Have Coffee, Will Travel

Blogging

2010-02-12T22:06:00.000-08:00

I have been a poor blogger here. Very poor, in fact. That being said, I want to point you to a NEW BLOG of min. This one is themed. This one is hosted on a non-blogger domain. And this one is about environmentalism and urban chicken farming. And this one has real entries, rather than cobbled together photo essays. This blog will still remain for all of that, but to see some more ... finished work, go to:

Chickens in Manhattan (and other digressions)

Apartment Pictures, take two

2009-11-15T16:07:00.000-08:00

Okay, now in addition to my office, I have photographed the bedroom which is ... 90% finished. There are some finishing touches, but this is good enough for now.

This is the only photos I'm posting with no flash. The apartment is a duplex with the bedroom downstairs, which is actually the basement of the building. Because of that, the light is always bad down there. We need to get some better light fixtures to really light it up. Also, I realized belatedly that there was still a laundry hamper on the floor in this photo. I removed it for the rest.

The wall color is truer in the no-flash photos. All of the flash photos make the paint look really, really blue when it's really more of a slate blue/grey. We are using the computer as a television and it's living on my dresser for now. Eventually we want to mount it to the wall on a swinging arm so we can tilt it around. For now, it's fine there. The chair in the corner is my boyfriends; I call is the gold monstrosity. He is planning to break it down and recover it. In the meantime, I have covered the most offensive parts of it with a strategically placed kikoy.

This is the corner of my dresser. All of the boxes hold my jewelry. I got the vase in Cancun with Cari. (quote: "Look, all our vase are belong to us!") The prints on the left are some I got the first time I was in Paris. The prints are the back are by Stephen Huneck and B and I got them when we visited St. Johnsbury. There is actually a third, larger print that will be hung with those two that is currently at the framers.

The corner, with another shot of the gold monstrosity. The open shelving holds our extra linens. The cushions on the top go outside when we use the backyard. The curtains are blocking the door to the backyard. (The building in on a hill where the street level is on the first floor, but the backyard level is the basement.)

The other side of the room. The two large prints are mine, also by Rafal Olbinski. The shelves on the back wall have B's ipod dock and our "books to read". Two of those books are his. He seems to think you have to read all of the books that you have before you can buy more, crazy boy. The vase on the top shelf is an old McCoy vase I found cheap in a thrift shop and I liked the asymmetry of it. I am in the process of hunting for an appropriate mirror to put over my dressing table and we still need to tack up the cords.

This is the library desk I got from B's father. B helped me refinish it. The chair is his, and I actually quite like it except that his roommates cat tore a hole in the side. Thus, it is a second, less- monstrous upholstery project. But it is the perfect size and style for my table. My perfumes and cotton balls are on the table, and the little wicker box is B's garbage can. The clothes hamper currently lives by the table, but eventually there will be a small, 20 gallon salt water fish tank there to house B's clownfish.

The last wall. The wardrobe is from Ikea, and B wants to change out the doors for something less ... translucent. The fruit seller lithograph we both loved and he bought it in a housingworks auction.

Last but not least, an aerial view from the stairs.

Also, for those that are curious, here is the before and after on the library table (taken in my old apartment while I was packing, so forgive the mess!):

Before

After

The New Apartment

2009-11-08T18:53:00.000-08:00

So, I will be posting photos of the new apartment as we get the rooms together. This probably shocks no one, but the first room I managed to get in what I consider to be photography-worth shape is my office.

This is the view from the door. My office is 8' x 10'. The top of my bookcases have some special stuff - other than the ipod dock, there are my antique cameras (a gift from my boyfriend's father), my painted ostrich egg from South Africa and the bleached coral which represents the last items from my salt water tank (which did not survive the move - but I will be back and better and bigger than ever!) The rug is hand woven and purchased outside of Oaxaca, MX.

Here is another view of that wall. The Tosca poster is by Rafal Olbinski and it is the only polish surrealist reproduction poster I have. The birds I got in Xi'an from a street vendor and the green painted fabric art I got in Kenya? I think? Maybe South Africa. It all starts to blend together.

The paint color is Benjamin Moore "Spring Green". The stainless steel cabinet is an old hospital blanket warmer that I found at a thrift shop for $100. It weighs about 700 pounds and my boyfriend said he refused to move it for me ever again. The candle stand will eventually find a home in our bedroom. The print on top of the cabinet I got in Stockholm at the Medieval Museum and the Manhattan print is from Ork posters. I actually need to get a new one as that one was water damaged in the last apartment.

My desk area. The paper lanterns are Ikea. And as a side note, my mom got me the stuffed monkey from Starbucks. I saw it from afar and started ranting and raving about how toy makers always put tails on their gibbon stuffed animals. I opened the tag to wave it around in an indignant flourish and saw that it was supposed to be a mangabey. Carry on Starbux, carry on.

The other half of my desk area.

Back wall. Basket is from Kenya and the carved animals are from South Africa.

Moving

2009-11-05T09:21:00.000-08:00

1. I have moved. Moving was terrible, moving was awful and I love all of my friends for helping me. But the worst thing about the move? All of my fish died. Every last one of them. I had a massive tank crash overnight and I woke up to a stinking tank and dead fish. About a third of my corals have survived and are living in B's tank. It is really depressing. I'm trying to look on the bright side - I was going to order a new tank anyway, so I went ahead with that and I am going to start fresh and clean. No more pests (which is what caused the crash in the first place). The apartment is eerily silent - no whir of pumps, no gentle trickle of water. Just ... silence. It has actually made it a little hard to sleep, so much so that B offered to put a powerhead in a bucket of water for me if it would help.

2. We thought we were going to have a whole week to move me, but instead we only had one day. We also scheduled a Halloween party at our new place. Surprisingly, we managed to pull it off with a minimal amount of boxes, and derived great satisfaction from the jealousy of our friends for our real estate success.

3. I saw Margaret Atwood last week and she was great! She signed TWO of my books and I am really looking forward to reading Year of the Flood. It will be the tenth Atwood book that I have read (preceded by (in order): Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye, Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, The Penelopiad, Bodily Harm, Lady Oracle and Oryx and Crake.) Thus far, I've felt that she has only made two missteps - Bodily Harm and The Penelopiad. It's funny because I recently finished Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin and I was as disappointed in it as I was in The Penelopiad. Maybe feminist authors are stifled by the constraints of a previous story? Either way, Lavinia was dull dull dull. Next up is actually the Butcher Boy for my book club, so I don't have to try and finish this month's book in three days like I did last month.

Okay, I think that's all I have for now.

Zoo

2009-10-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

One of the things I do for my classes is force my students to go to the zoo and actually look at animals in real life. They always complain before, but they end up really enjoying it in the end. Usually I just send them on the own, but we've had beautiful weather this October, so I decided to go along as well.

This was my first trip into the new Madagascar exhibit at the Bronx Zoo, and I must say that is pretty impressive. I like that they have different enclosures representing the different ecological areas in Madagascar. A lot of people think that is is all rainforested, but that is actually not true.

Primates are so photogenic.

Okay, how about a couple of other animals ....

Stuff

2009-10-18T21:19:00.000-07:00

I am moving. How, how HOW did I amass so much stuff in such a small space? I haven't been posting a lot of photos lately. I have a backlog, from the summer, from Vegas, from Pennsylvania but I've been working and getting my things together to move.

Here are two small offerings from Franklin, PA.

Oh, and my baby has blue eyes!

Apple-y goodness

2009-10-06T11:39:00.000-07:00

I just got back from Franklin, PA - home of my boyfriend's parents. [insert ominous music HERE]

It was actually a really good time. His parents are both very, very nice and didn't even ask me if I wanted to go to church with them. His dad is a retired electrician who has gotten into selling antiques. He has a garage full of stuff he's picked up at auctions, yard sales and flea markets and he pretty much just let me go shopping in it. I picked up two, working antique cameras (picture of those and from them forthcoming) and a gorgeous library desk with serpentine legs probably circa 1925 for my television. B and I are going to refinish the table which is covered in horrific paint to make it look like zebra wood. We think the table is made of walnut and poplar which should stain up really nicely when we are finished with it. B's mom wanted to feed us the entire time, and food from Easten Pennsylvania is very midwestern. Mmmm, mashed potatoes and chicken fried steak (chicken fried chicken for me) and their "secret family receipe" which involves boiled eagle brand milk, canned pineapple, whipped cream, and about two pieces of iceberg lettuce, which is what I guess makes it a "salad". I also met two of his three sisters, his grandmother and his aunt, as well as some assorted neighbors and friends from high school. Growing up in a small town is very different than where I am from.

This was also applefest weekend. The air was crisp and cool, but not too rainy. Sadly the leaves haven't really started to turn yet, but I came home with a peck and a half of fresh picked apples from one of the orchards over the hill. I got a half peck of Macoun, a half peck of honey crisps and a half peck of empire apples. I probably won't eat them all before they start to go soft, but when that happens B and I are just going to make applesauce of them and jar the rest. I also got a gallon of fresh pressed apple cider (like, pressed two days before I got it) which is DELICIOUS. Unpasteurized. Awesome. The best apple cider ever. B got five gallons of it to make hard cider; mine is destined for mulling spices and some Meyers dark. His mom also gave us a bucket full of fresh peppers from the garden, and some frozen deer steaks and sausage (not in a casing, frozen flat somehow). Since his dad is going on a hunting trip in Colorado next week, I think they figured they might as well clear some space for the deer and elk that are coming back with him. I have never eaten venison, but I am game to try it. (Get it, game? game?!)

Fall + photos

2009-09-29T11:30:00.000-07:00

Mmmm, fall.

Last night was the perfect night, and I slept so well. It was cool enough with the window open that I needed no fan or air conditioner. I curled up under the comforter and sheets on my bed and thought happy thoughts as I drifted off to a perfectly comfortable sleep.

I owe everyone a long entry about my trip to Las Vegas. Suffice it to say, we had fun.

Ignorance is not blissful for other people.

2009-09-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

One of my facebook friends posted this like today from the Seattle Strangler with the comment "Jaw-Dropping":

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/why-do-you-hate-me/Content?oid=2156227

Apparently, there is going to be a referendum on Washington's ballot in November seeking to overturn the legislation giving same-sex couples (those that have been domestically partners, NOT married) the same rights as married people. The reporter at the Strangler decided to call up some of the donators and signers of the petition to find out why. Why does this matter so much to people?

I wish I could say that their ignorance was shocking, but I cannot. I can say it is disgusting. It is amazing how ill-informed people are, and how people allow their prejudices to get in the way of common sense. One person's response to why the contributed and signed this petition? "My main reason is that I don't want our state to, well, to put it bluntly, I don't want our state to legalize sodomy." Another person says, "It is not a civil-rights issue; it is a health issue." He goes on to say that homosexuals are, " incubators of a lot of the bacteria.. It is common for homosexuals to have hundreds of different sexual experiences with people—they do fisting, they do water sports, and on and on. There are bacteria that are called 'gay-related syndrome' or something, but it is not healthy. And by using lots of antibiotics against them, the antibiotics are no longer usable because they don't work."

That last section especially gives me a headache because it reminds me of some of the student answers I receive on essay exams. I can tell that they've been in class, but the information I've given them has somehow gotten hopelessly scrambled in their brain and spewed out in a nonsensical pattern.

Mostly, I think it's sad that there are people who are so determined to discriminate against homosexuals that they don't even want to allow domestic partnerships. It seems very sad to me that people don't want to allow other people who are committed to one another simple familial rights, like hospital visitations, joint health insurance, and inheritance rules in the case of the death of one partner. What does it really matter? I hope everyone who said that discrimination was dead in America when Obama was elected president reads this article.

Today's recipe!

2009-08-25T16:28:00.001-07:00

From Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

Risotto-Style Barley

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 or 2 shallots (I used 2), chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp sea salt (I forgot this, but then I just salt to taste)
2 cups barley
1 cup good quality white wine
6 cups water
1 orange
Grated zest of one lemon (I skipped this and tossed some lemon juice in instead)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup creme fraiche or sour cream (I used sour)
2 big handfuls of arugula (I used a little more)
Handful of toasted walnuts

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add the onions, shallots and garlic and salt, and saute until tender. Add barley and stir until lightly coated. Add wine, and allow to soak into barley. Then add 6 cups of water, one cup at a time. Only add more once the first cup is absorbed. The barley is cooked when there is not much assistance. It will not be as creamy as arborio rice. I left it on the brothy side, as the cookbook recommends.

While the barley is cooking, peel and segment the orange. Reserve any juice the leaks out. Cut the orange into small pieces. Once the barley is tender, add the cream, cheese, orange and citrus juices. Taste and adjust seasoning, then stir in the arugula. Garnish with the walnuts prior to serving.

This recipe is really good, though I think I would half it next time. The book says that it is for 4 to 6, but I think it's more like 6 to 8. I will be eating this easily for a week - I think I'm going to freeze half of it. This would definitely be great during the winter time, and I think it would be awesome with little clementine segments instead of navel orange segments, which is what I used.

Food, Food, Food

2009-08-24T15:58:00.001-07:00

One of the things that I am trying so so so hard to do is cook for myself as often as possible as opposed to eating out. Eating out has become such a habit for me, but I have a revelation when doing it in California. In CA, they have started giving out the nutritional information with the menus at all of the restaurants. Holy crap have I been eating way worse than I thought I was. I used to cook for myself all the time, when I had a subscription to Cooking Light. Since I am a single person, I've noticed that as long as I cook about four recipes per week, that gives me enough leftovers for dinners and lunches, and then I buy cereal and fruit for breakfast.

I started on Friday night, and I kicked it off by cooking for both me and my boyfriend. I'm trying hard to concentrate on eating a lot of fruits and veggies and whole grains, with meat and other animal products taking more of a back seat. I had enough leftovers for two more meals, even after I fed both of us which was good.

