March 2006 Archives

Mark Crispin Miller gave an impassioned, persuasive, and deeply unsettling keynote address at the Communication in Crisis conference held at UMass-Amherst today.

He focused on the findings contained in his new book, Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They'll Steal the Next One Too. I followed some of the controversy as it was covered by Tom Atlee of The Co-Intelligence Institute. Miller presents a compelling array of "copious evidence" that touchscreen voting is a major culprit of vote fraud, and discusses the fear and denial driving major political figures and the media in general to avoid this most crucial fact of our times.

Anuj parachuted in just in time to wave at Don before the movie began. (I received the clandestine codes: spongecell and backpack. shhh)

"There's something hidden in the long, static closing shot of Cache—a clue, an answer, a red herring, an epiphany. It's embedded deep, somewhere back in the shadows—or, perhaps, it's right up front, hiding in plain sight. It vastly alters everything that preceded it, demanding a total reevaluation of the film—or it just further complicates this already profoundly inscrutable mystery. It is a conclusion both languidly drawn out and violently abrupt, stunning in its simplicity, infuriating in its opacity."

It kept me tense, that's for sure. Was the entire movie made for one scene? And who made the videos? Why does it matter who made the videos? Majid is dead. Is he dead because of the videos or for another reason? Why now? Re-traumatization after he obviously had managed to make a life for himself? or is the point what hell wreaks itself upon a guilty conscience? Is it better to whet one's soul on the sharp edge of guilt or pass let it pass disinterested into the maw of forgotten memory?

What was hidden, besides a guilty conscience? A possibly illicit attraction? A nation's neglect of an immigrant population?

I wondered about the boy whose house Pierrot winds up at overnight, unannounced. I thought it was him (Francois?) engaged in animated conversation with Pierrot on the school steps in the final scene but apparently it was Majid's son: "The last shot in the film is of his son and the son of Moroccan man who once lived with the protagonist as a child." Did they plot together? A younger generation in cross-ethnic alliance against the deeply-buried sins of their parents?

To cap the undecidable weirdness of the evening, as we walked to the car afterwards, a young man with wild hair and clothing strikingly akin to Pierrot's strolled by in the cool spring-ish night air. We had just been talking about ghosts . . .

My interpreting teammate, "Wanda," kinda upset me today. There are object lessons all the way around! First, I should've spoken up but was in some kinda 'mood', so I didn't. Second, I could have trusted that the universe would 'get even' with or without my assistance, but by then I was fuming . Third, none of it mattered anyway - at least not in the grand scheme of things.

What happened? (Sounds kinda dramatic, doesn't it?!) I was waylaid en route to the job by one of the leaders (not deaf) telling me about a videotape to be shown that my team interpreter had suggested we could take turns viewing in advance (during the job). I inquired about some of the particulars. Audio challenges, of various sorts. Yeah, a preview would help, but was it necessary? Of course, she was just trying to be responsive to previous feedback that it is really helpful for interpreters to be able to preview uncaptioned videos.

Then I entered the room and Wanda told me the same thing. There was a video and we should take turns previewing it.

I was annoyed.

The news filters through, maybe, if one actually listens to or watches the local or national news. There might be a quick quip on the morning radio during rush hour. Independent journalists in Belarus have been arrested, at best.

"... Argentineans have overwhelmingly rejected violence and demonstrated a commitment to peaceful solutions."

A student in my Mass Media class at UNH, Kirk will be presenting on alternative media in class soon. The excerpt above comes from Left Turn: Notes from the Global Intifada.

I'm curious about the history of the press's name, when, why and how did they choose intifada?

Here's a cogently argued critique of the conservative bias that seems to permeate the film.

Also posted (as a comment) are excerpts from UNH-Manchester students' quality reflections on the film.

Right in time for the Censure hearings this Friday, some mass media outlets finally change their tune.

