Leon Barrett

Berkeley weather

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:35:51 GMT

Last Thursday there was a beautiful sunset, and as I admired it from my tall building in downtown Berkeley, I noticed there was a light drizzle in the sun's glow. I dashed to the roof, and indeed I was correct to expect something pretty. I didn't, however, expect anything quite so good as this:

A perfect double rainbow, the first rainbow I've ever seen in Berkeley. And just inside the inner rainbow, without any space, there was the hint of a third rainbow. I'm not sure what would cause that, but I'm pretty sure it was really there.

Glorious.

Happy, from Emerald City

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:41:03 GMT

I'm as happy as I can remember being lately, as happy as I've been since the last time I began dating. On the one hand, it's a momentary thing brought on by a good meal and some mango nectar, but on the other hand it's been a good weekend.

Sure, there were some people who were annoying--I was amazed to rediscover my ability to really be irked by a person's tone of voice. But still, the lessons were good, and last night's astounding dances were worth the entire cost of the workshop. I've only ever been quite so on once before. I was on fire! I was amazing! The people who walked away from me unimpressed were the easily-dismissed exceptions.

My favorite quote was from an instructor named Ogden. He and Amanda were teaching us about leading from non-traditional body parts, like by touching our partner's shoulders or wrists. But he cautioned us about not getting too focused on using wrists: "Wrists are good as friends. But hands...!" It was the funniest moment of the weekend, which was hard after Topher and Mike's class.

A wise choice

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:35:49 GMT

I just got my bike serviced at The Missing Link, Berkeley's co-op run bike shop. It was one of the wisest decisions I've made in recent history. My bike is easier to pedal, though that wasn't terribly obvious on the 5 blocks I rode it so far. What was most striking was the way it shifts perfectly now. It used to click a bit, and have trouble getting into certain gears. Now it changes gears like a dream! I'm delighted.

Hooray for polarizing filters!

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:20:22 GMT

Halloween

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:55:32 GMT

It's a common subject of discussion this time of year--how the tendency is for costume shops to sell "sexy" women's costumes. Not "nurse" but "sexy nurse", not "cat" but "sexy cat".

I dressed up not as a mad scientist, but as a sexy mad scientist.

Elena did my amazing tattoos.

Learning to use my guitar

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:51:01 GMT

Apparently I still need to learn to use my guitar correctly.

A certain unreasonable jealousy

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:31:23 GMT

I consider myself a member of the blues community, here in the Bay Area, and our community has some shining stars. Chief among them are the attractive young women who dance so very well. We also have some photographers, and I've noticed that the photographers do photo shoots of the attractive young women. Just up and out of the blue, the photographers take free (and quite good) glamour shots of them.

I find myself intensely jealous. An attractive young woman is gifted with an inherently better life than the rest of us. There are no downsides to her fortune--she can do anything the rest of us can, but she can also inspire desire. As a plain young man, like all men, I will never be so enticing as any of them. No one will ever breathlessly hope to take my picture, nor will they for most people--just these lucky few.

It's not that I don't understand why it's so. It's just that it's so frustrating knowing that, like so many others, I'll always be a second-rate citizen.

J.K. Rowling is a woman. Are you?

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:14:05 GMT

Harry Potter was obviously written by a woman. I've been reading/listening to book 5, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," and I've just passed the point where Harry goes on a date with Cho. They go to a coffeeshop and sit surrounded by couples holding hands and kissing, and Harry's thought is, "she'll expect me to do that too--how terrifying!"

What. The. Fuck.

Have you ever had a chance to hold the hand of someone you had a crush on? Did you lack the desire to do so? If so, you weren't a young man, because I can assure you, the desire to touch and kiss is extraordinary, matched only by the enormous fear of the consequences if you do so and she's unhappy about it. I can't imagine anyone missing that drive; it's so visceral and all-consuming.

However, I'm told that women often engage in sexual behavior that makes them uncomfortable because they feel societal expectation, and so I theorize that this is the reaction a woman might have--indifference mixed with expectation and fear. How else could you explain such a bizarre set of emotions? It's just such an alien reaction to me, though, that I can't understand how it made it into the book. Wouldn't most anyone who read the book immediately wonder, "Why didn't Harry want to kiss her?"

So, my question to you: when you were young, say, 16, and had the chance to kiss someone, were you excited about it or just expected to do so?

My hand-drawn tattoos

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:59:01 GMT

Task: fake navy tattoos for Shades of Blues Navy Night
Difficulty: drawing them upside-down on my own arm, one of them left-handed

I think they turned out all right.

Left-handed:

I dared not draw a human form left-handed:

The voices of the internet

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:05:38 GMT

What would Google be like as a person? What about MySpace?

http://www.cracked.com/video_16271_internet-party-2-intervention-myspace.html

SwingCal compliment?

