Happy Halloween everyone! Get out there and have fun!

<3, DNC Cat

While I was jogging today I was listening to a song with a piano intro, and I remembered something from an old Simpsons episode. Lisa is listening to a violinist play, and a man complains about the music; Lisa replies, "you have to listen to the notes she's not playing." I noticed that the song was more beautiful because I found myself filling in notes in my head that were missing in the playing: the remaining notes in a chord, or resolving a line with the key the song is written in. Knowing more about music now and being able to pick out patterns, I could hear notes that weren't there, and the song was that much better for hinting at the notes and letting you fill in the rest. Just like that line in the episode I saw many years ago. It stuck with me because I never understood it. Until now.

Art works the same way. Drawings are just concepts of reality. An artist uses a line, or a shade, or a color, to imply something real, and to evoke thought and feeling. Graphite on paper is suddenly so much more. Yet the artist uses only lines and shades, colors and shapes. The viewer sees something more by taking what is implied and filling in the rest with their mind.

Why is something even more beautiful when it's incomplete, when the details are implied but not stated, when we are urged to fill in the rest? I liken this concept to the first moments of falling in love. You know just enough about the other person to intrigue you. You see their outline; the rest is still a mystery. And yet, you fill in the gaps in your head, and what you fill in is perfection; because what you imagine will always be what you wish to see. The person becomes more than what they are, and the result is beautiful: defined in truth, refined in imagination.

Art, music, love, science, life... when the walls separating these come down, we transcend.

Are you stuck on what to dress up as for Halloween?

You can be Domo!

Sex, Germs, and Worms

The grad student mailing list gets info for presentations happening on campus. This one caught my eye for the silly title.. but how can you go wrong with the pic of the nomming lemur?? Too cute. Reminds me of our friends at EATM (remember James? good times k!)


It got chilly today- only hit 65. Beautiful cuddle weather. Alas...

So many things to tell you. So many years I missed. You wanted to be just like me; do you still, after all these years? Or did your dreams vanish when I did?
The person you've grown into, the person I've become.. someday, sister, we will meet again, for the first time.

Another funny story.

I was in the car with a group of Mormon friends who were all singing along to the radio. "Brown-Eyed Girl" came on, and they all loved the song so they started singing it really loud. Well, it got to the line "making love in the green grass," and the entire car went from singing to *dead* silence. It was like synchronized prudeness. Bahahahahaa~

Highlight of the evening: as we were walking back from the club, a guy passed by and oogled some girls in front of us, saying "hey girrrrrrl" as he spun around to stare... then kept spinning and fell right over a bush into the street. LOLtastic drunken stupid guys make me smile.

You would think that this would be easy after all these years. Reminds me of this cartoon...

Thankfully none of the guys are quite that odd. Engineers are pretty cool actually. I still think a friend was right though when he said he couldn't date other engineers because he needs balance in his life. Sure, I can talk to these guys all day about classes and research and the Stokes paradox. But dating someone with a completely different perspective of life keeps me open and interested. The dates this weekend are mostly for fun, but I'll still keep an eye out for the musician/track athlete of my dreams (thanks Laura.. haha).

Meteor shower tonight at 1 am (any time zone). You know I'll be out there~

Johnny Cooper - Follow release party at Billy Bob's Texas

A very nice compilation of the big Dallas show my ex's band played a few months back. Great bunch of guys, and they played a great show. Toward the end you can even see a couple seconds of me. It was an amazing night; bittersweet, but lots of good memories.

I know enough about many things to know that I don't know anything.

Apparently the cool new way to ask someone out is to not even bother. A guy asked to borrow my phone today, made a couple calls, then texted me later on. He must have called his own number to get mine in his phone. LOL. Gutsy. Lazy, and sorta creepy, but gutsy.

Today I drove the same path we followed on our adventure so many years before. I was reminded of your uncanny ability to have the strangest things happen in your presence; not because you seek them out, nor because they are drawn to you, but because the two cannot seem to exist without each other.

At rare times I find myself tantalizingly close to an intangible truth, that there is something profoundly important about all of this. Usually I'm just numbed by the sheer madness of it all.

Push onward and fight. One step closer every day. Never lose sight of what you want. Live without regrets, laugh much, and love endlessly.

