Awkward conversation with mom

A few months ago, I reported that a quote of mine ended up in a book called We Feel Fine. Having just received the book in the mail, I spend a good twenty minutes flipping through it to find my quote, and proudly show it to my mom.

Impassively, my mom takes a look at it and says "your picture is right next to the quote: 'I feel weird having phone sex' ".

I feel weird having my mom read that out-loud.

Making Great Green Spaces and being famous in interim

So, yeah, I never post anymore.

But when I DO post blogging entries, it's for very important topics. I would like to share an important initiative going on in Washington D.C. right now:

Everyone can name great public places, such as parks, squares, and outdoor markets found in cities across the country. But what makes these places work? Why do people seek them out and congregate there in large groups? And what makes some of public spaces “greener?" In an effort to provide a “decoder ring” to reveal what makes these places so successful, the National Building Museum presents a series of mini-documentaries that identify the specific elements that help make Great Green Places.

http://www.nbm.org/media/video/great-green-places/barracks-row.html

So, what's so special about Great Green Places you ask?

Well mainly, I appear in 0.5 second of the video - you can see me on the screenshot on the front page (girl smiling idiotically with pink skirt and brown belt, almost completely hidden by girl with red and black shirt. Which incidentally happens to be my friend. I'm going to have to have a talk about not stealing the limelight).

Also, if you're courageous enough to watch the video, I can be seen in all my glory at 2:26.

I'm so bloggostistical!

Pathetic

I just signed in to Netflix, to read this:

Unique for You

007 in Africa, we think you might enjoy the following movie:

Can't Get a Date

Our best guess for you 3.8 out of 4 stars
Customer average rating 3.2 out of 4 stars

Hum, yeah...

On Becoming

For some strange reason, I've been spending a lot of my time on youtube, looking at people's video diaries, as they transition from male to female; and female to male.

These individuals are usually reflective, often funny, many times insightful.  Concerned with recording their transition, they get excited about voice changes, body fat redistribution, hair changes; or sometimes record the sadness of not transforming quickly enough.  It becomes a rite a passage of sorts, and is fascinating to see their physical changes, and the intense elation that comes with finally becoming something they've always felt cheated out of.

The journeys are hard, physically painful and slow.  The operations are gruesome, and take away the very parts they were born with.  But I've never heard it described with such poetry and spirituality as Unmeasuredinstances does:

And you feel reborn.  And I remember thinking, Oh My God, this is real.  This is real.  It was the sweetest sleep of my life.  I can't tell you how important that process was for me.  A sense of being born, a sense of spiritual awakening.

Makes me understand the intense joy of Becoming.

The Fake Girlfriend

Today, I went for a long bike ride to look at Open Houses in Washington, D.C.  I went with a male friend who's looking for a place as well.

We stopped off at Firehook near the Capitol, where intense young people worked on their computer trying to catch up on their policy work.  On the street and in the coffee shop, we met three of his acquaintances.

This is the conversation that ensued, as soon as they were out of out of earshot:

007: Wow, your friends are ridiculously good looking

Friend: ...

007: Next time, how do I stand next to you, but make it clear we're not dating.  I mean, they probably totally discounted me, because they thought we were together!

Friend: No, you can't make it obvious!

007: Why?

Friend: Because I like having a fake girlfriend!

Random Observations

Thank you Mr. Fruit Man
I know I’ve already talked about him before, but the fruit guy in front of my office is awesome. He comes to D.C. early in the morning with his truck, unloads his carts full of trail mix, apples, cherries, grapes, plums, bananas and pears, and transforms his carts in vending tables.

This morning, I made a special trip to the ATM to get some cash and bought:

-1 apple
-3 plums
-3 peaches

All for $3! OK if you hail from the 1950s (when a cup of coffee cost 10 cents), that’s pretty shocking. But believe me, nowadays, $3 dollars for 6 pieces of fresh fruit is amazing.

Kitchen Appliances - not a bad invention after all
Also, as a follow-up to my post about the utility of kitchen appliances, two nights ago I was preparing meringues with the remnants of egg whites. I measured the sugar and crème of tartare…Only to find out that my roommate had taken the electrical beater to her fiancé’s apartment. I was left with a whisk to beat the eggs into stiff mounds.

After 20 minutes of near constant beating, I realized it was an uphill battle, placed my sloppy mix into the oven, and cooked the meringues for one hour. Needless to say, meringues without an electrical beater aren’t meringues…they’re more like a thin layer of protein and glucose, attached firmly to aluminum fold.

This is not how my meringues turned out at all
Source

I'm going to be in a book!

Two guys, Sep Kamvar and Jonathan Harris, are publishing a book about "emotions", as reported in various blogs on the internet. They contacted me about my quote on May 8, 2006, a follow-up to a post on May 4, 2006:

Due to popular demand, I am reporting today that I do not have that weird worm-like feeling in my throat.

Though I am flattered that my picture will be in a book, I am a little alarmed that:

1) it will be the smallest picture on the page,

2) it will appear in the "weird" emotion section, and

3) my face will be plastered and obliterated with a quote about worms.

Anyways, if you see the book, entitled We Feel Fine: an Almanac of Human Emotion (scheduled to be released on December 1st, 2009), check out page 145.

I think I remember who took that picture in the first place, I'm going to have to thank him promptly and invite him to the launch party in New York.