Aurelia, Audrey, Beatrix, Cassia, Cordelia, Dulcia, Eulalia, Freya, Holly,  India, Imogen, Isadora, Imala, Inez, Kezia,  Lucretia, Mabel, Novella, Orla, Olive, Olympia, Poppy, Penelope, Polly, Phoebe, Rhea, Saffron, Saskia, Tatiana, Tuscany, Tallulah, Thora, Thea, Vivienne, Vienna, Vera, Willa, Wren, Willona, Zora, Ziva, Azura, Aviva.

Ambrose, Arthur, Barnaby, Baxter, Cole, Dexter, Emmett, Emilian, Felix, Gulliver, Harvey, Ivor, Jasper, Lucian, Lysander, Malachi, Moss, Oakley, Orlando, Perrin, Rowan, Rain, River, Sommett, Tybalt, Troy, Thor, Thorn, Tychius, Vincent, Wilbur.

From The Patriot Room: McConnell on CMS Analysis: ‘Democrat Bill gets a failing grade’ by Clyde Middleton:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Friday regarding the analysis of the Democrat Bill released last night by CMS Chief Actuary Rick Foster:

“Americans were told that the purpose of health care reform was to lower costs, to bend the so-called cost curve down. But a report released last night by the administration’s own independent scorekeeper shows that the Democrat bill gets a failing grade. This chief actuary is the person the Administration depends on to give it straightforward, unbiased analysis of the impact the legislation would have. This is the official referee talking – so this is significant.

Details and link to the CMS report at The Patriot Room.

Update: Some great analysis from Dan Perrin at RedState: Dems Fight Each other to a Stand Still in the Senate over Drugs:

Senator Carper (D-DE) has put a hold on Senator Dorgan’s (D-ND) drug re-importation amendment, who in turn, has objected to the Senate moving on any other health care amendments, until his pending drug re-importation amendment is voted on.

…If the yes votes exceed 51, which by all accounts they will, then the amendment cannot be tabled.

If the yes votes do not exceed 60 votes, then cloture is not agreed to. Then the amendment just sits there, burning time on the Senate floor, blocking any other action.

If the yes votes exceed 60 votes, then the bill is amended — and PhRma, the drug industry trade group freaks out, and the deal that they made with the White House to stop re-importation is in shreds. What PhRma does then is an open question. How can they pull the provision out of the bill? Or, do they oppose the bill and spend their millions to kill it? In general, it is grinding and gnashing of teeth time for PhRma if Senator Dorgan gets more than 60 votes.

Hopefully this will be the beginning of the end for this bill.

Nine working days to go. Nine days for nine years. Still I wonder what I am becoming. Waiting for Christmas, waiting for the weekend, waiting for the end.

I might have a tenant soon, that is the good news. Perhaps that makes me a landlord, but I think that is too ambitious a description for renting out a single flat.

I have always thought of myself as an artist. I may not draw or paint furiously, but I am always creative. In some ways I have always felt like an observer to my own life. When I went through counselling this dual personality became quite apparent and I believe this explains the way in which I feel like an imposter in whatever role I inhabit. For the same reasons I feel that my life, my existence, is an art piece in and of itself. So maybe I can finally and comfortably introduce myself as such. I am, after all is said and done, an ARTIST.

Detail from the Christmas tree I put up tonight. I was not going to bother this year, But N finally persuaded me. We will be spoilt this year, we will have a tree in London, in Paris and in Devon. So it ain’t all bad!

This feels good and epitomises how I feel when I am optimistic about the future. For this optimism, other than my friends and family, I have only one person to truly thank. Thank you, N, for believing in me, for having faith in our future, for finding happiness and promise in my bad karma. You give me the strength to carry on and if it were not for your infectious confidence I do not know for how long I could continue with this farce before I would do a ‘Reggie Perrin’.

“The Public Eye” / “The Left Hand”

December 4th, 2009

“Everybody’s got a past – it’s the future [viewers] care about.”