I'm going to keep the recipes that I have made here because it is convenient and easy for me to tag them and keep track of it.

From Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

Wheat Berry Salad
2 cups soft wheat berries, rinsed (I used hard)
6 cups water
2 tsps sea salt (I used regular)

dressing
grated zest of one orange (I omitted this)
1 tbsp lemon juice (I also added a tbsp of lime juice)
1 tbsp minced shallot
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
juice of one orange (I use an extra large one)

3 generous handfuls of spinach
1 c. toasted pine nuts
1/2 c. crumbled feta (I use more, and in blocks - vegans can omit this - B did because he is lactose intolerant and tries to minimize his lactaid intake)

Combine wheat berries, water and salt in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for an hour or until plump (if you use hard ones, you will need 2+ hours for this). The berries should stay al dente. Drain and season more with salt.

To make the dressing, whisk together dressing ingredients. Salt and pepper to taste.

Toss hot wheat berries (I actually cool them) with spinach, pine nuts and dressing, then top with feta. Taste for seasoning and sprinkle with more salt if needed.

This is one of my favorite recipes, and the recipe that made me buy this book. I get wheatberries at the organic grocer.

Shredded Green Beans
3/4 lb green and/or yellow beans, tops and tails removed
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil or clarified butter (I used oil since B is lactose intolerant)
2 tbsp water
Grated zest of one lemon
Grated zest of one lime
1/4 cup chopped chives
salt and pepper to taste

Slice the beans on a diagonal into 1/8 inch pieces - or use a food processor at low speed and do this a handful at a time. (I cut them like I would green onions.)

Heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add the bean and stir until coated with oil, then add the water. Cover and cook 2-3 minutes, until the beans are brightly colored and tender. Remove from heat and stir is zests and chives. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

This was a nice, fresh, lemon-y tasting green bean recipe. I loved it.

From Cooking Light

Black-Eyed Pea Cakes with Adobo Cream

1/2 c. fat free sour cream
1 tsp adobo sauce (I used 3 tsps of chipotle adobo spice for extra spicy deliciousness)

1 can no-salt added black eyed peas (I used dried and boiled them for an hour)
1/4 c. dried bread crumbs (I needed 1/2 cup to make my cakes stick better)
1 tbsp chopped onion
1/2 tsp bottled minced garlic (I used fresh and used two cloves)
1/2 tsp ground cumin (I also added 1/2 tsp cayenne)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 large egg white, lightly beaten

1 1/2 tsp olive oil
1/4 c. jack cheese

(1) Combine first two ingredients for adobo cream sauce and set aside
(2) Place beans in a medium bowl and partially mash with a fork. Stir in breadcrumbs and next 7 ingredients. With floured hands, divide pea mixture into 4 equal parts, shaping each portion into 1/2 thick patty (I made 8, smaller cakes which stuck together better than trying to do them larger).
(3) Heat oil in large, non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Add patties to pan; cook 2 minutes on each side until golden and thoroughly heated. Remove from pan and top with cheese and adobo sauce.

I would make these again, no problem. It was super easy, and I could have done it all in about 20 minutes. I used a cast iron pan to do the bean cakes and that worked really well.

A few more photos ....

2009-08-21T14:17:00.000-07:00

Dr. BH - name those birds!

Murder List by Julie Garwood

2009-08-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

On my trip up to Spokane, WA I had my first ever experience listening to a book on tape. It was a little weird at first since it has been a great many years since anyone has read to me, but after a few minutes, I got the feel of it. It's a little like watching a movie with subtitles; at the beginning, it feels arduous, but by the end, I don't even notice I am reading them.

I was busy, so my mother was tasked with the job of renting books on tape. The first she chose was Rain Gods by James Lee Burke. We made it through the second disc before deciding to turn it off and use the radio instead. I don't know if it was hearing the book aloud, but I do not much like James Lee Burke's writing style. There were too many flourishes and descriptions that seemed unnecessary and out of place. The story wasn't particularly compelling - what we made it through - and my mom and I found ourselves talking over the disc which we felt wasn't a particularly good sign.

We finished the second audio book, Murder List by Julie Garwood. I would give this book two stars at the very best. Though it was classified as "romantic suspense" (please remember, not my book selection), it should have been classified as "suspense then romance" as that's really what it was. Garwood's book was badly written, sloppily planned, and poorly read.

The writing simply wasn't very good. The dialogue was predictable, as were many of the plot points. She used many of the same phrases over and over again. However, I have been known to excuse poor writing for good storytelling, but sadly in this case the storytelling was worse than the writing. The book started with a prologue which was meaningless to the plot (though the epilogue did make mention of it). The first half of the book sets up a relationship between three best friends who decide to investigate - on their own - a manipulative therapist. If the book had continued in this vein, it would have been fine, but it did not. Halfway through, Regan (the main character) parts ways with her best friends and is given a bodyguard. The rest of the story takes Regan from the cool, capable woman we were introduced to into a gibbering idiot who has to rely on her hunky bodyguard for everything. Also, don't bother to try to figure out the mystery - it is impossible, as the solution relies on characters the reader is never introduced to.

Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.

The reader of the book was also not very good. She used weird accents for some of the characters which seemed to come and go. Her voice for Regan made it seem like she was a whiny little girl instead of the corporate businesswoman she was set out to be. The voice for Sophie (one of the friends) sounds like a woman who smoked cigarettes for forty years.

I do not recommend reading, nor listening, to this book.

Update... of sorts.

2009-08-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

I've been in the Pacific Northwest. It is beautiful and restful and I'm a little sad to be trading in mountains and trees for concrete and heat in New York. Oh well.

Rosalia, WA

Steptoe Butte, WA

Biggs, OR

I have only this to say about Crater Lake

2009-08-05T22:20:00.000-07:00

Birthday

2009-08-05T22:05:00.000-07:00

I have been in California for the past two weeks and am now on the road to Washington.

Had a fabulous birthday in which B and I ....

(1) went hiking in Point Lobos State Reserve;
(2) had an hour long massage (part one of my bday present)
(3) did a little wine tasting, followed by dinner (I bought 6 bottles of wine - well, B bought two of them for me.)
(4) ruined the massage by spending our last three hours of the day on the boardwalk riding old people rides and playing mini golf.

Birthday = good.

sigh

2009-07-21T15:26:00.001-07:00

The cats stole the top piece of my tripod.

Things I found while looking for it:

- 2 bottle caps
- 3 ball point pens
- 8 furry mice
- my powerpoint remote advancer
- $1.23 in change
- 1 cotton ball
- 1 wooden block
- 2 balls with bells in the them
- 3 paper clips.

Things I didn't find:

- bit the goes on the top of my tripod

...... sigh.

And even more reviews....

2009-07-20T16:01:00.000-07:00

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
© 1999, rating: *****

When I was a junior in college, we did a mock trial case based on this book by Jon Krakauer about his Mt. Everest Experience. At the time, I didn't read it - probably because I was so immersed in the case and I didn't really have any free time to read what I wanted to read. Eight years later, I finally read it.

Into Thin Air is a memoir of Krakauer's ascent to the top of Mt. Everest during one of the deadliest single events in the history of Everest Expeditions. The year that Krakauer climbed the mountain, eight people died during the ascent to the peak due to a deadly combination of an unexpected storm and a series of small mistakes. Jon Krakauer's description of these events takes the reader from his initial training to go up Mt. Everest, through the entire climb and then into the aftermath of the incident. Something that bothered me about Into The Wild was Krakauer's clear admiration for the idiocy of Chris McCandless and his man-beats-nature attitude. This book lacks of that. Krakauer admits early on that in this case, Mt. Everest wins the battle between humans and nature. This book really is absorbing and even though you know how it is going to end, it does make it a less interesting read.

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
© 2008, rating: ****

Loving Frank is the story of Frank Lloyd Wright's seven+ year affair with the wife of one of his clients, Mamah. The story is told from Mamah's perspective as she deals with having an affair, leaving her husband, getting a divorce and being in love with Frank Lloyd Wright, who quite honestly comes across as self-centered and narcissistic through most of this book.

This was one of our book club selections, and I have to say that while I probably wouldn't have selected this book myself, it was an easy read and it led to a lot of great discussion. Despite the fact that this book was written about the early 1900s, Mamah is a very modern woman and many of the questions and trials she faces are the same as the ones that women face today. We all had to keep reminding ourselves that we were reading about 1910, and not 2009. The end of the book is shocking and I won't give it away, but we had a lot of discussion about that as well.

So, in the end, I do recommend this book even though it wasn't something I would have chosen for myself.

Two books reviews ....

2009-07-20T10:07:00.000-07:00

Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk
© 2009, rating: ***

Pygmy is the lastest offering from the totally screwed up mind of Chuck Palahniuk. This is only the third book that I've read by him, and it did have a different feel to it than the previous two. Pygmy is the story of a teenager from an unnamed totalitarian state who travels to the American midwest as a terrorist in a plot called "Operation Havoc". No, I am not kidding. While in the midwest, he has to do what he can to fit in with his host family (comprised of "host cow father", "chicken mother", "pig-dog brother", and most importantly, "cat sister") while carrying out his subversive plan.

I bought this book for my boyfriend for his birthday and told him that I wanted to read it after he was finished. He liked it, me ... not so much. So I'm glad I didn't buy it for me. There are some scenes that are very funny, like when Pygmy tries to make sense of school dances, church ceremonies and spelling bees. I also thought that the interspersion of Pygmy's terrible experiences in his home country with those in America were also interesting in the parallels and the ways that they were different.

I think that this book failed in two ways - the first was the language. It is written in an odd style of pidgin english. For instance, in the chapter about the school dance, one of the sentences reads, "Occasional male student approach female, request mutual gyrate to demonstrate adequate reproductive partner, fast gyrate to display no cripple. No genetic defect to bequeath offspring." The entire book was like that ... it was a little like reading Chaucer in Middle English; the first few chapters were difficult, but my mind did get into the rhythm of it.

The second place this book failed was the ending. Holy crap it was silly, especially considering the kind of story Palahniuk was trying to tell. Perhaps it would work on the big screen, but it was not a fitting end to this story.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
© 2007, rating: ***

Junot Diaz won the Pulitzer Prize for his multigenerational family about American immigrants from the Dominican Republic. The book is entitled The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, but the majority of the book is actually about his family members; the sections about Oscar are relatively brief. In fact, if there is any main character in this story, it is the fuku, the curse that follows the De Leon family through the generations.

Oscar's grandfather Abelard supposedly said A Bad Thing about Trujillo - an offense punishable by death during the Trujillo dictatorship in the D.R. From then on out, a fuku followed his family, preying upon each generation one by one. We as readers hear about Oscar, his sister Lola (in her voice), Lola's boyfriend Yunior (in his voice), his mother Beli and his grandfather Abelard in alternating chapters in the story.

In the beginning, I found Oscar a compelling character. An "anti-Dominican Dominican", he is overweight and in love with "the genres" - sci fi, fantasy, role-playing games. He has few friends, and no girlfriends, but when he falls in love, he loves with all of his heart. However, as the book goes and on we see more and more of Oscar from the viewpoints of other people, I found him to be more and more irritating in a way - though perhaps that is a sign of good writing, and I was seeing Oscar through the eyes of Yunior. Truthfully, the most compelling character for me was Lola, and her portions of the story were briefest of all.

I wanted to like this book very much - it was our book club selection for this month and I was really looking forward to it. Where the book fails for me is not so much in the story telling but in the writing. I actually quite liked the style of the writing, but Diaz intersperses a lot of spanish into his text with no translations. While it gives the story greater realism, it is distracting and annoying for those who don't speak spanish. Also, since much of it is slang, the online translators don't do much. Additionally, Diaz includes lengthy footnotes about the history of the Dominican Republic as background information for those that don't know. I found the foot notes also to be a distraction ... which is too bad, since there were some funny bits tucked away in there. Finally, it takes a long time before you figure out who the narrator of most of the story is and how it came to be. When the narration begins to switch all over the place, it was distracting to try and figure out who was telling which portions of the story - which is important, because there are biases in the voices of the narrators.

So all in all .... three stars. I'm not sorry I read it, but it will likely be one of my most disappointing books of the year. We will be discussing this book in book club tomorrow and maybe I'll like it better when we are done.

Pets

2009-07-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

The first cat I got was a stray kitten. A feral cat had kittens in a large planter on her front doorstep. She worked with the kittens as they were growing up, got them used to being around people and handles, got them used to being provided cat food to eat and then offered them up for adoption. After two of the kittens disappeared from her front porch (taken by some passers-by) and the last one was left sad and alone (her words, not mine), I took in the final kitten - or else, I would have been guilted to death. That is how I acquired Cleo, and that is basically how I've acquired all of the cats I grew up with. Most of them have just come in from the outside, strays that my family took in over the years.

My other cat is a blue-point ragdoll that I got from a couple who was about to have a baby and decided they didn't have time for their cats anymore. He is an enormous long-haired cat and the first purebred cat that I have ever owned. When I got him from the couple, he had a couple of small mats in the back of his fur that he would not let me brush or cut out. He'd let me brush his back, his sides, his tail, but he would not let me touch his butt or his "pants" with the brush. As a result, the fur got more and more and more matted over time until VF started calling him "Rastacat" (which is only slightly better than my friend D's nickname for him - "Jabba the Cat"). I decided the only thing I could do is get him shaved. This decision launched a campaign from my boyfriend and D to give Blue a lioncut.

The lion cut is demonstrated here on this small, puffy dog taken from cute overload. Please note that what little dignity this small, puntable dog had was ripped from him by the lion cut.

