Renaissance Girl

Hello everyone! Here's a little This Day In History for everyone's edification & enjoyment.

On this day in...

1521: Ferdinand Magellan was killed in the Philippines.

1570: Queen Elizabeth I was excommunicated by Pope Pius V. Go Lizzy.

1667: Milton sells the copyright to Paradise Lost.

& my personal favorite: 4977 B.C., the universe was created, according to Kepler! We gotta have a party for that one!

The epitaph we only can dream of.

Obama promises major investment in science. My god, this just makes me so damn happy that this is our president!

The only thing you need to know about swine flu is this. (Okay, I'm kidding... & remember to wash your hands!)

Like Crayons? Click here!

This is a rad Postsecret; it makes me want to wear goggles & play superhero.
& I love this one,for the phrasing of it all.

I'm fairly ambivalent about A Softer World, but I found this one hilarious.
(Probably also because it reminded me of a line from Breakin' Hearts & Takin' Names, "I like my men like I like my coffee: Stupid.")

This xkcd makes me laugh every time. Also, I want to start doing that.

Okay, that's enough links for now. I think, as exhausted as I still am, I am going to go to the gym before tech starts! Ooo. I feel good about that.

I finished reading Our Town (I loved it!) & am working on the exercises Ki gave us--preparing semi-improv presentations about our own town. Go Seattle! I already adore Acting II.

Anyway. Have some cool links, because I feel like sharing.


Bedroom Quirks of 10 Great Authors: Including our favorite Misters Wilde and Shakespeare, as well as the classic Lord Byron (what a sex machine!)

This is what you call karma: Somali pirates drown as they flee with ransom. Oops. (Although turnabout is fair play I suppose, check out the article Sam linked to in the comments below.

Army Assembles 'Mad Scientist' Conference. Seriously. Man, if there were ever a conference I'd like to go to just to watch...

From BoingBoing, a blog post about the Northern Lights, with a link to Astronomy North. Here's Astronomy North'simage library, which is gorgeous. Going to see the northern lights is one of my dreams.

Ever wonder how mosquitoes find love? No, me neither. But it turns out it's actually really interesting! Who knew? (Well, NPR, of course.)

& finally, if you ever burgle a house, make sure the house isn't owned by Thor--or a six-foot builder dressed as Thor, anyway.

Back to working!

I am still shocked, & alternating among a sort of nauseated despair, ridiculous hilarity, & fuck-you-I'll-do-my-own-thing-&-better determination.

I am not, however, so knocked off kilter that I didn't go back & change "between" to the grammatically correct "among" in that first sentence, so, you know, there's hope for me yet. ...or possibly none at all, depending on your view of the importance of grammar. :)

In any case, I am currently finishing up the last Broadway Hour show of the quarter, & since that means I've been surfing the interwebs for the last two hours, have some links:

Racism is Over. This is a blog. It is hilarious, satirical, & perfect. Go look!

Ann Friedman tell us why the gay rights movement needs to stop calling it a culture war & start framing it as a civil rights debate. As far as I can see, many people already are, but I guess it's still a good point--culture wars are full of personal attacks & vitriol & the ability to push your culture on someone else. Demanding civil rights can still garner you hatred & vitriol, but no one has to like you, just, y'know, give you equal civil rights.

On the note of gay rights, Prop 8: The Musical. Awesome.


God, I love Neil Patrick Harris. I want to be his friend.

1. I saw Molly's play last night! Or more correctly I should say Theater Machine's play, & I knew half the people involved, but Molly was the one bugging me to come. They produced Caryl Churchill's Vinegar Tom which is a weirdass play but quite good, & they did it very well I thought. A lot of SU people won't be able to see it because it's right over MP rehearsal & performance, but if you're in Seattle, you should go see their show & support new companies!

2. Just when I think I could not be more gleeful about our President-Elect Obama, this website comes along: Change.gov. I mean. I just. I. This is me internally flailing with joy.


3. Speaking of joy? This is another reason the internet is awesome: a Flickr set of the Obama family on election night. These are--oh, god, I hate using the word historical right now, but they are, all right, & they're just awesome. Plus as a rule they are generally just really good photographs--lovely composition & light on a lot of them. (Particularly this!, this, this which I want to frame for my wall,* this, & this... all of them, really. I should just quit linking & tell you to go, click, see them all!

