What's got you up way too..late? early?

Late.

A research grant report which is due on Sunday.

I've asked the information I need in order to write it back during September, but the people involved figured that, hey, October is far enough, so there's no need to answer me then, they'll just wait until the last minute and be the last to have their information integrated into the whole report. The only problem was, other than 2 people, they all apparently went with this way of thought, and now, well, I'll get to see if I can stay awake. I'm counting on sleeping on shabbat. And on whining as much as humanly possible.

Well, part of it is my fault - yesterday I went to listen to a Neil Gaiman Q&A at the Israeli science fiction convention and didn't do any work at all. But I don't think that even that is enough to rob me of my whining privilages.

I don't have to give mine back, do I?

You have to give yours to Cindy. But only if she doesn't watch BSG.

Nilly, did you say hi to Neil? I hear he was expecting you.

And lo it is the onset of another migraine. This one I will avert with endorphins. I hope.

You have to give yours to Cindy. But only if she doesn't watch BSG.

Curses!

On the drive homeI heard an advertisement for Nightshade Manor, Memphis' scariest haunted house. If the address (1 mile south of Union on Bellevue) is where I think it is, the place would merit that based on its location alone without the hosts having to place a single cobweb.

On the plus side, anyone that's done enough crack to want to park their car there will be familiar with the neighborhood.

did you say hi to Neil? I hear he was expecting you.

I really wanted to, but it was already 10PM by the time it was finished, and he was rushed out, and for some reason I don't think that saying "he's expecting me to say hello!" would have been believed. Sigh. I really wanted to, or to at least try, you know? Oh, well.

He was so wonderful, I could throw large paragraphs on computer screens, if I didn't have to arrange and sum up papers on "Communication Networks: Topology, Dynamics and Applications".

Nilly, when you aren't beleaguered, I have a question for you (or anyone else who's know the answer.) A childhood friend of mine got married, and she's jewish. She's also an artist. She mentioned this gorgeous piece of art was part of the marriage and wedding. It's this enormous (seriously, 2m x 2m)...painting thing. It was shaped roughly like tablets (old school, a la Moses? I really don't know,) filled with tiny hebrew script. It's very arty and seriously gorgeous. They have it in their home. I didn't get to ask her about it, so my question is, is this a jewish marriage thing? Or just a friend-who-is-a-jewish-artist thing?

Posters of mid-20th-century advertising: [link]

I especially like the car ads. Back then, most all car ads featured paintings of cars, and they tended to exaggerate the length and lowness of the cars. (eta: [link]

The site also has pictures od futuristic rocket ships, flying boats, and what-not, as imagined in the '40s-'60s.

sara, do you have any idea what were the words inside it?

Some of the couples make their "ktuba" (sort of a legal (well, religiously legal, of course) document stating the obligations of the husband to his wife), which has a nearly set familiar phrasing, into some really beautiful art. I don't know any that big like your friend's, and it can totally be designed and decorated as anybody wants it, but at least one couple I know got, as a present from a family member, an artist-prepared ktuba which now hangs in their living room.

If it's not that, then I guess that it's a friend-who-is-a-jewish-artist thing, but either way, I'm now curious to see it!

(Answering it is more fun than labeling references, could you guess?)

sara, do you have any idea what were the words inside it?

Yeah...nope. My knowlege of hebrew is dreidel and that's iffy. The ktuba thing might be it, I don't know. I'll have to ask Isadora. I know she, her dad, her inlaws, her husband and some good friends worked on it.

Her family is the reason I know anything about judaism. I grew up in a small but largely catholic community, so things like Purim and Hannukah (I never spell that right) were hard to come by unless you knew an actual member of the faith. We were lucky. We were invited to their holidays and invited them to ours.

NILLY! I forgot to call, I suck.