My cat is dignified! He is regal! To give him a lion cut would make him the laughingstock of all cat kind. He would look utterly ridiculous, and while it would make for many amusing photographs of him looking disgruntled, I am not going for it.

When I looked into groomers to have him shaved, I contacted someone who was recommended to me. When I told her what had happened to my cat, she laid a colossal guilt trip on me - I was a negligent owner, his skin was probably really irritated under those mats, he could have parasites, I should have had it taken care of months ago. Then she told me she would have to charge me upwards of two hundred and fifty dollars to shave one 18lb cat.

Ultimately, I decided to get a second opinion. I went across the street and asked the veterinarian if they would shave him for me. They told me sure, said it would be fifteen bucks and that I could grab the cat and bring him over that minutes. Done and done - and no lion cut, much to my boyfriend's dismay.

But really, Blue needs all the dignity he can muster.

In all seriousness, for anyone considering the acquisition of a ragdoll cat .... they are wonderful kitties. Blue has an awesome temperament and he is great with my other cat. While he does not love to be hugged and cuddled, he does tolerate it very well. However, maintaining their coats is kind of a pain.

In other pet news, at the bottom on my apartment food chain, I was glad to see that my clownfish started hosting! They are hosting my rhodactis mushrooms. In the wild, they would host anemones, but clownfish will often take a proxy in captivity. Since these guys are odd, captive raised hybrids (Amphiprion percula x Amphiprion ocellaris (Australian black color variant), there was a big question as to what anemones they would decide to host in. They opted for something like a carpet anemone in my tank (more like the male A. ocellaris parent). Once they start hosting, assuming the one that is becoming female accepts the smaller male, they should start spawning! Of course, if the female decided that she doesn't like the little male, she will rip his belly out and leave him for dead. I love ecology.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince!

2009-07-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

Last night, VF and I joined a slew of Hogwarts bedecked youths and went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We grabbed dinner at 9:00pm and went over to stand in line about an hour later. Silly, silly adults - what were we thinking? When we arrived for the line standing, the line already stretched away from the theater, down the street and around the corner. We took our places in the line and VF, demonstrating remarkable foraging skills, found an old desk chair someone put out on the street for us to take turns sitting on. Many of the people walking past looked at the pair of us with envy, and we basked a little in it. Joining us in line were many Hermiones, Harrys and Rons, as well as a Professor Snape, a Bellatrix LeStrange, a Draco Malfoy, and a TV News cameraman. While the youths in line waved at the camera with shouts of "Weasly is our King!" and "Hi Mom", VF and I hid out faces.

Apparently being at the end of the line was not the end of the world, as we were able still able to get perfectly good seats - and we did so without running through the theater, screaming about passionate love for Daniel Radcliff. We settled into our seats, I pulled out my Gryffindor scarf to keep me warm (yes, I do have one) and we waited the hour for the movie to start.

There is something magical about seeing the opening night show with the true fans. Every preview was met with screams and wild applause, including the one for G.I. Joe which looked positively wretched. The most promising preview of the night was the one for "Where The Wild Things Are" which looks very good. The most puzzling preview of the night was one for a movie based on the Sherlock Holmes mysteries - only, the movie has been made as an action/adventure flick including Holmes in a boxing match and hanging off of a cliff. Maybe my mind is a little fuzzy, but I don't remember Doyle writing any kind of scenes like that for his protagonist. Also, and maybe this is a case of my liking the series so much as a kid, I have trouble picturing Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law as Watson. Law is too pretty to be the affable Watson and Downey Jr. is too rough around the edges to be the meticulous and mysterious Sherlock Holmes.

After the previews, it was time for the movie to begin. Since anyone who has stood in line for hours to see this film is a true fan, the theater settled down immediately. There was little talking during the movie except for laughter in all the right places and enthusiastic cheering and clapping at the end of the movie. Truthfully, this installment of the Harry Potter saga deserves the clapping at the end.

Part of the success of this movie is that the book is much shorter. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is probably my least favorite book of the series, but this was easily my favorite movie thus far. When I read it, I commented that I thought it would be almost better as a movie than it was as a book. Because it is shorter and concentrates on one major plot point, it is easier to bundle it into two hours and forty minutes. The greatest problem with the last movie (my favorite book and I thought the worst of the movies) is that there was so much information in the book - all of it important in the end - that the filmmakers had to make a very choppy film in order to fit it all in. People who had not read the book were lost, bored and confused (at least, that is what I gathered from my sample size of three).

This movie does an excellent job balancing the interpersonal relationships between the main characters and the developing love stories between them and the darkness of the rise of Voldemort. The actors playing Harry, Ron and Hermione have all grown up and become far better actors. I thought Daniel Radcliff was particularly good this time around - he has been honing his acting chops on the London theater scene, so that is not particularly surprising. The girl who plays Lavender Brown hits just the right note playing a lovesick teenage girl. Sadly sidelined in this installment were Professor McGonagall, Hagrid, the Weasley twins and Neville, but it was nice to see Tom Fenton (as Draco Malfoy) and Michael Gambon (as Dumbledore) take a more integral role. Malfoy in particular had become something of a one note character in the last two installments, so it was nice to see some depth in this movie. Jim Broadbent is another perfect casting job as Horace Slughorn.

All of the Harry Potter purists will complain about the parts of the book missing from the movie - no funeral scene, no huge magic fight in the castle, skirting around how the twins paid for their joke shop (since they left out Harry's winning from movie 4), pretty much all but one quidditch scene, some of Dumbledore's memories of Voldemort are left out, and no mentions of Dumbledore's wand (important for movie number 5). But none of those - except possibly the bits about the wand - were integral to the story of the Half Blood Prince or the two movies that will make up the end of the series.

All in all - if you are a Harry Potter fan, you shouldn't be disappointed in this movie. But if you haven't read the books, or at least seen the last four movies, you will likely be lost. David Yates is back directing the two parts that make up the last book in the series and this bodes well for a fantastic three part finale worthy of the books.

At least, in my opinion.

Vermont Part III

2009-07-14T10:46:00.000-07:00

... picking up where I left off ...

After we stayed the night in the cabin on the lake, it was off for a day of sightseeing. We decided early to take as much time as we wanted in the morning and afternoon so that we wouldn't hit New York City until after midnight. We decided we'd prefer to get into the city in the middle of the night than sit in the parking lot of I-95 after a holiday weekend. One of the taxes of living in New York is the time tax for entry and exit - the city does not let go of its prey easily.

After a few wrong turns in the back roads of Vermont, we crested a little hill heading towards the town of Cabot, VT. On the way there, we stopped so I could take a photo of this random little shack in the middle of a field.

Cabot Creamery, one of the oldest farmer-owned cooperatives, was the first stop on our vermont tour largely meant to torture my lactose intolerant boyfriend. The tour was $2.00, which was approximately what the tour was worth. We watched a little movie about the history of the creamery, learned a few factoids (Cheddar cheese is naturally lactose free! Gloves are less sanitary than bare hands! Mechanizing the plant didn't push people out of jobs, oh no it didn't!), and then we got to see cheese being made. Great blocks of cheese, and great vats of cheese curds, and cranes patterned like a Holstein cow (no, I am not kidding).

After the tour, we got to taste all of the cheeses. Good God they were delicious. The boyfriend was tempted into taking some of his moo pills by the habenero and the chipotle cheese and the sounds of my lips smacking. I walked out of there with about two pounds of cheese and it is delicious. In fact, I'm eating a little piece right now - aren't you jealous?

After that, it was a trip to a roadside attraction that my boyfriend found. Turns out there is a man in Vermont. And that man makes art out of spiderwebs. He is likely the only "spider web farmer" in the United States. When one is so close to something so bizarre, the only possible thing to do is to take a look. After a quick detour for some good eating at Ed's Barr-B-Que in Barre, we were there.

Ed's Barr-B-Q -- I took this quick shot as we were leaving the restaurant to post on the interwebs. The food here really was delicious, the beer selection excellent and the service was fantastic. If you happen to be in Barre or heading through Barre, I can't recommend it enough.

We met Will Knight, owner and proprietor of the spider web farm. Sadly he had already harvested earlier that morning, but we got a chance to paw through his most recent pieces. Will Knight is the kind of guy you could probably talk to for hours and seemed to have many stories to tell. While we were there, we saw two cars pull up Spiderweb Farm Road (yes, that's the road he lives on), take a spin around, and drive away. This message goes out to all of those who do that - if you've made it up the road, why not stop for a minute? Take a photos? Chat with the proprietor? You might actually like something. B ended up bringing home two larger piece, while I settled for a very small piece of web memorabilia. I should have worked up the courage to ask him to pose for a picture, but instead I settled for asking him to sign the back of my spiderart (the smaller pieces were unsigned).

The sign says "Spiders at Work". And yes, you can buy those in the shop too.

Having come this far through Vermont, we decided to make one last tour stop in Waterbury, VT - the home of Ben and Jerry's. This tour was slightly more expensive than the Cabot Creamery Tour at $3.00, but we got to see another movie and we got to watch ice cream being made. At th end of the tour, we all got a scoop of Ben and Jerry's Mint Chocolate Chip (their flavor of the day) and I watched B take approximately 20 of his moo pills to get the whole thing down. I told him I was happy to take the terrible burden of finishing his scoop, but he declined. We weren't allowed to take photos in the factory, but we were allowed to photograph the end of the tour.

hallway featuring the top 10 flavors - (in order) Cherry Garcia, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Chunky Monkey, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Half Baked, New York Super Fudge Chunk, Phish Food, Coffee Heath Bar Crunch, Peanut Butter Cup and Vanilla Sorry Stephen Colbert but Americone Dream was not up there - but not yet in the flavor graveyard either.

We also walked around the grounds to the "Flavor Graveyard" where all of the fallen flavors are memorialized. B and I were both shocked and saddened to see that our beloved coffee,coffee buzzbuzzbuzz! was among the dearly departed. Its tombstone read: Its heady buzz made us zoomzoomzoom! / Bounce off the walls like a rubber room / Now this zippy flavor's gone / But caffeine headache goes on and on.. Disregarding the fact that I'm not sure a rubber room bounces and the possibly improper use of the apostrophe, it is a fitting tribute to one of my favorite flavors.

Flavor Graveyard

Factory Building Exterior

We thought that this was going to be our last stop, but on our way out of Vermont we saw a sign on the side of the road for the Morrill Historic Homestead. Never one to pass up a brown sign, we headed off in search of this place. We figured it would be closed, but we might be able to take a look at the grounds or at least see what it was. Apparently it is Vermont's first national historic landmark and the grounds were totally open for us to tromp around in, and peer in through the windows of the various houses. I wanted to take a walk up a pretty path, but once more the squelchiness of the water soaked ground prevented my efforts. I haven't finished all of the photos of this area, but I'll leave you with ~~one~~ two of the pretty little creek tumbling along the property line.

On our way out of Vermont, the almost full moon was rising and it looked far closer than normal. And this seems the right note to end on, so that will have to be that.

Sea Kittens

2009-07-10T08:35:00.001-07:00

Someone posted this on someone else's journal in the comments section, and I totally thought it was a joke. I went through the various parts of the site and slowly realized that is was not a joke - it was a real site.

People are crazy. And I want to be clear that I don't think the decision to become a vegan or vegetarian is crazy; I think that this site is crazy. There is a difference.

Create Your Own Sea Kitten at peta.org!

Look, her name is Sammy! Because she's a salmon! Get it? And she is carrying an ipod and a coffee, just like me! Fish are just like me! Except the tutu thing, I'm not sure what dark part of my mind that came from.

Day One, Part II

2009-07-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

continued from the previous entry

Once we finished at the Dog Chapel, it was time to find something to eat. Since St. Johnsbury was basically closed for the fourth of July, we thought we'd try to find something in Barnet or West Barnet, the nearest town (I use that term loosely) to where we were staying the night. About three miles down the road towards Barnet, and no service on ye olde iPhone, we decided to turn back to the last place with service to use google maps to find someplace to eat. Turns out that was in Wells River, one exit south from where we were at.

still raining and ominous

Fifteen minutes later, we found ourselves in the lovely town of Wells River. We at the Happy Hour Restaurant which did indeed have some good beers on tap and good food to be had. We asked the waitress where we might get a few groceries for the overnight, and she directed us to a market: "Make a left into New Hampshire and it's just down the road."

the bridge to New Hampshire

On the way over to New Hampshire, we kept seeing signs for the 4th of July celebrations. We toyed with the idea of staying for the IMMENSE FIRE WORKS DISPLAY but ultimately we decided against it. Both of us were sorely disappointed that we missed Buddy the Clown and the Gully Boys.

IMMENSE FIREWORKS and GIGANTIC PARADE

We ultimately decided to overnight at a campground. We were going to actually camp, but this particular campground had a bunch of cabins. Considering the rainy weather and considering the fact that we were both entirely unprepared to properly camp, we requested a cabin if one was available. And wouldn't you know it - one double occupancy cabin was open for the one night we needed it. It was kismet and we took it.

The campground is Harvey's Lake Cabins and Campground and we both really liked it. Our cabin was a small A frame facing the lake with full bathroom with hot water and a full kitchen with a few dishes to be used. When I walked into the cabin, I was struck by the oddness of the decor. There was a little basket of eggs laying on the floor in one corner and an apache wedding prayer in the bathroom. I particularly noted the wedding prayer as it is mention in Rebecca Mead's book The Selling of the American Wedding as having originated in an old western film and NOT with the apache tribe. Later that evening, B confessed to me that the owner of Harvey's Lake told him that this was the Honeymoon Cottage, and suddenly it all made sense. I told him not to get any ideas.

the pictures on the right are people in old wedding dresses

you can see the egg basket in the bottom left

kitchen, and the walls mark off the bathroom

the view

After we got settled in, we took a quick walk around the grounds. B had grand plans to go swimming in the lake, but it's been so cold and rainy that idea was nixed.