"White House Memo" Drives a Stake into the Heart of White House Lies

Bob Fertik writes, "Something remarkable happened Monday: the Corporate Media finally got sick of Bush's endless lies about Iraq, and started to tell the truth. The immediate cause was a front-page New York Times story about the "White House Memo," which proved Bush was determined to invade Iraq no matter what. Now we have reached a turning point in our "long march" for Truth. Everyone in the world knows in their heart that Bush lied. Soon everyone will say it out loud: Bush Lied. When millions of Americans say those two simple words - and the media finally joins us - Bush's reign of fear will come to a crashing halt. Let's make that happen now."

Truth Seeping Through Media After Ten Months
David Swanson writes, "There is something about this week that feels better than the average one for bringing a child into the world. I have hope that others will have hope, and that this will let them press hard for action. And there is something about bringing a child into the world that makes me want to push harder for a full measure of truth, and not be satisfied with the thrill of seeing bits of truth squeeze through. Someone said: He not busy being born, is busy dying. That certainly goes for democracies."

My state gets into the action and other news follows:

Not only is the French public up in arms about changes to their system of employment security, immigrants in California are also challenging new restrictions.

The Oglala Sioux in South Dakota have committed to open an abortion clinic on the Pine Ridge Reservation to enable women to have abortions in this state which just passed the most restrictive anti-abortion laws since Roe v. Wade.

Arthur Rimbaud makes an appearance in a song lyric I recently included in a homemade playlist.

I do not, however, draw too direct a parallel with the referenced tumultuos relationship nor overmuch resemblance to the love letters.

Still...it hasn't been exactly happy. :-/

Here's another item I'm sure I've posted before but obviously didn't catalog or code correctly for later retrieval. At any rate, I saw this short video on the powers of ten when I interpreted a science class some years back for upper elementary school students (possibly fifth-graders). I find it a useful metaphor for this notion of social metonymy that I keep trying to articulate as a means of linking the microsocial with the macrosocial and vice-versa.

I know I've posted this info before but can't seem to locate it. Anyway, I'm doing my best to get to this cultural studies conference in Istanbul this summer...

My main exposure to theatre is from running the lights for a few high school plays and musicals. This one is priced out of my league, but sure sounds intriguing, at least as described in this NY Times review.

The playwright, David Hare, says, "How powerless intelligence is against cunning really is one of the themes of the play." Which reminds of V for Vendetta, the movie adaptation of which I saw - and very much enjoyed - with Viera and her son last night. In it, cunning based on raw political power meets cunning of a more intuitive sort: "There are no coincidences," asserts V.

I am no doubt attracted as well to the revolutionary message of resisting corrupt and/or oppressive government, and appreciate the mediated re-creation of The Gunpowder Plot as an homage to the idealism of Guy Fawkes rather than ideological patriotism of saving the King.

The superb activists at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, are organizing this event and have already listed it in wikipedia.

There is a listing of daily events, history, and explanatory material.

Mission Statement: "Tent State University (TSU) is a week-long, outdoor university with open classes, workshops, forums and cultural activities shaped by students, workers and community members. TSU calls for equal access to education and it creates an example of what a university should be: a democratically controlled public space that brings together diverse groups to exchange ideas, art, and culture."

It's just a minor driving issue. Turning left from the right-hand lane. My current protege is quite casual about it. I'm calmer too, after surviving Korean driving lessons last year, the Romanian version seems like old hat.

We did pass through the infamous Hun Ju intersection. A full vehicle stop occurred in its proper place.

I love her work. She's the only SF author I've read who had humanity lose to aliens. Our Achilles' heel? The instinct for hierarchy.

Everything is the way it is because everything was the way it was.

Did some research on honeybees this past week and found the Latin, Hymenoptera Apis mellifera.

I'm wondering about etymology of hymen, because Derrida plays with its inside/outside doubled nature. It appears to have only minimal crossover from referring to a thin skin or membrane to ... the wings of a genus of insects.

