justly. As envisioned in the writings of the Massachusetts bay colony in the 1630s, America was envisioned to lead the world by example. The country was to set an example so profoundly moving that other people in the world would choose, of their own free will, to follow suit.

Sadly there are times when sitting on a hill and setting an example isn't enough. Just ask anyone who called American policy Isolationist in the mid 1990s. Where are these people now? I'd wager Tony Blair is one of them, and one who is acting with logical consistency. Unfortunately most of the others have fallen silent in the face an America that was taking steps to give the UN the teeth that would make it take the first steps toward becoming a true world government. The opposition comes from nations fearing the implicit loss of sovereignty to a government which could employ the full strength of American military might. Others feared that they would be the next stop in this war on terror. Iraq certainly provides a potential staging ground for the invasion of Iran or Syria. Certainly, America does not want to motivate states with fear. It simply stands to remind them that they live in a world that is a community, and while they are free to live and govern their people in unique ways that there are certain things that the international community cannot tolerate. Many UN nations dislike totalitarian regimes, and would prefer democracy to rise in it's stead, but it is widely accepted that full scale military action cannot be used to promote the evolution of democracy.

"The Liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world; it is God's gift to humanity." - G.W. Bush.

The situation in Iraq is so severe that America has had no choice but to act. Saddam Hussein has used weapons of mass destruction against his own people, he has spent 40 billion dollars on new palaces in the last 5 years while his people were starving. His regime routinely tortures it's citizens,\ including children, to illicit confessions and control the people. The state sanctions rape as a method of political control. The regime completely disregards the will, call, and declaration of the international community. It has not complied with numerous UN Security council resolutions, the most barbaric UNSC RES 706 in 1991 demanding that funds from 6 months of Iraqi oil exports be used to finance humanitarian aid. Iraq was also first caught trying to conceal a nuclear weapons program in 1991. It has continued to deceive, evade, and distance itself from the international commu8nity. It kicked inspectors out in 1998, and tried to snowball inspectors in 2002 with thousands of pages of useless reports which did not answer questions of disarmament. The issue of weapons of mass destruction is not the only, or even major justification for this forced regime change. The blatant disregard, and disrespect for the international community was merely the straw that broke the camel's back. No longer can this nation which is committed to the ideas of freedom, liberty, and safety for it's citizens and for the people of the world allow Saddam Hussein to continue to misgovern his nation. The regime of Saddam Hussein is so terrible, that allowing it's continued existence is an insult to the idea of liberty, freedom, and the thought that the world is making any progress towards a stable, peaceful, and just state.

Enough ranting. Recent events in my life include a ceiling collapse in our bathroom. There was a leaky pipe above it that had been slowly weakening the drywall. It made a marvelous mess of the bathroom, but it has been cleaned up and hopefully the hole will be patched quickly. Eric was supposed to call the repair guy a couple days ago about the leak, but I'm not sure that it happened. Hopefully he calls about this. Of course, I don't really have a vested interest in it as Eric will be buying me out of my security deposit before I move out.

I tried Bell's Java Stout yesterday. It was a very dark stout, with a pleasant head that had a significant staying power. It's surprisingly smooth for a strong stout, and somehow the coffee flavors were very complimentary to the other flavors in the brew. This was the most pleasant Bell's product that I have tried, and I have no complaints about any of the brews.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 10:07 AM

 
My meeting with my advisors to discuss some thesis revisions went well. They had some stylistic and typographical suggestions as well as suggestions for additional material. All in all there was nothing too shocking. Unfortunately, it was decided that time pressures will prevent me from completing my thesis and defense before the mid April deadlines. I think this is a mixed blessing, as it will diffuse the stress bomb that the coming weeks could have become. Now I can relax a little, and maybe see Umphrey's McGee this weekend. All I need now is some road trip crew.

It's a long drive, and given my recent tendency to be pulled over for speed related infractions, I would like some company and some driving relief. I'm also not too keen on feeding a lot of money to motel 6 and the gas conglomerates all on my own.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 1:45 PM

 
"It is well that war is so terrible, or we should get too fond of it. - Robert E. Lee."

Well, the war is upon us, and while i detest violence I must say I support this cause. I'd be watching green lights on CNN right now if my roommate and his fiancé weren't talking their way through "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Its much more important to watch DVDs you own than to witness events that will be taught in history classes for years to come. When my kids ask what was it like when we went to war, I'll hate to say that I was cheesed at my roommate because he was watching a DVD instead of CNN. History has no patience. While highlight films will certainly be aired on the news in the morning, the pace, and the emotion of these early hours will be lost. The tension cannot be captured and replayed at convenience. These are moments for a box, but someone else has set my clocks.

What was interesting to me was the strange tension in the air as I walked back from Kent Hale smith. A nice day had given way to typical Cleveland gray, and rain was well on it's way. There was a grim potential in the air, something more concerned and urgent than the typical thoughtless Cleveland weather. Of course, I could be anthropomorphizing the weather, but I'm not sure why I wouldn't have been doing that as I walked to the quad somewhat earlier.

I saw an interesting bit on C-Span today that caught my eye, and was well worth my time. I'm not a C-Span junky by any means, but I happened to surf by after checking out MSNBC's deadline timer (a sensationalist thing) and saw NH senator Judd Gregg speaking. I figured that I would watch the esteemed senator from my state, even though he isn't my senator. The discussion was about budgeting educational funding. Mr. Gregg started his speech off by criticizing the democrats for making outrageous proposals for budgeting that could not be reasonably passed because the burden of making the budget was not on their shoulders. So to expose their ploy, he presented last years budget from the Democrat controlled congress. It was a blank poster. A stark white testimony to either poor efforts, low priority, or general ineptitude. He went further to break down educational spending and budgeting proposals from the Clinton administration and compared them to GW. GW tended to support increases in educational spending at least twice those proposed by Clinton over his 8 year term (and Bush has had just 3). Gregg also made an interesting point about teh budget having a surplus during the latter Clinton years, and that it would have been relatively easy to dedicate additional funds to education, not like now when there's a war, and a poor economy. Gregg did well, but it wasn't the best part. No that honor was reserved for an enraged Ted Kennedy, who was so frustrated that he called the honorable senator from N.H. Craig Gregg. Mr. Kennedy was quite blustery, and belligerent. There was some more wit-mismatching before I turned off the tube to do some homework, and it was very enjoyable. It wasn't quite Canadian or British parliament, but it was the closest I've seen American politics come to that back and forth.