*Can I just say how happy I am that I have a president whose photo I want to have on my wall? I am invested in government now for reasons of hope & hard work--not anger. This is good. This is very, very good. :)

Here's an old idea: a movie based around a school production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." But how about this: the kid playing Puck creates a real love potion. And starts coupling everyone up--in same sex couples.
Oh--& did I mention it's a musical?

http://briefepisode.com/2008/10/24/were-the-world-mine/

It opens here in January. I am SO going.

If you're a fan of McCain, you don't want to keep reading. Just don't bother. If, however, you're a fan of hardcore awesome journalists absolutely ripping into politicians when they act like idiots, you might want continue.

Check out this video: It's Keith Olbermann, tearing into McCain for his childish comments & inconsistencies: "GROW UP, McCain!" (Scroll down slightly to get to the video itself.)

It's kind of terrifying, & kind of amazing, & Olbermann is kind of my new hero.

Through a convoluted series of links, I came across an article entitled Proof that Shakespeare did not Write Shakespeare. I'm really fond of it, mostly because it's hilarious, and not very well written. The author makes the assertion that a woman wrote the plays, mostly because women are better writers than men: "this is a proven generic fact." Ahaha! As the Shakespeare Geek Blog said, "I think perhaps that a woman should have written his article for him."

Some choice excerpts (italics and parentheses are mine, mostly pointing out parts I find particularly amazing):

"Some, mainly Americans, believe that there was no such person. A woman from New England named Delia Bacon who taught Shakespeare in school went to England in 1853 to try to dig him up to prove that there was no body in his grave, just a bag of rocks. She went to his grave at night with shovel in hand, but the British authorities, in furtherance of the scheme or conspiracy to hide the fact that there was no Shakespeare, stopped her from digging him up." (I'm not sure which is funnier--the image of a schoolteacher trying to dig up Will, or the implication that the Brits have a cover-up operation going on.)

"Further evidence that Shakespeare did not write Shakespeare: The exact date of his birth is unknown. Few documents or verifiable sources of Shakespeare's life exist, much fewer than would be expected of such a prominent figure. Originals of none of his manuscripts have survived. Not one document exists giving evidence of anyone ever seeing him. Not even his own family ever referred to him as a famous playwright." (What does he want? Journal entries from every prominent politico saying 'Oooohla, today I spoke with the famous playwright William Shakespeare!'
1. While we don't have the date of his birth we do have it of his baptism, which was the date mostly recorded during that period anyway.
2. We have a good sight more documents on Shakespeare than we have on other people in the period (does this author think that actually having historical documents is the norm? Is there a large document preserver these things are supposed to go in?)
3. Actually, we have plenty of records involving him and the Globe, both financial records, and playlists listing him as an actor. If people didn't see him on stage...well, damn, he must have been a mighty fine Ghost.)

...I'm being a terrible mocker, aren't I? It's not that I don't mind the authorship debate; I think it's fascinating. I just think one should do a little more research first.

And oh my god, this guy. This website is bizarre. His home page has tons of different links...videos for him running for governor somewhere? Talking about his hard drive recovery and all the books he's written? Plus this: "DNA Tests have proven that I am the father of my daughter Sandra. With these test results (in PDF Format), anyone who believes that I might be their father can have their own DNA test done and compare the results with the data I have posted and determine with a fair degree of certainty the likelihood that I am their father."

....there are no words.

As a day-late commemoration of July 4th, I give you something which has probably already made its rounds to your friendslist, inbox, or Youtube page. If it hasn't, watch it. It's straightforward, harsh, & necessary. (Now if only GWB watched Keith Olbermann.)

From Ode Magazine, an article about a really democratic company--Semco, in Brazil. It's actually fascinating, a look at someone who essentially said, "hold on, we don't have to do it this way, let's try something else," which ended up working much better than anyone expected. I'd like to work for someone like that.

On a completely different note, you can now buy invisibility on Ebay. Go figure.

Also, The Onion brings you the finest news: Lord Under Investigation for Failure to Provide, which is good simply for the first sentence: The six-millennia-old sky-father deity Yahweh, worshiped by Christians, Muslims and Jews alike for His alleged all-knowing compassion and vast benevolence toward humanity, refused comment following Monday's announcement that the U.S. Justice Department will investigate allegations of failure on His part to provide for His approximately 3.5 billion human followers.

I'm a little disappointed in the weather--all the snow's gone & it's raining instead, which is a little less novel for this city--but other than that, everything is going wonderfully well. (Except this whole getting-sleep plan, which means I should probably be off to bed.)