Honeybees have two kinds of dances to indicate the location of food: the round dance and the waggle dance. Waggling (!) involves fixing the coordinates of the sun with the hive and the pollen. Awesome.

Ruth sends this:

Courage, it would seem, is nothing less than the power to overcome danger, misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm inwardly that life with all its sorrows is good; that everything is meaningful even if in a sense beyond our understanding; and that there is always tomorrow. - DOROTHY THOMPSON

Missing from among the other quotes on courage is this one from Amelia Earhart:

"Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace."

Until we are able to scatter Sam's ashes as he requested, over the Connecticutt River Valley, they remain in a vase that belonged to his mother.

Linguistic sustainability: a forum and article on pluralism... by Albert Bastardas i Boada.

There's been a discussion about using more than just English on the AoIR listserv. I missed several messages, might be worth finding them all and seeing if other reference sources have been mentioned. Fascinating discussion in and of itself.

Muslim women challenging conservative Islam by engaging in activities traditionally reserved for men; and simultaneously challenging conservative North American ethnocentrism by wearing the veil.

Is the hajib only/always about ideology?

Themes: freedom (what to wear, when, how), gender, and identity. The feeling isn't against 'the West', but it is about cultural imperialism: when the West tries to assert that it is a 'neutral' culture.

As James and I have discussed and theorized the role of time in group interaction, I think a PM might come down to the incursion of a diachronic element into the synchronic. As long as the ritual elements of an essentially linear unfoldment of moment-after-moment occurs as expected (familiar) then synchronicity secures enough stability and predictability that one can exercise various forms of control (over self, over an interaction, over a process, perhaps even over an outcome). When the synchronic is disrupted by the diachronic, however, unpredictability and instability emerge, threatening the established order. [I'm not sure "order" here must necessarily invoke power; it could just be regularity, routine.]

Hmmmmm, it could be that diachronic emergences at the individual level are able to be subsumed into 'the routine' - even if they are disruptive to the group - and thus don't constitute a problematic moment at the level of the group's operational constitution. But if there is a synchronicity of diachrony among several members then it becomes a group-level event, which necessarily evokes the power structure and calls it into question?

There might be some equation between the scale of perceived threat and the intensity of backlash....

This is a strong opinion piece about a strategy for dealing seriously - and potentially effectively - with Iran's nuclear threat. Ms. Mathews offers an insightful critique of present schisms within the Bush administration that undermine US credibility with other nations, thus providing openings for the Iranian government to duck and wheedle their way to continued nuclear development and the disconcerting prospect of more war.

It's hard to imagine there's a person with any access to media who hasn't seen the original Star Wars movie, Episode IV, A New Hope, released (ohmygosh) in 1977 (six technical Oscars). I saw it in the theatre six times. The only other movie I've seen so many times is Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Its reviews are awful, but the album by The Beatles "is often cited as the most influential rock album of all time," according to Wikipedia.

Perhaps parody? I'm still trying to sort these out. This new old-style animated show might be an excellent site for learning these distinctions. Minoriteam is styled (at least aesthetically) after my own favorite comic book author, Jack Kirby. I so loved the Fantastic Four, Captain America and the Falcon, the X-Men, and others. More a Marvel gal than a DC fan, I was.

List of things to work on:

1) Get new phone/ repair old phone...SOON
2) Do not read paper sent about a month ago
3) Request current version of paper
4) Plan trip to Columbus
5) Train cat
6) Stay well and happy
7) Learn to cook. Cook for friend
8) Continue being a pain in friend's butt
9) Call friend

Dan's on to me. "You don't come to bowl, you just come to collect stories for your blog!" Then he went on to set a personal best. He continued by speculating that blogs are the trainspotting of the decade, with someone checking in on how Anuj does every week. (He's been doing better and better! Not only at bowling: check out his latest minute of fame! He's way high on the cool factor too.) Turkish did not repeat her record performance from last week. Alas. LB couldn't hit a spare to save his life but did still win a game or two, much to the dismay of the brothers who felt the need to record one of his lowest scores ever.
Not that there's any rivalry beyond outright sabotage.

a poem by Ursula Leguin, in Always Coming Home

I don't care if I am possible.
What are the bridges between us?