I had a phone interview with Saint-Gobain Abrasives today. I think it went well, but don't have much to judge it against. The position really interests me because it directly applies my research experiences to industry. Hopefully that gig turns out to be as positive as I feel about it.

No one has the answer,
But one thing is true,
You've got to turn on evil,
When it's coming after you,
You've gota face it down,
And when it tries to hide,
You've gota go in after it,
And never be denied,
Time is runnin' out,
Let's roll.
-Neil Young

posted by Ben at (0) comments 11:37 PM

 
One of the more remarkable things that I recall from war related TV coverage last night was that ABC spent a considerable amount of time promoting their war coverage by revealing some of their neat little effects, and gizmos like satellite fly-bys with street level resolution, and pieces about photo journalists deploying with soldiers. Well it's time for me to join this journalistic fray with my report from the frontlines, in the form of an email from Mark Hartman. He has described the situation in Kuwait as "Obviously, it is pretty crowded and crappy out here, but I've gotten used to it over the past year, and am in good spirits." Mark went on to report that he has mailed Eric and I the latest in the installment of monkey butlers articles, as he goes further into his past to find amusement.

I TAed my lab today, and will happily only have to guide students in the compressor experiment one more time. Woo hoo. Unfortunately there is that extra Process control lab that I'll need to TA. I also need to grade a lot of these reports.

I have phone interview with Saint Gobain tomorrow, that should be interesting. I hope it goes well, as I am really interested in the position.

I tried Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot Barleywine Style Ale today. I thought it had a nice complex flavor with a very tasteful application of the hops to spice a very malty brew.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 10:04 PM

 
While I'm not an economics genius, I must say I am completely confused by the signals that the market is sending. The Dow jumps 3.56% once it is clear that the war is upon us, after weeks of little or no improvement. Analysts blamed the uncertainty about the war. I of course question this Uncertainty, and would see war as either business as usual or business plus war related effects. I don't see how possible war could be a negative force on the economy while definite war is a boon. Of course, I wish I bought a lot of stock in defense companies that I'm sure championed this boom. Of course, I have little money to play with in terms of investments. That's all well and good, but not mind boggling. The thing that gets me is oil prices. Here I was paying 1.78 for the cheap stuff at Speedways and even more at a real gas station for a couple weeks. Now that war in the middle east is certain (and the strike continues in Venezuela) oil prices have dropped 10% to their lowest levels in three months? I'm sure it will take time for gas station price gouging to reflect this drop. It still boggles my mind. At least I know that I'll be able to afford to feed my car, instead of having it limp along at $5 or $10 fill ups while waiting for prices to behave.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 10:38 AM

 
Today was founder's day, and by today I mean yesterday but I don't register the change of date until I hit the sack. That's something that I will get to soon.

I spent much of the day today trying to get visualizations to work out for my flow fields. The stress field visualizations work nicely but not the velocities. That really confuses me. Hopefully I can get it soon. I also turned in a draft of my thesis. I hope it is well reviewed.

We celebrated Founder's day with a dinner at the Mad Greek. I ordered the Aegean Halibut, so I could try their Greek food. It was good, but not as good as the Indian food. I really enjoyed our banter and teasing. Unfortunately there was a little lower turnout than I'd like. That's what happens when there are two IM playoffs while we should be dining.

48 hour deadline. It looks like things are going forward. I hope things go well for our troops, and that Iraq doesn't use chemical weapons.

sleep.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 12:31 AM

 
moe.'s Okay Alright is one rocking tune. It just gets you moving, and helps you forget the torments of that devil, Excel.
"Goodbye Suzy, Goodbye UNH"
posted by Ben at (0) comments 2:08 PM

 
GWAR!!!! I've been working too much this weekend, but I need a draft of this thesis beast by Monday. I'll likely complete it on Monday. Actually, I'm planning to, as I need to go to school and do some visualization of flow fields. I don't have the software to do that at home, and I lack the card access to get into KHS on the weekend. At least I've worked out most of the figures that I'll be putting into the text today. If my measurements lab write-up memories serve me, this is the quick part. The worst part of writing is finding the music to fill the silence and inspire, but not distract. Sometimes Phish jams work well, sometimes I get sucked into the instrumental conversation. The 8/13/96 MikeS->Lifeboy->Groove->Somewhere Over The Rainbow was great a few days ago, but now I think I'd get sucked in. The Umph is similarly precarious, it usually has more involvement potential than Phish, but last night I relistened to 11/15/02 and I wasn't sucked in except towards the end to appreciate In the Violation of Yes in ways that I really hadn't before. It was enough to almost understand why the Band seemed to think it was a good set closer. I still don't think it's great. It doesn't have that punch. Now Get In the Van - that's a set closer. It rocks and is a little exploratory. Anyway, I've been listening to a lot of Gov't Mule. I guess the hardest working man in show business is a good accompaniment for a hard working grad student. I'm not talking about James Brown. He's too old to work hard. I'm talking about Warren Hayes who is in too many bands, sits in with everyone, and writes prolificaly.

Last night I watched Gods and Monsters on the Sundance channel. It's a movie that I wanted to see since it came out, but it left theaters too quickly or was too limited in its release. I like movies about old movie directors, and the some of the hypocrisy society forced on them. I also like character studies of creative individuals who aren't remembered for what they'd like to be. People, like Jack Kerouac, who are lauded for works, and styles that they found to be incomplete and unsatisfying. The public always wants more of the same, and not growth. It's even true in the Phish community, and the band is really all about growth and change. Of course these themes were hinted at, but not fully developed in the portrait of retired director James Whales. I really enjoyed Ian McKellan's performance. I enjoy his Gandalf, and have heard/read that he is a greatly respected actor - more for stage than film, I think, but I still wanted to see what he could do. Brendan Fraiser didn't ruin the film. I also left Sundance on for Happiness, a film some of my residents in Sherman hailed as a tremendous messed up movie. I should have known better... It was a dark twisted hopeless film dealing with grim material in a light hearted way. Not to my taste. Fortunately, I spent much of the time it was on prepping figures in Excel.