B looking longingly at the water - please note that he is wearing his coat

Having given up on the swimming dream, B went out to the fire pit to try his hand at being Lord of the Flame by coaxing fire from water soaked logs. Eventually he did get a small, smoking, flickering fire going. This was fortuitous as apparently fireworks are legal in the state of Vermont. All of the neighbors all around the lake set off fireworks one after another over the lake in honor of the fourth of July. We had front row seats around our small smoky pit.

damp fire pit

neighbors across the lake

After the fireworks, it was bed time.

to be continued

Long Time, No Blog.

2009-07-07T16:18:00.000-07:00

I had an eventful fourth of July weekend.

H and her hubby were back in the country and had a wedding/vow-renewal kind of ceremony and tea and biscuits at her topiary-filled home in eastern Connecticut. I figured I would put in an appearance and B came along with me. We got in on Thursday evening after battling a little bit of traffic leaving the city on a holiday weekend. S and her boyfriend got in even later, so the four of us met for quick dinner and drinks at a restaurant not far from our hotels. In front of the restaurant was a huge banner that said, "Children Eat Free when the Red Sox win!" - which caused me to remark to B that we weren't in Kansas anymore. (B's response: In New York, if the Red Sox win, children get eaten.)

The next day, the tea and topiary were fabulous. H looked stunning in bridal white and the groom wore small sunglasses. But in all seriousness, it was a very nice little ceremony; light on God, heavy on love and the food afterwards was delicious. Towards the end of the afternoon, it began to sprinkle and one of the groom's relatives remarked that a little rain was good for fertility. I told B that I was pretty sure the happy couple had an umbrella or two.

Afterwards, we went out to a Mexican place for dinner and drinks, then to a really cute (though rather crowded after our large party tromped in) bar on the water. The food was good, the drinks were better and the company was the best. Thankfully, most of my friends kept the discussion of my ex-boyfriend's blood spattering debut to a relative minimum. When B and I left, he remarked that he had had a surprisingly good time and liked all of my friends a great deal. Hopefully they all felt the same about him.

The next day, we woke up bright and early in our comfy bed in the Hilton to road trip it up to Vermont. About a month or so ago, I saw an entry in the flickr blog about a dog chapel in Vermont, by artist Stephen Huneck. As some of you may or may not know, I have a love of random American roadside attractions. After seeing the photos on the flickr blog, I decided I had to visit and I convinced my ever-tolerant boyfriend that he too wanted to visit the dog chapel, and more importantly, he wanted to drive up there after the wedding tea.

So that is what we did.

We made it to St. Johnsbury with very little difficulty. We stopped (at my request, of course) at both of the scenic overlooks. At the second scenic overlook, we could tell that - surprise, surprise - rain would be coming in. I mean, it has rained pretty much every day in the north east for the last month, why should last weekend have been any different.

rain rain rain

St. Johnsbury seemed like a fairly small town and was absolutely dead on the 4th of July. There were some picaresque abandoned trains on the way into the city, which I also made the boyfriend stop at so I could snap off some photos. He won many points by never once complaining about this.

the wrong side of the tracks

The Dog Chapel is on Dog Mountain, just outside of St. Johnsbury. I believe all of the land leading up to the dog chapel and gallery belongs to Stephen Huneck. For those that are interested, the story of how the Dog Chapel came to be is all on the website. There is plenty of dog art adorning all aspects of the gallery and chapel, including dog busts, dog statues and dog benches.

The chapel is a little building off to the side of the gallery. As you walk up to the chapel, there is a sign that says, "All creeds, all breed, no dogmas allowed".

Inside, the walls are covered with little notes and photos of all of the dogs that were loved and have died. There is a little writing desk at the front of the chapel with paper and pens so that anyone can leave a little note.

Writing implements

RIP Sadie - I left a picture of her in a little open spot on one of the walls

The interior of the larger chapel is filled with Huneck's art and furniture, from the stained glass windows, to the dog adorned pews, to the woodcut prints on easels in the front. It's a very pretty little spot - and it's a good thing it is, as the skies opened up and it began to pour just about as we walked into the chapel. We sat in the chapel for about 30 minutes waiting for the rain to lighten up enough that we could make a run for another building. Consequently, I have a lot of photos of the interior of the dog chapel.

Interior

All of Dog Mountain was green and pretty and dotted with wildflowers. There was a wildflower walk and a scenic forest walk. B and I squelched about halfway up the hill before we decided that it was going to be too wet to take a romantic and relaxing wildflower walk.

After all of this, B waited patiently while I agonized over which prints to buy from the gallery. Everything was on sale for the fourth of July. The artist was there the day we went and he was signing books and smaller prints. I eventually settled on a set of three: two smaller prints and one large one that is signed and numbered.

even the dog got bored waiting for me to make up my mind

We were not the only ones there that day, but we were the only ones without a dog in tow. There were lots of great dogs running around, but this golden retreiver was probably the happiest.

all dogs welcome!

After I bought my prints, it was time to go. Sally, the Hunecks' black lab - and the featured dog in much of the art - watched us go.

leaving Dog Mountain

On our way down from the mountain, we saw the Maple Grove syrup factory. Though it was closed for tours on the fourth (sob sob sob), we did stop for some maple candy, maple syrup, and maple spread. And, of course, some photos for me. It's a pity that there were no tours, as this is the only food product made in Vermont that my lactose intolerant boyfriend could sample with no cares. And yes, I did make him go to the cheese factory and the ice cream factory the next day.

syrupy goodness

to be continued as I get the photos edited

6 Books in January!

2009-02-10T20:52:00.001-08:00

Six books in January! Of the first six of the year, I only really recommend the last one, Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. But here are all of my recaplets:

1. The Lark and the Wren - Mercedes Lackey ***
Fiction/Fantasy, ©1991, 491p

Whenever I am at my parent's house for Christmas, I raid the shelves of books I purchased but never read. When I was in high school, I was very into fantasy novels. I still like them, but my tastes are much broader than they were then. Also, it takes a lot for me to see something really new, interesting, and grabbing. I read all of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books when I was in middle school and high school, so I guess I must have gotten the Bardic Voices quartet because of that. The first Bardic Voices novel is about Rune, a fiddler girl who works in the kitchens of an inn until she run away to become a proper bard. In order to do this, she fiddles all night for the Skull Hill Ghost to get enough money to run away. This first book seems more like a set up for the next three, as it lays the groundwork for the politics of this particular world. The writing was okay, but it seemed more like a book of short stories than a cohesive plot.

2. The Robin and the Kestrel - Mercedes Lackey ***
Fiction/Fantasy, ©1994, 384p

Book 2 of the Bardic Voices Quartet is about two of the characters introduced in the end of the first Bardic Voices novel. The political situation in the world disintegrated even more with the Church trying to ban non-Guild Bards from singing anywhere. They also are preaching against non-humans - that they have no souls and shouldn't be allowed in the various villages. Robin and Kestrel go up against one such Church man and uncover a long standing plot to cheat the poor the underprivileged. This book was extremely formulaic, though better really than the first one as it read like one cohesive story.

3. A Cast of Corbies - Mercedes Lackey and Joseph Sherman ***
Fiction/Fantasy, ©1994, 320p

Book 3 features Robin, yet a different free Bard. In this case, he and some of the other bards take up a position as the orchestra for a theater group. Once again, the church preaches against the theater as being immoral and violence ensues. Amdist the violence, two of the Free Bards find love. By the time I finished this book, I had the forumla down and was unsurprised by anything that happened.

4. Vanishing Acts - Jodi Picoult ***
Fiction/Contemporary, ©2005, 448p

I generally enjoy Jodi Picoult's books, but this one the worst of the ones I have read (My Sister's Keeper, Nineteen Minutes, The Pact). Vanishing Acts is about a woman who finds out that her father kidnapped her when she was only 4 years old. The kidnapping is discovered and it throws the entire family into turmoil. The book is largely about her father's trial and meeting her mother for the first time. Picoult simply tries to tackle too many Issues in this book - there are bits about the treatment of prisoners, drug use and trafficking, alcoholism, kidnapping, and even a little native american's rights and Hopi mysticism for good measure. As a result, the book is a little adrift in Issues and it's hard to really focus on one.

5. How to Be Good - Nick Hornby ****
Fiction/Contemporary, ©2002, 320p

I go back and forth on Nick Hornby. This is the fourth book of his that I have read (About A Boy, Slam, A Long Way Down are the others) and I mostly like it. Nick Hornby's strength is his ability to completely inhabit the thoughts, feelings and motivations of the character that he is voice. How To Be Good is about a woman in an unhappy marriage. Her husband, a formerly angry man, meets a faith healer and has a spiritual conversion. Most of the book is about the main character trying to find a way to deal with that and trying to decide whether or not she should stay in her family or get a divorce. I thought that How To Be Good was very funny and touching and the main character is very believable. I thought the ending was a bit of a downer and perhaps sends a slightly bad message to people, but overall I would recommend this one.

6. Infidel - Ayaan Hirsi Ali *****
Non-Fiction/Autobiography, ©2007, 353p

Seriously, you must read this book. This is the first selection for my new quasi-feminist women's book club and it was fantastic. It is the autobiography of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an feminist who has written stories and even drafted legislation to empower women who have grown up in the Islamic religion. This book is fascinating on two levels. The first is the story of her life. She was born in Somalia and then moved to Saudi Arabia and Kenya due to the disintegration of the government in Somalia. She gives an unflinching account of her own circumcision. Eventually he father betroths her to a man she doesn't know and doesn't like, so she runs away to Holland where she is given status as a political refugee. From there, she learns Dutch and works her way through university and is even elected to Parliament. The second level of this book is her own personal struggle with Islam. She understands the Islamic religion and speaks about it frankly and candidly. She talks about the way that the Islamic relgion holds women back and breeds violent behavior. It is really, really fascinating. You must read it. Go out and buy it today. Read it. Love it. I predict that it will be one of my favorite books all year.

Sharks with frickin' laser beams on their heads.

2009-01-15T20:08:00.000-08:00

In Africa, one of the most dangerous animals is the hippo. Most people would say that the most dangerous animal is a lion or a leopard, but most people would be wrong. It is the hippo. The reason it is the hippo is because hippos are quite stupid, quite large and quite aggressive. When a hippo is spooked, it runs. And if you are in the way of a hippo, you will be trampled. And if an animals isn't very smart, the chances of spooking it are quite high. If you were to run into a lion on the savanna, if it had eaten recently, it might not even make its presence known. If you got really close to it, it might release a warning roar - a sound to make even the manliest of men want to pee their pants (and yes, I do know this from experience). The warning roar simply says, "Yo, dude. Turn back the other way. Here be monsters." And if you are a sensible person, you do what the lion says because it has sharp pointy teeth.

So what is the most dangerous animal in North America? Some people might bet on the mountain lion. Others might bet on a buffalo (also large, stupid and possessing pointy horns). But today I would like to advance the goose as the most dangerous animal in North America. Apparently, geese have superpowers. They can cause planes to crash into the Hudson River upon take off.

For those living under a rock, there was another plane crash in New York City. Thankfully, unlike those other plane crashes, there were no casualities. A plane, as it was taking off from LaGuardia, ran into some birds (presumably geese) which caused an engine malfunction. The pilot - who, incidentally, it totally amazing from all reports - managed to land the plane in the Hudson River where rescue crews were able to ferry the survivors to the shore, and medical attention was given for hypothermia and other effects of the cold.

What surprises me most about this whole incident are comments like this one (sadly not isolated at all):

"Ellen Howe, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, confirmed only that there was "no known nexus to terrorism" in the downing."

Because, you know, everything bad that happens in America is a terrorist attack, until proven otherwise. Al Queda armed those geese with frickin' laser beams on their head, and released them over the airfield so that this Airbus 360 with 126 passengers heading to North Carolina would crash.

Srsly?

Book Roundup

2009-01-01T23:33:00.000-08:00

I made it with ease this year, coming it at 54 books. That's more than one per week! WOO HOO.

Here are some of the highlights:

# of books read: 55
- female authors: 17 / male authors: 19 (each other counted once - lots of repeats this year)
- nonfiction: 4 / fiction: 50
* general fiction: 12
* young adult: 1
* fantasy: 22
* mystery: 2
* historical fiction: 1
* romance: 3
* classic: 7

- Longest Book: The Other Boleyn Girl at 672pp
- Shortest Book: I Have The Right To Destroy Myself at 132pp
- Oldest Book: Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719

Set aside: 4 books this year. One of them I'll definitely go back to and finish.

Best Books
---------------------
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
I resisted reding this book for a long time because of the gory subject matter. I mean, a little girl who is raped and killed and watches her family from Heaven? But Sebold manages to make this book touching without syrupy, and achieves a sense of hopefulness in the end, despite the difficult subject matter. Sometimes books make a bestseller list for a reason, and this is definitely one of them.

The Caliph's House by Tahir Shah
My favorite non-fiction author is Tahir Shah. In this book, he moves his entire family to Casablanca and into an old Caliph's House ... which they decide to restore and renovate. Hijinks, including the impossible search for help and the exorcism of a djinn ensue. Tahir Shah always mocks himself with dignitiy and finds the humor in his situations. He clearly respects all of the people around him and write about them in a way where the reader can see the amusement, but he never makes fun. I wish I had his job.

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
From the beginning, this book captivated me. Anne Boleyn is arguably the most famous of Henry the VIII's wives. Philippa Gregory managed to tell the story of that time period in a way that brings a fresh and interesting view. By using Catherine Boleyn as the narrator, we see Anne in a different way - ambitious, desperate and doing what she needed to do to stay ahead of the crowd.