The only one I can't find to download, poo!:

I love Life by Melissa Lefton.

Will we have a repeat? Last week's record 153* (frantically tied by LB as he desperately sought to stave off this dark horse competitor) was roundly cheered by all. The regulars were all there (not the full extended crowd), mixing it up on Goth night - shifted from the dance club across the way because of a competing event. I truly thought I'd jumped dimensions when I walked in to the black lights, strobes, and fashion nightmares (and you think I dress poorly?!?): "It is still Tuesday, right?" I confirmed with the staff. A couple of times. :-)

"Many physicists today say the waves that symbolize quantum possibilities are so fragile they collapse with the slightest encounter with their environment."

This is the central point of a fairly scathing critique of What the Bleep, Down the Rabbit Hole, the successor to the first badly made, overly proselytizing What the Bleep film about quantum physics and consciousness.

The point is that connections (a.k.a. dialectics?), as shown more in "I heart Huckabees" are the roots of structure, rather than any configuration of disparate elements. I would argue, though, that fragility in and of itself doesn't rule out the possibility of intentional change. It does rule out the possibility of controlled or directed change: outcomes might be probable but they are never, ever certain, most especially in human affairs.

Wouldn't you know that Wikipedia has a link on discourse? :-) I followed some of the debate on the Association of Internet Researchers Listserv (last fall). There was a strong bias to traditional sources. Not because they're traditional (which doesn't hurt) but because of the peer review process (which has plenty of its own problems, eh?). I came down on the side of allowing students to use online sources for data and as a beginning for research, but that "facts" should be verified through an academic library.

Then I read the Wired 14.03 ping by Joi Ito, who said:

"People can't distinguish, it seems, between describing dissent and being dissent." Celia Farber, journalist for Harper's, in an article about the link between HIV and AIDS, which she reports is questioned by some.

I've no clue about that debate, but I do know that publicly voicing concerns about possible disagreements is punishable. How to pursue a line of critique without succumbing to personally-directed aggression is the challenge. I've actually managed some humor this time around, trying to enact Burke's comic frame instead of the tragic one. We did it in Stephen's class some time back, when Shannon presented on defamiliarization. In particular I'll repeat the quote on perception; it uses vision as a metaphor:

"Humans, too, are victims of selective blindness. We often fail to see things around us because they are too familiar and seem to convey no new information, or because we are focusing our attention elsewhere. We don't know nearly enough about attention though it's a vital survival function. Visual attention seems to be a pair of processes. The first, the process of focusing on a stimulus or idea, has received a lot of research. The other equally important process involves concurrent decisions about which stimuli to ignore. Let me emphasize that. Visual attention is always partly, and often largely, selective blindness to other stimuli considered to be irrelevant at the moment" (from How a Poet Sees).

Now, why does Nietzsche (or the translator?) need to use this word, acroamatic oral would suffice? Is it because he needs to emphasize both the speaking (oral) and hearing (auditory)? Or because it is confined only to the Aristotelian method? But what delineates this mode as necessarily esoteric?

Derrida clarifies (if it can be called that!): "Abstraction itself: the ear can close itself off and contact can be suspended because the omphalos of a disjointed body ties it to a dissociated segment of the father" (1985:36). Ok, the omphalos here is the scar where the umbilical cord used to be attached. Is he arguing (metaphorically) that the ability to 'turn off listening' is an act of death/dying comparable to cutting the umbilical cord to one's mother, a.k.a. "life"? And, therefore, that this ability (to not listen) is only possible through some "tie" to a similarly-scarred feature of male parentage/parenting?

(The whole mother-father dichotomy is so riddled with heterosexuality I find it somewhat awkward to wrap my head around.)

