Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. The name of the village probably derives from a small stream, called the Gote, that once flowed through it
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So, I was listening to my voice mail messages, something I do every Ash Wednesday, and a lady from the local library said “we hear that you’re a poet, and we’re having an arts night and would like you to read and bring your books to sign if you’d like”. I have no idea how they know I’m a poet, though I’m probably the most famous poet in Longmont. Which isn’t saying much, I know, it’s not like our most famous fiction author, who would be Dan Simmons, who has written crime, fantasy and scifi books and has won the Hugo and the Nebula awards. Anyway, I need to call the library person back, or maybe just ride my bike down there, it’s less than a mile away. I also need to tell her that I don’t have a book, I just have 50 or 60 literary journals with my poems in them, and I could bring those if she’d like. I should go read for them and invite all my biking friends who have NO idea that I’m also a poet, in fact I’m not sure they know much about me except that I can almost keep up with them on long rides. It’s like my neighbor who for years thought my occupation was a parts distributor, or the lady at the liquor store who always calls me Peter.
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White Castle to offer wine. I don’t know what to say.
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I got an email from Barnes & Noble (because I have a registered Nook) that a new book was available called Linsanity, The Improbable Rise of Jeremy Lin. OK, it’s an eBook, but still, it’s only been like 3 weeks since Lin took the country by storm.
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Remember the Diva’s performance in Fifth Element? Listen.
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I decided that I was getting VERY BORING watching old episodes of things I’d already watched and also old movies. Other than the MSNBC political shows for an hour or two, I only watch an hour of TV a day probably. So, why not try something new, I thought. It seems like hundreds and hundreds of shows have passed me by in the last 10-15 years when I was either writing poetry or making dinner for the kids or I don’t know what. People are always asking me if I liked Lost or Deadwood or The West Wing or 30 Rock and I always say, “well, I actually haven’t seen them” and I get this incredulous look from them. So, I am going to use my Roku and Amazon Prime subscription and Netflix-8-bucks-a-month streaming service and try one episode of various programs. Yesterday morning, I awoke bright as a daisy at 3 AM, so it was the perfect time to try it. I picked one random show, Red Dwarf, a British comedy from the 90′s that had a laugh track and everything. There is this technician with dreadlocks on a gigantic space freighter who comes out of statis-punishment 3 million years in the future and all his shipmates are dead, except another technician who is a hologram, and his cat, which has evolved over the years to a well-dressed man who looks and moves like James Brown and a computer with an IQ of 6000. It was pretty funny and I watched 2 episodes. Next up was Arrested Development, which I have to admit, was very funny and I watched 2 episodes of that (there’s always money in the banana stand). Any suggestions of what to watch next?
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What phones looked like before and after the iPhone.
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How rainfall dissipates energy: “All the same, the total global total rate of energy dissipation from precipitation is around 10^15 watts, about 100 times the rate at which humans consume energy worldwide.”
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An interesting, believable, if blistering article on Jobs:
There once lived one of those really obstinate assholes who will constantly tell you he couldn’t change his assholic ways if it killed him. It killed him.
There once lived a pathological liar who convinced the world his particular habits of lying were the foundation of his astonishing business success. That turned out to be a lie.
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Surprisingly, the cost per voter of campaign spending hasn’t varied that much over the years.
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I was doing a rough count of people’s names on Facebook:
Jeffery Bahr: 3
Richard Epstein: lots
Rebecca Loudon: 10
Frank Matagrano: 2
Patricia Lockwood: dozens
Erin-Ally Viel: 1
Watch more of Arrested Development. Watch all of it. Any Twin Peaks available to you? I think it’s the best television ever had to offer. And Arrested Development comes in a close second.
“Watch more of Arrested Development” : I DID, like 15 in a row, starting at 3 in the morning, and finally stopped in mid-morning to go up to the mountains. It’s worse than addictive. I’ve never seen Twin Peaks either, I’ll try it! Thanks, dear.
Of course none of them is the real Richard Epstein. But you knew that.
RHE: Actually, I was surprised I only lots instead of megalots.
Rebecca: Just watched 4 of season 2 with Bob BlawBlaw and Charlize Theron and was scaring the cat by laughing out loud so much.
I’m always singing this to my son MR F!