Zootlewordle

Vote for my dear friend...

2007-10-02T19:47:09Z

...the Magnificent Lara Jay!

http://www.vmagazine.com/model_viewprofile.php?model=1857

At present she is #42, which is very cool in the Douglas Adams sense, but it'd be even cooler if she could get in the top ten. Check it out! :-)

cristoforou @ 2007-08-18T21:00:00

2007-08-19T01:08:59Z

Almost two months ago it was requested (nay "demanded - wot wot") by a dear friend that I post more often. But I get very skittish about live journal. Still, demands are demands and wots are wots, so I shall try.

Only one thing comes to mind, at present. I haven't seen Order of the Phoenix or read Deathly Hallows yet, but I've been thinking about why certain characters get to be the main heroes and others don't. In the case of the Potter franchise, I think it's because, if Hermione Granger had been the chosen one, Voldomort would be dead by book 2.

In case anyone needs to get in touch with me...

2007-06-22T23:40:08Z

From Monday June 25th through Sunday July 1st I will have limited or no cell phone reception. I believe I shall have access to my email, however, so in the event that vital information needs to be exchanged, that's probably the best way to go about it.

Thanks!

cristoforou @ 2007-04-15T19:36:00

2007-04-15T23:42:09Z

A brief update: I've moved away from home yet again, and am currently residing in Medford, MA, near Winter Hill.

Today is very wet, and, perhaps a bit more subjectively, very slow.

I've done a few semi-productive things, but the most concrete of them has been to change a light bulb.

Which makes me wonder if my life is a joke.

Well, today, anyway.

Can't Stop the Serenity

2007-02-28T01:56:55Z

Okay... I haven't been on LJ much, and I'm out of all sorts of loops, so maybe this has already been discussed here, but I just heard about it after a phone call with a friend...

http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com/

Lately, I've been questioning the value of "fandom"... you know, letting something that isn't real become that important. How good a thing can that be? But when you've got shows uniting people around ideas and even principles, rather than just pleasing fictions, well... I guess there's my answer. One of the screenings is going to be in Boston. I'm gonna pencil in the date...

This is Absolutely Uncanny...

2006-12-23T03:37:47Z

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Grand Duke Nathaniel the Sage of Bow under Bumpstead
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Amazing. Absolutely amazing. I have no idea how their system, provided with only my first name and my gender, was able to deduce that I, indeed, am the Sage of Bow under Bumpstead (or "SBUBs", as my closest friends are wont to call me). The internet is truly wonderful. Pass the custard.

All you Sword Folk wanna look at this...

2006-12-03T04:47:03Z

In the Science Section of Last Tuesday's N.Y. Times

Observatory
Henry Foutnain

Antique Nanotubes

All hail the great 17th-century nanotechnologist Assad Ullah!

Actually, he was swordmaker, one in a long line of smiths who forged the legendary weapons known as Damascus sabers. They were strong yet flexible and supremely sharp, which European warriors first discovred, much to their misfortune, at the hands of Muslims during the Crusades.

The recipe for making Damascus steel was lost at the end of the 18th century, so no one knew the reasons for its remarkable qualities. But an analysis by 21st-century researchers in Germany provides a clue: Damascus sabers, they report in Nature, contain carbon nanotubes.

Using a transmission electron microscope, Peter Paufler of the Technical University of Dresden and colleagues looked at a very thin sample of steel from a saber made by Assad Ullah, who worked in what is now Iran. What they saw seemed for all the world like carbon nanotubes, cylindrical arrangements of carbon atoms first discovered in 1991 and now made in laboratories all over the world. Further analysis confirmed that that was what they were.

"If you look at the spacing of the atomic layers in these nanotubes," Dr. Paufler said, "the spacing is the same as reported by others studying mass-produced nanotubes."

The steel also contains nanoscale wires of cementite, an extremely hard carbon-iron compound, that were probably formed inside the nanotubes, like the filling in a cannoli. These nanowires give Damascus sabers another distinctive characteristic: a moiré pattern of banding on the steel.

Swordmakers used special high-carbon steel cakes, called wootz, which were made in India from iron ore that contained vanadium and other impurities. Wootz also had a high percentage of carbon, which was introduced by incorporating wood and other organic matter during fabrication. Dr. Paufler said the vanadium and other impurities could have acted as catalysts to turn some of the carbon atoms in the steel into nanotubes during the heating and reheating of forging.

Of course, Assad Ullah and other swordsmiths would have had no idea that they were creating carbon nanotubes. "They just did tremendous empirical work," Dr. Paufler said. "They optimized the procedure over centuries in order to get the most strengh."

Taken from sairisse who took it from empheliath, I believe

2006-12-02T23:32:49Z

Comment and I'll give you a letter; then you have to list 10 things you love that begin with that letter. Then post this in your journal and give out some letters of your own. Let me know if you want a letter.