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
If you've never read anything by Jodi Picoult, you should start here. I loved this book and passed it on to someone else who also loved it. About a school shooting, I especially loved the portions of the book that deal with the parents of the shooter. An excellent read.
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Path
Classic feminist literature. I can't believe I didn't read this sooner.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin
See above. A must-read for any women who has been questioned about not wanting to be a wife and a mother.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
A Handmaid's Tale-esque book the explores the relationships between friends and lovers, as well as touches upon larger social issues. Set in a world that both is and is not the world that we know, this book is disturbing in the way it hits close to home.

Most Disappointing
--------------------------
Getting Stoned with Savages by J. Maarten Troost
I loved The Sex Lives of Cannibals , but this book was too much about politics and pot and not enough about going native.

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
I think Anderson understand women better than men. I loved Speak, but this felt overwrought.

House of the Tiger King by Tahir Shah
Instead of his usual jovial attitude, this book is as bogged down as his crew was on their trip up the amazon river. Good thing he moved to Morocco!

The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay
A mess of a novel with too much storylines stolen from other places.

Christy by Catherine Marshall
I loved this book as a young adult, but as an adult it had too much preaching in it for me. I don't know how I missed that when I was younger.

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Defoe should stick to prostitutes. There was too much Bible in this for me.

50 Book Challenge 2008

Key:
italics = in prograss
Ratings:
* = poor
** = fair
*** = good
**** = very good
***** = READ THIS BOOK NOW!

Fiction/Classic Literature:
No Longer At Ease - Chinua Achebe *****
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe *****
The Awakening - Kate Chopin *****
Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe ***
As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner ***
Grendel - John Gardner *****
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath *****

Fiction/Contemporary:
Bodily Harm - Margaret Atwood ***
The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory *****
Slam - Nick Hornby ****
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro *****
I Have The Right To Destroy Myself - Young-Ha Kim ***
Private Dancer - Stephen Leather ****
Christy - Catherine Marshall ****
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk ****
Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult *****
Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold *****
Light in Snow - Anita Shreve ***

Fiction/Fantasy:
Magic Bites - Ilona Andrews ****
Magic Burns - Ilona Andrews ****
Blood Rites - Jim Butcher ****
Death Masks - Jim Butcher ****
Dead Beat - Jim Butcher ****
Fool Moon - Jim Butcher ****
Proven Guilty - Jim Butcher ****
Storm Front - Jim Butcher ***
Summer Knight - Jim Butcher ****
White Night - Jim Butcher ****
The Wind Witch - Susan Dexter ****
Debt of Bones - Terry Goodkind **
The Dark River - John Twelve Hawks ****
The Traveler - John Twelve Hawks ****
The Darkest Road - Guy Gavriel Kay ***
Song for Arbonne - Guy Gavriel Kay ****
The Summer Tree - Guy Gavriel Kay **
The Wandering Fire - Guy Gavriel Kay ***
Gate of the Cat - Andre Norton ***
Hands of Lyr - Andre Norton ****
Mirror of Destiny - Andre Norton ****
The Iron Dragon´s Daughter - Michael Stanwick ****
Caliban's Hour - Tad Williams ****

Fiction/Romance:
Silent Fall - Barbara Freely ***
Switcheroo - Olivia Goldsmith *
Accidentally Yours - Susan Mallery **

Fiction/Mystery:
The Game - Laurie R. King ***
Out - Natsuo Kirino ****
The Full Cupboard of Life - Alexander McCall Smith ***
The Kalahari Typing School for Men - Alexander McCall Smith ****

Children/Young Adult:
Twisted - Laurie Halse Anderson ***
Twilight - Stephanie Meyers ***

Nonfiction/Travel Essay
The Caliph's House - Tahir Shah *****
House of the Tiger King - Tahir Shah *** Getting Stoned with Savages - J. Maarten Troost ***

Nonfiction/Science
In Control of Nature - John McPhee ****

set aside:
Faery in Shadow - C.J. Cherryh
Gardens of the Moon - Steven Erikson
Under the Black Flag - David Cordingly
Freedom at Midnight - Dominique La Pierre

True Story

2008-12-09T07:40:00.001-08:00

On Monday night, I took the trash out. The bins are right in front of my building, so all I did was toss on my slippers and a blue hoodie and schlep it out. I opened the door to my apartment and automically placed my keys on the hook beside the door which is their habitual resting place. I can always find my keys.

At that EXACT SAME TIME that I did this, Blue (my fluffy white cat) decided it would be fun to see what's outside. He slid out past me and started walking toward the front door of the building.

Now, the front door of the building was locked. And closed. But that didn't stop my one moment of blinding panic - my OMGMYCATMYCAT moment - so I ran after him to scoop him up and put him back in my apartment. What is the problem with that, you ask? MY KEYS WERE NEXT TO MY DOOR. INSIDE MY STUDIO APARTMENT. THAT I LIVE IN ALONE.

So, what did I do? I walked the six blocks to my friend's apartment who has a spare set of my keys. I walked there in my slippers carrying 17 pounds of angry cat. Blue meowed the entire way there and the entire way back. People kept looking at me like I was a horrible person for torturing my cat, and I kept telling Blue that all of this was HIS FAULT. I was so scared he would twist just right and get away from me and run into the street and get hit by a car and DIE.

But he didn't. And my friend accompanied me back to my apartment just in case I needed the cat back-up, which was good because it's hard to open a door when you're carying SEVENTEEN POUNDS OF ANGRY CAT.

And that was Monday.

Sadness.

2008-12-02T15:00:00.001-08:00

The kole tang I got a few weeks ago introduced a virulent pathogen into my tank. So far, I've lost 5 fish. I know they're only fish, but it makes me really sad. I have 5 fish left: my pair of pylei wrasses, one yellow clown goby, my purple firefish and my blue green chromis. Thus far, they are unaffected as far as I can tell. My royal gramma is definitely affected but seems to be possibly throwing off the infection. I think he is probably doomed though.

RIP

Mandarin

Kole Tang

Lamarcki Angel

Tail-Spot Blenny

Yellow Clown Goby

Palin SNL

2008-10-19T10:03:00.001-07:00

So, Sarah Palin was on Saturday Night Live.

(You should watch the sketch on the top because Amy Poeler was FREAKING HYSTERICAL!)

Here are my thoughts on this. Sarah Palin is not the first political figure to appear on SNL having been mocked week after week in their sketches. I remember when Bob Dole appeared and he and the cast had a good time poking fun at the way he always referred to himself in the third person. But here is the difference between Bob Dole and Sarah Palin: Bob Dole was always taken seriously. Sure, sketch comedy shows mocked him, but public perception of him was that he was a serious candidate with experience and a legitimate claim to the presidency. He lost of course, but not because of questions about his experience or knowledge. Sarah Palin is questioned about those things constantly. She's already made herself human and approachable with all of her down-home talking - what she needs to do for her image is to make herself seem MORE serious and MORE capable. Her appearance on SNL (while proving she is a semi-good sport) just makes her seem all the more frivolous.

But seriously, watch that first sketch. Holy crap it's funny.

Books.

2008-10-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

#47
The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay
fiction/fantasty, (c)1984, 383pp
rating: **

#48
The Wandering Fire by Guy Gavriel Kay
fiction/fantasy, (c)1986, 375pp
rating: ***

These two books comprise book 1 and book 2 of the Fionavar Tapestry, the first series of books by fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay. I am still reading the third one, so it will be reviewed separately. Earlier in the year, I read Song for Arbonne also by Kay. I liked it well enough - it was a quick and engaging read though not without some flaws and not something I'd pick up over and over again. However, it was engaging enough and I know enough people who love this author that I thought I'd give the Fionavar Tapestry a try. People who are rabid fans of Kay insist that these are his best books.

All I have to say is it is a good thing that I read something else first or I would never go back to him as an author.

The overall story of The Fionavar Tapestry is that five university student from University of Toronto get whisked into an alternate world called Fionavar. They think they are going as part of a ceremony for the High King of Brennin but it becomes quickly clear that there is more going on in Fionavar than meets the eye. And, conincidently, all of the students brought to Fionavar are destined to play different intricate roles in the upcoming battle between Rakoth - god of evil - and the combined forces of light.

Does any of that sound familiar? If you've read any fantasy novels at all, you should recognize one of the universal plots. If a writer can't think of anything new, they can always have a fight between the forces of good and evil. In this case, the fight borrows a LOT of JRR Tolkien. There are the usual creatures - dwarves, humans and "lios alfar" - aka elves. In fact, the lios alfar also "go west" when they die, much like the elves do in the Lord of the Rings series. They create an alliance against evil - also much like in the Lord of the Rings series. Rakoth rules with a bunch of nasty creatures and one traitorous mage (Saruman anyone?) from a mountain fortress (Mordir anyone?)

The truth is that tons of fantasy writers borrow from Tolkien and in this case I think part of it was intentional. Kay has this idea that his world will wrap up all sort of themes from other worlds that repeat themselves over and over and over agfain - although it is never made clear whether or not the Tolkein-esque elements are part of this idea. What is made clear as part of this idea is bits of Arthurian legend. Yes, that's right, out of the mists come elements of Camelot and King Arthur and his love of Guenevere. I thought all of that seems contrived and very out of place in the book - especially the way that all of the characters greet King Arthur as if they know him somehow.

Of the two books, the first is worse than the second. In the first book, we are introduced to a huge cast of characters within a span of 50 pages with no character development whatsoever. The characters and the mythology of the world made such a small impression on me that I kept having to flip to the cast of characters to remind myself who all of these people were. The five university students in particular are given very little character development and seem to take it in stride that a mage from another land would just pop up on the University of Toronto campus and whisk them away. We can tell that some of the characters are holding deep and hidden pains but it's hard to care without the backstory. After the character development in the first book, this gets easier in the second book and I stopped having to check the different characters every 30 or so pages.

Also in the first book there is a rape incident. I hate hate hate it when fantasy authors incorporate rate or threat of rape as a major plot point in their novels. But that's a matter of taste I suppose.

The writing in these books is not as good as in his later books. A lot of the foreshadowing is extremely heavy handed. The omnipotent narrator says things like, "And in this one there was something more. She looked like someone. He knew this, or he sensed it to be so, but although he was quite right, he had absolutely no way of knowing whom, and so could not warn anyone." Who could she be, the reader is suppose to ask themselves. And of course, we do .. but there are less heavy-handed ways to get the reader thinking along those lines.

Something kind of interesting about this book is that he obviously decided to go back to some of the themes and ideas from these in his later novels. In Song for Arbonne, the priestesses are blinded in order to commune better with the goddess; in The Fionavar Tapestry, the Dalrei blind their seers so he can commune better with the gods. In Song for Arbonne, Midsummer's Eve is a time of rampant sexuality - the same is true in The Fionavar Tapestry. And there are similar echoes of the rights of women to choose their mates in the Dalrei of Fionavar and the women of Arbonne.

Anyway. I almost didn't bother to read the other books, but I always finish what I start. So now I'm starting the third one. May it be better than the other two combined.

Blue & Sheets

2008-10-13T18:10:00.000-07:00

Mr. Blue likes the new sheets I got too!

Sheets

2008-10-07T15:14:00.000-07:00

I bought new sheets today. I should not be trusted in houseware stores alone with a credit card. It's funny - marriage is not a priority for me, but I would love to register for stuff. It's kind of a geeky thing but I love all of the sheets and curtains and new pillows and soft fluffy towels. I had to restrain myself from buying a bamboo hamper and two thirty dollar bath sheets of the softest, most buttery and absorbent cotten ever. But the sheets! They called to me. They said, "We're 300 thread count sateen!" They said, "We're a beautiful orange paisley pattern that compliments your decor in all of it's jewel-toned richness! You must buy us!"

... so I did. And all I wanted were some cheap picture frames to hang some of my photos in my bathroom. I spent the better part of an hour being filled with the familiar mixture of happiness and shame - happiness with my new purchase and the shame of having made it when I'm so close to utter financial ruin. Happiness will win out when I slide between them tonight. Ah, new sheets, I love you so.

On Saturday, I switched over my aquarium from a 40g tank to a 75g tank. It looks SO much better and makes the room look larger. Once I get my wood panels made and the old tank out, I'll take some pictures of my apartment. The best thing is that by just selling my old skimmer (filtration device), I've paid for my entire upgrade since so many of my friends gave me stuff for free and I was able to use a lot of the things I already have. It's nice to have generous friends. Everything is still settling in; photos forthcoming.

2008-10-02T14:38:00.001-07:00

2008-10-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

Central Park

2008-09-29T14:42:00.000-07:00

And it's not even Caturday!

2008-09-28T15:11:00.001-07:00

Tyra Banks

2008-09-25T18:42:00.000-07:00

So, I saw a taping of the Tyra Banks show today. This is the first time I saw a Tyra episode all the way through. A friend of mine asked me to go to the taping with her so I figured - why not? The price was certainly right. But it really wasn't bad at all - and she seems really sincere. She was totally joking about her dress making her boobs look saggy and the height of her hair during the commercials. I was overall really impressed.

Also, you have no idea what the show theme is going to be when you sign up so I was ridiculously excited when - drum roll please - Clinton Kelly came out (from TLC's What Not To Wear, one of my favorite television shows of all time. Mock me if you will, but straight legged dark wash jeans and structured jackets have revolutionized my wardrobe.) I almost squee-ed I was so excited and a camera swooped down in front of my face. Erg. And lots of gifts! Macys gift card (ostensibly for a pair of jeans), QVC gift card (ostensibly for a tunic which I might actually buy) and a copy of Clinton's new book. I talked to him briefly after the show with a group of people who were exiting at the same time and he is super nice. I wished I had a camera with me (but the Tyra Show doesn't allow it).