Writing about Dollhouse is like riding a bike – the show has never suffered from a lack of ideas, making even its weaker episodes (once it got ahold of its identity) fascinating to discuss. However, there’s something inherently unsatisfying, in theory, about getting back onto that bicycle when you know that you’re about to run out of road, and in a very short period of time this bike is going to be absolutely worthless to you. So much of what I do here at Cultural Learnings is about contextualizing episodes in the past, present and future of any particular series, and in the world of Dollhouse that future has become a swift cancellation which could come as soon as early next week should the ratings from tonight’s two-hour block of episodes be so disastrous that FOX is willing to risk the wrath of fans as opposed to the wrath of advertisers and replace the show with reruns.

And yet, there is something about where this show finds itself mid-way through its second season that I find far more compelling than I should. I know this show is going to end, and yet there is something about the show’s view of the future that has turned its futility into an asset of sorts. It’s almost as if we’ve already reached the end of the road, but instead of a sheer drop the show is offering a lengthy kill on which we can simply coast down the hill with our hands off the handlebars feeling the wind in our face and taking those last moments to think about what was, what is, and what will (or would) be. It’s almost as if cancellation has freed Dollhouse from certain expectations, and what we get from this point forward is about what we take from the material rather than what the material necessarily says in and of itself.

As such, “The Public Eye” and “The Left Hand” are both really great hours of television not only because they’re well-executed in terms of basic plot and character, but also because through the wonders of a DVD bonus feature we as an audience are perfectly situated to understand the ramifications of what is going on here at levels that go beyond the immediate to a future that we might never be able to see but that we are able to vividly imagine in ways that allow the show to survive beyond the certainty of its fate.

Senator Daniel Perrin felt like a strange character to introduce into this universe back in October when we first met the man. He seemed like a waste of Alexis Denisof, an effort to set up an external threat to the Dollhouse in a way that seemed like a distraction. As such, it’s not too surprising that “The Public Eye” fundamentally deconstructs any notion of Perrin’s externality, revealing that he a unique sort of doll. In the process, the show manages to take the concept of the Dollhouse and apply it quite savvily into the world of politics. It’s as if Perrin is a third son, passed over for the first son and ignored when compared to the second son, left to waste away his existence as a 30-something frat boy until someone realizes that third son or not his name has potential. And as opposed to hiring a speech writer, an image consultant, and perhaps a big-money P.R. firm, the Rossum Corporation simply eliminates some attributes and adds others, creating a super-politician who can help clear the way for their master plan.

Dollhouse is often as its best when it takes things which happen in the real world (like, say, prostitution) and effectively turns the dial up to 11, shifting the purpose of the engagements in such a way as to challenge our preconceptions. Many politicians (including, most famously, George W. Bush) were built from the ground up by a political war machine, and in some instances were placed there by corporations. In the world of Dollhouse, though, that corporation is doing this not out of corporate greed but out of twisted self-preservation, understanding the immoral underpinnings (heck, pinnings (does this make sense? I don’t know, but it’s fun to say. Pinnings!) for that matter) of their actions and working to clear the way for them to continue heightening their power. When our intrepid protectors of a moderately less corrupt image of this process at the Los Angeles Dollhouse get into Daniel Perrin’s head, they discover that Rossum had plans to create a President – plans that have been altered by their actions, but that could just as easily continue to change this world in the future.

And yet, for some characters this idea of a future is almost impossible to imagine. Bennett Gulverson is, as is the case with nearly every character that Summer Glau plays, beyond any sense of real understanding. I’m still not entirely sure what she is: is she some sort of weird doll/human hybrid (hence why she wasn’t affected by Topher’s disrupter), or is she someone who was meant to be a doll but who lost her arm and thus lost her ability to “do her best” as part of the program, and who worked independent of programming to develop the skills necessary to help those who are what she can never be. Either way, the point is that this is a character who is stuck in the past, who spends each and every day trying to focus on the present long enough to do her job but whose job is treating and preparing those who are living the life she was supposed to live and that at least some part of her wanted. The moment where she realizes that Topher finds her pretty isn’t just a ploy, in my eyes: yes, she’s playing him as much as he’s playing her, but just as he is legitimately smitten with her she is legitimately overcome with emotion at the idea that he would consider her to be a doll because of what that represents in her twisted memories of the past.

