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August 18, 2003
Yellow On The Outside

i learned something new and interesting today, while i was very busy and really should have been working:

Did you know that where in English we say "so so" and French they say "Comme ci, comme ça", in Chinese they say "ma ma hu hu" or literally translated, "horse horse tiger tiger"?

via end.co.nz

that's quite cool. i don't speak chinese, though, and it sounds very difficult so i don't think i will start anytime soon. i wonder what the origin of that expression is?

at lunch someone i work with who is chinese said that the old people in his family call him "jook sing" which translates into "hollow bamboo" but also has something to do with bananas, and which means something like a chinese person who doesn't know anything about being chinese. because he is american. it sounded like a mean thing but then he said that it was a strong community that he identifies with so i guess it isn't.

that is my chinese language and culture lesson for the day.

Posted by ash at 03:44 PM

August 16, 2003
Just Stuff

things are busy lately. so busy i haven't had my hair cut in a long time. i don't have time for a haircut, and i have been skipping the gym, but that has given me time to spend between 7 and 11 minutes tanning one or two times each week. i have a tan and my hair is longer. i look healthy, although in reality i am more exhausted than ever before.

what's been going on is this: as you know, DRM is knee-deep in howard dean, and somehow he came home ten days or so ago with this great idea for dr. dean to wear a phillies jersey at a rally they were planning in center city. i agreed that it sounded like a very groovy idea, but as it turns out, while it sounded great he had no freaking clue as to what would be involved or how much work it would be (appropriate that he is working on a democratic campaign, i think.) i knew it would be too much work and tried to discourage him, but in the end, through some strange turn of events, i made howard dean a jersey. before you go all indignant about it, let me say, for the record, that mike has sat up many a night building web sites and enabling technology for projects of mine that he could give a crap about. so fair's fair.

next up: my brother is having a baby in three weeks! if you know me, you know i feel pretty negative on the whole people-under-eighteen topic, almost as negative as the marriage topic. but hokey mokey, i am excited about having a nephew. they have tentatively decided to name it demento, which was my own suggestion, although it's safe to say that many fingers are crossed in hopes of a last-minute change of heart. i am actually going down to oklahoma on september 11 to lobby for it, as a matter of fact. i've got a list, if you have any suggestions, let me know.

lately i have been getting confused about the relative popularity of my favorite musicians. went to see a ticket with sondre lerche, jason mraz, and liz phair at the electric factory the other night. so after norwegien superboy lerche was finished, i was waiting for jason mraz, and roommate corrected me. "he's headlining this, liz phair is on next." jason mraz? with one hit song on mtv? i mean, ok he's cool, but liz phair is opening for him? with her cultish throngs of followers? "yeah, her last album sucked." ok. and tonight, i thought i was going to a counting crows show. nope, he corrected me. i am going to see john mayer. counting crows are opening for john mayer.

oh, yeah, and last but not least. the bledisloe cup is finally back in nz. it was a good game, by all accounts**, and nice scoring by carlos spencer. i've said enough about him in these pages, and i've even heard stirrings that a poem may be forthcoming, so i won't go on about it.

** my phrase " by all accounts" may lead you to believe i have researched the game extensively with many accounts, while in fact i've heard two accounts in total. i only just looked up the stuff.co.nz story five minutes ago so i would have something to link. and the other account was given to me by blair smith at 5am EDT, so i can barely remember it, although he may have said something like "brilliant" and i am almost positive i can remember him describing vividly how hot carlos spencer was. that seems extremely weird in retrospect, though, so i could have dreamed that last bit.