Background Music: Gov't Mule - Driving Rain, Rocking Horse, Lay Your Burden Down, Sco-Mule [DJ Logic remix]

posted by Ben at (0) comments 8:57 AM

 
Last night was fun. Kienitz, Roper, Ram and I went to the Macaroni Grill in Strongsville for Kiendogg's birthday. Kienitz did not get his birthday kiss, but he did get a free desert. The chocolate raviolis (pie crust) were tasty, and i had but a small piece. The bread was also rapidly replaced. MMmm bread. After eating at the Macaroni grill, we went across the street to Panera to try to find these crispy cinnamon bagles that Roper raves about as being more dessert than bagel. They were out. I stole some natural sugar packets, and took hits from those as we drove around wildly. My driving wasn't wild, but our misdirection was. Yes, I could have easily turned left out of Panera and made it to 71, but Keinitz wanted to see what there is to see in Strongsville. So I turned right and went straight until otherwise directed. That coupled with my no backtracking rule put us in Medina county farm country in no time. We made it onto 71 some 23 miles outside of Cleveland at least 4 exits further south than our eatery. It had been quite a while since I've gotten good and lost. It's a lot more fun than it sounds, as there is no pressure just the moment and mockery.

Here's a quiz that I stole from Brad. Fearless reader, this one is for me. It also may be the last one that I fill out. I don't find it particularly satisfying.

[ current clothes ] Hitchcock T-shirt, gym shorts - it's before 8 am.
[ current mood ] foggy, rather groggy. But not in need of help to my car.
[ current music ] Leo Kottke/Mike Gordon - Clone - "Car Carrier Blues" is the current track.
[ current taste ] unpleasant dry sleepy sickness. I need breakfast.
[ current make-up ] you wish.
[ current hair ] freshly cut bed head.
[ current annoyance ] that I cannot control the passage of time.
[ current smell ] I can't really smell anything right now, damn cold.
[ current thing i ought to be doing ] that whole thesis thing...
[ current desktop picture ] Christa Miller Lawrence, it rotates daily. Yesterday was a fine photo of Sandwich notch
[ current favorite group] hmmmm. I'm going with Phish, but Umphrey's Mcgee is a close second.
[ current book you're reading] The History of Mt. Washington.
[ current cd in cd player] Leo Kottke/Mike Gordon - Clone - "From Pizza Towers to Defeat" is the current track. MP3s suck, and Cleveland radio is garbage.
[ current movie in vcr] Nothing. Nothing in the DVD player either. If there was something in there it'd star Cary Grant, but the last thing I watched was Spiderman. The next thing I see will likely be Scarface.
[ current color of toenails ] Natural. I'm a guy.
[ current refreshment ] None. I need to wake up before I can be refreshed. I'm currently out of Stewarts cream soda. My next refreshment will either be a fruit smoothie or a Nantucket nectar.
[ current worry ] Time and my thesis, and getting a job so I can be lazy for much of the summer.

[ you touched ] Kienitz or Rope Dogg.
[ you talked to ] Roper
[ you hugged ] Kate
[ you instant messaged ] Kienitz (although Wayne sent some when I was asleep)
[ you yelled at ] France... but I don't think it heard me.... wow.... I don't remember. I don't really yell much
[ you kissed ] Kate, some while ago.

favorite.
[ food ] San Francisco style burrito, but I have a real hankering for an amato's Italian sandwich right now.
[ drink ] Ginger beer.
[ color ] red
[ album ] Phish - The Siket Disc (don't download this as a first Phish cd)
[ shoes ] tevas
[ candy ] reeses peanut butter cups
[ animal ] Moose
[ tv show ] Scrubs
[ movie ] Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
[ dance ] the Hippie shuffle.... although I shouldn't call it a shuffle. It's nothing like the Doerk Shuffle, or Tony's shuffle, and I don't want to have to do it at formal. I will however do it if they play Phish.
[ song ] Divisions - Umphrey's McGee, maybe In the Kitchen by the same band. I would say Mike's Song, but the song isn't my favorite. It's the jam.
[ fruit ] Blueberries (blue berries aren't blueberries if you don't pull them off a bush, or if they don't come from Maine).
[ cartoon ] The Simpsons


are you.
[ understanding ] Sure. However, I may not care.
[ open-minded ] Yes, but I'm not easily swayed.
[ arrogant ] I wouldn't say so, but I'd wager others would.
[ insecure ] not really.
[ interesting ] People I care about keep coming back, so I must be interesting enough.
[ random ] usually
[ hungry ] mostly
[ friendly ] courteous, kind, obedient,cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
[smart ] All signs point to yes. I may have a motivation problem
[ moody ] not often
[ childish ] not likely
[ independent ] yup.
[ hard working ] if I need to be
[ organized ] I employ the minimum necessary organization.
[ healthy ] I'm not dead yet.
[ emotionally stable ] Like a rock.
[ shy ] That or I'm disinterested in meeting new people... maybe both. I hate fakeness.
[ difficult ] I'm persistent. If you'd rather I desist, I would be difficult.
[ attractive ] enough
[ bored easily ] yup.
[ messy ] Have you seen my desk??
[ thirsty ] yes.
[ responsible ] yes
[ obsessed ] I have obsessive tendencies
[ angry ] as necessary
[ sad ] not now
[ happy ] Sure. I haven't read the news yet.
[ hyper ] 8:13 am on a Saturday. You decide.
[ trusting ] yes.
[ talkative ] I also enjoy silence
[ legal ]

who do you want to.
[ kill ] I don't like the killing thing; but I wouldn't mind it if a certain female that I have regular contact with, not by my choice mind you, disappeared.
[ slap ] my bitch up? violence isn't my cup of tea.
[ get really wasted with ] Kate, Roper or Thraller.
[ get high with ] Mike Gordon. And, I don't mean 100 yards away from Mike Gordon.
[ tickle] Kate.
[ kiss] Kate. Maybe I am obsessed.
[ look like ] My uncle David. My hair is cut, so I can no longer look like Mike.
[ talk to offline ] Kate
[ talk to online ] Kate or my Bro. I don't like talking online very much. I wouldn't even call it talking. It's more like cheap substitute conversation.

posted by Ben at (0) comments 8:38 AM

 
Ack!!!! I just realized that I made a sign error in my program to calculate stresses in Uniaxial extension (1+sin^2(theta)) is very different than (1-sin^2(theta)) . Thankfully Eric is out of town, so I can have the Khyron 7 plug away with the calculations at ludicrous speeds. Now all I need to do is find a comb before my hair dries and I have to spend the day looking like Mike Gordon. If I walk through a good gust of wind, it's over, but at least I might have a chance. Also, I can take solace in the fact that; unlike my brother, I am not a dead ringer for Trey.

