Largo is infamous

Great. Local stupidity has made the top of CNN.

I keep ranting about this at my own kitchen table, but honestly, I have little to say that a number of sensible individuals haven't already said. I do recommend Howard Troxler's ongoing commentary on the situation.

If nothing else, this should serve as a reminder that an ignorant majority can be a powerful creature. That all-American inclination to interfere in the inconsequential details of others' lives, yet again, trumps all logic and reason. It's so much fun flinging stones at those we don't quite understand.

Largo can't handle Susan

In case I was starting to forget how many nasty, close-minded, ignorant individuals really live amongst us...

Stanton job may hang in balance (St Petersburg Times 2/27/07)

Many citizens of Largo, Florida (and, I suspect, a variety of imported meddlers) are getting exceedingly agitated because their highly competent City Manager, Steve Stanton, has taken the difficult step of publicly announcing his intention to become 'Susan' Stanton.

If you ask me, amongst all the worries about the city employees (whose rights may be dubiously trampled by having to address this individual as "Susan"), and the city's reputation ("that's Largo, home of a transsexual!!"), this situation is really only a big deal for... drumroll... you guessed it: the Stanton family. An earlier St Petersburg Times piece (2/25/07) provides some background...

And if the City of Largo finds itself unable to calm down and handle the situation in a reasonable manner, I really hope Stanton decides to challenge their idiocy. Or at least finds a job where talent and competence are priorities.

ooo fun

Travel Horoscope for Cancer

When you travel, you crave warmth and comfort. You want a vacation with a home-y feel, a great view, and wonderful weather. You should travel to: Fiji San Diego Cape Cod Greece Venice

What's Your Travel Horoscope?

to go back or not to go back

So I'm trying to decide, yet again, how I feel about going back to school. I'm taking this semester off, and actually I know exactly how I feel: I hate the idea of ever taking another class. I know grad school is supposed to be hell, and one is supposed to want to run away from it, and yet my hatred of it is so enormous. I can't quite imagine that anyone should spend even a month doing something they detest this much. Much less another year or so.

As a person who tries to do things which are good for me, or healthy, or whatever you want to call it, it seems weird to intentionally do something which is so clearly bad for me. Being free from classes this semester makes the contrasts really obvious: grad school makes me depressed and horribly anxious; it makes me sleep too little, eat too little, consume far too much caffeine and nicotine, and spend too much time indoors; grad school makes me a stranger to my friends, even the ones who live in my neighborhood; grad school makes me hate hearing and reading about topics I otherwise find fascinating; grad school causes my husband and dog to think I'm a lunatic (or more so than they did already).

Yet supposedly getting the damned piece of paper is a good thing. OK, so I know it would be a good thing. But it's just so hard to convince myself that the torture is worth it. Especially when, not being in school right now, I get to catch some music downtown with Frank on a random night, and we run into friends, and their jaws drop because they haven't seen me in over a year, especially anywhere away from a library or a coffee shop. Can anything really be worth behaving like a horribly dysfunctional and miserable pale-in-Florida hermit for several years?

If anyone has an answer, I'd love to hear it.

I know, I'm not the first or the last to say all this, but the whole grad school culture is the most obscenely strange thing.

paws..

What Your Hands Say About You

You are logical, analytical, and rational. You have good verbal skills. Idealistic and dreamy, you tend toward the impractical. You have a knack for getting yourself in sticky situations. Consistent and reliable, you like to count on structure and routine in your life. Your emotions tend to be nervous and potent. Your energy - both positive and negative - deeply impacts your life.

What Do Your Hands Say About You?

of course...

You're the Tortured Intellectual!
Take What sort of Hipster are you? today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Personality Test Generator.

You're sensitive, you're emotional, and you wonder why everyone else in the world exists on a different plane. You cannot eat, breathe, or sleep without analyzing each action to death. You're usually sombre, depressed, lethargic, but you can be nearly glad from time to time. You wear whatever you can find on your cluttered bedroom floor. You carry books, notepads, reading glasses with you wherever you go. You have friends, but only a few who truly get where you're coming from. You frequent coffee shops, libraries, and the less crowded bars. You're obsessed with past people, past ideas, past lives. You wish you could die and be reborn as Jack Kerouac.

i knew it..

I realized the other day that it's impossible to find a spot in my house without... a pile of books. Some are on shelves, most are in piles and stacks. Not all mine of course, but that doesn't really help matters.

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane.
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

purple?

Your Brain is Purple

Of all the brain types, yours is the most idealistic. You tend to think wild, amazing thoughts. Your dreams and fantasies are intense. Your thoughts are creative, inventive, and without boundaries. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking of fictional people and places - or a very different life for yourself.

What Color Is Your Brain?

implicit minds

Just sharing one of the cooler things I've found recently, Project Implicit, which describes itself as:

"a Virtual Laboratory for the social and behavioral sciences designed to facilitate the research of implicit social cognition: cognitions, feelings, and evaluations that are not necessarily available to conscious awareness, conscious control, conscious intention, or self-reflection."

If you've got a few minutes, check it out. It looks at lots of different topics, many of them nice and controversial, and may produce some curious insights. Besides, it's a fascinating project!

drink more tea... really!!

So, I'm excited. Apparently we now have a bonafide teahouse in St. Pete. And the Hooker Tea Co. is open until 10 pm, which is later than most places around here.

This gives me a good reason to start spending time downtown again too. The endless profusion of cookie-cutter, crap-for-music bars just wasn't doing it. And I love the Globe, but variety is good thing.

So I know where I'll be this weekend, or maybe before...