The Shadow Gallery

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:25:11 GMT

I feel again like I did when I was a little girl, believing America was the greatest country in the world.
I feel proud of my country again. For once, I actually feel optimistic.

Thank you, Barack. Thank you, America.

A bird who cannot leave his beloved

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:26:36 GMT

'Great hoopoe, said another bird, 'my love
has loaded me with chains, I cannot move.
This bandit, Love, confronted me and stole
My intellect, my heart, my inmost soul --
The image of her face is like a thief
Who fires the harvest and leaves only grief.
Without her I endure the pangs of hell,
Raving and cursing like an infidel;
How can I travel when my heart must stay
Lapped here in blood? And on that weary Way,
How many empty valleys lie ahead,
How many horrors wait for us? I dread
One moment absent from her lovely face;
How could I seek the Way and leave this place?
My pain exceeds all cure or remedy;
I've passed beyond both faith and blasphemy -
My blasphemy and faith are love for her;
My soul is her abject idolater -
And though companionless I weep and groan,
My friend is sorrow; I am not alone.
My love has brought me countless miseries,
But in her hair lie countless mysteries;
Without her face, blood chokes me, I am drowned,
I'm dust blown aimlessly across the ground.
Believe me, everything I say is true -
This is my state; now tell me what to do.'

--Attar, The Conference of the Birds

Weight loss September '07 - September '08

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:32:20 GMT

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:39:53 GMT

Joy says (9:40 AM):
Why do the English have phone booths that apparently travel through time?
Lewis says (9:41 AM):
So we can always ring people when they're inside their houses and when it's convient.

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:48:31 GMT

I have been feeling shitty the past, like, 3 weeks, and I think I have finally found the cause (besides crappy circumstances): iron.

This crapass nutrient is in hardly anything I eat, and even where it is, it is only in small amounts. (oatmeal = 3%, eggs = 5%, tuna = 7%) It's also the one thing that isn't included in my multivitamin.

Symptoms of iron deficiency that are also symptoms of Joy's crappy summer:
-Fatigue (LOTS of fatigue)
-Headaches
-Restless leg syndrome
-Depression
-More fatigue
-Being pale (though, for me, is that really a symptom of something?)

Like hell am I going to the doctor (=getting a blood test, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH D:), but I will be eating my Cheerios and other such things that have more iron in them than supposedly "high in iron" foods like oatmeal.

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 22:46:57 GMT

Every day, I am learning things.

But right now I would rather be making $7 an hour and not learn anything.

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:03:57 GMT

Joy Gerhardt says (11:01 AM):
That breakfast bread <3
Lewis says (11:01 AM):
Did you just make some?
Joy Gerhardt says (11:02 AM):
It's cooling right now
Lewis says (11:02 AM):
Hee. :D
Lewis says (11:02 AM):
I want some! Lousey lack of teleporteriness.
Lewis says (11:03 AM):
Though if I had one I won't just use it for getting food off you. *waggles*

The very start of my language obsession

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:37:47 GMT

This is the first thing I remember about language.

I had this coloring book about unicorns. It was no mere coloring book, even though it called itself that. It contained a ton of textual information too. Mostly it went over the history of the representation of unicorns in tapestries, woodcuts, illuminated manuscripts, and whatever else.

There was one picture. It featured a woman and a tiny unicorn with its head in her lap. There was a hand coming down from the sky, holding a scroll. The caption said it was the word of god -- a sort of proto-speech-balloon.

This picture got a full page in the book, and the letters on the scroll were clear. And yet, I couldn't read it. I didn't understand why at all. I think at that point I must have understood that some other languages, like Chinese, used different scripts and I couldn't read that. But this here on this scroll, I knew all the letters but they didn't form any words!

And I desperately wanted to be able to read it.

Twilight

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:47:03 GMT

Lewis says (7:46 PM):
Make the book more fun, read it with Edward speaking with a Count von Count voice.

Bookends

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:12:37 GMT

The night before Lewis got here, I sat down and read The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time all in one evening (it was great).

Last night, right after he left, I sat down and read Girl, Interrupted all in one evening (it was great).

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:58:57 GMT

It is some kinda unholy miracle I haven't gained like 20 pounds in the past two weeks. Been eating out every day, overindulging, crappy-ass food, always ordering pop or drinking it around the house, no time for walks, any physical activity is sporadic, mostly lounging around watching movies or kissing or driving (lots, lots, lots of driving). And yet, I've more or less maintained my weight since before the boy got here. Don't understand; not gonna complain. Lord knows I'll wake up one morning and all of a sudden be a stone heavier.

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:26:48 GMT

Books finished reading so far this summer: 4

The Book Thief, Marcus Zusak
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, Cory Doctorow
The Shadow in the North, Philip Pullman
Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:05:04 GMT

So, in order for a week to pass, half of that time must pass first. And then half of that remaining time, and then half to *that* remaining time*, and then half of that remaining time...

It will never be Saturday at this rate.

