I've seen this in a few places, and I have some thoughts. Give me a second to climb onto my soapbox.

• At first, it's cute. Dude rocking out to some disco-y tunes with his dog. Fun.
• Then it's funny - the dog gives his "I will fuck your shit up, yo." look.
• The End.

But what is pretty much the first thing I think when I see this video?

This asshole is recording with his phone, dancing, and paying attention to his dog when he should be paying attention to the god damn road!

Yes, I drive for a living, and so that makes me a little more focussed on this sort of thing, but really? In this era where we poke so much fun at people for paying too much attention to their phones that there's a sitcom based on the idea?

The dog should follow through.

Per Lindsay's request...

I'm afraid to go for a ride on my bike alone in my neighborhood. 

I'm afraid of drivers, unsafe routes, potential muggers and bike thieves. 

I'm going to go drive to run errands now, and it makes me feel like a jerk to burn gas to drive about 5 miles round trip. 

What's your favorite font?

I'm giving this queue thing a try. 

It's very late on Monday or early on Tuesday, and I'm as awake as I can possibly be. I cleaned the kitchen in an attempt to tire myself out. It didn't work. 

dark night of the soul confession: I think Bill Hader is funny, but the Stefon routine isn't as funny as NBC would have us believe. 

I kind of want to make out with him doing his Julian Assange (which in no way resembles Julian Assange) thing, though. 

I like Stefon. I swear that I've been to half the clubs he describes (The Absinthe Drinkers experience was one giant Stefon joke). I love that he and Seth Meyers had that wild love that was more than a love. 

But I really don't like "midget" jokes. Also, if you watch enough of the Stefon routine, it's pretty transparently a Mad Lib. 

On the other hand, I'm glad that New York nightlife knows it's jumped its own shark (I suspect that happened in 1928 when Arturo Finzarelli and his lovely wives, Laverne and Shirley, powered his Henderson Deluxe over the giant tank at Big Al's Aquarium Of Wonders in Coney Island). 

I'm going to have to just power through and reset my diurnal* clock the hard way tomorrow. 

*things that sound dirty but aren't 

ring ring ring
​ring ring ring ring

Want an ego boost? Just take that beginner class... again... simultaneously with an intermediate class.

Nothing like it for feeling better about yourself. And oh yeah, it's also good for getting the fundamentals right this time around and all that practical stuff.

On another subject: OPW just got RSS feeds for public posts. Click on me to view my posts, and you'll see an RSS icon next to my name.

Now you can export your fine quality OPW creations to folks who use [insert names of six different programs that have taken up the slack since Google Reader went away]. Or Livejournal syndicated feeds, even.

I used to write. I used to call myself a poet. I wrote in my journal often. I still have the stacks of them in a filing cabinet and still have the habit of keeping paper on me. But then... I don't know. I got into tech, I graduated college, I just lost the habit. I don't think my brain works the same way anymore. I say this as a psychology graduate too.  I don't know how I feel about this.  I'd say that if it bothered me that much that I'd work at getting back into the habit, but I don't know that it *does* bother me that much.

This online medium... I don't dislike it, but it is not the same as putting the pen to paper and that's part of why I say my brain doesn't work the same way. Typing is a much different tactile experience. Knowing on a keyboard the letter to touch when, for the most part they all feel the same, excepting the differences in muscle memory. Writing on paper is more sensory. I feel sorry for the kids who are growing up now that have always known computers and touch screens.

I mourn my old brain.

About 40 minutes north of me, twice a year there is a 3.5 day event called Playa del Fuego - PDF for short. It's part of the network of events that have come into being in the shadow of the awesomeness that is burning man. About 1200 people attend, many call themselves "Burners", and there is much effort into supporting the 10 principles of burning man (oh, google it if you want to know what they are). And yeah, we build art, drink, & burn things.

Anyhooo, this past weekend was my 6th (?) time at PDF, and my first time in a theme camp. Along with a few other locals, I founded Balls Camp. I had 150 pendants made and they were quite popular gifts.