Background Music: Phish - Divided Sky (8/13/96 - Live Phish 12)
posted by Ben at (0) comments 10:10 AM

 
I need a quick break from thesis writing. It is, as one would expect, tedious and slow moving. I'm done my theory, and I'm now presenting the results. Which means I get to fuss with excel. I hope it doesn't crash. Between my thesis, my example thesis, and excel files my aging computer will be struggling.

I think the whole Elizabeth Smart thing is great. I wrote her off as dead a long time ago. It's great to find out that I was wrong. I'm also really interested in finding out what went on in those 9 months. I'm sure it was Jack Kerouac playing poker with Hunter S. Thompson and Stephen King. I'd really like to know how the cards were played, but I can wait for the books or TV movies. I hope they can unbrainwash this poor girl, and fix any scars she may be carrying. She looks better in the found photos than the ones for the missing posters, but some of that could be that she knew that she'd be on the front page of every newspaper in the country this time around. It's really good news, but it's hogging CNN. They should pay a bit more attention to international news. I need my UN fix.

According to the BBC the Brits are planning to blame French intransigence for any defeat of the resolution. Nothing like playing up on old feelings of nationalism to calm the populace. I suppose that also helps that it's a true statement.

Also from the BBC, astronomers have found evidence of recent liquid water on the surface of Mars. Apparently, there are wet spots on Olympus Mons where subterranean (is this word invalid because its root is terra, or Earth?) water was heated up by geothermal activity and leaked through the surface to trickle down the mountain in dark wet spots. I think its very cool. Much cooler than the influence of cap orientation on net tensile force.

Background music: Jive Talkin Robots - Superhero, come save my sorry ass; Phish-Farmhouse, Twist, Bug.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 1:08 PM

 
I've got a lot of disjointed gripes on my mind that I need to vent before I get back to work on my thesis. It's an angry Wednesday. What can I say. I just got out of a 2 hour group meeting dissecting Kirill's 25 minute seminar presentation for the second time. It was charming. I'm up in two weeks. That's not a real grievance. No these are grittier

I want to rant about the UN, the cowardly French, obstinate Russians, and misguided Germans. The debated UN resolution is not a question of war, or no war. Bush has been saying that he'd go to war with or without the UN since August. The issue at stake is the way the UN wants to perceive itself. Is it a body that is beginning to work as a loose world government, or is it a forum for nations to voice issues, gripe and eventually leave to decide on their own. G-dub's position, and I agree with it, is that the UN should be a body that stands for something. It should make policies and stand by them. It is not a League of Nations that meet and discuss, but fail to act until half of Europe is under Nazi control. I think the issue of Iraq is clearly a reasonable test of the United Nations convictions. The French and Germans might argue that the convictions of the united nations are to some higher purpose, to some "peace" that must be defined as an avoidance of conflict. Can there truly be "peace" while a crazed dictator with no regard for the voice of the international community lies about his weapons capabilities. No. True peace is an equilibrium state. It is a goal, not a policy, not a rule. The situation in Iraq is not an equilibrium state. It Iraq is a sandy ball of potential energy that will tend towards violence.

We can look at the second law of Thermodynamics, the entropy one, and see that for a closed system to move towards stable equilibrium Entropy must increase. For all intents and purposes the Earth is a closed system. If you really want to be anal, you can draw a control volume around the solar system, or further until you get a closed system. I don't care. While certainly traditional thermodynamics applies and energy moves around in unseen ways, I believe that there is a cultural manifestation of entropy in terms of violence, confusion, disarray, or at least ruffled feathers. There is no isentropic path from the unstable iraq to a peaceful equilibrium. It's thermodynamically impossible. The question is instead, do we want a path of maximum entropy, or something less chaotic.

The path of inaction says that Saddam is right and the international community has no means of controlling his actions. It will lead to Saddam's use of his weapons for some undefined, but inherently violent purpose. It will also weaken the UN's influence in other countries promoting the very violence the "morally superior" France, Russia, and Germany are trying to prevent. The thing is in this case the violence will likely center on innocent civilians, instead of largely on soldiers. (I'm not saying killing soldiers is ok, it's just more palatable than blowing up a bus of school kids).

There's the path of continued meaningless inspections. Saddam plays the UN as a fool, increasingly discredits it, while allowing his weapons to be developed. Similar net result.

There is the path of unilateral US action, or US/British action against Iraq. There's lots of war. Probably a longer war than possible as there are fewer resources, no chance of using Turkey as a staging area, etc. That's more deaths for troops and civilians. Without international support for the war, there will also not be international support for humanitarian aide. France, Germany, Russia, are refusing to support UN actions that would provide additional humanitarian aid in the event of the war because they oppose the war. That's just barbaric, and very entropic. It would also destabilize the region, a lot more than a UN supported effort. Iraq could be regarded as a western puppet state. Iran might try to take it over, again. It would be ugly, the UN would have it's "ethics" but would again loose credibility. The other path, the least violent path, is the one of a UN supported war, which ends as quickly as possible and provides resources in terms of humanitarian aid for war-time and during the reconstruction of Iraq. Destabilization of the region is minimized because the other countries in the region can work with the UN to rebuild a stable Iraq and stable relations within the region. The UN is strengthened by showing that it has teeth, and by action indicating that its member states forfit some degree of sovereignty to the body that governs the global community. Yes there would be violence and hardship, but it seems to be the least destructive path. Putting violence off for future generations to clear your conscience is a poor choice. The best path is to do everything in your power to make the world a better place while minimizing the hardships of the transformation.