The taping was really fun and actually they didn't have to go back and fix and edit things hardly at all. So overall, I WIN! My friend and I were chatting after the taping and we would both totally do this again as it wasn't that hard to get tickets and the experience was very positive. Yay Tyra!

The Emmys

2008-09-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

My friend BM works in television so she had a little Emmy watching party last night. I hadn't seen the Emmys in a couple of years and I must say that I was unimpressed over all. Here is my own best and worst list:

THE BEST
----------------

1. Ricky Gervais gets his Emmy back.
Gervais introduced a video montage of how to give an acceptance speech which ended with the video of last year when Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert gave his Emmy to Steve Carrell. Gervais walked off the stage and demanded his Emmy back from Steve, asking him whether or not he'd seen Ghost Town yet since he sat through two hours of Evan Almighty while Stewart and Colbert were laughing in the background.

2. Don Rickles goes off script.
Don Rickles and Kathy Griffin were the pair of introducers and Rickles mocked and left the teleprompter script. Every time Kathy Griffin tried to go back to the script, Rickles made another jab. Very funny.

3. Laura Linny's acceptance speech.
After winning for her role in John Adams, she ended her speech with subtle jab at the Republican Party by saying it was amazing what a bunch of "community organizers" could do. Nicely done, Laura, nicely done.

4. Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert
Colbert's semi-endorsement of John McCain using prunes ("I don't want to stop eating prunes. What could go wrong?!") was very funny.

5. Josh Grobin has a sense of humor.
In the middle of the Emmys, Josh Grobin did a musical medley of a bunch of different television theme songs. A lot of the critics hated this, but I thought it was really funny and he seemed to have a real sense of humor about it. I was expecting him to take it seriously, but instead he rapped the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song. Nice.

6. Tommy Smothers
Steve Martin's intro into giving Tommy Smothers his honorary Emmy was funny and touching - as was the acceptance speech that Smothers gave.

7. Jeremy Piven
"What would happen if I just talked about nothing for 12 minutes for my acceptance speech? Oh wait that was the opening."

THE WORST
----------------

1. The Hosts
Who thought it was a good idea to have five reality television hosts host the Emmys? They were not funny and blathered on and on about nothing over and over and over again. All of their jokes fell flat and Howie Mandell couldn't shut up. The best part of the show was when it started to run long and the hosts were cut.

2. The Amazing Race wins again?
Enough is enough.

3. Jeremy Piven wins again?
Enough is enough.

4. Laugh-in Reunion
The Laugh-In reunion wall of jokes was a good idea in concept but sometimes jokes from 40 years ago don't translate that well into the present.

5. Mary Tyler Moore's arms.
She is officially too old to wear a sleeveless garment.

I Have The Right To Destroy Myself by Young-Ha Kim

2008-09-18T17:50:00.001-07:00

I Have The Right To Destroy Myself by Young-Ha Kim
fiction, (c)1996 (english translation in 2007), 119pp
rating: ***

I Have The Right To Destroy Myself is a very slim novel by young Korean author Young-Ha Kim. I picked it up out of the 50% off box at The Strand because of the eye-catching title. This book is told partially through the eyes of a nameless, faceless narrator. The narrator had a unique job - he is specific that is not a murderer, rather he helps people to commit suicide. He becomes involved in a love triangle between K and C (brothers) and a young woman named Se-young. Also involved in the story are a performance artist and a woman from Hong Kong who is allergic to water.

Because the book is so short, there is not really a lot of room for character development. Despite that, there is a certain amount of moodiness in the sparse writing. There are continual allusions to different pieces of art, such at Klimt's "Judith" and the ways that art mirrors life. The middle of the story with the woman from Hong Kong falls a little flat but the parts that concentrate on the brothers and their obsession with Se-young are fast moving and well told.

All in all, it was a quick read. It would be great for a plane, but I wouldn't necessarily seek it out. People with a greater background in art history might get more out of this than I did.

SNL just got good?

2008-09-14T19:45:00.001-07:00

In conclusion, I invite the media to grow a pair. And if you can't, I'll lend you mine.

Lightning Crashes

2008-09-12T05:16:00.000-07:00

More Books

2008-09-11T22:04:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how quickly I am ripping through the books this year. I'm going to easily be able to finish my 50 book challenge this year. I have been a little lazy on the reviews but I'll try to get to rectifying that in the near future. But, for the time being ....

41. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Greogry
fiction/historical, (c) 2002, 672pp
rating: *****

The Other Boleyn Girl is probably Philippa Gregory's most often read book and the only one that was turned into a (terrible) movie. It is about the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn told through the eyes of her less famous younger sister, Mary. When I picked out this book, I thought it would take me a long time to read as it is quite long, but instead I plowed through it in under two days. The writing is great and extremely absorbing. Telling the story through an unfamiliar narrator gives it a certain freshness such that even though we all know how the story ends (off with her head!) it still made me want to see how we were going to get there. And that is the mark of a great book. I highly recommend it.

42. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
fiction, (c) 2008, 480pp
rating: ****

Jodi Picoult is an extremely engaging author. Though I am not usually a fan of general contemporary fiction, Picoult has a way of tackling issues that is absorbing and draws the reader in. Nineteen Minutes is about a school shooting and the way that the ramifications of that shooting echo across the entire town. In the book, the shooter is 18 year old Peter Houghton - a loner and a geek who has been subjected to years of bullying in school. Also at the center of this book is Josie Cormier, Peter's former best friend who left him (and happiness) for the popular crowd once they entered middle school.

The book is told through alternate time frames, skipping from the time that Peter and Josie are born up through the shooting and the subsequent trial. The flashbacks work well in this case as it is easy to see the way that the events of these two people's lives shaped the way that things happened in their futures. A good portion of the book is also devoted to the parents of Peter Houghton who constantly question what mistakes they made in Peter's upbringing that led him down this path.

It sounds like a downer of a book and it kind of is. But it is also extremely engaging and unlike the other two books by her that I've read, it ends in a way that is more satisfying. (Unlike My Sister's Keeper which made me want to toss the book across the room and The Pact which just left me vaguely unsatisfied). If you are new to Picoult's writing, this would be a good one to start with.

43. Christy by Catherine Marshall
fiction, (c) 1967, 511pp
rating: **** (and that fourth star is mostly for my fond memories)

When I was in high school (I think?), I loved the television series Christy with Tyne Daly and Kellie Martin. My mom told me that it was based on a book and that she had a copy, so I read it and read it again and read it again. I loved that book when I was younger. But unlike some of the other books that captured my imagination when I was young, it didn't make it into my small stack of books that I read over and over again to this very day. I was thinking about it not too long ago when I saw the DVD set for sale on amazon.com, so I found a used copy for a dollar and re-read it - probably 10-12 years after the first time.

Christy is about a nineteen year old girl who leaves Asheville, North Carolina to teach a one-room school house in Cutter Gap, a remote section of the Great Smoky Mountains. Once there, she meets: Miss Alice, a Quaker and a spiritual leader; David, a preacher; Neil MacNeil, a doctor come back to his mountain home; and many school children. These people all make an indelible impression on Christy's life as she comes to grips with reality in the backwoods. And of course, there is a love story which was given a lot more air time in the series than in the book.

I definitely liked this book a lot more when I was younger. Somehow I missed all of the obvious preaching and religious rhetoric. Or maybe I was just less sensitive to it when I was younger. The book is really about Christy's spiritual quest and the way that she makes peace with God and biblical stories and questions about faith make up a substantial part of the writing. i guess when I was younger I was better at ignoring all of that or just seeing it as one aspect of the story. The story itself is still good, but just not quite what I remembered.

File Under: Things that annoy me.

2008-09-06T16:13:00.001-07:00

... being asked for the title of a talk I said I would give that is scheduled in February.

As if somehow I've given that any consideration at this early date.

Jon Stewart is my hero.

2008-09-04T14:14:00.001-07:00

This is possibly one of the best segments I've seen about McCain's appointment of Sarah Palin. The GOP backpedaling is astonishing.

Teaching

2008-09-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

So last week commenced the first week of teaching for the new semester. I'm teaching my first large lecture class this semester - I have somewhere around 100 students in this class.

It in my policy to always make textbooks optional. I know there are a lot of people who would disagree with this policy. My feeling is that textbooks are ridiculously expensive and new versions come out every couple of years with nothing but some prettier graphs and a new cover. My classes often roughly follow the textbook but deviate at points substantially from the book that I select as the optional reading. I am very free with the fact that I always test from the lectures and not from the readings. Whatever is in the book that is not in my lectures will not be on my examinations, period. And I know that when I was an undergraduate, I started the semester with the best of intentions of reading all of the required reading only to slack off midway through the semester, opening the books for the last time to make sure there were no syllabi stuck in them before selling them back to the bookstore.

Therefore the text is optional.

Every single semester students questions me about this. "What do you mean, the textbook is optional?" they ask.

I mean exactly what it says - OPTIONAL.

Books

2008-08-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

29.
Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
fiction/young adult, (c)2007, 272pp
rating: ***

Twisted is about a teenager named Tyler. Following a school prank at the end of his junior year, he is sentenced to a summer of hard labor. This has changed him from a skinny little boy into a bulked up man over the course of the three months. This shift in appearance catches the attention of the most popular girl in school and twin sister of his rival/tormentor. Over the course of the school year, a series of events plays out that delves into the psychology of teenage boys and the nature of the interactions of high school students.

I picked this book up because I liked Speak so well, but this one is simply not as good. She still does a good job charting the tumultuous waters of teenage life, but I thought that some of the more "dramatic" points of the story felt a little forced. The big twist was less of a twist and was telegraphed from early on in the novel. That being said, it was a very quick read. I think that, unlike Speak, this book is really more for young adults and less for adults.

30.
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
fiction/classic, (c) 1899, 102pp
rating: *****

Written in 1899 and subsequently banner, this book tells of the awakening of young Edna Pontellier. At the age of 28, she is a wife and a mother and should be happy in those roles. However, she is dissatisfied with her boring husband and she takes little interest in her children. Her frustrations find an outlet when she starts and affair with another young man who is as passionate and artistic as she is. After he leaves, she finds it difficult to return to life as usual with her husband and children and strikes out on her own. Society quickly punishes her for this move on her own, and her story ends tragically.

I can't believe it took me so long to read this book. I can easily see why it has been steeped in controversy even if the contents of the book are less that shocking in today's society. Much of this book rings very true to me and I enjoyed it immensely. It also makes me wish I had read it with a class so I could discuss with other people. Really, really good.

38.
In Control of Nature by John McPhee
nonfiction/nature, (c)1990, 272pp
rating: ****

In Control of Nature is a book of three long essays that detail the human struggle to curb and control nature. The first essay is about the Old River Control Center and the levee system on the Mississippi River. The second essay is about an eruption on the icelanic island of Haimey and the way that they stopped the lava from ruining the natural harbor. The third essay is about the San Gabriel Mountains and the mud slides the plague the Southern California hills.

This book was recommended to me by D and I was less than enthusiastic when I started it. However, it turned out to be really interesting. John McPhee is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and writes for the New Yorker, so his text is very readable. The chapter about the lava was the least interesting, possibly because it was the most removed from what I know. The description of the Old River Control Center and the ways that the levees have been built up all down the Mississippi river was fascinating, especially when thought about in light of the events of Hurricane Katrina. And his explanations for why there is so much debris coming down from the San Gabriel Mountains (it has to do with the summer fires followed by heavy rains) was equally fascinating. You are left seriously questioning whether or not our efforts to combat Mother Nature are really warranted and the idea that maybe we'd be better off if we left well enough alone. This was an excellent read.

39.
No Longer At Ease by Chinua Achebe
fiction, (c)1969, 208pp
rating: *****

No Longer At Ease is the sort-of sequel to Things Fall Apart. Obi Okonkwo is the grandson of the main character in Things Fall Apart and the events of that story are referenced vaguely in the last chapter of this book, but it is certainly not a prerequisite to reading this book.

No Longer At Ease follows Obi Okonkwo, a young man who is singled out to get a foreign education. When he returns to Nigeria, he is repulsed by the corruption that he sees in the government and tries very hard to resist the temptations of money and sex that are thrown at him for his influence. Obi is constantly trying to balance the pressures he feels from his village who sponsored him for his education, and the pressures of living in the big city and living up to his government post. Slowly things begin to unravel as things go wrong piece by piece.

I actually think that in a lot of ways, this book is even better than Things Fall Apart. It deals honestly with the colonial legacy that the Western world has left in Africa and could be relevant to any country, not just Nigeria. The book is told in simple prose, but that makes it easy to read and even more powerful. I highly recommend it.

40.
House of the Tiger King by Tahir Shah
nonfiction/travel essay, (c)2004, 219pp
rating: ***

Tahir Shah is one of my favorite authors, but this is probably my least favorite of his books. In The House of the Tiger King, Shah goes in search of the fabled Incan city of Paititi supposedly the last Incan stronghold after the conquistadores invaded Peru. Like his other books, Shah infuses his trials and tribulations with a certain amount of humor and some interesting detours that allow him to meet new and interesting people. Unlike his other books, there is less humor in this one. It is a darker novel and he seems obsessed with this quest to the point of cruelty to his expedition team. There was less of seeing the country and more of the unrelenting slog through the jungle. This was definitely my least favorite of all of his books and I would recommend trying one of the others before this one.

I love you Sarah Haskins.

2008-08-18T13:28:00.001-07:00

Billy Joel

2008-07-18T10:08:00.001-07:00

Yes, I saw Billy Joel in concert on Wednesday in the first of the "Last (Double) Play at Shea" concerts. It was originally billed at the Last Play at Shea but because the tickets sold out in T minus twenty seconds, he added a second concert date (much to the disdain of all those who desperately wanted to be at the LAST play at Shea). I didn't really care since I lucked into a ticket the night before the concert from a friend who had an extra she was trying to unload.

