From the "Not Quite Ready to Do Actual Work" dept: this is a very beautiful animated video, for a great Andrew Bird song: [link]

About the animator:

Lisa Barcy is an award winning animator, and maker of puppets and other three-dimensional oddities. She has made puppets for various theater companies and contributed animation to multi-media performances by the dance company, The Seldoms. Her work for Redmoon Theater has been seen at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, The Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and the Viaduct Theater. In spring of 2005 her puppets were seen traipsing across the stage and stabbing each other in the critically acclaimed Redmoon production of The Cabinet, based on the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Department of Film, Video and New Media. Lisa also teaches animation at Columbia College in Chicago.

The video is a touching, bitter-sweet romance between a man and a squid.

Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.

Alternately, "Russian professor reads Thirteen by Richard K Morgan and mistakes it for nonfiction."

Ooh. A theremin kit just arrived for me.

I wanna start building it now. Let's see - which client can I bill my time to....

If that scenario comes true, I'm moving my folks up to live with our relatives in the new Province of Missouri and relocating myself to our Evanston office.

I don't think the Texas Republic would be any more open to Mexican influence than the current US as a whole is. And it'd have a lot more guns per capita.

Flea, does watching Maraka help with the Dora hate?

How come we get stuck with the midwest?

Because they're the nicest, except for the crazy ones with guns.

If the US breaks up like that, I am SO moving out of Georgia.

But look what a wonderful opportunity it will be for the kids to learn a second language.

Seriously, Mexico is not in a position to take over or influence anything.

I have no focus. I have work busywork, and personal busywork. Both need to get done today. I think it is time to make a list.

Seriously, Mexico is not in a position to take over or influence anything.

Yeah. With all the drug gangs wielding such power, it's more likely Mexico would break up into pieces ruled by various warlords....

So roofer dude fixed my broken flashing, but told Sears, who installed my roof, that it needs releading. Bah! I guess I should get quotes to see if the price Sears quoted me is fair. And I didn't love this roofer guy, so I don't know if I really want him to do the releading.

Unlike Shir, I can take the news only in small doses, a bit each time, and have to take breaks between updates, otherwise it's too much for me. It's not the "if I can't see it, then it can't see me" the-world-doesn't-exist school of thought, per se, but it sure is similar to it, if you close one eye and look from the side. Oh, well.

Anyway, thank you so much for the lovely words about my Simpsons kipa! I worked so hard on it. The groom's mom called me 2.5 weeks before the wedding, to ask if it's even possible, and ever since then, I've been working on it whenever I wasn't really, um, working (it's kinda hard to teach with all this stuff in my hands). I mean, on buses, when meeting friends, even on dates (though it wasn't a first date, so he was very understanding). And it was so much fun to do.

That concludes the meMeME portion of your Monday. Hope it improves from now on!

From last night:

Kathy, you still working for the lawyer? (I've probably skimmed a lot in this week.)

No, I quit there in mid-November, thanks! The stress was too much and the money was not enough to make up for it. Luckily, they found someone to replace me in time for me to train her and then go on vacation, and then come back to having Sundays off again.

Now, I just have to get the scheduler at the bookstore to start giving me hours again. I think they hired too many people for the holidays and have cut back on everyone's hours as a result. I didn't work at all last week, including this past Saturday (I was on call, but they didn't need me), and I just hope that they have me on the schedule somewhere this week.