I'm not saying that I like war. I think war is an ugly terrible thing. My former roommate and fraternity brother, Mark Hartman, has been deployed to Kuwait to work with artillery. I certainly hope that he, and his fellow soldiers can get through this conflict with a minimum amount of harm. I feel the same way for the many Iraqi civilians who did nothing to choose their leader, and have no say in their government. This conflict is not of their design. I hope that they suffer as little hardship as possible. That's why I support a UN supported Military action against Iraq, or as a runner up the US/British action - because they diffuse the problem most rapidly and create the least amount of violence.

I've written before that I think Europe is hesitant to act because they remember the Horrors of World War II. Germany has an albatross around it's neck. And France remembers being invaded. This war will be nothing like that conflict. Technology has advanced to the point that bombs can be targeted accurately and civilian targets avoided. Yes, I'd wager that a number of mosques and palaces will be assaulted but only because they are being used to shield weapons of mass destruction. I'd also like to remind people that France has negotiated a couple billion dollar oil contract with Saddam that would likely be disrupted, and ultimately discontinued after the war. They're in it for the oil. I don't think we are, not with Saudi Arabia willing to defy Opec quotas to keep the west supplied with normal amounts of oil. I'm not sure what Russia's qualm is. Perhaps they're concerned about the implicit issue of sovereignty and UN membership, or perhaps they're worried that we'll find that many of Saddam proscribed weapons are Soviet surplus.

It doesn't really matter to me. I don't think any nation is objecting based upon a completely rational analysis of the situation. The question is not is war right or wrong. The question is whether Bush right in saying that the UN has the ability to stand up for an enforce is resolutions, or is Saddam right in believing and acting like the UN cannot touch him and has no influence on his agenda.

My other, substantially more trivial rant is based upon this fervrent discussion about whether or not Umphrey's McGee should take a record contract. I'm a big fan of this rather low profile band, I subscribe to an email discussion list and frequent a message board on a fan site. It seems like the majority of fans are anti-record deal. The discussion arises from the fact that Electra and RCA had representatives at the band's last gig in New York. Certainly no one wants to see the band hastily sign, and find themselves screwed. Of course that's not really an issue. The band turned down offers from Rykodisc and a couple other companies last spring. I don't think they're itching to sign any deal that isn't a step upwards for them. It's just that so many jamband fans are anti-record company, partly because of the garbage that is pop music, and partly because they think that signing compromises artistic integrity for the big $. The thing is that if you want a band of young guys to continue produce music when they're older guys, or at eats not irreversibly screw up their lives by spending 6 years in a van touring the country, you need to get money into the hands of the band. There are two ways of doing that. Record sales, and concert ticket sales. Now lets say UM plays 200 days a year (which is way too many for them not to burn out) to 200 people a night, and nets $15 a person it's an average ticket price. Maybe even a little generous. That's $600,000. Now let's say they sell 10,000 cds a year at $15 a piece that's another 150,000. It's also a little less than twice the number of CDs UM sold this year. So $750,000 gross. But there's a significant gas and lodging cost to get the band on the road 200 nights a year. I'm just guestimating here but let's say that knocks the band down to 600,000. Now the band needs to produce a record a year if it wants to maintain sales volume. So we're at 450,000. Right now, there's 6 guys in the band, a light guy, a sound guy, a front of house guy/tech, a tour manager, and a stay at home manager. The manager get's 20%. I think that's standard. He's doing ok. He made the right decision when he quit his job at Ameritech. And for the sake of simplicity lets carve things up evenly for the band and crew. That's 36,000 a year. Teachers make more and don't spend most of their time traveling, listening to drunk guys scream Freebird. The bass player with a degree in Business and a minor in Japanese can certainly do better financially by staying at home. Much of the band has degrees in music. They can get teachers salaries, and play local gigs to keep it real. Sure living your dream while living hand to mouth is fine for guys in their early 20s. But eventually the guys will want to settle down, and have families. That's not going to sit well with their lives on the road and comparatively low income.

Now record company support would provide the band cd distribution and promotion which will help develop the fan base and sell a higher volume of cds (admittedly taking a chunk out of CD revenues). I think it would be great, if they got a loose contract that allowed artistic freedom - similar to what Elektra gave Phish. Phish's fanbase expanded significantly after signing with Elektra in 1992,and I don't think there has been a significant artistic impact on the albums and certainly no impact on the tour setlists. Sure, Elektra told the band to make a studio album with material that hadn't been performed live, thinking that fans didn't buy records when they had all the songs on tape. Even Phish's drummer (the least corporate one in the band) says it was a good idea. It just didn't work. I don't see Umphrey's being corrupted by similar influences. In fact I see them prospering. I certainly think a record deal would help UM get to a sustainable position (good sales, and playing 5,000 seat theaters for $25+).

The bottom line is that I want the band members to be happy making music for the longest possible time. I think a record deal is a reasonable means to that end. I certainly wouldn't call them sell outs for wanting a decent life for themselves.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 6:23 PM

 
Today is TJ's birthday, and for once I finally got to see him. It's been a while, as TJ is off in the wilds of western ohio studying forensic psychology. Some 15 people (brothers and kienitz) went to Quaker Steak and Lube in Sheffield Ohio. It was a close to half way between TJ and the CWRU. This restaurant is a lot like the Valley view location, but is a bit more spacious. It also has made the good choice of serving suicide wings as part of the all you can eat night. Let's face it the next hottest, the Cajun wings, don't have much burn. It was a pleasant evening of brotherhood, reminiscing, and teasing. Unfortunately the service was a bit slow. Uncharacteristically slow. Towards the end it took us an hour to get through two rounds of reorders (4-5 wings each). Needless to say, this put a cramp in the style of those trying to eat all that they could. Eventually we gave up, and got the check. Evan and I were angervated, so we approached the manager and had him knock $25 off of our tab for the delays. Evan is very good at seeming polite, and yet severly disapointed. It also helps that a fraternity from CWRU is good for 15-20 people 4-5 times a year. It's good for business to treat us well.

