i really should mention the two minor events that occupied our past two weekends.

my old roommate tied herself a knot last week, with the help of this great folk guitarist. they're currently honeymooning in flipping africa. (i think...that might just be where they're moving afterwards.) wherever they are, many congratulations and happy returns!

lovely outdoor wedding at paul's (incredible) place in western pennsylvania, complete with sun, rain, wind, and thunderstorms. (yes, plural. that's right.) the drive was supernaturally beautiful, right through the allegany mountains. got to see all these old houghton people--most significantly, becca the star of stage and screen, star wars geek-in-arms. really spectacular to see her again. i'm terrible at keeping in touch, not letting connections just die, but i really hope my inner-anti-socialite will make an exception in this case. also arranged an as-yet-un-arranged camping date with the happy couple, plus dan (the clarinet man) and jess (the crazy woman who married him last year). with any luck, we'll be heading to allegany again before the summer's out.

this morning, of course, benjamin graduated.

hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!

needless to say, i'm insanely proud, and the ceremony wasn't even as boring as graduation ceremonies usually are, thanks to the eight interpreters scattered all over the place. they're fun to watch, what can i say?

it's actually a funny story: i didn't see him at first, during the processional. i did see this handsome, happy, confident guy laughing with the person next to him. and then, of course, i recognized him.

his parents took us to lunch at jines in celebration, where i had perfectly-mushy french onion soup in a bread bowl.

(please restrain your disdainful thoughts regarding my photography. i had it set to use iso-100 all the time, which is why the indoor shots are wretched. that graduation shot is the improved version.)

in other news, i found two great skirts at the goodwill. and i have monday off, so we're going to go out, man. like, way out. yeah, baby.

a thought, courtesy of geoff ryman:

"Why do people treat the past as if it had lost a battle that the present won?" she demanded, fists clenched. "Why do they treat it as if it faded because it was weak?"
Joe looked baffled and distressed.
"I don't know," said Kwan.
"The past is real," said Mae. "It's still here."
"Then maybe so is the future," said Kwan.

needless to say, i'm enjoying booksfree and chainreading.

i have a nasty habit of trolling sites like the ehub and categoriz looking for, as a friend put it, "cool and useless" sites. one of my latest discoveries is chainreading, a tool for book addicts. granted, there are a few fuller-featured tools, like bookswellread and even a random ning app, but i like chainreading. it's prettier. not quite so ostentatiously "web 2.0". and i like that the guy was running it out of his attic for a while. (for the interested, my profile.

now, understand, i haven't done any major reading since my college class in 19th-century british novels--but i've missed it something wretched. i've been able to feel vocabulary and principles of sentence structure just draining away, slipping into oblivion, disappearing down the dark recesses of memory. as you can tell, see?! i was very thoroughly trained to NOT write in clichés, and just look at me now! look at me! in the words of the indomitable charles brown, *AUGH!*

no matter: between chainreading and booksfree, the netflix clone for books, i've...uh, turned a new leaf. (i know, i know, there are libraries. tell you what: you find me a library that has ALL the 2006 nebula award nominees AND the entire new jedi order series, and i'll consider going to your library. what was that? nevermind? yeah, that's right.)

in other news: this is still the old blog, and there aren't any pictures up. hush, i'm working.

a bunch of people like my violin pictures. (for the observant: yes, the bridge is on backwards. it's a long story.)

this is actually the latest episode in a long saga. i noticed a couple years ago that my violin photos were getting a lot of hits through google's image search. didn't really think much of it--banned hotlinking, and that was that. it started up again with my recent move to network redux, because (of course) i forgot to replace the hotlink ban. this time, though, i hunted a bit deeper, and found the sites above.

i also realized--belatedly--that i don't have a copyright notice on my pages.

so the two i found are just the ones who didn't change the filename. i'll email them. grrr.

it should be common sense, folks: don't take stuff that doesn't belong to you without asking. jeez. i'm sure the links above are completely innocent, but you know, it got off my server somehow.

lucasfilm is releasing the original trilogy (pre-special edition, e.g. han shoots first) on dvd.

i can't speak for excitement, so i'll just let the article speak for itself:

In response to overwhelming demand, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release attractively priced individual two-disc releases of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Each release includes the 2004 digitally remastered version of the movie and, as bonus material, the theatrical edition of the film. That means you'll be able to enjoy Star Wars as it first appeared in 1977, Empire in 1980, and Jedi in 1983.

This release will only be available for a limited time: from September 12th to December 31st. International release will follow on or about the same day. Each original theatrical version will feature Dolby 2.0 Surround sound, close-captioning, and subtitles in English, French and Spanish for their U.S. release. International sound and subtitling vary by territory.

'Over the years, a truly countless number of fans have told us that they would love to see and own the original version that they remember experiencing in theaters," said Jim Ward, President of LucasArts and Senior Vice President of Lucasfilm Ltd. "We returned to the Lucasfilm Archives to search exhaustively for source material that could be presented on DVD. This is something that we're very excited to be able to give to fans in response to their continuing enthusiasm for Star Wars."

well.

who wants to help me write love letters to mr. ward?