| Gripe de chanchito y fotos |
[19 Jul 2009|01:05pm] |
Week two of no archives or libraries. The death toll is somewhere around 150 last we checked. Our concession to the craziness was to buy hand sanitizer, which we make great use of when we go out. A little extra precaution won't hurt, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna wear a face mask.
We made the decision to have more adventures and activities that get us out of the house. It's hard sometimes. Dissertations require so much sitting in one controlled environment for so much time that suddenly the outdoors seem like a far away dream. Evan and I have made an effort to combat this tendency.
On Saturday we went to Museo Evita, which used to be the headquarters for the Eva Perón Foundation. They did a good job with the exhibits. Film, print media, photos, personal affects (including clothing), and adequate context made it a pretty thorough presentation of her life and work. Of course, it's all borderline hagiography. So glowing, so wonderful, so uncomplicated. Hardly any mentions of the messier parts of her life or Peronism, which is to be expected. However, it did get me thinking that this would be a great place to do research. They have an archive/research center, and if the exhibits were any indication, they have great holdings. They had many children's book which contained teachings on how Peronism benefitted all Argentines, especially workers. One part presented info on "social tourism", a program that organized visits to the beaches and mountains for underprivileged children. I have no idea what's been written on any of this, but it's some food for thought.
On Sunday we went to Mataderos, a fair in the outer reaches of the Capital Federal. It has gaucho demonstrations, provincial/folkoric music, and truly spicey empanadas. Evan and I had been before and enjoyed it immmensley. It's very different from the San Telmo, Palermo, and Recoleta fairs, and its distance makes it much less touristy. However, it was PACKED on Sunday. I mean, PACKED. You couldn't move down the the lanes and look at the products on sale. We waited over an hour for food. It was madness. I was getting angry fighting the crowds. We have no idea why there were so many people there, but hypothesized that the closed theaters forced everyone to find alternative activities.
This past Wednesday, we made a special trip to El Cuartito, a pizzeria near Tribunales (Centro-ish). They do a brisk business there and the pizza was excellent. Evan was mesmerized by the activity. After a few slices, we walked to Once because I wanted to buy some beads. Once is a crazy barrio. It has numerous bead stores, party supply stores, fabric stores, sewing stores, and mannequin stores, not to mention being home to many Jewish organizations and synagogues. The place is always buzzing with activity during business hours. Very fun just to wander through and watch.
Aside: While in Once, we went into a party supply store because Evan wanted to buy Mentos in bulk (they're good for sugar hits while running). The employee that helped him asked if he was from Nicaragua. Meanwhile, waiters at restaurants are always asking me if I want the menu English, even before I open my mouth. Sometimes the assumptions are funny, but for me, I always feel a little offended.
Of course, one way to beat the dissertation grind is to just not work on it. Not saying I'm doing nothing, but I have been *perhaps* devoting a little too much time to my knitting. But look at it! It's pretty!
( Hacé click! )
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[18 Jul 2009|10:24pm] |
AUSTRALIA'S Next Top Model runner-up Cassi Van Den Dungen's dad and former boss are trying to convince her to put a $2 million modelling contract before her bricklayer boyfriend. ( ++ )
source.
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| Analeigh in Forever21?? |
[16 Jul 2009|08:42pm] |
I know Analeigh posted to her twitter that she was doing shoots for Forever21. I was browsing through their summer dresses collection, and golly, one of the models looks a lot like her. Unfortunately all the shots are from the, er, nose down, but the nose, mouth, jaw, hair all look very Analeigh to me. I'm deferring to the expertise of the community; however, what do you guys think?
( Pics below cut )
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| Welp |
[15 Jul 2009|11:30pm] |
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music |
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"crazy" - aerosmith |
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I have a few posts waiting to go up but, this one seemed pertinent and funny so... LET'S POST IT INSTEAD.
I have like 309849384 pictures from my trip to Disney World but I want to actually edit those and make them look nice, these are more of a mish-mosh of random party shots which we all know never turn out right but hey that's the fun part.
So, without further ado.
7/11/09 - PARTY LIKE IT'S 1925
( THIS SEVEN LAYER DIP; IT'S LIKE AN ECOSYSTEM. UGGGH IT'S SO GOOD. IN MY MOUTH )
OKAY. Next entry.. probably gonna be the Disney one. We'll see.
-Kirk OUT
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[14 Jul 2009|09:13pm] |
animal shapes
Did I ever post these? I can't remember.
A Lady Schnau and a Mysterious Pack of Dingos. Who are they? The world may never know.
Also, thank you to the people who took these incredible photos! As they are way better than any I could ever take.
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| A Magical Day |
[15 Jul 2009|01:09pm] |
My father is an excellent gardener, and could grow enough vegetables to keep up fed all through the winter. Turnips are amazing because they are root vegetables and so if you pick them and put them in soil in the cellar they last for ages and ages. For more information about turnips, see every day of my childhood.
(store!)
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| Favourites? |
[15 Jul 2009|03:49pm] |
Now that series 5 has ended, I thought it might be nice to have some discussion. Obviously there's likely to be spoilers in the commentary, so watch out if you're a bit behind.
So what's your favourite episode, challenge, prize, photoshoot, guest, and/or TV moment?
Ditto on the reverse: your least favourites?
( Mine... )
Soooo... yours?