I may miss Quaker steak when I move out of Ohio. I may not, as there is a price for all you can eat wings. Fortunately, the delay prevented me from over indulging. I really think that I'll miss some of Cleveland’s smaller restaurants like Tommy's, Que Tal, Johnny Mango's and the Flat Iron Cafe. These are places with a character that really can't be replicated. Johnny Mango's is effortlessly trendy, with neo-hippie dining ideas. It's world food for people who don't want to travel, and don't want to know their being international. Where else can you order Pad Thai, Jamaican Jerk Chicken and burrito's off the same menu? I don't see this type of place opening in any city where diners demand an authentic menu with and depth to be international. The world's greatest hits would never fly in Boston. The flat iron grill has an atmosphere drawn from it's working class routes. Situated under a bridge in the underdeveloped west bank of the flats, this is clearly a factory man's watering hole that has outlived the factories. I don't think there are many mill watering holes in New England that have outlived their mills. Certainly there are very few that have great French onion soup, and live music on a Friday. Even if such a watering hole existed in New England, I'm not sure that it could capture the charm without romanticizing the factory. There’s a plainness to the flat iron cafe that really emphasizes the flavors of it's cooking. Tommy's on Coventry is a paradox. The intoxicating combination of vegetarian/health foods and very rich milkshakes is truly unique, and something that may not be anywhere in New England. I could see it thriving in Hanover, though.. and maybe in Vermont college towns. There's a joyousness to the place, and a hippie girl staff, that reminds me that there is hope for such a place in New England college towns. The restaurant most likely to be replicated, Que Tal, is also the restaurant I'd be the least tolerant of near misses. I'm very happy with this burrito subway, and will not be happy until I find another place with as many or more choices of toppings. That’s 3 different chickens 2 beef and a whole bunch of fixings....

Background music: Les Claypool’s Frog Brigade- Up on The Roof, David Makalaster II, Cosmic Highway
posted by Ben at (0) comments 11:53 PM

 
Oh the horror. While taking a quick break from writing my thesis (word crashed). I went to Fark and found a very upsetting piece of news about a Mexican restaurant in CT. Restaurant Agrees To Change Name Apparently the town is forcing the newly opened eatery to change it's name from the witty C.O. Jones (I didn't even catch it at first) to something less fitting a placethat prides itself on serving "ballsy" Mexican cuisine. In a horrifying turn of events, this taqueria has selected a moniker that is offensive to all people with a sense of decency, wit, or wonder. Yes, it has chosen the invalid name "Mexican Restaurant". Say it like you're in rural Georgia... that's right. I can only assume that the owner of this seemingly splendid Cal-Mex (love that term) diner has eaten at the Mexican restaurants in the rural south where locals will only refer to the restaurants as "Mexican restaurant" and not by any mispronunciation of it's given name. Perhaps this wealthy, classy town is worthy of cultural comparison to backwoods Georgia.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 2:22 PM

 
I awoke from a strange dream this morning. Pyongyang visited campus, and I was part of a group that took him to a Browns game. On the bus ride back he repeatedly tried to stab my hand with a plastic fork. He also threatened to shoot me with a starter pistol. It wasn't even loaded. After this event I was walking home, and he was sort of following me. I thought he was going to fire the starter pistol from a distance, or otherwise embarrass himself. I heard a pop, turned around and on the bridge over the rapid tracks saw somebody else doing a Mortal Kombat fatality move on the guy. My last thoughts were that I'd be accused. Attempted assault with a plastic fork is so aggravating.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 7:18 AM

 
Today, I'm focused on writing my thesis so I have little writing energy to expend here. So for your enjoyment, I've provided a survey. I stole it from Zzyzx's Live Journal. Just use my comment feature to fill in the blanks. I'm not expecting much since there's about two people who read this thing.

I ____ TevaBen.
TevaBen is ____.
If I were alone in a room with TevaBen, I would _______.
I think TevaBen should _____.
TevaBen needs ______.
I want to ____________ TevaBen.


posted by Ben at (0) comments 6:38 PM

 
Today was rather low key. I did some work, and then headed to the tower to chill with J.Ho and RD. We ended up at Que Tal for lunch, and worked the street to find prize donations for the Chapter's Casino night. Que Tal and the Madstone put out, but most of Coventry said to come back later. In all fairness, it was a Sunday and most real management took the day off. My burrito was the least satisfying Que Tal burrito that I have had in quite some time. Rice, black beans, steak (possible problem), cheese, banana peppers (also possible problem), cilantro, olives, salsa blend. It was a typical combo for me, but it didn't quite work out. The steak might have been too dry or the banana peppers too pickled. I still think that Que Tal beats the pants off of Chipotle. We also had some fun walking the street with Birch/Root beers from Tommy's. Both the Ho and I had Hanks's Birch (it's red, and tangy). RD went the Jones route. The Chipotle people thought we were walking with open containers. We aren't that hardcore.

Speaking of containers, I tried Stoney Creek Brewing Company's Vanilla Porter. This was a bit of a disappointment. The vanilla flavoring was an interesting twist, and done tastefully but I don't think the hops complimented the brew. This porter is on the stout side of the spectrum, and I prefer porters with a bit more distinction.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 10:07 PM

 
Some Iraqi soldiers have already surrendered to the British, without a shot being fired. I stole this link from FARK. They must like Jack Straw as much as I do.