Echo, in turn, is forced to live the past through her own present, losing the use of her left arm and struggling to figure out where Echo fits in with Caroline (her own past) and her future, which is far more indeterminate than the show’s. Because this show isn’t about simple characters, there’s no sense that closure is ever an option here: to “close” Echo’s character, you would need to resolve every bit of Caroline’s identity, every shred of identity inherent in Echo’s wiped state (which we know to be more sentient than any other), and every bit of what role she is eventually supposed to play in this grand conspiracy. For Perrin, his end goal is shockingly clear, a prime directive. Echo, meanwhile, is not wired for any one particular goal, which means that in a wiped state she’s trying to find her own purpose despite having no idea where to begin. Echo wandering around in the world is not so much dangerous for her physical self (as we saw in “The Public Eye,” provocation is capable of bringing out memories from previous engagements as a result of her glitching of sorts) as it is for her mental self, exposed to a world that will do very little to help the problems going around in her head.

A lot of “The Left Hand” is built around a clever device, as Topher (in order to be in both Washington and L.A. at the same time) imprints Victor with, well, Topher. The gag has its moments, most of which come from Enver Gjokaj playing the mimic yet again (between this and Reed Diamond, Gjokaj was built for this role), but it also helps to emphasize (albeit in a comic fashion) the sort of snowball effect of this technology. In his rivalry of sorts with the legendary Bennett Gulverson (who has also heard of him), you realize that this is like any other scientific field: one piece of technology (in this case Alpha’s remote wipe technology) turns into a useable device by one technician, while the other one finds a way to turn it into something else entirely. It creates a chain reaction effect which results in legitimate tension (Topher punching Bennett out was a highlight) and also a constant reminder that some day in the future, this technology is going to be mean the end of the world as we know it, and when that happens Topher Brink is going to be a complete and total wreck. In this episode, Topher enlists his own help in order to complete the task, but more minds only takes things that one step too far, where the technology goes from an emergency aid to disrupt the Actives to a device which can attack any architecture and even alter it from afar.

It’s a moment that refers to a future we have seen, a future that through “Epitaph One” has been hanging over this entire season. The idea that the series finale will be a sequel to that story of the survivors of an apocalypse stumbling upon the Dollhouse years after it has helped engineer the end of humanity as we know it is exciting not because I expect that we’re going to get substantial answers but rather because I want to see more. That one glimpse has created new complexities to everything we’re seeing, taking story elements which could feel like they’re moving too fast and making them feel like mere drops in the bucket. It’s a future that constantly asks us to reconsider the present, and here had my mind spinning from the very beginning. Both episodes played around with our expectations, slowly unveiling that what seemed like one thing is in fact another, but in some ways the entire show has become that: it is a show about how bad things are going to be, and yet where all of the characters but one believe that this is all about a sense of progress and the great future ahead. To some, the actives are being protected from lives that could have seen them killed or sitting in a jail cell; to others, the actives are purely being exploited, left with the architecture in place for them to eventually lose their identities all over again when imprinting over the air becomes a blight on society.

The one person who stands against it (actively – I think Boyd and Echo are on the same page, just not as active (ugh) on the front) is Paul Ballard, who could have saved Madeline from her fate of lying in Bennett’s chair if only he could have bought into the party line and firmly believed that Madeline was making a mistake going through with her plan to testify against the Dollhouse. But Ballard has convinced himself that he’s working the Dollhouse from the inside, working with Boyd and Echo in an effort to take it down from the inside. Now, the episodes clearly started to separate Adelle from the other Dollhouses (including the always great Ray Wise in Washington) and from Rossum (the similarly great Keith Carradine), but at this point Ballard can’t trust anyone, and even if our group in L.A. is the lesser of the evils they are nonetheless complicit in these acts. And as a result, Ballard is forced to believe what he says: if he wants the dolls to go free, he needs to be willing to accept the decisions they make, as trying to force her to make a different decision (even one inherently smarter for her future than the one Rossum wants her to make) is turning into one of them.

