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February 15, 2007

New Anne Frank Documents Uncovered Due to Clerical Error

New documents were recently uncovered that show the Frank family was trying to escape to America or Cuba before they were forced to go into hiding. NYTimes Article Here.

Posted by Spike at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2007

Love: Viking Style

To love a woman whose ways are false
Is like sledding over slippery ice
With unshod horses out of control,
Badly trained two-year-olds,
Or drifting rudderless on a rough sea,
Or catching a reindeer with a crippled hand
On a thawing hillside: think not to do it.

I found this gem on a plaque when I was traveling Denmark and Norway when I was 16. It was an amazing trip, and I've always remembered this poem, as well as my father's manner of reciting it. He ends up contoring one of his arms and making a very strange face when he gets to the part about the crippled hand, and then says "Think not to do it" very snootily. On this day of love and huge spectacles of affection, I decided this is the best response. I never cease to be amused by the Vikings' take on what seems to be quite an epidemic of dishonest girls, given the author's perceived need for general advice and disuasion from involvement with such ladies.

Posted by Spike at 04:25 PM | Comments (1)

February 06, 2007

Never a Dull Day

It's only 10:30 and already I've had a number of adventures, including my class being evacuated due to a gas leak that I suppose has since been resolved.

The big daddy of the morning, though, is having ants come out of my faucet in copious numbers along with the water when I tried to take a shower. For once I'm glad that it takes the water forever to heat up here, as that meant I was standing outside the shower fully clothed when this happened. I happily drowned them all and then went around to my friends' apartments begging a shower from someone without a festering bug problem. Success was met, and I feel human again, but I'm loath to go back in the bathroom here lest something wave its taunting little feelers at me.

Posted by Spike at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)

February 04, 2007

It's Been A While

I didn't mean for the posts to get so scanty, but the truth of the matter is that I do not lead a lifestyle that is the stuff of ledgends. For that, I would have to get out much, much more than I do. School has been quite time consuming of late, and none of the particulars are of much interest to anyone. The sole exception I can think of is perhaps the trials and tribulations of realizing that being one of the sole outspoken atheists in class does not make me such a rare oddity that people are chomping at the bit to hear MY personal ideas about the common vision of god and the popular means of expressing faith in him. I have discovered (and then felt very silly for not realizing it all along) that most people wish I would just shut up most of the time, because they just want to take notes and have a certain kind of discussion in class. In some classes, me being the irritating wretch who wants to know more than what's in the lecture notes bumps people along to a better place. In this particular class, the professor has so skillfully and carefully designed his means and methods of carrying us along to where he has decided we will be at th end of the semester that it's really very arrogant of me to assume my viewpoint would help anyone. After my pride has taken a nasty beating, I've come out the better for it and realized I'm not the coolest thing since sliced bread.

Also part of the radio static on this blog is due to the fact that I rarely am very socially adventurous without the BF to help get me out the door and into other people's apartments or other such venues of social congregation. I've made a few exceptions to this general rule lately and have gone out several times with friends from school who will soon be graduating. The most interesting of these ocassions is what I've been describing as "The Modern Girl's Tupperware Party," aka Slumber Parties. Of course, as the link will inform you, these parties are for women 18 and older only, no men allowed. So while I was trying out pheremone-packed oils and tingling raspberry flavored cremes on my forearm and my hostesses were lavishing everyone with cakes shaped by the penis cupcake pans they got at the last Slumber Party they went to, the BF was patiently taking himself to the movies and hanging out at the mall. He's a good sport, and was rewarded when we attended a co-ed party of a more conventional sort later that evening that I was not entirely enthused about. I ended up having a very good time, but my first inclination was to stay under a blaknet and watch Planet of the Apes (which was showing on the History channel...why?). As I mentioned before, the BF is good at interupting my blanket and history channel inclinations and we ended up hanging out with some new friends.

On a side note, one of the things I love about Chattanooga is the amount of historic preservation at work. There was an amazing downtown apartment building we popped into that did a stint as an orphanage and a tuburculosis hospital. The old metal food slots with sliding doors, although sealed shut, are still in the hallway walls, and the building has that lovely thick rounded plaster that went the way of the architectural dinosaur a long time ago.

Posted by Spike at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)