I get to go home tomorrow.

I'm glad.

I'm really glad about this, too:



It's worth it to watch till the end--that's where the best part is.
Props to Cute Overload.

. . .

the clash of the bureaucracies

Today I went to One Police Plaza, at the end of Avenue of the Finest, to get fingerprinted for my (now-something-like-50-page-long) bar application. Two sets, the bar people need, with the officer taking the prints signing the back and his/her ON number (no idea) printed on the back. No easy task, this. Apparently One Police Plaza, down by the Brooklyn Bridge, is the only place in New York to get one's fingerprints officially fingerprinted without breaking the law first. The fingerprints cost $15 plus a buck for the second copy, and that $16 must be a money order only, no cash accepted (!). And they have no ON number, and no, she will _not_ sign the back of the card. My fingerprints must be exceptionally difficult to take, because I now have two copies of ten black smudges and a "best prints available" stamp. Perhaps it's a conspiracy.

One cool thing though is they take the fingerprints digitally, rolling your fingers across a screen. No more inky fingers.

. . .

i didn't know it was possible

to have too much pirate treasure. but Young Liam makes a good case.

. . .

facebook and a chain of musings

As with friendster, facebook's kind of like being at a party, with the small talk, goofy pictures, gossip, and snarky flirting. I don't like parties. I like goofy pictures though.

When you search wikipedia for "snarky," you get the bio of a woman named Irina Slutsky, Queen of the Land of Unfortunate Names. Apparently she's done well for herself, though, which is nice.

The internet tells me that in the UK, unless the punctuation actually falls within the quotation, the comma or period is put outside the quotation marks. Examples from wikipedia:

• "Carefree" means "free from care or anxiety." (American style)
• "Carefree" means "free from care or anxiety". (British style)
• "Hello, world," I said. (both styles)

I prefer the logic of the British style, but the look of the American style. That space between the period and the y in anxiety irks me. But so does putting the comma inside the quotation marks following the y in snarky. I am doomed to be irked.

I feel about "irk" the same way that Hobbes feels about smock in this comic:

[edit: I guess linking to the images sometimes makes people upset because it steals their bandwidth (I'm not too sure what that means but apparently it's bad). so if you want to see these, you have to go to the pissy dude's website, but I don't feel like linking to a pissy dude's website now, so all you have to know is that Hobbes really likes saying "smock smock smock smock smock" and it's funny.]

One awesome thing (of the many) about moving back to Nebraska is that I can re-establish my relationship with my Calvin and Hobbes books.

. . .

nuking a priceless colossus

the salient parts of this article from yahoo!news about a "colossal" squid that was frozen for preservation after it was caught by two New Zealander fisherman:
_______________
...
[S]cientists at the museum are considering using a giant microwave oven as a possible way to defrost the animal so they can study it.

The mammoth squid could not be left to defrost at room temperature because the process would take days, leaving the outside to rot while the core remained frozen, he said.

"There are certain microwave equivalents that are used by industry, for treating timber and the like, that we could probably fit this thing into," O'Shea said. "But that is just one option."

At the time it was caught, O'Shea said it would make calamari rings the size of tractor tyres if cut up — but they would taste like ammonia.

Colossal squid can descend to 6,500 feet and are known to be extremely active, aggressive hunters.

O'Shea said the squid is priceless to scientists, and would be worth many millions of dollars if insured.

__________

What are the other options? Are they also nuclear? Why do people microwave timber? Why would it taste like ammonia? Was that the first test conducted? What if they marinated it? Are they going to insure it? Is this really just a disguised American Express commercial? hmm.

. . .

i posted this before

but I think it's got double-postability. I could pretty much watch it forever.

. . .

going there and staying home

an nyt article on flying cheaper to africa and another on eating african cuisine in nyc.

. . .

and all's right with the world

big news!



My girls PMcCMcS and MRG got into school! If I could do handstands I would--I will just have to settle for ever-louder, ever-prouder finger-whistling.





. . .

gooood morning greenpoint

There's nothing like the prospect of leaving to spur anticipatory nostalgia. Greenpoint was good to me this morning. It was everything-but-the-pink-tags-half-off at the thrift store, additional success at radio shack and payless, plus I even remembered to buy thread, which I've been needing for months. All plus a tasty cappuccino and bagel+cream cheese = capitalist happiness galore.

my first airwalks since high school.


no more with the on-and-off fussy volume problems. Bert, a wee bit fussy himself, will be happy.


said thread.


$7! (a pink tag)



$2 each! for felting


$2! j. crew! for wearing



$2! banana republic! for wearing



and $2! old navy, for wearing.

. . .

it's true!

(props to Bert)
. . .

there is $*(#@&*$@) snow on the ground in new york city and other cliched blog content

that's not what a girl wants. a girl wants warmth and sunshine. like they have in portugal and spain, and even leeeeeeds. this crap is crap. i'm THROUGH with this town.

So when I got to Europe, I was all, girlfriends, why am I not moving here asap? I'm still all mostly like that, and some part of my future will unfurl like a big unfurled thing there. However, the palpable sense of relief I felt when I exchanged the fewest of american-accented words with the woman directing the line at JFK immigration last night took me by surprise (I mean really--who ever is happy to see the poor person with that job?). I guess I really do like it here too. And I _am_ glad to be starting off the career bizniz on this side of the pond--our however-flawed legal system is comfortingly familiar to the wee scared nascent rockin awesome lawyer I will soon be.