I think the CWRU email server is having trouble. I've only received one email since noon yesterday, and I usually receive half a dozen pieces of junk mail daily. Also, rec.music.phish hasn't shown a post since that time. Since the traffic is about 600 posts a day, I'm fairly certain that it isn't a natural inactivity. This is disconcerting as email and rmp are my major sources of procrastination before the rest of the world awakes. So, after I write this, my choices are GameCube, or work. I think work might win, as I beat Metroid Prime last weekend and don't feel the need to sink myself into another game.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. I went to the tower to hang out with the spring break stragglers and the few people who'll be on campus durring this break. After some chillin' and some halo, I found myself trekking further down Mayfield than I had alowed my self to travel this semester. We went ot the golden gate mall (Mayfield / 271). Bahige wanted to go shopping for a new suit, so he can be spiffy for the AXO and Phi Tau formals. Bahige brought Evan, Rope Dogg and myself for moral support. We hit up a discount place with a nice selection of Pimp hats and a lot of suits with a few too many purple blazers. We also hit up the Men's warehouse, which was not having any significant sale. After much pomp and circumstance, nothing was purchased but we were starting to get hungry and with all roads leading to Willoughby we went to Don Pablo's. Evan and I had fond memories of this restaurant, and Rope Dogg recalled enjoying the chain in Columbus before something cheaper opened. Unfortunately, the Don Pablo's we recalled is no more. The menu has been slashed in half, and the once reasonably authentic food has become more tex than mex. Barbeque sauce on an enchilada... Barbeque sauce. Mexican food isn't about fancy presentation with nice colors. It's about good food cheap for which Americans are more than willing to pay a premium. This was more of a Chi Chi's II than Don Pablo. While the proliferation of chain restaurants has good and bad points, it upsets me that chain competition is leading to homogeneity of the chains. At least I can still get a good burrito at Que Tal. Maybe tonight...

After dinner, and some milling about at the Tower Bahige, Robin, Rope Dogg, and I decided to see Old School at tower city. We were using free passes that RD received in a mass media class as a free handout from the guy who owns Cleveland Cinemas, so I can't complain too much. The movie was basically what I expected, and my expectations weren't all that grand. I thought that the pace of the film was a bit off. The timing between setup and punch line was often much too long, making the shock gags much too predictable and substantially less shocking. I did enjoy the beat the system plot that the film found about three quarters of the way through it's running time, but it was really too little too late. Maybe if director Todd Phillips employed the chronology inversion that was so detrimental to Bittersweet Motel, he could have presented a movie that had some effective driving force to move the audience between gags.

The thing that surprises me most about this film, is that it has been chosen as the theme for the campus Greek week. The fundamental conflict in the film arises from the assertion that the true nature of fraternities is the wild animal house, and that the purported virtues of fraternal living: scholarship, leadership, service, etc are forced upon chapters by university administrations as a matter of policy not as areas of interest or significance to chapter members. I am very proud of my membership in my fraternity, and I am proud of what it stands for. I'll also be the first to admit that my chapter is more than a little different from most chapters on campus, and throughout the country. This difference isn't so extreme as to be a complete shift of values, it's more of a difference in style. No fraternity was founded on the principals of beer, and unfathomably wild behavior. Fraternities were founded by principled men to fill social or political voids on their campuses. Certainly the fashion of fraternity events have changed with time, but the principles have not been forgotten. Sure there are some bad apples in the bunch, and those chapters are losing charters and being kicked off campuses. While these bad apples receive much more press than quality chapters, it is unfair to stereotype all Greeks as the most shockingly visible minority. The commitment a young man makes by joining a fraternity to work with a small group of people for common good develops strong skills and rounds character substantially more than a commitment to coursework, a few friends and whatever social activity comes down the pike.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 9:59 AM

 
Yesterday was the Department open house, and we entertained prospective grad students. 18 people showed up, which is a very good turnout for a department, which has recently tended to draw mostly international graduate students. I think the new emphasis on Fuel Cells and Biotechnology is really turning a lot of heads. I'm glad for the department. It'd be great for it to grow again. It should also help draw new faculty members, which we need as a large portion of the faculty are getting on in years. And, by that I mean that if they didn't love their jobs they'd already be retired.

The most interesting portion of the day, for me, was the rush-esque department happy hour and dinner at the Mad Greek. I'm a big fan of free food. Especially free, and pricey food. I'd also like to state for the record that I have never had Greek food at the Mad Greek. I always order the Indian food. Mmmm Indian food. Someday, I might order the Greek food but I suspect that I'll move before I think to do that.

Also, yesterday brought both Al Schnier side projects to my door. The al.one disc is very relaxing. Quite sound tribe sector 9 ish, in fact I may like it even more than their "Offered Schematics Suggesting Peace". The transamericans disc was interesting, but didn't grab me as immediately and as enthusiastically as I expected after seeing them. It's still a good record with some good tunes, and Gordon Stone's pedal steel is nice and high in the mix. I wonder if the difference is the bass players. The album was recorded with Eric Glockler from Strangefolk, while the touring bassist is Mitch Getz who has a large afro which works like a bizarre telsa coil to pull coolness from the environment and channel it to his fingers. I will not underestimate the power of the fro.

Background music: The Dixie Chick's Home LP
posted by Ben at (0) comments 9:12 AM

 
Just a quick blurb to note that I support Jack Straw, from Wichita, and the UK proposal to set a deadline of March 17th for Iraq to comply with disarmament. Now, as much as I like Colin Powell, I must say that he's not half the statesman that is Jack Straw . In all fairness, years in the military don't generally prepare a person to be an orator. Years of politics in Britain do a much better job. I haven't seen Mr. Straw address the Security Council in any way that I didn't find moving, inspiring, and pleasant. Also, Britain has such a flair for putting the French in their place. I’m sure that helps.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 1:54 PM

 
Blix and Elbaradai just finished their reports to the UN, and I'm writing before settling back into my work. I thought Blix was sterner than he was with report 2, but not as harsh as he was in his initial report. While he didn't directly say that Iraq was in violation of 1441, he did go through a number of points and stated that Iraq has not complying unconditionally and certainly was not acting "immediately". I thought that the play for more time by mentioning 1284 was unnecessary, but I did like how Blix stated that more info would be better than more inspectors. It was also disappointing that Blix dodged G-dub's one and only question "Has Iraq totally and unconditionally disarmed?". I think Bush asked a fair and legitimate question. Iraq has had 12 years.

It's an ugly situation, but I don't think Iraq is being very serious in it's acts to disarm. Of course, I don't envy Blix's position as his words have significant weight affecting many nations decisions about the potential war. A simple misstatement, or overstatement, could inspire war. I'd hate to have to live with such a mistake, and I'm sure Blix feels the same.