This video gives me a nerdgasm every time. Simply gorgeous, aside from the silly beginning, it was beautifully done (and makes me almost like Auto tune). If you don't know who Carl Sagan is, youtube has some of the old Cosmos episodes that are very worth watching.

Carl Sagan Auto-tuned 'A Glorious Dawn'



The cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths
Of exquisite interrelationships of the awesome machinery of nature

After all that we've been through, after all this time
I'm coming home to you.

A recent conversation with a former professor I worked with on environmental engineering projects brought something to my attention. I told him about my current computer situation as a hard-working grad student (two gaming-quality computers running 24/7 sharing a sweet 24" monitor), and I realized that my choices may not be the most environmentally friendly for a student of sustainability.

To help dispel this incorrect assumption, I would like to take a moment to discuss the sustainable lifestyle.

Most of my food is cooked using a microwave (bachelorette food) that is low-wattage (cheapest I could find). Instead of eating greenhouse gas-producing meats such as beef, I make smarter choices (ramen) and never waste food (give leftovers to the cats).

Aside from the computers, my electricity usage is both smart and responsible. By not having TV (too cheap) and keeping lights off when not needed (gamers can see in the dark!), I more than offset any energy used by other technology (er.. we're not including the new power supply, right?).

My commute every day to work is short (found a cheap apartment near the school) and uses little gas (still driving the old honda). I avoid making trips to help conserve gas and produce less pollution (why leave the apartment when I have computers?).

It is my hope that by leading an environmentally-friendly, sustainable life, I can inspire others through my good example.

A very dear friend of mine moved halfway around the world for true love (risqué only because just moving across the country for someone is like, so last year). If all else failed, I figured, at the very least she would be happy. Now she has to move back. It makes me sad for more than just her. It seems like nothing is certain anymore.

Ryan Adams - Go Easy

This is not a happy story.. just a warning.

As I was parking tonight, I saw a stray cat with a strange looking tail. It ran when I came close, but I got enough of a glimpse to realize that most of its tail was gone, and at least 2 inches of bone was sticking out the end.. I figured the poor thing had its tail run over by a car or something.
When I got up to my apartment, there was a letter stuck on the door from the office. It said that the animal hospital has been having a lot of cases of cats being brought in because people have been going around our city hurting cats, and to keep them indoors for safety. Suddenly seeing that poor cat without a tail made sense. Just makes me sick.

A toast to your birthday. Thank you for making me feel like my opinion is important, even though I don't know half as much as you do.

Late night post.. checked my email and saw that grades are already posted for a test I took this afternoon.. WOW is all I have to say, never get grades that fast.. my teacher is awesome. My first test ever for grad school and I got a B+. Considering that's above the average, and my class has some frighteningly smart people in it, I'm very happy. Now I can finally sleep......

It took a lot of courage to say it, thank you for listening. Putting my life back together, bit by bit, I only know that I am lucky to have such great people as friends.

Test-induced post-traumatic stress is best alleviated with the drawing of Nikko cartoons. For those of you who don't know about these or understand them, be thankful.

A great sage sat alone on a hill, deep in meditation. Three visitors came to meet him on three different days hoping to ask him for wisdom.
The first walked right up to him and shook his hand.
The second, seeing that he was meditating and not wanting to disturb him, patiently waited.
The third, seeing that he was meditating, silently sat next to him and began to do the same.

I am the first; I want to be more like the third. Which are you?

My one wish for you would be that you find your way back to your dreams. I won't pretend to know how hard your life has been, but I hope you use that to help others- you can show the world the strength within you by telling your story.
How fitting that the place you call home is known for its tough winters.

Looking forward to the day I can teach you the art of eyeliner. :)

Fall snuck up on me. I miss driving the roads in Texas littered with leaves of gold.
In the desert, with its cacti and palm trees, what defines a fall day is that it is simply cooler than the day before. Today it was a gorgeous 85 with a cool breeze. It was a welcome change and an appropriate day to start anew.

Somehow people think that what they are going through is unique, that their pain is special somehow.

It's not.

Look around you: while the situation may be different, others have gone through their own struggles; thinking yours is somehow more important or more difficult than theirs only isolates yourself. Take strength in knowing you're never alone.

Somehow, amidst the craziness that is life, my brother ended up being one of the coolest people I know. <3 you lil bro.

Apparently blaring Black Sabbath while driving gives even dorky engineer girls like me street cred.