The two episodes really drive home the point that we are in the same position: we know enough about where this goes to feel icky about some of what happens in L.A., but we are also able to see in a character like Bennett (played with such a perfect level of crazy from the always dependable Glau) the true endgame here. Topher may border on the annoying on occasion, but he is involved in this because science fascinates him and because it’s what he knows how to do. Bennett uses the same technology to gain revenge, and whereas L.A. operates the Dollhouse as morally as possible within its inherently immoral premise it’s clear that Washington has somewhat of its own rules. And that Rossum has its own ideas entirely. And that we know just enough about all of this to see a situation like the one depicted in these two episodes and look beyond its cultural relevance and its fine writing/acting and see a future that the show will never be able to fully construct but that it has mapped out just enough to keep us filling in the gaps at 3am when we should be getting sleep instead.

I’m going to miss that bike.

Cultural Observations

• I enjoy the idea that each individual Dollhouse has taken on elements of its location: from what we’ve seen, Los Angeles is interested in a sense of almost romance and fantasy, whereas what we heard of the engagements at the Washington dollhouse (like the long-term engagement with the closested congressman, and Perrin) seem to have that sense of subterfuge and political corruption inherent in them. It makes sense that it would be Washington that coordinates the Perrin effort, and one thing I will miss about the future is the idea of visiting other Dollhouses and seeing what they would have to offer.
• I find my tolerance for crazy Topher is entirely dependent on who is on the receiving end of the crazy. When it was his awkward interactions with Bennett, or even conversations with himself on that subject, it worked. And then it was Boyd standing there not sure how to respond to VictorTopher, it was brilliant. It worked less when the show was just letting the crazy sit there with no purpose, which was scarce enough for the storyline to work for me. “Glasses on a Chain FTW” was just fantastic, although Glau was fighting with fire with “Your skin is like a pig.”
• I probably won’t be able to review these episodes as easily together in the future, as not every two-hour set of episodes will probably act as a literal two-parter (these might as well have been considered “The Public Hand, Parts 1 and 2,” which throws us back to Jaime Weinman’s argument from the other day). I might end up just choosing the best episode to “review” in those instances, but we’ll see.

On this day, in 1857, Charles Francois Xavier Voiland, his wife Adelaide, and their children Magdalena, Catherine, Julia, Philomene and Adele, arrived at Castle Garden in New York City. They came aboard the ship William Tell. Charles’ name has also appeared in family records as Jean Baptiste Voiland.  It appears that he used both names.

Voiland Passenger List - click to enlarge

Passport record from Belfort, France archives

They eventually made their way to Buffalo, NY. Charles and Adelaide are my 3rd great grandparents. More about my Voiland/Weller family can be read here.

]]> http://babynamelover.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/sibling-for-bartholomew/ Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:59:40 +0000 babynamelover http://babynamelover.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/sibling-for-bartholomew/

Artemisia, Antonia, Aurelia, Arabella, Clara, Clementine, Cleopatra, Crescentia, Dulcinea, Ernestine, Ebelina, Eloisa, Fenella, Fernanda, Genevieve, Gwendoline, Hazel, Hortencia, Imogen, Idahlia, Ishbel, Lucinda, Louella, Leagora, Linnea, Margaret, Maddalena, Maple, Madelie, Nataline, Ophelie, Octavia, Orlantha/Orlanda, Polly, Romilly, Rosalie, Tallulah, Valentina, Violet.

Abraham, Cato, Ezekiel, Emmett, Evander, Edward, Hugo, Ira, Jay, Lazarus, Lysander, Leander, Ned, Orlando, Perrin, Rupert, Russell, Sullivan, Thomas, Theodore, Willoughby.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Idag är det en månad kvar till julafton. En månad! Det känns ju hur konstigt som helst, vart tog den här hösten vägen? Julen i år kommer bli en konstig högtid, utan pappa, utan oro och dåligt samvete. Men det är en tid då man ska umgås med familj och vänner, vilket jag absolut kommer få göra, och kanske till och med njuta lite av att det är jul?

