Surreality

Courtesy of thewronghands, a truly sexy fusion of cello and programming that makes me thoroughly gleeful: http://www.zoekeating.com/projects.html. I know exactly what thewronghands means when she says it's the sort of music that makes her want to compose arias to sing atop it.

....what seems like a worthy and thoroughly entertainingly promoted cause.
XKCD-style - hee hee hee

Like larksdream, I tossed a few dollars his way for the huge grin it left on my face.

....purloined from blogofstench: Wordle. It's way fun, I swear it.

...and completely making it all voluntary-like, as he did. Yay, meme-age.

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your LJ along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening encourage others to engage at meme-age at their own discretion.

1."Day of the Dead" -- Voltaire (Ooky Spooky album - it is full of cheery bounciness and dead things)
2. "Cruel Summer (Blazin' Rhythm Remix)" -- Ace of Base (w00t, 80s)
3. "Whine Up" -- Kat DeLuna featuring Elephant Man (more mainstream, and full of excellent rhythm)
4. "Feel Alright (Bonus Track)" - Sean Paul (again with the mainstream, and again with the excellent rhythm)
5. "Zombie Prostitute" -- Voltaire (Ooky Spooky album - zooooooombies)
6. "Temple of Love" -- Sisters of Mercy (gotta love that lilting female vocal that picks up partway through, plus this one always makes me think of thewronghands, who first introduced me to Sisters of Mercy)
7. "Desert Rose" -- Sting (Haunting and gorgeous)

... is many things, among them

( these )

A very simple way to earn serious love-you-love-you-love-you points from me:

Listen to me rue that I am not in LA to attend a fabulous 3 week conference on Bayesian modeling of human cognition and cleverly talk your work into sending you, as it conveniently overlaps some with your own area of interest. And then give me all the details.

Oh, so much love and Bayesian modeling happiness!

(Thank you, Joseph. You are so my hero.)

...because I noticed I hadn't added to my quotes page in a bit, and I had a stockpile of them. It never ceases to amuse me that these occur in the course of actual conversation. Some of my favorites from the most recent batch beneath the cut.

( Because my friends are lovely and full of good words )

...due completely to the wench-ly influence of the fabulous thewronghands. And really, the moral of this early evening was that whooshing through the air on the trapeze is one of the Best Things Ever (TM). It is yet another way to be a bird, a great swooping thing made of elegance and air and speed. Hurrah!

...whoever gifted me anonymously with a permanent lj account - :: the love ::. Many thanks!

...why samba is frickin' awesome.



Undulations of happiness, check.

...for I have a place to live in CA. Happiness!

Yay, linguistics blogs.

...or at least reinforced: I get untold joy from putting flowers in my hair. All kinds of flowers. Really. All the time.

....for I passed my thesis defense. I'm a doctor, I'm a doctor!

:: does happy dance ::

And how long did it take my lab cohorts to change the sign on my office from "graduate student" to "Dr. jalenstrix"? Less than 15 minutes? Why yes, yes it did. Oh, how I loves them, preeeeecious.

And then there was the OV/VO word order parameter cake. So much linguistically geeky love.

And I was so pleased to see/partially see/vaguely know they were outside the door because the room was packed: thewronghands, treyvadi, charliezaunt. So. Much. Love. [grin]

And so much love from everyone who wished me millions of luck today, though they couldn't be here.

Yay, the love and hurrah!

...or at least, traveling to give job talks and interview and such: that moment of walking into a hotel room all my own and thinking, "Hee! Mine." And then possibly bouncing on the bed. Because I can.

...by a perfectly sensible way to sum things up, courtesy of regyt.

Things that were full of the happy this past weekend (not an exhaustive list in the slightest, of course): regyt, millions of lamb, late night bacon toffee, high tea, novalis's nonchalant disdain of inadequate cooking, hooded purple bathrobes, kitty, a million billion Jacques Torres dark chocolate, laughing off one of those days, Gorgeous McPuzzle of DC, late night chai kisses at Teaism

(1) A thoroughly good evening may well include (a) an impromptu paso doble/flamenco danced in a Japanese restaurant as the chef beats out a rhythm with a fork and a metal pepper shaker, (b) flying attack shrimp, courtesy of the very same chef, and (c) exorbitant amounts of laughter.

(2) UDelaware is frickin' awesome. Yes, yes, it is. So much interest have they in me and I in them! Hurrah.

...which took place at the Hippodrome in Baltimore.

Walking in to such a place is like being in another century. The elaborate swirls, elegant lines, multitudinous curlicues - the sheer mass of articulated architecture is simply gorgeous. It reminds me of the feeling I had walking into St. Peter's in Rome - this sense of "Ah...". (Granted, St. Peter's is rather more about the majestic feel of the place. But it's that same sense of being transported.)

And the set designers for this production of Wicked were simply genius. I was enamored of the juxtaposition of the elaborate with the ephemeral to create these fantastical realms where the story takes place. And the colors, oh! Simply stunning. The same for the costumes - this wonderful blend of the Victorian and the modern cosmopolitan.

And, of course, to see the story played out, with the songs my choir will be singing come May - simply glorious! To see the flourishes added here and there, the clear, bright stretching of a note from now till forever, the golden harmonies - simply delightful.

And though I knew the story already, to find myself drawn in so much by it anyway - to want and to hope and to feel my throat grow tight with sorrow for these characters who I only see for so short a time...just brilliant. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

It's experiences like these that convince me the musical is a perfectly fabulous medium for Story.

...about working at home is the ability to take a 20-minute DDR break instead of a lunch break. And then, when I am done with the DDR-ing, my brain is happy to settle back down to work.

Visit to Yale went absolutely smashingly. I am a happy, happy monkey. It's one of those times where I don't think there's anything I could have done better, so no matter what happens, I don't have any regrets about today.

:: happy dance of computational linguistics goodness ::