Indulge me for a moment, please.
One thing I like about reading blogs is that a good writer can write on any topic and make it interesting. Through the sheer number of people blogging, you are likely to find some folks like that, but they are still rare gems.
Erin O’Brien is one such blogger. She cracks me up, every time, and it doesn’t matter what she blogs about. Her video blogs make me laugh, too, and sometimes all it takes is her mugging into the camera. That knowing look, the shared inside joke…
We’ve sent emails back and forth, and a little while back she sent me a copy of her book, Harvey and Eck. I have my own to write, and shouldn’t let myself get distracted, but how could I not read it through? It’s like sitting down next to Erin and having her whisper in my ear for hours, and I am but a mortal man.
She also sent me a CD with songs inspired by the Moon, as her book was so inspired. Again, how could I resist?
I have to mention: her blog is frequently (and wonderfully) NSFW. I won’t say why, but you’ll see when you go there.
July 20th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Thanks Phil. Just the first two things on her site made me bookmark it. It’s going to be a regular read for me.
July 20th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Hmm. I have a blog too. If I send you a CD will you possibly write a post about it?
It’s http://www.depletedcranium.com btw.
July 20th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
OK OK, that’s one of your better puns.
July 20th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Ooooh, she likes Geek Love by Katherine Dunn!!!! Clearly, she is a woman of taste and culture.
I’ve bookmarked her site also.
You have given me yet ANOTHER blog to be addicted to (thanks, BA) although my all-time fave is still Gia’s blog.
July 21st, 2007 at 6:09 am
Bookmarked…she is is in Northeast Ohio, a sign of he obvious powerful intellect.
July 21st, 2007 at 10:11 am
She loves her mini cooper as much as I love mine! Woohoo!
July 21st, 2007 at 11:18 am
Mine’s a 2005 Hyper Blue MC. I got sweet bonnet and boot srtipes. It makes me smile everytime I pass the pump! They really are just nice, well built, little cars.
July 21st, 2007 at 11:38 am
Hello Bad Astronomers!
“Geek Love” is a great book. Here’s another, “Flatland” by Edwin Abbott.
This baby is 118 pages and was first published in 1884. It crackles and giggles and winks. It is little and quirky (Jeepers! This book is a lot like me!). In Flatland there are only two dimensions (I have more) and all of the characters are geometric shapes (I am not).
The circles are priests: “the controllers of our conduct and shapers of our destiny, the objects of universal homage and almost of adoration.”
Irregular polygons are shunned:
“I for my part have never known an Irregular who was not also what Nature evidently intended him to be–a hypocrite, a misanthropist, and, up to the limits of his power, a perpetrator of all manner of mischief.”
All the women are lines:
“For if a soldier is a wedge, a Woman is a needle; being, so to speak, all point, at least at the two extremities. Add to this the power of making herself practically invisible at will, and you will perceive that a Female, in Flatland, is a creature by no means to be trifled with.”
You bet your buster browns I’ve got a point at both ends. As for all you Irregulars out there, why don’t you come up and trifle me sometime?
Regarding the Mini Cooper, it possesses every quality I admire. It does not take more than it needs. It’s smart and responsive and tight. It goes really fast and it’s cute like a puppy!
Yay!
Phil, thank you so so so much for the kind words and thanks to all your readers who took time to drop in over at my place.
Erin O’Briend
July 21st, 2007 at 11:40 am
oops.
It’s Erin O’Brien–no ‘d.’
erf.
July 21st, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Classic blog Erin, I likie XD
July 21st, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Oh, my:
“In Flatland there are only two dimensions (I have more) and all of the characters are geometric shapes (I am not).”
Erin, dear, you should know better than to say something like that around me. You need to look up Ovals of Cassini.
July 22nd, 2007 at 3:29 am
whoa.
It only took a few clicks before I was roiling in a cyclone of sines, cosines, functions, and antiderivatives, all of which were swimming in a bowl of alphabet soup with letters degreed, multiplied, grouped, positive, negative, and square-rooted*.
Scary, but thrilling as well.
Why? This might surprise some of you bopping Bad Astronomers, but in high school, one of my favorite subjects was Calculus. I remember the glossy cover of the text book, cool blue and green with a waving distorted grid** for a graphic. When I was deep into the world of limits and derivatives, music would actually play in my head. I got an A in the class and went onto college to get my degree in electrical engineering.
Why do people think the concepts of creativity and mathematics are far apart? Here is an equation for you: Writing+Calculus-2(Sculpture)/Triginometry+Colors-Poetry=Erin. And an assertion: you rely on punctuation more than you realize.
You don’t believe me?
You don’t believe me!
You don’t believe me.
My name is Erin O’Brien. I am a writer.
*letters in mathematical equations are a lot like people.
**The tattoo on my back is a distorted checkerboard, representing that which is at once orderly and asymmetrical. It is my only tattoo. I designed it myself***.
***Kids, don’t try this at home.
July 22nd, 2007 at 3:35 am
If I were in charge (and I should be), the Ovals of Cassini would be a fabulous collection of gardens and fountains in Europe. People would fall hopelessly in love amid the roses. Children would sail toy boats in the reflecting pond. Men would stifle tears before the cascading waters.
Stone statues would stand frozen in time and bear witness.
July 22nd, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Wow Phil, thanks for turning us on to Erin. She is so cool. And she’s local to me too!
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:28 am
I am unsure whether or not to resent the # that precedes my name in each of these comments.
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:07 pm
Well I often use calculus to understand various aspects of life. The derivative and the integral. I use them for Nature, Technology, and Man…
It is nice to meet a fellow “fear” (gaelic….) also which I break it down to Fe Ar… and get giggles from the resultant free association…
Glad on ye.
July 26th, 2007 at 6:43 am
Erin, I don’t mind the # sign. Wanna play “Noughts and Crosses”? Or to some people, “Tic-Tac-Doe”. (Should I include another Question Mark here as well?)
# #
# #
# #
#################
# #
# #
# #
#################
# #
# #
# #
Ivan.
July 26th, 2007 at 6:57 am
Ooops, that didn’t work, did it? A beautifully crafted symbol got squashed horizontally, a la, close to the velocity of light maybe.
Ivan.
July 27th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Don’t you think that
“;”
looks like a sexy Spanish dancer with a set of castanets in each hand?
By now, I’m sure Phil is wondering how wise it was to uncork the bottle whereby releasing an Erin onto his site.
July 30th, 2007 at 8:26 am
Thanks for referring us to the Owner’s Manual for Human Beings…I’ve become a fan