Derrida argues that Nietzsche borrowed his fame in advance (took on a debt) by extending credit to his name. He argues the unfixability of the date of the signing of this loan despite the fact that Nietzsche did date and sign "an outwork, an hors d'oeuvre,, an exergue or a flysheet whose topos, like (its) temporality, strangely dislocates the very thing that we, with our untroubled assurance, would like to think of as the time of life and the time of life's récit, of the writing of life by the living – in short, the time of autobiography” (11).

The whole passage puts in mind of that song about the Cherokee: Indian Reservation.

I mentioned reading Derrida (slowly); his subject is Nietzsche (slower still). "...do we hear, do we understand each other already with another ear?" (1985:35).

Derrida is discussing the inversion of Nietzsche into Naziism, in which "what passes elsewhere for the 'same' utterance says exactly the opposite and corresponds instead to the inverse, to the reactive inversion of the very thing it mimes" (30). He goes on to discuss how language is always "the double of the other", that "the one can always be the other" (32).

So, I wonder, with what "ear" have I been heard by colleagues in the CGSA? If it was the opposite, the double, the other of what I meant, then I'd have to flip the Bahktinian schematic around the other way. In other words, from my peers vantage point, *I* operate as "the centrifugal force" pushing us apart while they reflect back to me the centripetal forces they perceive pulling us together. This might be one reason why translation has been so arduous - coming from different 'centers', as it were?

A study on this show where "blacks" and "whites" trade places would be fascinating.

Which side will you be on? Since the successes of the New Deal - when all of the US safety nets were put in place to protect people from abject poverty and unions secured benefits for workers - management, owners, and stockholders have worked to dismantle the laws that structure these mechanisms which enable the vaunted individual "pursuit of happiness".

The assault on worker's rights has gathered momentum since the 1980s. When will the tide turn? Now, according to the NY Times, labor leaders are being equated to some of the worst political characters in history through the commercial battleground of advertising.

Dr. Wafa Sultan is an inspiration. I hope she is right about having "walked the first and hardest 10 miles."

Note to self: when most confident, be most wary of unrecognized assumptions.

I did think, going into the Communication Graduate Student Association meeting yesterday, that the handouts were practically self-explanatory. I had distributed the first handout the day before in order to jog people's memories of the brainstorming session in December. I covered it very fast (time limit) and moved into the second handout, which I also covered quickly.

I was then pulled under by the discursive currents with the very first comment. I do not remember who spoke, or what was said, except that I was instantly fighting for my life. I felt desperate and appeared as such, speaking with increased volume, intense diction, and sweeping generalizations. My attempt to pull (to bind centripetal forces in a formal procedure) and others' (centrifugal) countering pushes thickened the borderzone where “a group” is constituted. I was sucked deep into the maelstrom.

It took a while for me to re-establish the kind of balance necessary to float, to be relaxed enough to trust that my head was going to stay above water.

Viewing (again) the MEF video on Stuart Hall, Race: The Floating Signifier, in the intro to mass media course. Hall says the only way to move out of racism (and, by implication, other "isms") is to enact right practices, because outcomes can never be guaranteed (no matter how much we might wish such could be the case).

from Kathang Pinay's blog:

"Stuart Hall is famous for saying that we must practice a “politics without guarantee” because we can and must not rely on the guarantees formerly provided by religion, science, and anthropology to secure our sense of comfort in the world; that these are the very same ideologies that cemented the racial, ethnic, sex and gender, and class divisions in the modern world. But a “politics without guarantee” must always be a politics of critique of hegemony and injustice. Part of the injustice in U.S. culture is the invisibility of the privileges of race, ethnicity (white), sex and gender (straight), and class (elite) – they are invisible because they remain unmarked, and I suspect, not usually a part of the discussion of aesthetics or poetics from the postmodern perspective. When a postcolonial person calls attention to this invisibility, one may be instantly accused of politicizing poetry and therein the machinations of power begin the work of silencing."

