A Word, Please

Graduate student at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.

[jpaxonreyes]

https://soundcloud.com/jpaxonreyes/jessicas-theme-from-the-man-from-snowy-river

[jpaxonreyes]

My new sounds:

[jpaxonreyes]

Waking to the car from The Farmhouse Lounge. Cows! at Weeping Water, Nebraska

[jpaxonreyes]

I wanted to go inside but they wouldn't let me in. ..said something about the princess being in another castle. (at Salt Lake Temple)

[jpaxonreyes]

OK GO at Lied Center

[jpaxonreyes]

Join an album listening club!

It's like a book club but with whole albums. It's started by a really cool guy named Sam. I know him as Sam the Butcher (not a real butcher) but you might know him as OlderBrotherSam. 

http://www.yourolderbrother.com/2014/06/your-older-brothers-album-listening-club.html

[jpaxonreyes]

Hit-and-run in Boulder

* We are looking for the two witnesses *

My girlfriend Maya is mostly OK. But on Dec 23 (around 11pm MST) she was cycling home from CU - Boulder main campus, traveling east on Baseline. The traffic light at the 30th/Baseline intersection was red so she slowed down. Before arriving at the intersection the light turned green so Maya resumed pedaling. At the same time, headed north on 30th, a white sedan came to the intersection and stopped. Thinking the driver was aware of her and having a green light Maya proceeded through the intersection and in front of the vehicle. The vehicle had apparently not seen her and started a right turn onto Baseline, making contact. The impact was minor as Maya thinks the car struck her leg directly but the outside of her leg is fine. However, this caused her to fall onto her left side, scraping her left elbow, and there is swelling and bruising on the inside of her right knee, probably from it hitting the bike frame.

The driver did not check on her, only waited inside the car. Maya took stock of her situation for a moment and realized that she was still alive. She sat up and then watched the car complete its right turn onto Baseline; it drove around her and away.

First a woman, then a man, came to Maya’s aid. They made sure she was OK. Being her usual stoic self and trying to minimize her burden, Maya assured them that she didn’t need medical attention or anything else. The police should have been called for immediately, but no one was thinking clearly. For that matter Maya’s phone had been thrown from her backpack and was run over at some point during or after the ordeal. The two witnesses did not leave their contact information nor did Maya ask for it. She gets back on her bike and rides home.

At her apartment, via gchat, Maya informs me about the situation and about her broken phone so, from five hundred miles away, I had to make an awkward call to Boulder PD explaining why I’m calling for someone else and to ask if someone would meet and advise my girlfriend and file a report.

We are hoping to find the two witnesses who helped Maya on the road (or anyone else who witnessed the accident) to ask that they add to the police report. Please contact me at [email protected] so I can refer you to the officer and case number.

Thanks.

Dec 24, 2013: After a visit to Urgent Care the next morning, Maya may have a small fracture in her tibia (which will heal on its own) and maybe a torn ligament in her knee (which would require surgery).

Dec 27, 2013: After an MRI it has been determined that Urgent Care was being quite conservative. Looks like there is no fracture and no ligament damage. Just physical therapy will be required. Super happy it’s not serious. Still bummed that someone could leave a person in the streets…the evening before Christmas Eve, no less!

[jpaxonreyes]

And memory insists on pining for places it never went, as if life would be happier just by being different. (But the poem up until the ending isn't as good.) (at Jon's Moving Castle)

[jpaxonreyes]

Trying to learn Python once and ... well, for once.

[jpaxonreyes]

Friday night finds me in my office working on stuff because that's what I do. (at Jorgensen Hall)

[jpaxonreyes]

Emergency Chinese food runs are the best. Wait, that came out wrong! (But that one didn't.) #GetIt? (at Magic Wok)

[humansofnewyork]

[littletinyfish]

humansofnewyork: I am a street photographer in New York City. Several months ago, I was approached by a representative of DKNY who asked to purchase 300 of my photos to hang in their store windows “around the world.” They offered me $15,000. A friend in the industry told me that $50 per photo was not nearly enough to receive from a company with hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue. So I asked for more money. They said “no.” Today, a fan sent me a photo from a DKNY store in Bangkok. The window is full of my photos. These photos were used without my knowledge, and without compensation. I don’t want any money. But please REBLOG this post if you think that DKNY should donate $100,000 on my behalf to the YMCA in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. That donation would sure help a lot of deserving kids go to summer camp. I’ll let you guys know if it happens.

verbsnouns: UGHHH WHAT THE FUCK CORPORATIONS

Attribute (AND PAY!) your artists, designers, and photographers.

