margaret atwood is wise.

"Most mothers worry when their daughters reach adolescence, but I was the opposite. I relaxed, I sighed with relief. Little girls are cute and small only to adults. To one another they are not cute. They are life-sized."

-margaret atwood, cat's eye, p. 129

because i didn't want the "nerd party" label to get lonely:

i am so happy to be in school. i am so happy to be in classes where i get to read sentences (that is a single sentence, dudes!) like this:

"But the point is that between what Ryle calls the "thin description" of what the rehearser (parodist, winker, twitcher . . .) is doing ("rapidly contracting his right eyelids") and the "thick description" of what he is doing ("practicing a burlesque of a friend faking a wink to deceive an innocent into thinking a conspiracy is in motion") lies the object of ethnography: a stratified hierarchy of meaningful structures in terms of which twitches, winks, fake-winks, parodies, rehearsals of parodies are produced, perceived, and interpreted, and without which they would not (not even the zero-form twitches, which, as a cultural category, are as much nonwinks as winks are nontwitches) in fact exist, no matter what anyone did or didn't do with his eyelids" (Clifford Geertz, "Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture," in The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays by Clifford Geertz), 7.

life advice from clifford geertz

yeah, he was a distinguished cultural anthropologist, but i've just dicovered that "Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture*," which appears in "The Interpretation of Cultures" also contains some reasonable advice for life:

"Eclecticism is self-defeating not because there is only one direction in which it is useful to move, but because there are so many: it is necessary to choose" (5).

you're welcome.

*a pdf, but free if you need to get your nerd on. i understand.

riding a lot makes everything way more awesome.

i'm pretty good at appreciating eating and sleeping times, but especially in the last few weeks, as i've returned from ecuador and had time to be more focused on riding, i have become an eating and sleeping superstar. i'm not just hungry anymore, i'm ridiculously hungry, and whatever i'm eating is the best food ever*. and at bedtime (or, um, during the afternoon sometimes) i'm not just sleepy, i'm super sleepy, and i've been sleeping better than ever (which is amazing.)

*"best food ever" does not always apply to energy bars/sports fruit snacks. those are just excellent.

agreed, sometimes.

"Knowing too much about other people puts you in their power, they have a claim on you, you are forced to understand their reasons for doing things and then you are weakened."

-margaret atwood, cat's eye, p. 240.

yo tampoco / me neither

leido en un pared en quito, ecuador: "no soy gordita horrorosa"

/

read on a wall in quito, ecuador: "i am not a horrifying little fat one"

i'm not entirely sure that will help.

"i'm gonna look up the venus nipple, cuz you're making fun of me!"

-audra

i may never frost a cupcake with a knife again as long as i live.

a few years ago i received a fantastic birthday present from some of the most excellent (and craftiest) friends i have. it was a bunch of baking supplies—a frosting knife that is vaguely reminiscent of a magic wand, a set of silicone baking cups with legs, a cupcake display stand that reminds me of a chandelier...and a frosting applicator that definitely resembles a caulk gun.

i've used the frosting knife a lot, and the cupcake tree too, but not the baking cups or the frosting applicator. i'm kind of afraid of putting anything as plasticky as silicone into the oven, to be honest, and the frosting applicator seemed like a lot of effort.

the other day, though, i was making cupcakes for my gardensitters (who kept things alive and happy while i was in ecuador, yay!) and i had some time, so i decided to try the frosting applicator. and this is what happened:



(i'm pretty sure the blurriness is due to waves of deliciousness emanating from this cupcake.)




as these photographs clearly indicate, these cupcakes are approximately 1000% more delicious than they would have been if they had simply been frosted with a knife, even my perfect funny shaped frosting knife or the magic wand-looking one.

frosting applicators are totally worth the trouble.

arrest made in sf hit and run

the driver who hit andrew bennett and his four year old son robby has turned herself in. streetsblog, which has been covering this story from the beginning (i'm pretty sure it still hasn't turned up in the chronicle), has the update.

the short version: she's 16, and she's facing felony hit-and-run charges. robby bennett is still processing what happened, although his only physical injuries were abrasions. andrew bennett is seeing lots of doctors to try to heal from his broken back.

yes, yes you did.

"i made her exhale like a pony container!" -b.f.h.