Hall elaborates upon W.E.B. DuBois' statement about "the grosser physical differences of color, hair and bone". Here is a powerful presentation defending affirmative action.

When my team, "Wanda" glanced at me uncertainly and signed what she thought she heard, I immediately cast my attention into short-term memory: what had I just heard? I thought I'd heard, "making the visible invisible" but what I saw signed was the other way around, making the invisible visible. Shoot! Did it matter? Was it a crucial concept? Could I ask to clarify? The speaker went on, so did Wanda. I perseverated. When and how could I ask? Should I ask or let it go?

Last week we'd had a moment where we had both misheard a term in the same way. "Kenyan" did not seem to fit the situation, but then again - this group regularly (several times a day) refered to a wide range of ethnicities and nationalities; it could have been a new example that interpreters weren't familiar with but members of the group knew. We'd let it go until after the meeting....and then the speaker couldn't remember the context (and neither could we, fixated only on what the single word might have sounded like instead of the context in which it was said).

I admit, I was elated when Crash won the Best Picture Oscar. Some colleagues and I discussed it, with readings ranging from "most conservative" to "inspiring". It was interesting to hear one of the recipients thank the Academy for honoring this "movie about tolerance".

This New York Times article credits the setting (Los Angeles) and the independence of the Academy for Crash's surprise win. What struck me, is it was the only nominated film about contemporary times. While themes from the other Best Picture candidates resonate today - homophobia, McCarthyesque repression, addiction, terrorism - only Crash located itself in our era. While this may or may not have been a factor in the way votes were cast, it pleases me that current affairs were chosen over historical reenactments.

I was asked (!) to write a summary of my ongoing interpreting research for a sign language interpreter's journal in the United Kingdom in which I would discuss similarities and differences between spoken and sign language interpreter's experiences. I've hammered out a first draft but am lost for a conclusion. I need help! I've written to an audience of "insiders" - but I hope it is understandable to non-interpreters as well. I would love any and all feedback regarding clarity. What will help the most, right now, is if you would share with me your thoughts and reactions to what I've written. Do you agree/disagree? Does it lead you to certain questions or help bring a particular dilemma into view? I'm honestly curious about whatever comes to your mind while considering about what I've written.

The framework I'm writing from - my research lens - is critical discourse analysis. I don't explain that here at all (that's for the dissertation).

Thanks. :-)

Second lesson today. Ten degree improvement in 20 minutes. Supposedly (!), this means my "psychological system is very elastic". With practice, I ought to be able to warm my hands at will, regardless of external (or internal) stressors: this is known as field independence. This paper by Musser places field independence/dependence firmly within cognitive studies and examines its affects on learning.

These definitions seem limited - bounded by the assumptions of cognitive science. They are useful, in context. My first association of the term, field independence, is with Gestalt theory and group relations, particularly the ability to self-authorize.

Rethinking Marxism will hold it's 6th annual conference at UMass next fall.

I'm not the only one who noticed: "And This Year's Oscar Goes to ... a Movie That Takes a Stand."

The official obituary for Sam appeared this weekend in the Brattleboro Reformer. It is also printed in the local paper in Longmont, Colorado.

Most of my visits with him over the last three years are recorded here. A timeline of major events in his life is here.

"Beliefs that do not stand on our best reasons and evidence simply dangle in thin air, signifying nothing except our transient feelings or personal preferences" (3). How to Think About Weird Things (except I've got the Third Edition).
Magic

We celebrated a friend's new job last night. It will be very interesting to watch the future unfold!

We were again a more subdued group of rapscallions last night at La Guarida, taking in Johnny Cash and June Carter's story via the Oscar-nominated Walk the Line. Did we like it? I'd say the general mood was, 'it was ok', but perhaps that's just my take? Not being familiar with Cash's music, I was introduced to him and his music at the same time. Talk about moody! His affinity with the criminals in Folsom Prison was a bit disconcerting - not because of his recognition of their humanity, but because he seemed to enjoy a vicarious violence through association. Not that he came across as a particularly gentle guy...

