traffic

I would love to do research on traffic flows. every day i think about the time of day and volume of cars on the road attempting to make sense out of the phenomena i see as i go to work and on my way home. I'd love to put numbers to the impacts large factories in certain places, and the locations of bridges and start times have on traffic. and retarded rain. damn that's annoying. even when it's been awhile and the rage of the 15mph drizzle commute has subsided.. i've seen a couple of people sitting atop the exit ramps where buses go to park-and-rides that seem to be watching traffic, i imagine that they're counting cars .. trying to predict future needs if they add a bazillion houses to the neighborhood at 128th or 164th or 220th. how many lanes will they have to add to the freeway for that? 7? when will someone realize extra lanes don't reduce congestion unless you actually balance the flow of oncoming volume to exiting volume... that's a rhetorical question because i think they know that already and occasionally they recognize it. there are three places on my 23 mile drive on the freeway to work where cars get on but none get off. without releasing that pressure somehow, i don't see how we're going to do anything but slow down to let them in. they need some kind of car slingshot that flings cars from stationary entrances over the tops of traffic to someplace up the road in a middle lane. it would probably kill thousands of people, but i think it's be rad to see cars sailing overhead and landing with a thump in the midst of flowing freeway traffic.

Plantatoes

I made up a word today. well, i think i did. it could have been anyone i guess, but i'm not doing any research to find out if someone else may have come up with it at some point. anyway. i tried plantains again for the second time in my life. the first time was in far away, in rhode island. at a mall. so i remember them being ok.. kinda dry, but ok. well tonight i had planned to get some vegetables (two of them ended up being fruits, but whatever) and cook them and eat them for dinner. so i got baby bok choi (which you can't make wrong), crookneck yellow squash, and a plantain... the kind that's not really ripe, so it was mostly green with a little yellow. i steamed the bok choi with garlic and a little Worcestershire sauce. and i cubed the plantain and cooked it in a little oil with a tiny bit of salt. and then the squash in that same oil with some pepper and salt.. anyway. it turned out a great dinner and i found that plantains taste so much like potatoes that i have a substitute now. if i can cook them in other potato ways then i'm good to go. tonight we'll see if they make me sick though. no signs yet. i'm happy about it. ok. goodnight.

rather

This afternoon i was advised by Juan Pepe that i was delinquent on my blog updates. I found the criticism fair, and now i'm bothering to post. I wasn't feeling that well last week, but i'm much better after a very stress-free three-day weekend. I'll be looking forward to the next three-day weekend coming next week though too. I was thinking about how i think a lot about how old i am and how old other people are. i suppose it's one of my preoccupations. The thing is I'm trying to figure out if it's close to being a prejudice. I don't really make an assumption of how a person should behave based upon their age. But i think that how often i'm surprised at peoples' age indicates that i am to some extent labeling people with ages and it's some kind of stereotype if i'm classifying them. So how do i let go of the assumption of age? or is it that i should stop associating certain characteristics with people of a particular age? is that the real problem? is it that i think people should be wild and idealistic when young and responsible and pragmatic once they've seasoned a bit? i suppose most true idealists remain so regardless of their age. or do they? is it bad to assume one way or another? how do you escape assumptions? is it just learned by a series of surprises? what do you think?

Dzrung

i bet that's a Tibetan word. i have no idea for sure. and maybe it's not if left on its own. but i strongly suspect it's Tibetan. In other news, i woke up late today, and took a long nap, and feel like i could run around the block a few times before i'll be tired enough to go to bed. i think i'll go practice an instrument for awhile and then go to sleep. some sundays are very boring, which guarantees me a good day at work tomorrow. it's going to be a pretty busy week next week. i'd love to take friday off, but i have to come up with a compelling reason.. otherwise i'll just go and have a good time. anyway. i'll go do something more entertaining to me than writing to you.

i'm enjoying posting

i was going to outline a thought exercise i had on the way to the work this morning. but it doesn't really go anywhere. instead i'm thinking i should post about something else. I listened to an interesting radio program the other morning. it was about Vodou in Haiti. the trance concept they have where people dance and listen to the drums until they give their bodies over to the spirits, that sounds really interesting.. so i want to see it. i guess that's all i wanted to say... ok.. goodnight.

hot fuzz

this movie is good. it's almost over but i think i'll review the thing now. it's really good. So like shaun of the dead, which i enjoyed very much, this movie takes all the best cliches of the genre (in this case it's buddy cop movies) and turns them on their heads.

in other news, i think tonight i might get the right amount of sleep, seeing as how i have been not getting my full 8 or even 7 for the past few weeks.

i really need to find a comfortable place to use a computer. at work it's been mostly uncomfortable at my pc, but at home it's much worse, which i'm sure is making me less comfortable at work. and it's goin to start messing with my wrists...

Funny quote i just heard

" you don't want people to taste something and say: "oh... nutmeg.""

i don't know why that made me laugh when i heard it. but it seemed so funny.

we're watching a julia child cooking dvd (yes, we're that kind of nerdy). Cat recently fell asleep in the chair, and i'm listening to her make this spinach pastry thing. there's an onion cream sauce in the thing and she added salt and pepper and then this tiny bit of nutmeg. she said it's really "just a speck." because you don't want people to taste something and say: "oh... nutmeg"

i don't know why that is. but i suppose it's mostly true. the only other things i can think of that involve nutmeg also involve other spices (usually cinnamon, cardamom, and or cloves) and the things you're supposed to taste are not generally the nutmeg. i can imagine if you're putting nutmeg in with onions and milk you really don't want to taste it and think "what is it about this onion sauce that reminds me of apple pie? oh, nutmeg!"

i hope that's not funny to anyone else. i'll be done now.