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:46:20 GMT

Probably won't be on the interwebs much after Saturday, until the 17th of July or so when I pour my angst out onto the world. But until then, I will be twittering the hell out of Lewis' stay. So you can keep up with me there. If you have a Twitter account, for the love of all that is good, shoot me a tweet =D

My profile
And, if you can't be arsed to keep up with this tweety-tweet nonsense, I've set up so that my daily tweets are posted to my Livejournal in a nice easy-to-read format.
I wanted to have them sent here, but there's something about an Atom Endpoint something-or-other that I couldn't figure out. If anyone knows what that's about, lemme know.

So yeah. Busy preparing, trying to figure out the schedule, cleaning up my room (yes, still), waiting for an additional bookshelf to be put in so I can FINALLY finish unpacking my things.

~Joy

Hey why did everyone leave Cincinnati all a sudden?

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:34:21 GMT

Aggggh everything has to be perfect

My friends are not helping

Things found while cleaning my room (part one?)

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 03:00:49 GMT

- A lock of my mom's hair, age 12.

- A tiny slip of paper that says, enigmatically, "I'VE BEEN PRACTICEING : ) ".

- Miniscule (<1cm) origami boxes, inside several larger ones.

- Lots and lots of pantyhose that I don't know how it got there because I don't wear pantyhose.

Fri, 30 May 2008 13:13:27 GMT

Joy Gerhardt says (9:05 AM):
Almonds are the fucking shit
Joy Gerhardt says (9:05 AM):
<3
[Ben] says (9:06 AM):
xD you always get so vulgarly excited about the oddest stuff
[Ben] says (9:06 AM):
"Knitting is fucking metal, man"
[Ben] says (9:07 AM):
"If you don't like Rocky Horror you can suck my goddamn cock, you bitch" :P

Wed, 28 May 2008 23:48:22 GMT

I pledge to:

- Clean 19 years' worth of clutter out of my room, and try my best to declutter my life in general.

- Read more books over the summer.

- Be under 200 lbs by 2009.

In an effort to satisfy goals 1 and 2, I have joined BookMooch, a website where you send off books you don't want to people who want them and you receive books you do want in return. When I get home I'll be cleaning my room out - I've already sorted out the books I'm willing to part with, and I plan on doing the same with my CDs and clothing.

For goal #3, I started the school year at 232 lbs. In April, I was 226, and the last time I weighed myself a few weekends ago I was 220. If I can keep watching my calories and walking while I'm at home [which will be much harder, because a.) there is nothing healthy to eat in my house and my family always eats out which is awful, and b.) there is nowhere to walk to - Walking the 2 miles to the shops on High Street is a highly rewarding activity here at school, but there's nothing to walk to at home], I think I can lose the weight.

you bastard :P

Mon, 12 May 2008 02:13:42 GMT

My boyfriend is only two years older than me, and yet he's finished college already and I've just started.

Dammit >.<;

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:00:43 GMT

Joy Gerhardt says (10:58 PM):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JCoA92y24A
[Ben] says (10:58 PM):
Hehe
Joy Gerhardt says (10:58 PM):
I love love love this song
Joy Gerhardt says (10:58 PM):
I love love love the entire CD of Spring Awaknening, really
Joy Gerhardt says (10:58 PM):
It's a musical!
Joy Gerhardt says (10:58 PM):
About sex!
[Ben] says (10:58 PM):
\o/
Joy Gerhardt says (10:58 PM):
\o/
[Ben] says (10:59 PM):
That's like you in a nutshell
Joy Gerhardt says (10:59 PM):
I know, right?!
Joy Gerhardt says (11:00 PM):
It's also set in the 19th century

Science Rules

Wed, 07 May 2008 21:56:12 GMT

Bill Nye is the reason I'm an atheist.
Bill Nye and dinosaurs and museums and the picture in a book of a fish that walks on land.

Also medicine, computers, space travel, all that good stuff. Science begets results.

I MADE A SWEATER YOU GUYZ!!!!!!

Sun, 04 May 2008 15:07:30 GMT

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:16:17 GMT

Heheh.

"Formal and cultural analyses of The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) indicate that Dorothy's passage from Kansas through Oz and back to Kansas symbolically recapitulates paradigmatic stories of both America (the nation's passage from utopian origin, through history, to utopian destiny) and Christianity (the cosmic passage from paradisian origin, through history, to paradisian destiny). In order to "go home" (the explicit theme), Dorothy must "grow up" (the implicit theme); this link is also paralleled symbolically at both national and cosmic levels. Resonating profoundly with the collective ethos, this movie has come to function in a modern (ostensibly secular) society the way myths function in traditional (overtly religious) societies. I conclude that popular movies may be effective replacements for the mythic aspect of traditional religion and that modern societies may appear to be more secular (hostile or indifferent to religion) than they actually are."

Are Oz and Middle-Earth and Wonderland my religion?

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:01:49 GMT

Two years. ♥

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:49:42 GMT

I love this boy I love this boy I love this boy I LOVE THIS BOY.