Perrin längtar inte efter julen/vintern

Just nu slåss mina intressen lite mot varandra, mina intressen för vad jag vill göra that is. Det enda jag vet riktigt säkert är att jag väldigt gärna skulle vilja ha ett jobb så jag kunde få lite ordning på min ekonomi igen. Jag är bra på att hålla reda på pengarna, men det spelar ju ingen roll om det inte någonsin kommer in några… Och det börjar kännas nu. I och för sig verkar det finnas människor i min närhet som kan tänka sig att se till att jag överlever det i alla fall, men det är aldrig roligt att leva på andra. Jag tycker om att vara självständig och kunna ta hand om mig själv till viss del, även om jag just nu har fått upp ögonen lite för hur det skulle kunna vara att behöva ta lite mer hänsyn till någon annan. Det är definitivt något som jag skulle kunna vänja mig vid.

“Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today”
- Mark Twain

When did I read it? November 16, 2009 to November 21, 2009
Where did I get it? Advanced Readers’ Copy from Publisher
Genre: middle-grade/young adult, fantasy
Year Published: 2009
Where did it go? My bookshelf
I just finished reading The Taker and the Keeper by Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin, It is the first book in the Red Monocle Series.

Middle-schoolers Gregory Guest and Yolanda Torres find that they are the only two people in their tiny town of Bainesboro who can sense something wrong with the world – the sky is duller and parents and teachers are nastier somehow. Together with their eccentric science teacher and Gregory’s trusty magical red monocle, the children go into the legend of King Arthur to help the wizard Merlin and his apprentice to find Excalibur and defeat the sorceress Morgan le Fay. Only then can Gregory and Yolanda set the “real” world to rights and save the legends of Camelot.

I really enjoyed this story and give it four and a half hearts. I look forward to the next book in the series.
– Be Still my Heart (Rating 4.5)

Y qué mejor manera de celebrarlo que con un concierto para todos sus fans. La cita será el próximo jueves 3 de diciembre en la sala Gruta 77. Además tendrá unos precios anticrisis, ya que por sólo 6 euros podrás disfrutar de un conciertazo y de una consumición. ¿Se te ocurre algún plan mejor para la noche de un jueves?

Estábamos en el año 2002 cuando el grupo formado por Anibal Bamb, Edu Della Rossa, Diego, Perrin, Cosmos, Yazu, Koko, Brujo y Fran vio la luz en Fuerteventura, la más extensa de las Islas Canarias. Esta localización fue el nexo común para que muchas nacionalidades, desde la argentina hasta la polaca, desde la peruana hasta la galesa,  se fusionaran con la intención de hacer pasar un buen rato y de mantener un buen nivel musical.

Están residiendo en Madrid desde el año 2006, y han actuado en salas como Clamores, Caracol, Gruta 77 o Taboo. En estos 7 años de vida, los miembros de Limando el Serrucho han participado también en multitud de festivales nacionales e internacionales.

Madrid será el lugar, el 3 de diciembre será la fecha, y las 21 será la hora. Así que ya sabes. Limando el Serrucho te espera dentro de 13 días en la sala Gruta 77, situada en la calle Cuclillo número 6, esquina con Nicolás Morales (metro de Oporto). 

Fuente> Myspace

Indigo, Tennyson, Barnaby, Ashby, Rowan, Arlo, Benson, Beckett, Dashiell, Dante, Emmett, Emilio, Gabriel, Gulliver, Hugo, Harvey, Leo, Oakley, Orlando, Pablo, Preston, Perrin, Quinlan, Raphael, Romeo, Remy, Rupert, River, Rafferty, Rutherford, Samson, Sommer, Steven, Troy, Tristan.

Bellona, Bedelia, Decla, Eloisa, Evangelina, Freya, Ferelith, Genevieve, Greta, Ginella, Hazel, Hyacinth, Honora, Isabella, Isadora, Junia, Luciana, Lucelia, Leora, Maddalena, Noella, Ophelia, Ottilie, Polly, Pearl, Primrose, Rosabel, Romilly, Raphaella, Rosamund, Seraphina, Sofiel, Simone, Tallulah, Valentina, Viola.

