burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

On friendsfriends, someone mentioned the new profile layout, so I plugged in my own profile.

I'm not entirely sold on it, but I do like having so much information condensed at the top. (The Last Updated seems to be in GMT, but the hover text tells you how long ago it was, so that's neat.) And LJ Search! I was aware such a tool existed, but never knew exactly where to find it (and had sufficient workarounds that I was never sufficiently motivated to track it down). edit: It's actually just LJSeek, which I already knew about, and which in my use since I've found is actually sometimes less effective than my previous workaround of site-specific Google-searching. Sigh. /edit And it tells you how many tags you currently have -- which reminds me of something I meant to post about a while ago:

Basic Accounts can have at most 1000 different tags (each tag counting once, even if you used it for more than one entry). Early Adopter, Plus, Paid, and Permanent Accounts can have at most 1200 different tags. If you have more tags than the limit for your account type, you will be unable to create new tags until you delete enough existing tags to go down below the limit.
-FAQ

Yesterday, Matt from TSS walked by while we were having lunch outside.  MaryAlice asked how he was doing and he said, "Abiding."  MaryAlice said something about The Big Lebowski afterward, and I realized the reference, but my immediate reaction had been to start singing "Abide With Me" in my head.  (It's the closing hymn at Rest and Bread every Wednesday evening.)

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I seriously considered wearing jeans today (and every other FA on my floor actually did) but decided not to, in large part because I didn't want to deal with soggy jeans.  Walking outside after work today I think totally validated my choice.  (I picked up some groceries at Porter and actually took the bus home from Davis, but even just walking from HBS to the T was enough to make me glad I was wearing loose dress pants rather than snug jeans.)  I did wear my stilleto ankle boots.  (I really need to get new ankle boots.  I am hard on my footwear, so I purged most all of my old boots, but chunk-heeled ankle boots are my favorite footwear.)

One great thing about our entryway is having an out of the way space to put your umbrella to dry.

Yeah, my life is really that exciting.  I am really excited about sleeping tonight.  Though first is the debate (9pm Eastern -- yay streaming video on CSPAN Edit: or not -- wtf? okay, I guess I'll livestream CNN /edit).  Tomorrow I need to make myself do basically all of my readings for my classes and not just catch up on tv and LJ posting.  (I was actually thinking earlier this week that the block of time between churches on Sunday would be a really good time for me to catch up on my tv.)

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From the People article on Clay Aiken [via Feministing]:

Following the Aug. 8 birth of his son Parker, singer Clay Aiken is following through on a promise he made to himself as a new dad: to publicly acknowledge that he's gay.

"It was the first decision I made as a father," Aiken, 29, tells the upcoming issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday. "I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not going to raise a child to do that."

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Edit: Ian's take:

Obama won the debate hands down. McCain won relatively easily on content, except the undecided 20% don't decide on content unless there's a major gaffe. They care about persona and style and body language. McCain was AWFUL -- he came across as the grumpy old grandpa no one wants to talk to at Thanksgiving, even though he's really smart and has a zillion stories. Obama came across as confident and much more of a person you'd like to hang out with. Same dynamics as Kennedy-Nixon 1960 and the first Gore-Bush 2000 debate, the one that lost Gore the election (even though he handily won the debate on content).

Edit2: FactCheck.org on the debate

And Brad DeLong quotes Frans de Waal:

A confident alpha male chimpanzee would never show studied indifference. I have seen such behavior only in males who were terrified of their challenger.... A self-confident alpha male just approaches his challenger and sets him straight, either by attacking him or performing a spectacular display of his own. No avoidance of eye contact: he takes the bull by the horns. It rather is the hesitant or fearful alpha male who avoids looking straight at the other