[jpaxonreyes]

And on a slightly related note, I've always wanted to start a People Of Rural Nebraska project. 

[jpaxonreyes]

Downton Buffet

That's what they should have named it. But the "Downtown Buffet" will just have to get by on its food alone. 

So it's about what I expected from a buffet. Golden Corral or Old Country Buffet quality. The mashed potatoes were real and had a sour cream tanginess, so not bad. A vat of sausage kielbasa with cabbage and potatoes was alright, but a bit over steamed. There were liver and onions which took me by surprise. I don't think I've ever had beef "liver and onions" as a dish. I've had beef liver prepared in a Thai fashion. It was pretty good, livery with a sweetness, I'm guessing, from the onions. But again it was dry and tough without being inedible. Surprisingly there were other ethnic dishes like biryani and tikka korma. I think they had gyro meat, too, but it wasn't listed on the sneeze guard and I didn't want it anyway. Penne pasta with sauce. Breadsticks. Fish and chips (without the chips). Meatballs. Barbecue-sauced ribs. The chicken in both the biryani and tikka korma were way overcooked, very stringy and dry. You could have told me it was canned tuna and I'd have believed you. The breadsticks were the bleached white flour variety, probably store bought frozen and thrown into an oven. Half of mine was crunchy and the other side soft. The fried fish was meh. It wasn't crunchy and I didn't see any malt vinegar around. The barbecue ribs were smothered in sauce and probably oven baked. It wasn't bad...it wasn't good but it wasn't bad.

The one thing I found unappetizing was the fried chicken leg. I cut into it and it had the texture that I would have liked had I trusted the establishment. A lot of people overcook their chicken because they're afraid of salmonella. I cook mine to 165˚. At that temperature the chicken is still very juicy and tender. It's nowhere near that canned tuna texture that overcooked chicken gets. This fried chicken had that nice texture; the difference is I use trusted, organic chicken (usually from a nearby farm) and I don't know where they got theirs, and then I convinced myself that it had a funny, chickeny smell as if it were old. I left it alone and they took it away.

Basically, very little on the hot line had the right texture since everything had been sitting on a steam plate for simply too long. So it was like every other buffet in that regard.

There's a standard salad bar with cold pasta salads, iceberg lettuce, commercial salad dressings, boiled eggs, chopped vegetables, etc. I didn't try any of the desserts; it looked like there were some cakes or something. The beverage station had the assortment of sodas but they also had regular and decaf coffee and hot water for the available Lipton tea bags or green tea bags. They also had a gas station-type hot chocolate/latte dispenser. 

The people there were friendly. The man at the front (ethnicity unknown but intriguing) explained how they were doing the soft opening, trying to get the kinks worked out for supplying the buffet. But I don't think the quality of the food will get any better. I liked the variety though. Sometimes I really do want to go to the crappy campus cafeteria just to have some variety over getting just a sandwich or just a burger. But for $7 and nearly a mile hike to get there from Jorgensen Hall...I think Imma pass next time.

*** One more thing! The buffet's hot line is against the wall and double-barreled, so if you're short you'll have to really strain and stretch and almost smash your face against the sneeze guard to get at some of the food. There were a few things that I just couldn't reach with decorum. And so let it be.

[jpaxonreyes]

A scene from Seven Falls in Colorado Springs. We were rained out for awhile under a shelter. Then later we got locked up there because they closed and locked the gates earlier than announced. Those asshats then didn't even offer to make any amends by, say, refunding us the $9 each they charged us for the pleasure of hiking their 1-mile trail. Asshats! Never going back to Seven Falls again.

[whatshouldwecallgradschool]

WHEN MY PI CATCHES ME SCREWING AROUND

credit: Nikki

[jpaxonreyes]

I've actually seen this happen to a grad student who was playing Warcraft and a colleague came in to ask him something. The student jumped up and flew head over heels over his desk to keep the other chap from coming around and viewing the computer monitor.

[jpaxonreyes]

Remember that it's not easy growing up. Your parents make mistakes and your friends will make fun of you. Teachers will do their best, or not. Seasons change. And at the center of your world. Is trying to tie a goddamm shoe.

[jpaxonreyes]

I found my nieces' watercolors. So this is my impression of nature. It's inspired by a laser pulse traveling through a plasma.