Just nu är jag verkligen inne i en period av mitt liv då allt hade kunnat vara skit. Det är mycket som är otroligt dåligt, i alla fall på hundfronten, men i övrigt mår jag riktigt bra just nu. Jag längtar lite efter varje ny dag bara för att få reda på vad den för med sig, det händer så mycket just nu! Eller ja, en sanning med modifikation, så mycket händer det inte, men det som händer är spännande och bra saker. Jag mår bra, då måste det ju vara bra saker, väl? Jag känner mig riktigt positiv faktiskt.

Jag kom på en sak häromdan, vad gäller sorg och saknad. Och hur livet utvecklas. Om jag, efter den här sommaren, hade fått komma tillbaka till min lägenhet i Linköping, träffa kompisar på universitetet, träna på LHU med kompisarna där och fått återgå till vardagen som den varit i fem år, då tror jag den här hösten hade varit enklare. Nu har jag inte bara försökt anpassa mig till ett liv där jag saknar min pappa varje dag, jag har även försökt hitta en plats någonstans där jag passar in, en plats där jag vill vara. Helt utan ramarna som jag stött mig emot i fem år. Efter att ha varit utsatt för så stor emotionell stress som vi blev i och med pappas självmord tror jag att det hade varit helt ovärderligt att få hitta vardagen igen. Men jag har inte kunnat hitta min, den finns liksom inte kvar.

Anledningen till att jag mår bättre nu är att jag har anpassat mig lite till den här vardagen, jag har väl accepterat att det är så här just nu, och försökt leva utefter det. En ännu större anledning till att jag nu mår bättre än tidigare i höst är att jag insett vad det är i mitt liv som inte varit bra alls, som har utsatt mig för mer stress än något annat, och tagit bort det ur vardagen (faktiskt något så enkelt som en av distanskurserna…). Så nu kan jag leva igen, och försöka fokusera på att hitta nästa väg i livet, vart den nu än finns.

Det är mycket som inte är bra, men det mesta blir bättre.

Det er søndag, det regner og er kaldt ute så vi koser oss inne. Echo ligger i senga si. Vi har trent litt på at hun skulle bli i senga mens jeg spiste og det gikk utmerket. Etterpå blei hun bare liggende der, så det var vel ikke så verst.

Chandra har finni seg en skikkelig fin plass i sofaputene. Det du ikke ser på bildet er at det står en radiator rett bak sofaen der hun ligger så stedet er nok valgt med omhu; det er både varm og mykt der.

Perrin ligger på favorittplassen sin, oppå kloredingsen. Se som han koser seg.

Selv veksler jeg mellom å sitte i sofaen og strikke og fyke rundt og gjøre husarbeid.

Usch då, nu blev jag lite orolig för min lill-skrutta (dvs Faile). Attans med att det är fredag, nu måste jag ju vänta ända till måndag…

Tydligen har två av Failes syskon juvenil, lokal demodex. Och Faile har ett ganska stort område utan päls på ena bakbenet (typ i ljumsken). Anledningen till att vi inte skrapat henne ännu är att jag trodde det berodde, enbart, på att hon “tuggar” på sig där, och att det borde vara en ovana. Men jag ska alltid gå på min magkänsla, för nu när jag tittat på henne tyckte jag hon såg konstig ut i pälsen strax framför det här hårlösa området. Fan, fan, fan. Tänk om hon har demodex! Fan. (Ursäkta språkbruket). Fan med.

Ett demodex-kvalster

För mig spelar det ingen roll om hon går i avel eller inte, oavsett hur bra hon blir, men det vore ju fruktansvärt tråkigt för uppfödaren om det visar sig vara demodex på henne med… För mig är det enda viktiga att hon är frisk. Hon är ju frisk egentligen, har inga problem med det nakna området, hon har haft krage i ett par dagar nu och då försöker hon inte vara på det och verkar inte irriterad av kragen. Hade det kliat tycker man ju hon borde avskytt kragen för att den är i vägen, men som sagt, inget sånt. Men det verkar heller inte bli mycket bättre. Tänk om det är demodex!? Det är ju en sån där jobbig grej man verkligen inte vill ha på sina hundar. Fan med.