The various foreign ministers are now making their statements. Germany was as expected very anti-war. I think that their opposition stems from a widespread distrust of military action stemming from Europe’s tortured history, and not from a careful consideration of the issues and conditions of Iraq. We are no longer living in an age where rogue states can be permitted to deceive the global community, especially in regards to weapons of mass destruction. Why would a nation want to deceive others about their weapons capabilities? During the cold war, weapon proliferation was carried out by both the USA and USSR as a deterrent against military action. And as we know from watching Dr. Strangelove, weapons that can destroy the world only work as deterrents if you tell people about them. It's only logical to conclude that Iraq has these weapons, and is being sneaky about them because it has the intention to use these weapons in some sort of surprise attack; perhaps by firing missiles (which Iraq no longer "has") to attack Israel; perhaps against the Kurds and other minorities of Iraq, again; or perhaps, Iraq is planning to sell them to people who have no reservations about using them against the US. Saddam has certainly expended a lot of effort persevering with this development of these weapons. He must have a reason, and must want to do something with them before he dies. I seriously doubt that all this fuss is because Saddam sleeps easier at night with a couple liters of anthrax beneath his pillow.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 11:48 AM

 
This is just a quick note, as I am killing time before Lab. God bless Smith Lab . Today's seminar was about electrostatically spinning polymer nano-fibers. It's a funky application of technology that Dow first patented in the 1930s. The end goal of this work was to develop fibers for use as biodegradable frameworks in tissue engineering. That's an application I'm really excited about, as human looking ears that grow out of the backs of mice never cease to amaze me. And it's the only way to get artificial organs that do anything other than pump blood. Unfortunately, this presentation was basically about electrospinning various polymers, entrained bubbles in the fibers, etc. So the slides with nothing but monomer complexes and some arrows outweighed the slides with cool photos. There was a neat shot of a grad-student's hand which had been apparently mummified by electrospinning. It looked awesome, and then the guy mentioned it was electrospun at 15,000 V. Low current, but High voltage. Very cool.

I finished an Octavia Butler trilogy packaged in one volume as Lillith's Brood: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago. They were interesting reads, but not as good as her later Parable of the Sower and its less lofty predecessor The Parable of the Talents. It seems that all of the Butler books I have read deal with post apocalyptic worlds. These Xenogenisis books deal with aliens that rescue some humans from a nuclear/chemical/whatever war that destroys the earth. The only catch is that the aliens want to breed with the humans.

There's some interesting conflict, and unusual ideas in the books that keep them moving but no volume has a satisfying end, nor do they really continue the story of the previous books. It's the same world, similar characters but 20 years of conflict omitted between each novel. The thing that I found most interesting was Butler's idea that the aliens were fascinated by a genetic paradox in human behavior tending towards intelligence and hierarchy. the aliens felt it was a dangerous combination. The problem is that I don't think they were convincingly portrayed as being without an implicitly hierarchical society, and I'm fairly sure that Butler didn't want them to seem stupid.... So perhaps they lack the self reflection necessary to see their own flaws. Hmmm. Something to think about while I run a compressor for an hour.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 2:23 PM

 
I listened to my second moe. show on CD for the first time today... I could barely remember set list highlights, and a few images of Chuck playing guitar while staring into an infinite projected video image of himself playing a mind bending guitar solo while staring into a projected image.... I was in an odd place during that moe. show. After a 10.5-hour drive from Cleveland to Beantown, on little sleep, my head was ready to be twisted. Col. Claypool and his frog brigade opened and fired on all cylinders.... I still haven't tracked down a copy of their set.... Anyway, I was pleased that the Conviction Song > Living again was as spiritual as I recall. After much driving, little sleep, minimal food and some 3 hours of music, I couldn't really gauge my senses. I just remember the segue from the minor key resignation to the sparse but uplifting to have been inspiring beyond imagination. It held up on tape.



6/28/02 - FleetBoston Pavillion, Boston MA

1: I Wanna Be Sedated, Akimbo, St. Augustine, She Sends Me, The Ghost of Ralph's Mom, Timmy Tucker > Big World

2: Spaz Medicine > Buster > Recreational Chemistry, Conviction Song > Livin' Again > Captain America

posted by Ben at (0) comments 2:55 PM

 
So, I've finally caved into this twisted backwater subculture of internet blogging. I really hate that word, derived from weblog, with Latin roots filled with tannin. I started this sort of thing when I was in high school, and kept a journal of sorts on my geocities webpage. It was an interesting bus stop on the web, which was eventually gobbled up by yahoo. It might still be out there, but google and I can't find it. A damn shame really. It was home to some of the most original content posted to the Internet during that boom before people had the bandwidth for images and java games. My page of backwards x-files sound clips, which Verge magazine listed as one of the web's 10 best was quite the stop. And really shows what I did to kill time waiting for Steve Rouleau to show up and go camping. Quite a site. Some girl mirrored it, without exactly crediting me. Maybe my contribution is still out there.... but I haven't found my Marxist interpretation of peaches or my long lost journal of sorts. Now those are drifting in cyber space, or rotting on some tape backup in San Francisco.

So I stopped the journal thing when I came to school, and flirted with it occasionally but the whole thing never took off. I tried using paper and pen, but my handwriting really limits the archival quality of manual journals. I am a child born for this digital age where my fast fingers type with a clarity I cannot pass through the pen. The best I did was keep a journal on my palm pilot. That was nice until the batteries died and it was erased. The battery hasn't been the same since, so there's no real utility in trying to start that again.

So I wandered journal less, maybe a little malcontent until a crazed pilgrim showed me the way. I don't mean you Wayne. Your Internet exhibitionism is a little too much for me. I mean the Starman. The bearded, caped, shiney emmisary of truth. A seeker of joy in the appreciation of simple things. A complete stranger willing to share his most trivial secrets. I mean the one, the only, the special, Zzyzx. I stumbled onto his live journal while procrastinating at his Phishtistics webpage, and my path was clear. Unfortunately Livejournal wants money, or a referral. I wanted no part of that, so I scoured the web for a cheap substitute which would not require cgi scripts. This blogger thing seems to be my best bet. I hope it works. Google bought it, so it had better.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 1:30 PM