I haven't posted in a zillion months, but suddenly here I am, doing it. I'm about to go see a Special Advanced Press Screening of LOTR! Mwah mwah mwah. I'm so excited that I can't do any work ( Read more... )

I just saw The Gangs of New York and it ROCKED! I had read about the anti-conscription riots during the Civil War in New York, but there's nothing like seeing history played in full, blood-and-fire-drenched Martin Scorcese style to make it come alive. Also, this flick shows how the police force in NY grew out of gangs -- quite literally, certain ( Read more... )

I met a real, live cyborg tonight. He's going to help me build a sex machine. Life is so great sometimes.

This is my love letter to a whole community of freaks and geeks I've met here in Boston. You know who you are . . .

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=14407

7

"the beauty of autumn in New England ( Read more... )

Last night I dreamed I kept blowing up the library on some random college campus. I just couldn't stop myself. It was so fun to watch the building blow up from a distance, even though I felt terrible that people were dying inside. "I've become some kind of serial killer," I mumbled to myself. "Nobody will be surprised ( Read more... )

Today's gripping information: I'm still feeling a little sick. Tragically, I felt so crappy last night that I had to postpone a bookstore date with this insanely cute boy I met recently. You know you're feeling gross when cute boys in bookstores can't even lure you out ( Read more... )

Even though I'm on this fellowship where I'm not supposed to be working -- just relaxing and learning -- I still feel lots of work stress. I'm trying to write two book proposals (almost done with one), two articles, and my weekly column. Plus, I want to keep up with the classes I'm taking at MIT, as well as going to see as many interesting lectures ( Read more... )

The problem is that we ran out of english muffins. So here I am, with coffee and peanut butter, with no items on which to spread said peanut butter and no items on which to munch with said coffee.

I've been reading a lot about experiments people have done on the pleasure centers of the brain. In the 50s, a doctor named Heath located the "septal area," a pleasure center located in the hypothalamus. He also managed to isolate a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine that gets absorbed in the septal region, with pleasurable results. He and his ( Read more... )