Things I Googled At Work

I've ben googling and reading everything I can find on Brooke Ellison today.

She has been a quadriplegic since the age of 11, when she was hit by a car. She recently received a Master's degree from Harvard and began a PhD program at Stony Brook.

Christopher Reeve directed an A&E Original Movie, set to premiere next week, about her life story. It is cleverly titled The Brooke Ellison Story.

I was originally slated to interview Christopher Reeve about this movie on Friday. When he passed away, Brooke herself stepped up to do the chat.

So I've been googling her, because I am going to interview her on Friday night.

I'm not really feeling the master's degree

So far this morning I've only Googled +"boston university communication" after receiving an email from the Communications graduate department saying they were having an Open House on Friday. I've been contemplating for awhile now going back to school and getting masters. For some reason though, I'm less than inspired by BU. Plus, I have a reading on Friday evening and don't really like the thought of preparing for it by attending a less-than-inspiring Graduate Open House.

joint replacement

history joint replacement
who needs joint replacement
hip replacement

No, I'm not using Google for self-diagnosis. I have a presentation in my anatomy class this week, and my lab partner and I are going to talk about joint replacement. Did you know the first shoulder replacement was attempted in 1892?

immediate. l. y.

I googled "immediate l-y" trying to find the lyrics to a song I vaguely remember from Electric Company when I was really little. And I found it!

http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/ly.htm

I'd like a family crest please

So. the absolutely ONLY thing I have googled all day was a quick search to see if my family has a family crest that no one has bothered to tell me about.

This is what I used:

+helms +crest +family -buy +germany -shop -price

I kept adding plusses and minuses as a way to try and weed out the crests that obviously weren't mine (we're not English, we're German) and to weed out the ones that are obviously just fake.

None of it worked. The closest I got was this. Which is very regal and all but doesn't "feel real."

Like I know what a REAL crest FEELS like. Um. Yeah....

+Mammal +"art spiegleman"

One of the first things I googled today (google is a verb now isn't it?) was +Mammal +"art spiegleman." I think I initially spelled Speigleman incorrectly and Google very nicely spell-checked me. (love that.) I needed to find a quote from Art's newest collection, "In the Shadow of No Towers" to further my case in an online forum, that Bush is reptilian. Here's what I eventually quoted:

Today Spiegelman made a wonderful remark, which I'll try to re-tell as accurately as possible. He was talking about attending the RNC this past week, and how the Republicans to him seem distinctly reptilian in nature. He then said that he didn't know if John Kerry could meet his needs, but he'd still vote for Kerry

"out of class interest --and by class I mean biological class interest. Because I would like to see a mammal in the White House."

From here.

Things I Googled At Work -- Now Open For Business

The idea for this blog came about during a Thanksgiving dessert in not-quite suburban Baltimore Maryland (insert standard hail to John Waters here) in 2003. I had purchased a number of zines (for the hell of it) at Atomic Books and was struck by the fact that not one of them spoke to the concerns of me.

The every-day, average, 30-something, East Coast liberal elitist latte drinker.

Let's look at the facts. I'm too old and crumudgeonly to be an activist. I know who I'm going to vote for and I know how screwed up the world is. I don't need a zine to tell me to be a feminist or pro-equality or that recycling is a way cool thing. I don't need anyone to tell me that consumerism is soul-sucking and frankly I like the seasonal lattes at Starbucks. Sue me.

I needed a zine that spoke to my condition. So I decided to start one. On the web.

Because I'm lazy (insert standard GenXer comment here) I'm just piggy-backing on my old blog (rather than just g*d forbid PRINTING something) which means that old blog's design impacts this one until I can figure out a way that it won't. I'm open to suggestions.

But. With all that said... let me announce today that a zine/blog/whatever for the rest of us... is officially open. Something that we can all relate to. Something that provides the context for the meaning in our lives. Something that speaks to the tangible every-day-ness of our individual existences.

I give you...

Things I Googled At Work.

(If I can figure out how to do it, I'll make posting open to everyone. Spread the word kids. The GenXers are back.)