1. Pasta
2. Peaches
3. Poetry (moreso recently)
4. Plaid Flannel Shirts (though I don't own any myself at the moment)
5. Plays (depends, obviously, but seen some great ones this year)
6. Penguins (in a totally uninformed sort of way)
7. Parenthetical thoughts (see above)
8. Peace
9. Pretending
10.Preparing sandwiches

cristoforou @ 2006-11-24T01:02:00

2006-11-24T05:02:20Z

We all know that Thanksgiving, as a day of celebration, was built on some pretty shaky ground. That said, I enjoyed mine quite a lot this year. Now, at the day's close, I find myself reflecting (not too heavily, mind you) on the nature of "gratitude."

It's not an altogether pleasant feeling, is it?

I mean, obviously, it has it's moments. At it's best, it's probably one of the most beautiful and pure states of being that we can ever achieve. But the same can be said of "humility," can't it? And humility is rarely a walk in the park for most of us. Or am I speaking out of turn?

Either way, both of these virtues are usually accompanied by "a sense of perspective." And I find perspective to be like a healthy breakfast - incredibly good for me, but rarely a lot of fun.

If I take the whole of humanity into consideration, I'm guessing the vast majority of it would consider me a sinfully lucky bastard. I find myself rather relieved at this moment that most of humanity doesn't know I exist.

I have a huge amount to be grateful for. Absolutely enormous. I also have a quite a freakin' lot to be humble about. Like truckloads streching all the way to Colorado, probably.

I've got a feeling I'm going to die in a quite a lot of debt.

But maybe, if I work at it, a little less debt than I'm in right now.

Are we aMUSED? (Heh, betcha Thalia wasn't behind that one!)

2006-11-23T05:15:35Z

I took the "The Nine Muses" quiz on gURL.com
		My muse is... Thalia Thalia is patron goddess of comedy, may be the reason. Her name means "The Flourishing" because she brings fame to those she favors. She is often depicted with a comic mask and a cane (perhaps to drag un-funny people off stage...). Read more... Who is your muse?

Well, gee, I guess I do...

2006-11-01T19:34:21Z

Thanks to ayelle for the link!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: Boston You definitely have a Boston accent, even if you think you don't. Of course, that doesn't mean you are from the Boston area, you may also be from New Hampshire or Maine.
The Midland
The West
North Central
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The Inland North
The South
What American accent do you have?

MaggieGhost

2006-10-16T13:28:58Z

Just a note to everyone involved in T@F and The Margaret Ghost who reads my journal: Congratulations! That was a lovely show. I can't believe that script hasn't been performed in over 20 years. Kudos/mad props/three cheers/what-have-you to Elizabeth for reviving it. I enjoyed myself (or rather, the show) very much!

Lessons From Experience University

2006-10-11T18:53:24Z

A little tale I'd been meaning to relate...

The other day, approaching the stairs which lead out of Salem Depot, I saw, at the top, three high school boys. One of them was straddling a rather old and tired looking bicycle that seemed way too small for him. His two friends were chanting "Do - it! Do - it!", roughly in unison.

Something told me that perhaps I should delay my ascent for a moment or two.

In deference to his buddies' request, the boy flew down two flights of stairs on his bike. Once his journey was over, he dismounted his feeble steed and his hands went immediately to his even feebler naughty bits.

"Man!" he said between gasps of what sounded like intense pain coupled with a few self-conscious chuckles. "That'll teach me to ride a peace-of-shit bike down two flights of stairs!"

Indeed it will, son. Indeed it will.

Since Brevity is the Soul of Wit... You Will Obey Me

2006-09-24T00:00:22Z

This weekend, Wellesley College hosted a (free) production of Hamlet by a British touring company called Actors From The London Stage. My mom and I went. It was a good production. We enjoyed ourselves a lot.

But the *really* cool thing was that Polonius was played by Geoffrey Beevers. Beevers, you see, played the Master for one story only in the classic series of Doctor Who (I won't say which story for those who haven't seen it, because it is someting of a surprise). Beevers was okay as the Master, but he rocked as Polonius - very funny and very sweet, while not shying away from the character's selfishness. If you want an idea of his performance, picture "Whose Line Is It Anway"'s Colin Mochrie in the role. My mom and I were both independantly reminded of him - Beevers even wore a silk, purple shirt (as Mochrie sometimes has).

"How It Should Have Ended"

2006-09-08T20:53:00Z

I haven't been doing much internet-y stuff this week, but someone did tip me off to this... So, enjoy!

Superman I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBsD1xIpJUI&mode=related&search=

Star Wars : Episode IV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J4lACWl-4M&mode=related&search=

These people have their own website, but I haven't checked it out, yet... You (whoever you are) might want to, though...

cristoforou @ 2006-08-30T02:03:00

2006-08-30T06:05:48Z

Testing... Testing... One... Two... Three... Sibalance...