If anyone can help me find either of the following, I would be greatly appreciative: a) A book about...

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:38:00 -0500

If anyone can help me find either of the following, I would be greatly appreciative:

a) A book about Egyptian Pyramids that is readable

b) A book about dinosaurs that isn’t for kids

Yesterday while watching There Will Be Blood, we were wondering...

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:36:24 -0500

Yesterday while watching There Will Be Blood, we were wondering what causes oil to shoot up out of the ground into the air as it does on a number of occasions during the movie.

I found out that since oil is less dense than the water and rock that are around it, it rises up to the surface of the earth. Sometimes it reaches a little cavern or “trap” where it pools and collects, usually under a layer of rock that is too thick for the oil to penetrate through. If more sediment is added on top of a trap the pressure increases and can create “overpressure”. If an oil driller, such as Daniel Day Lewis, were to pierce that layer of impermeable rock the oil was trapped under, the pressure of the oil in the trap would force it to the surface and depending on how much pressure it was under, it could create a geyser with the height of 200 feet or more.

Hearst Castle is the palatial estate built by newspaper magnate...

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:59:00 -0500

Hearst Castle is the palatial estate built by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. It is located near San Simeon, California, on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Hearst Castle was like a small self-contained city, with 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 sitting rooms, 127 acres of gardens, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, a movie theater, an airfield, and the world’s largest private zoo. Zebras and other exotic animals still roam the grounds. Hearst Castle became so famous that it was caricatured in the 1941 Orson Welles film Citizen Kane as Charles Foster Kane’s “Xanadu”.

I had seen Xanadu in Citizen Kane, but I had no idea that this place actually existed. Add this to the list of places I want to visit.

5 Things You Don't Know About Me (Or Maybe You Do)

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:43:00 -0500

1. I have lived in 10 different houses/apartments/dorms in my life.

2. I have really bad aerophobia, which is a fear of flying.

3. I have been to a New Kids On The Block Concert.

4. I’m pretty sure I never believed in Santa Claus.

5. Over the course of my life I have broken my foot, broken my pinky, dislocated my shoulder, gotten hit by cars twice, had to get stitches three times, sent other people to the hospital four times (on accident), and had meningitis.

(via Jess, Dani, Steve)

Madeline Logelin is growing up so fast! This is as close as...

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:45:44 -0500

Madeline Logelin is growing up so fast! This is as close as I’ve gotten to understanding how geeked parents get about their kids.

I had a weird revelation today: this will be the first fall where I’m not going back to...

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:39:58 -0500

I had a weird revelation today: this will be the first fall where I’m not going back to school.

I remember that the end of August was usually a time when I got really excited about the coming school year. I had gotten my homeroom teacher assignment in the mail and I knew which, if any, of my friends were in my classes.

It also meant back to school shopping. I went to the mall and got all new shirts since last year’s were so lame now, I got pens and pencils and for some reason glue sticks even though I don’t think I’ve ever used one, and I got whatever were the newest and most expensive Fila’s which I would religiously not wear until the first day of school. I also had to have a brand new backpack every year for some reason, even though the one I had the previous year was still perfectly functional, there were no holes and it still held stuff.

I’m not sad about the fact that I never have to suffer through another class. Or the fact that I never have to worry about doing homework again. But losing all the other stuff that went along with school kind of sucks. Now I have no excuse to buy expensive new basketball shoes, no excitement to see if there were any new girls who transferred to our school, and no reason to buy any folders with bright green Lamborghini’s on them.

This is above the toilet in my neighbor’s bathroom.

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:48:14 -0500

This is above the toilet in my neighbor’s bathroom.

I was going through iPhoto this morning and I stumbled across...

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:06:40 -0500

I was going through iPhoto this morning and I stumbled across this photo I took at a cafe in the Belleville neighborhood of Paris. Life doesn’t get much better than this.

This morning when I went for a run there was something different in the air. The breeze which...

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:53:44 -0500

This morning when I went for a run there was something different in the air. The breeze which usually just feels like a hot blow dryer, had a slight cool quality to it. It felt nice, but more importantly it felt like the first hint of fall.

I get so giddy at the prospect of fall. There’s something about the air of fall that is exciting. The temperature is cool, the leaves crunch on the sidewalk, and there is that distinct smell in the air that I love but can’t describe.

There are a lot of things that I love that go along with fall; being comfortable in long sleeved shirts and pea coats, apple cider, seasonal beers, my birthday, and Halloween.