La Guarida's head honcho took a significant risk leaving seven of us untended in his lair. No doubt he was relieved to find his easel still standing. Celebration was in the air as someone passed her comps!!!! I wouldn't say anyone was eager to leave afterwards, although when it became common knowledge that the witching hour had been passed there was a concerted effort at departure.

Next week...a comedy?

What the heck is CHEA? Which got added to the chalkboard today. Or chea chea, as it has appeared in the writing class's wiki?

The wiki is not quite ready for a full public unveiling, but perhaps by the end of next week...?

Meanwhile, some students clearly have not laughed enough, or hard enough, having apparently never snorted a drink out of their nose. I wonder if any of them have the rarer talent of blowing a beverage out of their eye? [No demonstrations, thanks.]

Now we're starting to get somewhere! Amanda and Chantel gave me a boatload of grief for taking so long to learn their names. Rich and I mudwrestled our way through a series of generalizations and imprecise language to a driving metaphor (his) about politics: the right and left wings are like the right and left tires keeping a car going in one direction. What was Adam's quip about the motorcycle? :-)

I want to clarify the concept of canalization, which is a broader term that can be used in many situations, not only technically in advertising (as I said in class): in general, it is management through specified channels of communication. My second thoughts on Rich's driving metaphor are still that "canalization" is not exactly what the political extremes "do" (their large scale function)in their interaction with each other. If my own thinking is clear, canalization refers to situations where communication (language, media) is used to deepen values or attitudes, whereas the notion of tires bounding or directing the "steering" is more a matter (function) of containment.

Meanwhile, Kirk has Carey's definition of communication down. :-) This essay compares and contrasts Carey's definition with that of Stuart Hall.

That was the birthday boy, trailing his balloon parrot down the bowling lane. It was an eventful night, with two personal all-time highs: Anuj, spinning 147, and Zeynep with a 122. Lava had a turkey and he and Luscious both had four baggers. Lava actually rolled five strikes in a row (there was a game break) and had an 8 frame streak with 7 strikes and 1 spare. (Ok. I admit it. I was impressed.)

Someone(s) contributed quite actively to this week's notes, editing, drawing, revising, and altering the codes to obscure their originally intended meaning. The uncertainty this inspired occurred simultaneously with the recounting of an earthquake dream resulting in sleepwalking. "We have earthquakes all the time in my country - 'Get out of the house!'" Don's need to publish a paper continues to trump blog-updating. They don't make cup sizes large enough for 9 pounders. (Welcome to my world.)

Bowling continued, per usual. "It's my hair," when things didn't go quite as one planned. "Be humble," when you get a strike (as if!) When trouble begins to loom (not that it would, not with us), "I don't speak the language." There were a few fingerpuppet associations. I was the monkey, in desperate need of advice from the parrot. The elephant whipped our butts in game one but moaned that I'd scored higher than him in later games (not new!) There was the frog that roared, the goose/swan that wanted to be a duck, the panda (or was it polar?) bear, gopher, and lion (chosen for being of the feline persuasion).

The lion was selected by the birthday boy, affectionately known as poonte, who may have been a tad bit overoiled for the evening's serious competition. I mean, come on! Luscious actually catapulted Lava right through the air onto his back! This was after Lava had tossed a 10-lb bowling ball at me and before he nearly knocked the b'day boy over and the two practically wound up in a wrestling match. [Note: bowling is a non-contact sport.]

Any gender confusion at the bowling alley was left there when we moved to the Iron Horse for salsa. I received a number of good lessons and a showing-up by the birthday boy himself in terms of knee-dexterity. I had a serious problem bowling straight tonight, but I was a good foil for dancing. I mean, how much trouble could a guy get into if he was dancing with me?