Posted by ash at 03:33 PM

August 10, 2003
OU SUCKS at a level which is Inversely Proportionate to the Degree at which Carlos Spencer Kicks Ass

once again my number one referrer (OU SUCKS, of course) has been knocked out of the top spot by a current event. as you know, (of course you do) the all blacks beat the springboks 19-11 at the house of pain in dunedin on saturday night. it was a far cry from the lopsided scorelines of the last two matches, but who came through for nz? you already knew this - carlos spencer. he scored 14 of the 19 points with penalty kicks and a conversion, and his game seems to be coming around right in time for the world cup. which perhaps is why my referrer log is jammed up with searches for:

carlos+spencer
carlos+spencer+naked
carlos+spencer+toffee+pops
carlos+spencer+wife
carlos+spencer+photographs
carlos+spencer+pictures
carlos+spencer+jpg

so, to those of you coming here looking for carlos spencer naked: i'm very sorry. after months of intense negotiation i have been unable to get carlos naked, and if i did, i would certainly not make him available to the general population.

for anyone looking for information about toffee pops, the delicious cookies made popular in a very sexy ad featuring carlos spencer: if you aren't lucky enough to live in nz, you can buy them online and have them shipped anywhere in the world. but if you know someone who can send you some, even better, because the alternative varieties are the best - i like the dark chocolate ones, and the extreme pops are good, too.

if you are looking for information about carlos spencer having a wife, unfortunately that is not being provided here. carlos is always single on this site.

you might find some carlos spencer pictures elsewhere on this site. none today. ok, one.

finally, i have had some queries regarding the lack of poetry to accompany the important nz win over aussie and now over the recent victory. to explain, i would have to refer you back to the previous poetry and point out a certain joy the author found in pointing out the struggles that carlos was having with his kicking game. as mr. spencer's performance improves, the poet's inspiration seems to grow weaker. i think he wants to love carlos, but sometimes it is hard for a man.

besides, auckland poet-cops are very busy.

Posted by ash at 06:17 PM

August 06, 2003
32

darling roommate has a birthday today. he doesn't like being in the age bracket above mine, while i've been running towards it with open arms for, well, ages. we moved in together right around his 25th birthday, when i was 22. that's a long time for us to not be able to agree on a chore list, isn't it?

happy day, mike.

Posted by ash at 12:58 PM

August 03, 2003
Oregon Trail

last week i headed west to oregon, one of my favorite places to visit. you may recall that i was only five days or so from moving there last august before something kicked in and... well, i'm still here.

i spent a few days in eugene, driving over into the cascades one day and to the coast on another. any time i visit the western states there seems to be a big forest fire burning, which fascinates me, so i drove out to look for signs of the lowell burn while i was there.

you can view some photos from my trip here. you may or may not find them interesting.

Posted by ash at 11:40 PM

August 01, 2003
Politics

i can never recall hearing so much about a presidential election this far in advance in years past. maybe i just haven't paid attention. i am forced to pay attention this time because darling roommate is working on the local howard dean campaign. and man, is he amped for dean! i went to a single event with him, and i have to admit that howard dean is an extremely charismatic man. i don't think we fall along the same ideologic lines, though.

neal pollack made me laugh when he said:

"I also wish I could go back in time and stop Howard Dean from declaring his Presidential candidacy. The Democratic Leadership Council is right. How dare Dr. Dean attempt drag the party to the left by criticizing the President and declaring the need to adopt modest health-insurance reforms? Is the man insane? Or is he just crazy? I've said it before and I will say it again: The Democrats should disband, just as the Bull Moose Party and the Whigs did before them. I'd buy 1,000 shares in that future."

if only there were a howard dean of the right, who would bring the republicans back to their roots, reminding people that the strength of a country lies with the individual and that free enterprise and individual initiative are the only path to economic success. people implicitly know that the best goverment is the smallest government, the government that interferes the least, that provides for people only the most critical functions which cannot reasonably be performed by individuals themselves or by private enterprise. this is the essence of the republican party, and it has been hijacked by the religious zealots who have made it about all about intolerance and interference. as it is, i think it is time for the republican party as we know it to disband, as well. it really is time for something new. every four years it's the best of a lot of bad choices.

Posted by ash at 10:14 AM