and we'll all go together to pick wild mountain thyme

Today was a day of firsts.

I completed the Rubik's cube for the first time. It was a thing of beauty. What was not a thing of beauty were the instructions on some of the sites I went through to find good instructions. The first site tried to hook me and get me to pay for the final steps. The second site went into very detailed mathematical reasoning involving matrices and variables that weren't x or y.

Luckily, I found this guy on Youtube who was nice and visual and nicely supplemented my written instructions. I'm thinking of filming and posting my own Rubik's video on here.

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I also went busking for the first time. Christophe and I went out and wooed the Swedish population (and their tourists) with Johnny Cash, Pink Floyd, Wheatus, and some folksy Irish numbers including the one in this video:





It's a beautiful song, especially with harmonies.

All in all our experience was a positive one; we made 35 kroner, which is – deceptively – about five dollars. There were some cute moments, including a little boy who begged money off his mom and ran up to us, throwing it into the gaudy red hat we had set up. (On top of Chris's lucky Omani flag.)

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Funky Word: Kibosh. It means put a stop to, as in "his attitude put the kibosh on our good moods."

Facebook Find: My siblings all thought it would be terribly funny to post something about my using the internet to solve the Rubik's cube today. Anyways, they had several discussions of the spelling of said cube, and came up with three different statuses. Lexis was my favorite:

"siobhan is currently googling how to solve a reubix cube while holding one in her hand." Reubix. Very French – as the comment under it pointed out.

just a picture in a pothole, a puddle in the middle of the street

Today's Smashing Story is for Emma Cole. A 22-year-old was caught smuggling snakes
into Norway by taping them to his body. Underneath his clothes he had 10 pythons taped to his stomach, and 14 geckos taped to his legs (well, why not?).

And our Funky Word is: fugacious. It means momentary; fleeting; ephemeral. Peder got a fugacious thrill as he taped the snakes to his body, which later completely disappeared as he was strip searched.

all the music of the spheres and still it's your voice I hear

Maira: "5th grade math is so hard. I hate it."
me: "Wait 'til you get to 9th grade."
Maira: (rolls eyes) "What grade are you in?"
me: "What grade do you think?"
Maira: "9th?"

This was one of many beautiful conversations I undertook with dozens of seven to 12 year-olds today. Guess I'm not old meatloaf yet, because – yes – I look like a 14-year-old. I know I put the thought in her head, but still.

I'm starting a running tally of enjoyment vs. unemployment, and giving a point to unemployment for this conversation. Current score: Enjoyment 0, Unemployment 1.

Life Lesson: Sarcasm is lost on children. Lost or purposefully ignored. Either way, it's not the best behavioral correction method.

Adolpho (throwing green slimy thing at window): "Can I break the window?"
me: "Yes, Adolpho, I'll give you permission to break the window."
Adolpho: "Sweeet!"
me: (walk away and leave real teachers to deal with him)

Smashing Story: There are "Hitler is still alive" conspiracy theorists out there. Kind of like the Elvis hopefuls but more cynical. My favorite line in this article is: "(This is) the point when Hitler conspiracy theories lose touch with reality altogether." This was referring to a theory that Hitler escaped to a secret Nazi base on the moon using hidden rocket technology. I'm all for a good conspiracy theory, but it needs to be plausible enough to really annoy someone in an argument.

Funky Word: Calumny. It means slander (and so does traducement, apparently.) This word is a pain to say, but interesting to write.

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Something that is fun to do with children is play Taboo. I'll never forget playing countless Taboo games with my cousins and Aunt in Boerne, Texas.

Auntie B: (frantically trying to get my cousin Bridey to guess the right word). Okay, when mommy goes on road trips, she gets really unhappy unless she has...?"
Bridey: Cymbalta!
Auntie B: (faintly horrified) No!

Oh yes, that was priceless.

some dance to forget

Apparently biff is the new bff. How does this make me feel? Old. Yes. But that's how high school girls refer to their best friends now. I wonder if Ugg boots are out too.

I don't need to dance to forget (see title) because I'm pretty sure I'm entering a stage of life that'll fade my memories like unscrapbooked flower petals. My roommate Jess and I have an ongoing joke about the last year of beauty. There has to be a last one, and we're nervous that it might be 22.

Me: "22 could be the last year of beauty. What hot 23 year-olds can you think of?"
Jess: "..."

What a marvelous illustration that was. But seriously, in the past week I was called elderly (by a professor talking to freshmen), I overheard a conversation about 23 year-olds being too old
and I listened as my sister Hannah (hi!) freaked out when she suddenly realize I wasn't 20. (And really, the math on that one isn't hard. I've always been four years older). It doesn't help that I work with a bunch of elementary school kids who have no gauge for age and probably think I'm in my 40's.

This all has to do with unemployment because there's nothing like an overload of free time to give perspective on how fast life goes. I know that sounds paradoxical, but it's true. When you're really busy and working hard, you don't realize life is passing you by until it's gone.

When you're sitting at home all day, you have hours to reflect on the nature of time. (Time wasted? You tell me).

On my last post I got a request by Hannah (hi!) to do a rant on "silly Disney girls" or some such similar epithet. She wants me to complain about how they make scads of dough off of minimal talent when thousands of people are unemployed. As much as I want to please and appease my readers (all 3 of you:)), I cannot do this rant because I disagree with the principle.

I'm not going to complain if Disney has tapped into a way to sell their stars like products. On the other hand, I am bothered that Americans have chosen to idolize these semi-talented starlets in lieu of really genuine talent. Honestly though, if nothing else, those kids have charisma. I would rather rant about Bernie Madoff (actually I wouldn't, but you get the point).

Today's Funky Word: Potentate. It means monarch or sovereign. (thanks Barron's GRE book!) I think I would be quite the impressive potentate. Maybe I'll pull a Grace Kelly. Although I think it's already been tried (but his looks were too sad).

Today's Life Lesson: According to Wikipedia, the phrase "Stone broke" refers to a "craftsman's stone bench being broken if he failed to pay his debts. (Robert L. Shook, The Book of Why, 1983)" It sounds made up, but if it's on Wikipedia it must be true. (wiki and oprah = infallible.)

Today's Quote: "It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating."
--Oscar Wilde, The Model Millionaire.

And Wilde quote number two:

"All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his."

Wilde is simply too clever. I was actually looking for a quote of his from "The Picture of Dorian Gray" that I loved, but I couldn't find it. It was on the tragedy of old age. I think I'll have to go re-read the book.