Why I Love XKCD

I Have Regained my Title!!

I have officially regained my title as the Queen of Trivial Pursuit! *dances about* This makes me inordinately happy.... I was worried that I'd never get back to my old form. (for those of you who aren't regular readers of this or any of my past blogs, I was undefeated in 49 straight games until I met my wife. I KNEW there was a reason i chose her! Anyway, moving on!)

Livvy's brother came over for dinner last night, and he suggested that we play. I guess the trivia gods were shining on me, because I won in record time! I even got the GREEN pie fairly easily (green is sports/leisure, my hardest subject)! So that's good.

In other news, we're trying again on Friday to run my first trial... *sigh* Why did i choose to work with living things again? *head desk*

Today Has Songs!

"Hallelujah"

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time you let me know
What's real and going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah


well, maybe there's a god above
but all i've ever learned from love
was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you
it's not a cry that you hear at night
it's not somebody who's seen the light
it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah

-Leonard Cohen


"Ghost Story"

I watch the Western sky
The sun is sinking
The geese are flying South
It sets me thinking

I did not miss you much
I did not suffer
What did not kill me
Just made me tougher

I feel the winter come
His icy sinews
Now in the fire light
The case continues

Another night in court
The same old trial
The same old questions asked
The same denial

The shadows closely run
Like jury members
I look for answers in
The fire's embers

Why was I missing then
That whole December
I give my usual line:
I don't remember

Another winter comes
His icy fingers creep
Into these bones of mine
These memories never sleep

And all these differences
A cloak I borrow
We kept our distances
Why should it follow I must have loved you

What is the force that binds the stars
I wore this mask to hide my scars
What is the power that pulls the tide
I never could find a place to hide

What moves the Earth around the sun
What could I do but run and run and run
Afraid to love, afraid to fail
A mast without a sail

The moon's a fingernail and slowly sinking
Another day begins and now I'm thinking
That this indifference was my invention
When everything I did sought your attention

You were my compass star
You were my measure
You were a pirate's map
A buried treasure

If this was all correct
The last thing I'd expect
The prosecution rests
It's time that I confess: I must have loved you

-Sting


"My Skin"

Take a look at my body
Look at my hands
There's so much here
That I don't understand

Your face saving promises
Whispered like prayers
I don't need them
I don't need them

I've been treated so wrong
I've been treated so long
As if I'm becoming untouchable

Contempt loves the silence
It thrives in the dark
With fine winding tendrils
That strangle the heart

They say that promises
Sweeten the blow
But I don't need them
No, I don't need them

I've been treated so wrong
I've been treated so long
As if I'm becoming untouchable

I'm a slow dying flower
Frost killing hour
The sweet turning sour
And untouchable

O, I need
The darkness
The sweetness
The sadness
The weakness
I need this

I need
A lullaby
A kiss goodnight
Angel sweet
Love of my life
O, I need this

Do you remember the way
That you touched me before
All the trembling sweetness
I loved and adored?

Your face saving promises
Whispered like prayers
I don't need them
No, I don't need them

O, I need
The darkness
The sweetness
The sadness
The weakness
I need this

I need
A lullaby
A kiss goodnight
The angel sweet
Love of my life
I need this

Is it dark enough?
Can you see me?
Do you want me?
Can you reach me?
Or I'm leaving

You better shut your mouth
Hold your breath
Kiss me now you'll catch my death
O, I mean it

-Natalie Merchant

Letter to A Friend

(Regular readers, please bear with me ..... occasionally I get in these nostalgic things and I have to write a letter. This person will likely never see this letter, and I will not mention them by name, both for my privacy and for theirs. If you don't care, then I suggest you stop reading now and come back when I post some actual science content, which should probably happen later today or tomorrow.)

Hello Old Friend,

I've been thinking of you a lot lately, as I do every year around this time for whatever reason. I've been remembering the times we had together, both good and bad, and I've been thinking about the things that never happened but easily could have, and where we might be today if those things had happened.

A part of me longs desperately to hear your voice, but another part of me is wary. So many things have changed in our lives since we last spoke, and so many of our opinions have diverged over the years that I worry that our conversation would turn quickly into an argument. I don't want to remember you that way -- I want to remember your laughter, and your joy, and yes, even your sarcasm, because we are still so similar in that way.

There is no denying that I loved you. And there is also no denying that to love you with all that I am would have destroyed both of us. Or at least that's the way I see it now. It doesn't devalue what was, and what still is, but I know that I, for one, could not have continued the depth of feeling that I had for you (and that I know you had for me) for an entire lifetime. It was purely too much. There was too much rawness and not enough softness.

Sometimes, though rarely, I regret not having tried harder.... or not having made more of an effort to hold onto things as they were slipping away. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that had I held any harder, it would have driven you further, and we quite possibly would have no relationship today, rather than the somewhat distant and slightly stilted one that we have today. I know that I did everything I could and that you were scared, but that doesn't fill the reservations that I had then, nor does it get us any closer to where we were now. You were my best friend. I told you things that until recently I had never told to another person. And there are things that I would like to tell you now that I don't think I can...not without considerable pain on both of our parts.

I'll close by saying that I'm happy, and that I don't regret anything that we ever did when we were together, both in our friendship and after. We had the kind of connection that doesn't happen often, maybe once or twice in a lifetime, and for that I feel absolutely blessed. You taught me many things, not the least of which was patience, and also recovery of a friendship after complications.

There are times that I miss you desperately -- not you as a lover, but you as a friend.

"If we should ever cross the same place, at the same time, would your world skip a beat because it was me?" - D. Rucker

I'm thinking of you today,
Yours....

me

The Truest Thing I've Heard All Year.

This poster is probably the truest thing I've heard all year.

And I needed it today. So thanks to Respectful Insolence over at Scienceblogs for posting it.