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:29:49 GMT

I've been helping "mentor" at SwingCal, Berkeley's student-run swing-dancing class. That means I don't teach, but I dance with students and give them tips.

After the class, there's some social dancing, and then too I mostly dance with students. One student was amused by my style and said, "You remind me of Will Ferrell." The question is, is that a compliment or an insult?

Yesterday's good and bad

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:36:35 GMT

Yesterday I was mostly not in a good mood. I was full of that anxious feeling in which I want reassurance, and I was unable to quell it.

But at Shades of Blues, it all went away, and I felt quite confident. I got "dance-drunk," where I didn't have to think too much about the movements and just felt good. I'm glad I went.

Topical webcomic

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:10:13 GMT

Job applications

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:27:24 GMT

I have now sent my resume to 5 different companies, including Willow Garage. I will do more, but it's a start.

Pre-need

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:54:02 GMT

I want to say something witty, but that'd just take away from the sign.

55

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:41:44 GMT

Today would be my mom's 55th birthday.

Half of my parents & grandparents died of cancer in their early to mid fifties. Of Ruth, Sam, and me, will we all escape that fate? Will treatment improve much in the next few decades? We'd better hope so.

New phone number

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:19:07 GMT

My new phone number is 423-915-6800.

Reassuring myself

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:38:49 GMT

I have some weird beliefs, part of a system of needy thought and behavior. I tend to need a fair amount of reassurance from those around me, and I gather it comes across as whiny. Let's see if I can learn to reassure myself.

"I am good enough."

"Being a little bit selfish is okay."

"Believing I'm awesome doesn't mean you're not, and vice versa. We can both be awesome."

"It's okay to take pride in my skills and successes."

"It doesn't matter what people say; I already know I'm good enough."

"I don't have to be perfect."

"I don't have to be or do what people want. Being me will do."

"One person's disapproval need not shake my soul. Even if it's a woman."

But I have to say, those all ring a little hollow, where my weird beliefs feel right. We'll see if I can fix myself, here.

Thanks to Gwen, Sam, Ruth, and Todd.

So true

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:07:13 GMT

Left side = truth. Right side = wishful thinking.

In Tennessee

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:30:57 GMT

I'm currently in Tennessee, after a last-minute trip to Boston. In case you hadn't read it on my mom's health blog, she died on Tuesday night shortly after we'd all arrived. We didn't really see it coming--she'd been in the hospital with a fever before, she'd had infections before, but this time the combination of cancer and pneumonia overwhelmed her. None of us realized it was so dire until the last minute, and we arrived at the hospital just in time to see her. She, however, was not awake, and she probably never realized that this was the end.

Her funeral is on Tuesday. After that, I'll be back in Berkeley finishing up my dissertation.

A little self-centered

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:03:01 GMT

My mom's in the hospital with pneumonia and a 103-degree fever, which, given her chemo-weakened immune system, is serious. My sister turned 26 today. My uncle finished battling an infestation of bedbugs carried back from a hotel on his luggage. Two friends got engaged. Another friend may be on the path to a happier relationship. All this in the past few days.

But I keep getting hung up on, what failings of mine made me not worth dating? I don't know how to be better.

A middle-school story

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 01:33:09 GMT

In 7th grade, I asked a girl out. I said, "Will you go out with me?"

She responded, "Where?" and laughed at my confusion. I had just wanted her to indicate an interest in me; the details of spending time together could be worked out later.

I still have that attitude, that disconnect from the way most others think of dating, to this day. I'm not so worried about finding someone to spend time with; my days already fill themselves. I just want attention, respect, love. Find that, and the rest will work out well enough.

In other news, I'm completely single again. Whee.

Are you a Barenaked Ladies fan?

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:00:33 GMT

I just saw this video parodying "One Week", one of their hits, and it's excellent enough to share.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1895871

Bay Bridge time lapse video

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:05:03 GMT

This past weekend, the Bay Bridge was closed so that they could slice a piece off and replace it, allowing them to hook in the new East span. That won't be done for years, still, but they actually got the replacement in during the very first day of the closure! I guess the rest was reinforcement and rerouting at the Yerba Buena tunnel itself.

There's a time lapse video of it up on YouTube. Most of the action happens in the first 90 seconds, so you needn't watch the whole thing. That 90 seconds is pretty cool, though--huge blocks of concrete just slide right into place.

Pictures of this weekend

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:57:04 GMT

I went to Ocean Beach with Moorea and Elena this weekend, and I got some good pictures.

We saw dead things.

Elena concluded that the bird head and seal body were the leftovers from a bizarre experiment, and somewhere around the beach there was a bird with a seal's head.

I got one good nature shot.

I also got a good picture of Gwen, with Rachel covering her ear, on BART.