This was actually my first, and likely last, time at Shea Stadium. Billy Joel may be getting on in years, but man does he put on a good concert. He could easily have been self-indulgent and political (a la Barbara Streisand), but instead he played for three solid hours and all of the songs that everyone knew. When he needed a break, he brought out "guest stars" including Tony Bennett (who sang a duet with him on New York State of Mind), John Mayer (who played guitar to Times to Remember), John Mellencamp (who sang Little Pink Houses) and Don Henley who sang a song that I knew, but the name escapes me.

The concert was peppered with references to the Mets and the Yankees (you have to love the culture of baseball in New York City) and references to the Beatles (the first concert ever played in Shea Stadium). Billy Joel played all of his songs that referenced New York specifically and while he looked to be approximately one inch tall from my seat in the upper deck, there were large screens shaped like the New York skyline to put him in technicolor. The scariest part of the concert was the end when he played "We Didn't Start the Fire". The driving beat got all of the people on the upper decks moving around in a rhythm, causing the ending deck to shake. The people in front of us were taking video of the railing moving back and forth in time to 65,000 people singing about hypodermics on the shore and rock and roll and cola wars.

Really awesome concert.

Gratuitous Cat Post II

2008-07-14T13:17:00.001-07:00

Blue likes to keep cool on my bathroom floor.

Collecting!

2008-07-13T18:46:00.000-07:00

Went out collecting with a friend of mine in the Long Island Sound. He has a cold saltwater set up and he wanted to collect some local critters to maintain. Basically, this entailed both of us slogging around in the Long Island Sound with three different kind of nets, scraping the bottom of the sound and picking through sludge. Yes, it is possible that I have a warped sense of "fun". Clearly we attracted all sorts of attention from passers-by, all of whom were desperate to offer helpful "advice". New York is the only place I have ever lived where complete strangers are always happy to get all up in your business.

Here is some of the stuff we found:

We also got a little scorpionfish, mud snails, hermit crabs, grass shrimp, two northern pipefish and various pretty macroalgaes. Good fun! And then when we were done, we had seafood at the beach. All in all, a fun day out.

2008-07-01T13:24:00.001-07:00

My friend Harriet brought this news item to my attention a couple of days ago, about a man who assaulted another man in his spin class because he was shouting, grunting and otherwise making obnoxious comments. We laughed about, ha ha, ho ho.

However.

Today as I was riding the elliptical machine at the gym, the man next to me was making grunting noises better suited to X-rated porno movies than a public gym. And I began to be a little more sympathetic to the raging stockbroker.

Maybe they needed pocket money?

2008-06-25T11:02:00.001-07:00

There were two little girls selling cookies and lemonade with their nanny outside of a huge elevator building between Park and Madison. It was so incongruous, I had to make a purchase.

Lensbaby @ Trinity Graveyard

2008-06-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the kind people at Lensbaby, I have a brand new one for my new digital camera at half price. Thanks guys. :) And today I took it to Trinity Graveyard.

Even More Books

2008-06-23T15:58:00.000-07:00

Private Dancer - Stephen Leather ****
fiction, (c)2005, 288pp

Of all of the books that I picked up at the resort in Venezuela, this one was the best. Published in Thailand (and apparently purchased there - the sales sticker was in Baht), this book explores the sex tourism industry in Bangkok. Pete is a british writer employed by a company that makes travel guides. He is sent to revise the company's guide about Thailand. When he gets to Bangkok, he falls in love with Joy, a bar girl that works in the red light district. The book chronicles their relationship and the way that it takes a toll on both of their lives.

The book is told in alternating voices. Leather isn't a particularly skilled writer and all off of the different characters basically speak in the same voice, but being able to see the situation from all different points of view adds a richness to this story. Really, this book is about the cultural divide between East and West. Pete meet Joy at a bar while she is working as a prostitute and wants her to prove to him that she really does love him and it is not about money. But from Joy's point of view, the way that a man proves that he loves a woman is by providing for her monetarily and keeping her so she doesn't have to work. This was a really interesting and compelling read. If you can manage to get a copy, I'd recommend it.

Silent Fall - Barbara Freely ***
fiction/mystery/romance, (c)2008, 416pp

Another book donated to my reading deperation cause by my mom. My mom and I have very different taste in books. This is yet another romance novel, though a romance novel with a veneer of mystery. In this case, Catherine is a firey redhead with a heaving bosom, gently curving hips - oh, and psychic powers. Dylan is a rakishly handsome television reporter who is framed for the murder of a one night stand. They are thrown together through happenstance - but is it love? (I bet you all know the answer to that question).

This book wasn't so bad when it concentrated on the mystery aspect of things. The story was interesting, if not particularly well written (too many cliches). The book fell apart at the end with an ending that came out of nowhere - and not in a "oh, I should have guessed it from the beginning sixth sense sort of way". But it was entertaining for a twelve hour flight and that's all I can really ask for.

The Caliph's House - Tahir Shah *****
nonfiction/travel essay, (c)2006, 349pp

Tahir Shah's latest foray takes him to Morocco with his whole family. He and his long suffering wife buy a fixer-upper house in Casablanca. This book charts their troubles in renovating their home, where they come up against lazy worker, the Casablancan godfather, a man who trades stories for stamps and several vengeful jinns. Shah is a fantastic writer and I pretty much will gobble up anything he has written. And you should too!

Work and Cat

2008-06-20T08:22:00.000-07:00

I have been told 95% that I have this research post in Europe. Sadly though, not 100%. They have said they want me. They said I am their first choice. They said they wanted me in July. I said that was impossible and so they revised their demands and said they wanted me in the end of September. Yet, no official offer and no mention of money yet.

Hrm.

Here is a gratuitous cat photo.

Listy Fun

2008-06-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as “unread” by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded [or were bookclub choices that you never read that month]. Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones ~~you read for school~~ you have on your shelf and haven't read.

(as seen at unbalanced reaction)

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi: A novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked: The life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes: A memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics: A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood: A true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield

Wild Horses Couldn't Stop Me

2008-06-17T08:07:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I went camping in Assateague National Seashore with H and friends. Ten people went in all, and each small subset of people were friends with H in a different way (work colleagues, high school friends, college friends) though we didn't know each other. That's why it's funny that she got all turned around and arrived at the campsite last.

I picked up my friend JSG in a rented car and we drove down. Our drive was unremarkable. Manhattan never gives up anyone without a fight, but we didn't hit terrible traffic leaving the city. We just had to make multiple stops for different things. We actually hit no traffic all the way down to Maryland and even had the foresight to buy a map so we wouldn't get horribly lost. Yay!

Assateague National Park is known for the two groups of wild horses that run free along the beaches. When it's cool, they stay up in the marshes but since it was hot, they were down along the beach a lot. In the middle of the night on Friday, we heard loud pony noises coming from our camp and one lone pony came pounding through. Luckily they did not disturb anything - apparently the ponies are mean and destructive. Even though they look cute and cuddly. Who'd a thunk it.
We spent most of Saturday laying around on the beach, reading our books, pony watching and beer drinking. It was an excellent day.

There were only two downsides to the entire trip. The first were the mosquitoes. HOLY. CRAP. It must be because the seashore backs up onto a marsh, but they were huge and aggressive and apparently immune to 40% Deet bug spray. I'm sure I when I get cancer in 10 years, I'll be able to trace it back to the all of the chemicals that leeched into my skin on this trip. I must be extra tasty, because when I came back I counted 53 mosquito bits on ONE LEG ALONE. Srsly, they aren't that bad in Africa. AFRICA. The other is that JSG convinced me that the best way to get back into the city was not to go over the George Washington Bridge, but to take the Goethals bridge and the Verrazano Bridge since she lives in Queens and we needed to stop there first. TWO AND A HALF HOURS after we got off at the Goethals Bridge exit, we got back to her place. That's the worst traffic getting into the city that I've ever had to sit in. Holy crap.

2008-06-15T17:32:00.000-07:00

Two views of the fencing on the dunes at Assateague National Seashore. I took out my film (film!!!) camera for the first time since 2004. It still had film in it and I used the film I bought pre-2004 which was clearly expired. I kind of like the effect though - the lighter film is yellowed and the darker film is more blue/green than it should be.

(17-35mm wide angle)

(100mm macro)

More Books

2008-06-11T16:02:00.000-07:00

Bodily Harm - Margaret Atwood
fiction, (c)1981, 301pp
rating: ***

Maragaret Atwood is one of my favorite authors. Ever since I read The Handmaid's Tale for the first time as a sophomore in high school, I have been a big fan and have read her novels avidly. Bodily Harm is one of her earlier works and this one definitely does not stand up to her later novels. The book is about Rennie, a fashion/travel writer. Following a bout of breast cancer, she travels to the fictional Caribbean Island of St. Antoine which is on the brink of revolution. There, she gets involved with Paul, a mysterious man with shady credentials. Mayhem and self-discovery ensue.

What I found most disconcerting about this novel is that it lacked Atwood's poetic style of writing. Usually, when I've finished one of her novels, I have a list of quotes to write down and keep and savor later. But this one was completely without that and I felt like it could have been written by anyone. Like many of Atwood's later characters, all of Rennie's relationships with men are self-destructive in different ways, but there is no sense that she learns anything from most of these encounters. The non-linear storytelling works to a certain degree, but also is distracting at times. The character of Lora (an island ex-pat) is more irritating than tragic.

I found this book to be more disappointing than the Penelopaid.

Light on Snow - Anita Shreve
fiction, (c) 2006, 288pp
rating: ***

I ran out of books in English about halfway through my time in Venezuela, so I had to read books that people had left at the resort. Sadly, the most common nationality of resort-goer was ... German. So the english selection was sad. That is my only excuse for some of the next few books. Desperation will drive a person to read anything (witness my Dan Brown reading extravaganza when I was in Ethiopia).

Light on Snow is a short book that deals with a week in the life of Nicky and her father. Nicky's father is a recent widow. On a walk through the woods, they find an abandoned baby in the snow, which they take to the hospital and save. A few days later, they are visited by the mother of the infant and the real story of what happened that night is told. It is a simple plot, but poignant in its own way.

I freely admit that I am not an Anita Shreve fan. She's a little too angsty, a little too Oprah, a little too trendy for me to really enjoy any of her novels. But Light on Snow manages to be good snapshot of two weeks in the life of this family. The contrasts between Nicky and her father's family before the accident, as it as after the accident, and Charlotte's makes for interesting ideas about what really makes a family. The writing was good. I can see how a lot of people would really enjoy this book - it just wasn't really my kind of book.

The Iron Dragon´s Daughter - Michael Stanwick

2008-06-10T19:11:00.001-07:00

fiction/science fiction, (c) 1994, 412pp
rating: ****

The last of the "from home collection". This book takes place in a world that is parallel to our world. Jane is a human changeling that is an indentured servant in an iron dragon factory. All of her friends are fey creatures, strange hybrids of creatures that we would recognize from mythology and folktales. One day Jane finds a Grimoire which teaches her how to operate one of the iron dragons. Then the iron dragon begins to talk to her and Jane makes her escape. The rest of the book deals with Jane's integrating into life outside of the factory

At first, I wasn't sure if I liked this book, but the more I think about it, the more interesting it is. Has anyone read it? The book deals with the idea of reincarnation and fate and how our actions impact the lives of others. It also explores sexuality and what constitutes deviant behavior. It would have been easy to make Jane a really likeable character, but Stanwick makes her more and more unlikeable as the book goes on, yet still compelling to read about. The ending of the book was a little abrupt and strange, and we are left with questions as to whether or not Jane was really a changeling or if the entire book was something else entirely. A strange read, but ultimately really interesting.

Song for Arbonne - Guy Gavriel Kay

2008-06-08T16:00:00.001-07:00

fiction/fantasy, (c)1992, 512pp
rating: ****

This is another book from the "Unread Novels From My Parent's House" collection. Song for Arbonne takes place in a world that approximates medieval Europe. Arbonne (France) is a country that is dominated by a goddess cult, strong women, troubadors and the Court of Love. Directly to the north is Gorhaut (Germany), a war-like country where women are second-class citizens, and fighting and hunting are prized. Enter Blaise of Gorhaut, who leaves his own land and comes to Arbonne. He quickly becomes enmeshed in the politics of Arbonne, including the ongoing war between the Duke of Miraval and the Duke of Talair which was started 23 years prior over the infidelity of a woman. Throughout the book, Blaise has to come to terms with his upbringing and his mind is slowly opened to other ways of thinking by the friends that he makes in Arbonne. There is love, there is sex and there is war.

Overall, I liked the novel. It was very well written, linguistically, but I thought that the story was kind of loose. Much of the novel felt kind of contrived. At 512 pages, it's already a long book, but I thought that Kay should have either focused on the war between Miraval and Talair, or the war between Arbonne and Gorhaut, as opposed to trying to deal with them both. It's impossible for one or the other not to get short shrift. There were interesting characters introduced that never got particularly well fleshed out and the ending of the book was especially contrived. I would recommend this book if you like the genre, but I've heard some of his other novels are better.

Horsies!

2008-06-07T17:38:00.000-07:00

Today, I went to the Belmont Stakes to watch Big Brown (not) win the triple crown.

The Belmont Stakes was an interesting experience. Since Big Brown was going for the triple crown, the crowd turnout was larger than normal. They projected 120,000 people there and it certainly felt like there were that many people there. It was over 90 degrees today so I'm pretty sure I sweated out about fifteen pounds. The Belmont Stakes was the eleventh race of the day, and we were there from race one. I don't know about the other tracks, but at the Belmont track there is a large general admission grassy area where you can bring picnic good and lawn chairs and sit out and make a day of it, so that is what we did. Being there early was good, because we got a prime position in the general admission section. I placed some modest (read: two dollar) bets on a few horses and managed not to win a single one.