I made a bar, and it was quite popular for drinks.  Here's a 3AM carnage shot.

And I made a hanging ball sculpture art piece of sorts. Which was more awesome in real life than in this photo. People loved to play with the balls - see their reflections, swing them around. It was very cool.

And a few more photos, since I'm very proud and satisfied (and still recovering) on how my first theme camp turned out. 

I love the idea of this place. I tire of the daily parade of endlessly recycled images and headlines, sappy photos with even sappier text overlaid, whatever little shiny nugget of internet caught someone's attention long enough for them to click the "share" button.

I enjoy reading thoughtful stories about people's lives and interests. I like seeing opinions that differ from my own, and perhaps engaging in some friendly debate on one topic or another.

The difficulty, for me, is that I have little time and even less brain to compose such things myself. That other website fits my life perfectly right now. Two minutes here to snap a photo and toss it to the tide, hoping it will wash up on my friends' and relatives' shores. A few seconds there to catch up on a neighbor kid's antics and acknowledge with a single click. A moment later on to chime in with a sentence or two that might encourage a struggling friend. My support network, social calendar, and pocket photo album over coffee, all in one place.

(Cue the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the ever-declining depth of thought by today's young people, and how online sharing is destroying real community.)

No, that's not it. I passed "young" by anyone's standards, save maybe the retirement home ladies in my church choir, a decade back. I deeply cherish the face-to-face time I spend with friends and loved ones. However, as a mother of three active young children, and a homeschooler to boot, my time and attention are under near-constand demand. Those face-to-face times are rare. When they do happen, they are usually punctuated by the needs of little ones before any serious discussion can ever get off the ground.

I am stealing the time to write this right now from the quiet half-hour (if I'm lucky) between my awakening and the rest of the family stirring. These precious moments I usually use to pry my eyes open with a first cup of coffee, scan my email and whatnot to catch any urgent messages, and begin putting together the day in my head. I check our calendar, pore over lesson plans, and organize materials. If I can get myself to bed a little earlier at night and give myself a bit more time in the morning, I have a stack of reading and other projects, for my own benefit and my family's, piled to the ceiling. I have a blog I post to irregularly, when I can string together enough thoughts to make a paragraph or two.

And now my husband and my children are awake and foraging for breakfast, and thus my day begins and my attention span ends, until tomorrow...

I've checked in on more of the shows for the new season, so here are some first impressions.

Celestial Method seems like it has potential, aiming for the "dramatic yet cute" segment.

I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying is short (3-minute episodes) and funny, squarely targeting the more grown-up anime-watching crowd (and no, that's not an oxymoron).

I haven't been able to watch the entire first episode of Wolf Girl and Black Prince because the comedy is cringe-inducing, similar to Watamote.  (Not as in bad, as in wanting to shout "NO don't SAY THAT augh you said it" at the main character.)

CROSS ANGE and Akatsuki no Yona both seem to be going for the Gritty Drama segment, and both are well-made enough that I'll be checking out more episodes.

At first The Fruit of Grisaia seems like it's going to be this season's That Show, but it actually seems to have some traces of plot under the surface, so I'll watch some more.  TRINITY SEVEN looks like a better candidate for That Show, to the point where I haven't felt inspired to watch the entire first episode.  We'll see.

Probably not going to continue watching Terraformars​; guro really isn't my thing.

Hey! Happy Thanksgiving to those wot celebrate it this weekend.

We just got back from dan's parents' place in southern PA. I'm thankful for a pair of mellow parents-out-of-law, who were great hosts, offered us the right amount of entertainment, sat with us and read companiably at other times, and fed us a delicious turkey dinner.  

I'm thankful for a drive through windy twisty roads today, which were fun, and gorgeous with the fall foliage.

I'm thankful for a partner who makes me laugh, makes me think, and frequently prompts me to say "that is a really good idea."

And I'm thankful for a wonderful home to come home to, now containing three fairly sleepy mammals.