And Now It Is Later
Currently Skimming: "Adonis to Zorro: The Oxford Dictionary of Reference and Allusion" - Andrew Delahunty and Sheila Dignen
One of my elderly family members died late last Friday, therefore Monday assorted churchgrims gathered for a very Catholic ceremony officiated by a priest not dissimilar in appearance or speech to various alien Star Wars characters, it was brief, well-organized, and stately. Family affairs with this bunch were never fun growing up, a bit like the film "Rachel Getting Married" without any hip musicians or reconcilialitory animus, strangely now though I had a car, so what once for me would have been a protracted five day stay amongst an angry luddite faction badly pretending to like or be interested in any facet of my life in the name of polite exchange became a series of handshakes and a single repeated inquiry on my time in Brazil, after which I left. Hopefully I can manage something else conversable before the next proceeding a few decades hence...
Since then I have been playing catch up with work. Because I am finding great utility in certain maths in formulating/arguing exacting theories of neuroscientific what-have-you I ordered a "The Great Courses" course on mental math tricks described by previous buyers as "math-nerd hobbyist lectures". The DVDs were discounted over 80% from their original price, thanks rampant anti-intellectualism! I'm super into my current science consulting project as well, an acquisitor has begun hunting for the works of the obscure Nobel laureate Otto Warburg, an early, discounted researcher on the metabolic processes of cancer who MOST ECCENTRICALLY began worrying about the carcinogenic potential of the preservatives being put in food (discounted until 2007 that is, when a study of dichloroacetate molecules brought his less respected research back into good standing suddenly, though he was still ultimately incorrect on the effects of aerobic glycolysis). His life is fascinating, even for the odd propensity of every institution that he touched being named after Kaiser Wilhelm, but I find it most interesting to speculate on his reason for never marrying and dedicating his life (refusing to retire even) to conducting experiments on the extension and improvement of human life through the eradication of serious ills [INTER-TEMPORAL HIGH-FIVE!]. In all my readings there are generally only four reasons for any man in any age to claim that they have no time for women, and most historians will leap in automatically every time with the stigma of aberrant sexuality as being the cause (although judging by this very carefully written last sentence perhaps they wouldn't focus on a then socially-frowned upon desire for other men in this case), though he did serve as an officer on the Russian Front during WWI with any number of burly hessians (as Postsecret may this week reveal a parity), but perhaps instead he was simply mentality refocused as a high-functioning PDD-NOS, Autistic, or Asperger possessor, science has had quite a few of those... thanks to the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences (where there are fun bookshelves on rollers one can move down a crowded track by spinning large wheels on the sides of the cases to smoosh other patrons) I have come into temporary possession of a biography by Krebs hopefully giving more details on his famous odd mannerisms. I am not going to be shocked if many of his oddities actually point to him being a massive undercover ladies man à la Feynman but it would be interesting should he be in that narrow margin of asexuals who have played a very interesting role in the development of modern civilization via an easier time circumventing what for many are overwhelming instinctual concerns. Anyhow, it is hard to find his stuff, so there will be $$$ in collecting him if physical documentation even remains a thing in the future. I feel I should also note that a pseudoscientific school rose out of a misinterpretation of his writings unfortunately, which has been embraced over the decades by certain members of the immortalist movement (where I first heard of Warburg only a few years ago in relation to some of this discussion), so if any reader is brought here by that insatiable craving for ozone treatments or alkaline pumps note that I, your current livejournaler, do not endorse these claims.
Last Saturday night out of boredom I also read through the entire Blip archives with all associated links beneath (which reminds me of the pop. culture onslaught of "Hourly Comics" with the surreal experience of watching characters watch or read things that you yourself have watched or read) and I was largely dissatisfied. While there were two links to Niel Gaiman interviews (Hooray!) there is absolutely no subtlety in the references or jokes, and many features are shamelessly ripped straight from other very-well-known works. The protagonist lives an unapologetically gluttonous and self-loathing cloud which even the author has to leave to focus on Satan and the zombie whores of Frankenstein. The only worthwhile creations in my view are the secret android fortress and the boyfriend's ex-girlfriend (probably in part because they only appear in a combined seven-ish entries in total).
Much more worthwhile perhaps was the film "Secret of Kells", which I also watched (and "Salt" which was very bad, and "Specioprin Hydrochloride", which was not as good as the trailer made it seem). I haven't had time to view M. Night Shamalamadingdongs demon-in-an-elevator movie but this weekend I have three back-to-back parties to attend round-the-clock so I sadly may have to return it without polluting my brain. It's a constant Khan academy against demons these days, I should give up demonology next Lent and add it to the list....
Post something cerebral and nuanced to watch as an alternative in the comments below for superbonuspowerup karma.