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| Five Things About Me, Part 1/2 |
[15 Jul 2009|05:01pm] |
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Bic Runga - That's Alright |
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The makeup of visitors, friends and readers to this journal of mine is quite diverse; some of you I have known for years, others not-so-much. Levels of intimacy and familiarity vary from person to person, but I believe I'm always on the lookout for new ways to communicate who I am, what I believe, what I do; knowledge is a powerful tool, shapes conversations, leads to... many good things. Which is why I've responsed, twice, to the Five Words Meme* that was doing the rounds last week. It gives me an opening to talk about things that I otherwise wouldn't trouble myself with. That said, here are the five things the insightful ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) toob chose to ask me about:
Fans: What can I say? Getting to the meaty stuff right away is Toob. It is perhaps a badly-kept secret that during 2006-2008, I cultivated a wide following on the internet (particularly via my YouTube channel for my bodybuilding exploits, as I documented the process of turning from skinny twig to superman of muscle. I did not set out to acquire fans in the beginning, and having them is a funny thing. It all began innocuously enough with one thirty second bicep-flexing clip I posted in November 2006 with the hope perhaps of impressing a few friends; a larger audience responded however with a swathe of good feedback. This encouraged me to post again, with greater returns of visitors... and things grew from there. During the process of acquiring an audience - fans - I enjoyed connecting with many different people, a lot trying to attempt what I had achieved; motivating strangers, being a story they could relate to. There are many musclemen far more muscular than I flexing away on the internet - but the following that transpired I believe was because I used my muscles to tell a story - one of change. I have found that fans in the collective sense are, apart from being good for encouragement, draining in the sense that they always want more. For an individual to bear, this isn't necessarily a happy thing. Having 'fans' makes life interesting, but is probably more trouble than it's worth.
Philosophy: The strangest word of the bunch, I can't say that I've ever studied philosophy, or even know how to define my own, if I have one. Chris - my husband - studied some philosophy at university, and I'm sure he could hold forth on the subject with aplomb. I'm a skeptic; an atheist; a believer of treating others how one would like to be treated themselves; that there is no purpose behind existence; approach life with realism and low expectations. Are these things connected to philosophy? Damned if I know. Perhaps Toob thinks of me as a philosophical person, because my writing tends to lean in that direction, even fiction I write often the carrier for some school of thought... or not. I am perplexed.
New Zealand: Not many people participating in this meme will be asked about their country of residence, I'm sure. I emmigrated to on New Zealand July 1st 2005 from the UK, and it is something I've seldom regretted. The hardest price of the trade was leaving behind my family, whom I love dearly, but in return I have gained so much. This is a pleasant country. A very pleasant country, in fact. No doubt, I could become superflous with the superlatives about how great it is here. Friendly people, good food, all the mod-cons of a Western country but without the pollution, the crime-rates, and a landscape that beckons you to become awed at the scope and grandeur of nature itself. I used to be homesick, but subsequent visits back to England truly cured that, as my eyes became opened to the horror that everyday folk in the British Isles endure and take for granted, simply because of the place of their birth. People from all over the globe take holidays to New Zealand, and then decide they want to stay. There's a reason for that; I hope enough of you get to see it for yourself some day! But oh - the one major problem with New Zealand is it's hopeless at producing home-grown television of merit. Too bad...
Poetry: Before I became a writer, I was a poet. A teenage poet. An angsty, teenage poet. An angsty, dark, teenage poet. So typical, but practically as soon as I turned thirteen, I began to produce pages upon pages of verse devoted to the pain of being an outsider, how no-one understood me, how horrible the world was, how grotesque, how... you get the idea. I wrote poems constantly - even scribbling them down on paper napkins at restauraunts and taking them home. There was a great deal of slush produced at this time, but some gems also, and it was these gems that first got me noticed as a young writer, and for them I was awarded publication, writing awards. Each year I bound all my poems into a darkly-titled anthology and handed them in as some piece of English Literature assignment. My English teacher was absolutely wrapt with me - surely though he must have seen how typically teenage it all was. But in deepest, darkest Essex, where boys no doubt even now describe David Beckham as their favourite author, it did set me apart from the crowd. I left poetry behind however; it is a form I only return to but rarely, though the odd line of verse does creep into my mind from time to time. I think my most favourite poem I have ever produced was called The White Beyond, which I wrote whilst studying creative writing at university. It plays around with structure, form, space, and can be read three ways.
Wine: I like wine. Is that enough? No? Well, wine to me is one of those rarer pleasures in life. You can't instantly come to enjoy wine. Well... that is to say, wine, like onions (and ogres) has layers in how you can appreciate it. There is an endless variety of flavour combinations and subleties waiting to be revealed with wine, if you take the time to notice them. Drinking many wines you begin to understand the good from the bad, preference, scent... all that jazz. A good beer (or good anything) can be appreciated the same way of course; yet only wine seems to generate such passion, such a following. It even creates its own in-jokes of humor. Only a wine-lover could have appreciated that immortal line uttered in the movie Sideways "Merlot? No, I'm not drinking no fucking Merlot!"; only wine-lovers know why Bernard Black's affinity for the plonk is so very fitting. There's a bit of Bernard in every wine-lover just waiting to get out, I'll warrant.
* If you want to continue this chain, the idea is to respond to this post with a request for words, and I'll give you five words that remind me of you. You then comment on them in a paragraph or two in your own journal.
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