Ida har leverskada, njursten, sacralisation, ihopväxta kotor och pålagringar i ryggen. Perrin har HD D och PHTVL/PHPV grad 1 (mycket ovanligt på staff…). Faile kanske har demodex. Något mer som mina hundar borde ha? Jag längtar verkligen efter lill-tösens röntgenresultat… Fan med. Jag ska sluta med hundar och börja samla på frimärken istället…

Snälla, håll tummarna för att Faisan INTE har demodex!!!

Motivationen. Jag hittade den! Vart, hur, varför, när vet jag inte alls, men nu finns den i alla fall. Lika bra att smida medan järnet är varmt. Jag tror det kan ha att göra med att någon fick mig att tänka igenom vad jag vill just nu, och gav mig lite av sin motivation. Han såg till att jag hittade ett litet sidospår till det där spåret som gick runt, runt, runt, och nu är spåret på väg någonstans igen. Underbart! Jag har en plan igen, en tanke om vad jag vill.

Vintern verkar vara här på riktigt nu, det snöar, så mycket att det lägger sig på marken. Alla hundarna utom Perrin gillar det nya underlaget, Perrin är bara arg. Och fryser. Han är ingen nordbo direkt, älskade staffe-grisen.

Nej, vi har inte så här mycket snö, ännu, men så här ser Perrin ut på promenaderna.

]]> http://carcoterie.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/as-promised-to-myself/ Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:25:46 +0000 nissanftw http://carcoterie.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/as-promised-to-myself/

Since no one else reads this I suppose it is merely a promise to myself but here it is anyways. HKS racing suction intake from Upscale Automotive, Perrin Aluminum shorty antenna also from Upscale, and Greddy Ti-C single exit from Vivid Racing. Let me now take the time to say I will never purchase anything from Vivid again regardless of the price difference. (Vivid was almost the cheapest price on exhaust plus the gave out free shipping which really did make it the cheapest by far). They were negligent to contact me about my purchase and I had to call and email about 8 times between order and delivery to figure out what the hell was going on.

Let me just say I was extremely disappointed with the fitment that the HKS intake had. I had come to expect only the best and this was far from it. Besides that, the sound is sweet and fools a lot of fools into thinking the Z is a turbo.

Perrin antenna, Fitment A++ lol. Just one of those small things that really cleans up the outside of the car. Just about no one notices and that’s how I like it.

Last but not least is the Greddy Ti-C on the car. Already summed this up early but I’ll reiterate: Great choice, great sound, confuses a lot with the looks but I like it.

Jag har alltid sagt att jag inte vill doktorera, eller i alla fall inte i Sverige. Idag hittade jag en doktorand-tjänst som vore helt och totalt perfekt, och då kände jag att, nej, det klarar jag aldrig! Men det är väl klart att jag gör, eller? Jag har ju utbildningen, rätt inriktning, jag vet till och med vad projektet handlar om eftersom vi pratat om det på någon kurs. Dessutom låter det som ett riktigt roligt projekt, plus att det är i ett land som jag alltid velat flytta till.

Så, söka måste jag ju, jag får ju inte jobbet bara för att jag söker, men söker jag inte får jag det definitivt inte. Just nu känns det inte som att jag kan få jobb oavsett i och för sig, men, som sagt, söka bör man. Fast först måste jag ta ut min examen vilket jag inte gjort än (skäms på mig) så jag hoppas inte det drar ut för länge på tiden. Och jag kanske skulle kolla med min exjobbs-handledare om han skulle vilja skriva ett “letter of recommendation” åt mig också. Det är ett etologi-jobb, och även om det är ett annat djur som är involverat än det jag gjorde mitt exjobb på så vet väldigt många (alla?) i den där världen vem Per Jensen är.

Sen finns det så klart, om jag mot all förmodan, skulle få jobbet, massor med praktiska problem. Tre hundar till exempel. Perrin är vaccinerad och klar att hänga på, men Ida är inte ens påbörjad vaccinering, och Failes är inte klar förrns nästa sommar om allt gå enligt planen. Dessutom är hon ju en fodertik, undrar vad uppfödaren tycker om att ha henne boendes i rasens hemland? Men jag kan inte inte söka bara för det! Det är ju liksom en chans som inte kommer komma igen på ganska länge! Etologi-jobb växer inte på träd… Det här faller ju helt klart in under den där möjligheten, det där äventyret jag skrev om häromdan! Det där som jag inte kan låta bli, tänk om! TÄNK OM!!