True trip confessions will come soon. I somehow didn't take very many pictures, which is dumb. Here's some enticement for you, though:

Hungry Hungry Hippos (turns out I rock at this game-- or at least I can whup foreigners like i INVENTED the can o' whup-ass) with some inhabitants of 2 Talbot Mount + Joe:



me and historic york's historic castle:



and the lovely Miss Fay in a big park in Madrid:

. . .

my morning mutant

Somebody told me a long time ago, and you'll see this if you look, that a banana has 5 sides (count with the peel still on). I had a three-sided banana this morning.

more interesting facts about bananas, including a challenge to humans' traditional method of peeling them.

in the stupid fact category, this book apparently exists:


Finally, there doesn't seem to be a dearth of cool banana pictures on the internet.

bananas in brooklyn:


bananas in cali:


bananas on a babe:


. . .

hey professor, what's another word for pirate treasure?

Well, I think it's "booty," "booty," that's what it is.


A little project for Brangela's baby Liam. I take credit for that child's first introduction to the Beasties. 'Cause life ain't nothing but a good groove, a good mix tape to put you in the right mood.

. . .

me and mine

. . .

• I'm leaving Thursday for a world tour of europe's west coast and I'm anxious to leave the weight behind for a while.
• I saw Bright Eyes play the Bowery last night. The music was full and good and long--they played most if not all of the songs from their most recent EP, plus plenty of others. Nate was his usual understated amazing on piano, organ, trumpet and flugelhorn. M. Ward, a happy surprise, played and sang with them, and McCarthy Trenching, an Omaha band sporting one lovely Stefanie Drootin on bass and backup vocals, opened.
• That picture is not of Nate but it is of a flugelhorn. Chet Baker has thicker fingers than Nate but there is a similarity in their facial expressions. At least in this picture and in my mem'ry.
  
• Signs point to me moving to small-town america for a legal aid job in a few months. The job will be great, I think. But the 25,000 pop. and remote locale blows my mind sometimes.
  
• This clipmarks thing SWT pointed me to is handy--you can keep track of little snippets of websites you find interesting or useful or whatever.
• I haven't been feeling the bloglife recently. Maybe it will come back later.
  

. . .

weird

cat, popcorn, and "whitney s.", but it's not swt.

. . .

February 21, 2007

A fine day to be born.

My newest niece, weighing a whopping 6 lbs, 1 oz, joined the clan about an hour ago! I don't even know her name yet, but she has made me an aunt for the fifth time over. And wee Liam Isaac O'Neal, 5 lbs, 12 oz, presented himself to the world around six this morning. Make way, make way!

[update: Baby Girl McShane is to be known in future as Carolyn Graham McShane, a whole new person!]

. . .

jeanne + kim: 2/17/2004, 2/17/2007

My sister Jeanne got married this past weekend for the second time to the same terrific woman, Kim. The first time was in San Francisco in 2004, when the mayor there told the city clerk to start issuing marriages licenses to any couple who wanted one, gay or straight. Unfortunately, the California Supreme Court later annulled the gay marriages, and besides, we weren't all there to celebrate, so another fiesta was mission critical. It was a beautiful, happy wedding and I was honored to stand up with them.

the lovely brides:


. . .

a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside a capsule

This message, inside that sea-green capsule, hit me in the head at a party. After much puzzling, I have concluded that "630" is a time, and "695 Park betw 67/68" is an address, although I am still confused because 695 Park, the address of Hunter College, does not fall beween 67th and 68th Streets (it's between 68th and 69th). Why I was chosen to receive this message, or what I should now do with it, remains mysterious.

. . .

unqualified

the job search progresses. I don't think I qualify for the one at the university of nebraska for which a candidate with a "terminal degree in discipline" is preferred. "let me see, she cheated on her final exam? let me do a few calculations...yes, 7 spankings and a suspension seems about right." and that's if the degree doesn't kill you first.

. . .

Hidden Apartheid: Caste Discrimination Against India's "Untouchables"

My friend Jeena Shah co-authored this shadow report on caste discrimination against Dalits (untouchables) in India, as part of her clinic experience at NYU. See also the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice' website (scroll down to "What's New"). Jeena and the other co-authors will be presenting the report to the UN Committee on Racial Discrimination next week, which is pretty damn exciting.


Apparently the UN Committee on Racial Discrimination has already posed several of the questions suggested by Jeena et al. to India, under the following protocol (as described by Jeena herself):

"One of the obligations a country has under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination is to periodically submit reports on what they've done to eliminate discrimination and what problems they are having. India is up for review this year. India submitted its periodic report (failing to address caste discrimination at all - saying that caste discrimination doesn't fall under the Convention, in contradiction to what the Committee has said). After a country submits their written report, the Committee asks them specific questions, and then during the session (next week) India has to come before the Committee and answer those questions. In our report, we drafted a list of questions we wanted the Committee to ask India based on our research, and about 15 of the questions the Commmittee posed to India were pulled from our report. India is obligated now to answer those questions. (You can see the questions we wanted asked in the first 10 or so pages of our report - where we summarize the critical issues and bullet point questions under each issue.)"

. . .