I can’t wait.

I’m sorry, one more picture from Strand Bookstore.

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:30:20 -0500

I’m sorry, one more picture from Strand Bookstore.

There’s a party in Wicker Park tonight, let’s do it!

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:07:32 -0500

There’s a party in Wicker Park tonight, let’s do it!

It’s really happening

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:49:17 -0500

It’s really happening

Dntel feat. Conor Oberst - Breakfast In Bed

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:16:17 -0500

Dntel feat. Conor Oberst - Breakfast In Bed

The girl from the band Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head is a...

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:35:41 -0500

The girl from the band Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head is a certified babe

From David Wain's New Movie "Role Models"

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:07:06 -0500

Paul Rudd: I'll have a large black coffee.
Barista: You mean a venti?
Paul Rudd: No I mean a large.
Barista: Venti is a large coffee.
Paul Rudd: Really? Says who? Fellini?

Command-V

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:47:20 -0500

Press Command-V on your keyboard and reblog what comes up. Here’s mine:

www.homemadepizza.com

The Good Life - You Don’t Feel Like Home To Me

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:02:57 -0500

The Good Life - You Don’t Feel Like Home To Me

I spent the afternoon at the Lincoln Park Nature Conservatory...

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:12:22 -0500

I spent the afternoon at the Lincoln Park Nature Conservatory yesterday.

Books: Do they matter?

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:04:00 -0500

52books:

This week, Josh sent me an email with this question:

Why does reading books matter? I used to read a lot, but not as much anymore. I really just cannot determine if reading books is at all significant. I will concede that they can be entertaining, but is there any larger point that they have? I’m not so sure.

This was my response:

Why do books matter? I’m not sure that I’m an authority here, but I’ll offer my ideas in the hope that they make sense when read by another person.

I heard some time ago that the reason people couple up and are social is not because we need a partner, but because we need someone to witness our lives. In short, we need someone to know that we were here, that we existed. I think of reading in much the same way. We read in order to bear witness to someone’s words. Even in the most outrageous fiction, the reader is offering some kind of validation to the thoughts of the author. And what is the point of writing (or speaking, even) if there is no one to read it? Of course there is entertainment in what we read, but in the end, I read because I crave the understanding of other people’s lives. How did they live? What did they do? What did they believe? Reading gives me the validation that I’m not crazy and that other people might feel the same way I do.

Because it is a solitary action, reading is very personal. It can take you take you outside of reality and then just as quickly snap you back into it. However, as much as books and reading allow us to have an individual reaction, they can also bring people together. If friends can discuss why they relate to books (or any other media, I guess), it gives them the opportunity to show someone they existed, that they too had thoughts and feelings.

I do not consider myself to be a writer of any traditional sort, but in reading the books I read, maintaining this blog, and meeting the people who follow along, I have found a way to connect to other human beings. Therefore, I hope I have proven that what we all have to say is not only important, but quite valid. Basically, it’s proof that we exist.

So now I ask you: Do books matter? Why?

If somebody were to ask me what the most influential thing in my life was, I would immediately respond that it was books. Tenth grade is when I started to voraciously read and since then my life has followed a markedly different trajectory. Ever since then I have read as many books as I could on as many subjects as possible and I feel that I am a much better person for it.

Foremost, I feel that reading is one of the best things that people can do to improve themselves. I have always been a hugely vocal critic of formal education for many reasons. I feel that school never really taught me all that much and everything that I have learned that has been of any substance has been outside of the classroom, most of it coming from books. In the words of Mark Twain, “I have never let school interfere with my education”. Books have taught me innumerable things, and any real intelligence that I may have can directly be attributed to my self guided learning through books, not classes in high school or college.

The other, much more esoteric reason that I love reading, is that throughout life books are really the only thing that have consistently made sense to me. Everything has come and gone; friends, girls, jobs. But throughout it all there have always been books. Books are there when you are in a bad mood or when you are broke. You always have stories to help you cope with bad times and literary characters to identify with when you are sad. Books have the magical power to transport you to another world where your problems don’t exist.

I totally agree that reading is one of the most personal things that people can do, for me it’s almost akin to prayer. It’s a very personal and sometimes emotional thing and it’s definitely one of the most important things in my life. If I didn’t have books I can honestly say that I don’t know where my life would be. I would be a much more bored, unintelligent, and uninteresting person.

John McCain admits that he doesn't know how many houses he owns

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:33:24 -0500

John McCain admits that he doesn't know how many houses he owns