Check out this touching NY Times article, Against Meat, written by Jonathon Safran Foer. He discusses a lot of the complexities of vegetarianism from an ethical perspective, and I identified with a lot of it. Enjoy!

That’s right, we at DSG are always trying to make your lives easier. Think about it. You’ve seen and read it all, the last thing you need is to go searching for it! So now officially up and running, you are able to see all our constantly updated news headlines right on the homepage for speedy access!

Enough chatting, just go take a look for yourself! www.dsgperformance.com

Stay tuned for more features to make life easy!

So we recieved the Perrin Quad Stealth Catback Exhaust about a litte more than a week ago on Oct. 1 and have been doing some daily driving with it and we thought it’s time to write a review! So here it is! If you’ve got any parts on your car that you’d to talk about just send in your review to info@dsgperformance.com!

If you’re in the market for a new Catback system. Go to our Tuner Shop, to take a better look at it!
If you’re loving the Perrin Catback as much as I am follow the links to get more info or make a purchase! There’s 2 options:

Perrin Quad Catback – Stealth -  MSRP: $1049.99 – DSG Price – $949.99 YOU SAVE $100.00!
Perrin Quad Catback – Polished -  MSRP: $949.99 – DSG Price – $849.99 YOU SAVE $100.00!

One more thing! If you like Perrin’s exhaust systems but have a different car just Contact us and let us know what make and model you have. If Perrin covers it, so do we!

They’ve had the long drives since the beginning, but a developing short game has Mercer’s girls golf team on the fast track just before regional competition.

Lauren Yates shot a season low 41 to lead the team to a season low score of 179 Thursday night as the Lady Titans defeated East Jessamine High School at Bright Leaf. Co-captain Ally Perrin was close behind with a score of 43 on the night.

The team impressed head coach Terry Dailey from the first practices with their long drives. The girls have worked very hard to improve their games on the greens and it’s starting to pay off in the late stretch.

Dailey said the girls have been experimenting with different equipment, but that the small tweaks have made dividends on the course.

“Different club selection and better technique has made the difference around the green. These changes take time for everyone to become comfortable with,” Dailey said.

“We feel like we are peaking at the right time with the region just a little over a week away and we are excited about finishing the season playing our best.”

Tablas Creek Vineyard was founded by the Perrin family of Château de Beaucastel and Robert Haas, the longtime importer and founder of Vineyard Brands. Tablas Creek is dedicated to the production of wines made from Rhône grape varietals. All of their wines are made with grapes from their 120-acre certified organic estate vineyard.

Tablas Creek called the 2007 vintage the best to date — and so I was excited about the Côtes de Tablas Rouge given that I am generally a big fan of their wines. The 2007 Côtes de Tablas is 50% Grenache with equal parts Syrah and Counoise.  All of the varietals were fermented in stainless steel with the use of native yeasts: the Syrah in open-top fermenters, punched down manually, and the other varietals in closed fermenters with pump-over aeration. After pressing, the wines were racked, blended, aged for a year in 1200-gallon French oak foudres, and then bottled in February 2009. The wines underwent a light filtration before bottling.

On the nose, raspberry and cherry with some strawberry rhubarb and peppered bacon. On the palate, cherry with raspberry and some red licorice, a little leather with herbaceousness, pepper and mineral undertones — good backbone with ripe tannins and soft edges. The Grenache really shines and while this is juicy, it is not overdone, is very well balanced and actually a bit restrained. This is the best Côtes de Tablas from last three vintages and a great bargain at under $18 a bottle. 14.8% alcohol. Strongly recommended.

Other wines from Tablas Creek:
Tablas Creek Côtes de Tablas Rouge 2006
Tablas Creek Grenache Blanc 2006
Côtes de Tablas Creek Vermentino 2008
Tablas Creek Vineyard Côtes de Tablas Blanc 2006