There were a lot of obnoxious people where, which was probably to be expected, as well as the most extraordinary assortment of outfits I have seen in one place. If you have grandstand or clubhouse seats, then you are expected to dress. For the general admission, you can wear just about anything. A lot of women were wearing sundresses, which was fine. But then there were the other dresses. A younger lady sitting next to us was wearing a black and white cocktail dress with a huge black hat straight out of the Ascot Gavotte number in My Fair Lady. There was a couple sitting a little in front of us that I dubbed "Miss Teen Staten Island" complete with sparkly tiara, prom hair, and a little jersey dress that just barely cleared the edge of her dress. Her boyfriend was wearing white linen pants and about two pounds of gold chains around his neck, visible because his blue button down was only about half buttoned.

I also don't know what happened, but they closed all of the bathrooms about halfway through the races. There were enormous lines for the eight port-a-potties on the back lawn (where the paddock and fair games were). It got to a point where a lot of the men were going in this little area that was screened by some bushes, and at one point there was a line of six people just to pee in the bushes. Also, after the stakes were finished, there were police officers doing "crowd control" on the exit, and only allowing a few people to trickle through at a time. Supposedly, this was to stop people from being trampled, but instead people were being squished up against the fences. I was glad I got a ride with my friend because the train was backed up at least four people deep on the platform.

Big Brown didn't win (sad, sniffle sniffle) but it was still fun to watch all of the horses. Big Brown was in third place going into the last stretch, until the jockey pulled him out of the pack and he trotted in at last place. I have to assume they realized that he wasn't going to win and decided it was best to save the horse for future studding than to push him too hard and have him be injured a la EightBelles. They are FAST - as the horses come around the track, it almost looks like they are on rails.

So all in all - a great day out!

The day begins

The track before the races started.

The second race of the day

Second race horses coming by us!

The whole place was packed by the time we got to race 11.

It's Big Brown! You may have lost, but we still love you.

Debt of Bones - Terry Goodkind

2008-06-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

fiction/fantasy, (c) 2004, 175pp
rating: **

Debt of Bones is a novella set as a prequel to Goodkind's famous Sword of Truth series. I read the Sword of Truth books when I was a senior in college and during my first year of graduate school. By the time I got to Faith of the Fallen, the most recent in the series at that time, I was heartily sick of Goodkind. It was clear to me that this was going to be a never-ending saga and his books were getting progressively worse (with the exception of Faith of the Fallen, which was actually quite good). My friend left Debt of Bones in my apartment and told me to read it, so I figured why not oblige him.

Debt of Bones tells some of the backstory of Zedd Zorander, one of the pivotal characters in the SoT books. This takes place before the boundaries go up. The book is centered around a woman who goes to plea with Zedd and the Mother Confessor to intercede in the war with D'Hara and save her village (and more specifically, her husband and daughter). Though it is a prequel, its short length means that there is little backstory. So, if you haven't read the other books, you would be missing a lot by starting with this one.

The best thing I can say about this book is that it was mercifully short. Given Goodkind's propensity for long, meandering novels that explore the actions of minor characters, 175 pages is practically miraculous. It was not well written, and it wasn't even really a good story. Debt of Bones will not make me go back to the Sword of Truth Series any time soon.

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

2008-06-05T09:33:00.001-07:00

fiction/literature, (c)1719, 320pp
rating: ***

When I was an undergrad, I read a couple of his other books (Moll Flander and Roxana). I remembered really liking them both, so when I saw Robinson Crusoe in the far depths of my bookshelf at my parent's house, I picked it up and brought it back to NYC to be read. Robinson Crusoe is the original castaway, a man who is shipwrecked on a semi-deserted island for over thirty years. The book chronicles his early life, the circumstances that led him to become shipwrecked, how he learned to live on the island and his eventual salvation.

This was easily my least favorite of Defoe's books, which is interesting because I think it is the most famous. Defoe is fond of the anti-hero - people who are victims of circumstance and life that eventually find redemption from their fall. However, Robison Crusoe is not as dynamic as his female leads and his fall is not as great. Therefore, the "redemption" seems less like a redemption, and more like just a plain rescue. Also, too much of the book was devoted to the minutia of living on the island. He spends the majority of his time communing with goats and pontificating about God. I would not really recommend this book, especially to people who are new to early english writers.

... Also

2008-06-04T13:32:00.000-07:00

There is a good possibility that I will be moving to Europe before the end of the year. Stay tuned.

Venezuela

2008-06-04T13:17:00.000-07:00

When I was a young, I had a recurring nightmare. I used to think that burglars were going to break into our house and steal things while I was still there. This home invasion nightmare I think was brought on by the fact that there have always been branches outside of the window that tap on the glass in the breeze. To a nine year old in the middle of the night, that sounds less like branches and more like someone scrabbling at the screen, trying to get in. So, when two thieves burst into my hotel room at 3:00 am two weeks ago, it seemed at first to just be a recurrence of my previous nightmare.

Here is what happened:

Apparently, around 3:00am, there was a knock at our door. I didn´t even hear it but it woke up my mom. Sleepy and disoriented, she thought we overslept our alarm and it was one of the hotel people coming to tell us that it was time to go (I was scheduled to go diving the next day). She opened the door and two ¨marauders¨ (their words) burst in on us. They were carrying knives. One of them pinned my mom down and the other one came over and tried to pin me down. Clearly, having lived in New York for the last six years, I kicked him hard in the stomach and screamed for all I was worth. He had to put down his knife to stop me from struggling and he put his hands over my mouth. So I bit him, hard enough to draw blood. At that point he slapped me and started yelling at me in Spanish and my fight or flight reflexes slowed down and began to think a little bit more clearly about all the things that guy could do to me. One of them took all of my mom´s local money, but she took a chance when their backs were turned to hide that last of her american cash under her pillow. They took all of my money (the ONLY time I´ve ever travelled with a lot of cash on me because the exchange rate is so much better on the black market in South America) and, more importantly ...

... they took my camera. And my lensbaby. They didn´t find my wide angle lens or my ipod or my cell phone, all of which I hid under the bed. My camera was in my bag though, ready to be taken out on the boat with me diving. Perhaps it was karma catching up to me - I have traveled by myself in many less than savory places and never had a single thing stolen or a single problem. This is the first time - and I hope the LAST time something like this ever happens to me.

I gave a description of my assailant to the police (thank you photographic memory) so I guess there is a slight chance my propery will be recovered, but it is unlikely. The owner of the hotel apologized about a million times and only charged us for half of our stay at the hotel.

After that, we moved to Isla de Margarita. Isla de Margarita was quite nice. We stayed at a particularly schmancy resort, one of these all-inclusive numbers. Here is the thing about all inclusive resorts: they are full of pod people. All identical families having a sanitized, identical good time. Seriously, what is the point of an all inclusive resort in Venezuela? Everyone speaks English, the food is "international" and they play American elevator music on the loudspeakers during meal time. You might as well just go to Miami and have exactly the same experience at half of the plane ticket. There is nightly "entertainment" which two nights ago consisted of a truly horrific "international dance show". Bad dancer did a tangos and salsas across the stage to equally bad music and announcing. It was like a train wreck and I couldn´t look away.

We did get out of the soft confines of the resort several times. We shopped and bought duty free liquor in Porlamar, saw an old spanish fort in Pampatar, took a driving tour of the Macanao peninsula, went to the museo del mar, and took a boat tour through the mangrove swamps. I finally got a chance to go diving (but I also got an ear infection from my snorkeling trip off the coast of Playa Santa Fe where we originally stayed). So all in all, an eventful vacation. At least I am tan now.

Playa el Agua, Isla de Margarita
Taken with a disposable camera.

See You in Two Weeks...

2008-05-18T16:17:00.003-07:00

.... because I'm off to Venezuela.

Richmondtown Part II

2008-05-02T07:42:00.001-07:00

The end of the semester is always a busy time. I've had multiple house guests, a presentation, a fish event and I am seeing someone new. So, I'll leave you with a few more pictures from Richmondtown until I have time for a proper entry:

Professional Meetings

2008-04-15T06:07:00.001-07:00

I spent most of last week at my discipline's annual professional meetings. This is the first time in two years that I went due to conflicts with dissertation data collection. Last time I was there, I shared a room with Dr. Brazen Hussy and Dr. La Blonde Parisienne and they were sorely missed this year. Say you'll come back to hang out with me someday? Sniffle.

This year's meetings is the first time that I have presented any of my dissertation data. I wasn't going to present anything at all, but my friend asked me if I would be his co-author and do a presentation synthesizing some of our research. I said that sounded good. I had most of my stuff ready before the meetings, but I still had some anxiety about it. He was still putting together his end on Thursday night when we were supposed to give the paper later that week.

I really wanted to see what was going to be presented before it was presented, so he said he would meet me after lunch. I assumed that meant around 1:30. At 3:30, he finally showed up ... he was late because he just had to "take a nap". I was PISSED OFF. We only had time to practice it once, so it was kind of choppy and not very good when he presented it. After the session was finished, I was invited to lunch with the other speakers. I knew I HAD to go to, for face time and schmoozing and answering questions, but I really would have preferred to relax and get a beer with my friends. After FOUR HOURS of talks, the last thing I wanted to do was to be mentally on my game some more.

On the walk over there, another one of the presenters in the symposium told me that she has an article in press that covers a small portion of my dissertation data, using the very same methods. The first thing I thought was ... shit. Then she said that her data came up wildly different. Double shit. Then she asked me a whole bunch of questions, some of which I think I answered kind of badly (about my study subjects) and some of which I answered kind of well (about statistics). Lunch was a little awkward and I sat there silently trying to look intelligent, and attempting not to say anything stupid.

Good things that came out of the meetings:

(1) Because this woman has something in press about my dissertation data, I have re-evaluated how I am presenting mine. The power of my study is in that I have a lot of complementary data on different things. I am going to concentrate on that aspect of my work.

(2) One of the other people who presented in my session is doing really cool work on complementary stuff and wants to collaborate with me at some point. Yay!

(3) I discovered I have the perfect data set to publish a paper on an extremely trendy aspect research angle.

Please hire me? kthxbai.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

2008-04-14T22:04:00.001-07:00

fiction/literatue, (c)1930, 288pp
rating: ***

Despite being an english major, I never read any Faulkner as a college student or as a high school student. I've been trying to expand my literary horizons now that it doesn't feel like such a task to read "the classics", so I pulled As I Laying Dying off of my book shelf and gave it a read. I purchased it during my senior year of high school to read in preparation for the AP English exam. I never even cracked the cover. Now, 10 years later, I have finished it.

As I Lay Dying tells the story of a country family making a pilgrammage to the big city to bury Addie Bundren, husband to Anse Bundren and five children - Cash, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell, and Vardaman. Each chapter is told in Faulkner's signature stream-of-consciousness style by a different narrator. The chapters are labeled with the narrator's name and the reader is immediately plunged into whatever internal monologue the character has at that particular time. The trip to Jefferson to bury Addie Bundren is part tragedy and part farce. While the plot of As I Lay Dying is extremely simple - a woman dies and the family goes to bury her - the themes of the novel are not. Issues of greed, the tragedy of motherhood, illegitimate children, mental disease and rape are all covered through the lens of each character's internal monologue.

I can't say I loved this book. I recognize the skill involved in writing that, and I recognize that Faulkner is an extremely influential writer. The first part of the book was very slow going while I was waiting for Addie to die so that the family could get moving. The stream-of-consciousness narrative vacillates between being really effective story telling and being really difficult to properly figure out. At one point, I had to read a general description of the course of events just so that I could be watching for them in all of the different narratives.

Historic Richmondtown Pictorial ... Part I

2008-04-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

Historic Richmondtown

2008-04-08T04:57:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, I told my friend T that I really wanted to go to Historic Richmondtown. Historic Richmondtown is on Staten Island and it is sort of the poor man's version of Williamsburg (or Skansen, for those who have visited or live in Stockholm). Richmondtown was one of the first towns on Staten Island and used to be along New York harbor (before large chunks of the harbor were filled). The historical society has preserved a lot of the colonial buildings in the area and made it a living museum to the time period. My friend T is really into the history of New York City, and has also always wanted to check it out - though found it difficult to find someone else suitably dorky enough to go along with it. I figured I would check the schedule and see if anything really fantastic was going on, and that is when I found it.

Revolutionary War Re-enactment Weekend.

Clearly, we had to go for that. There is so much delicious kitsch there that we absolutely could not miss it.

Thus, T, FR, S and I gathered at 11:30am on Sunday morning to make the two hour trek to Staten Island. In order to get to Historic Richmondtown, we had to take the subway, to a boat (the S.I. Ferry), to a bus. This was actually my very first time on Staten Island (not counting the times when I have taken the ferry across and back to give visitors a view of the Statue of Liberty). All of the clocks were still an hour off, leading us to believe that by leaving Manhattan, we had actually entered a different time zone. (Okay, not really.)

When we showed up to Historic Richmondtown, the revolutionary war extravaganza was well on its way. The Continental Army was recruiting small children by arming them with bayonets while delighted parents snapped photos of their children mock-killing people. Good times for all. We visited all of the old houses and learned many interesting factoids. For instance, did you know:

- The term "sleep tight" refers back to the time when bed springs were made out of rope. It was necessary to tighten them periodically, as they tended to stretch out over time.

- the term "straighten up your room" comes from moving all of the chairs into more formal positions across the walls for entertaining

- the term "bar" replaced "pub" or "tavern". The term "bar" comes from a series of bars that would come down around the barkeeper, the liquor and the money in case of a fight or robbery

At one of the houses, there was an exceedingly irritating re-enactor who seemed a little drunk and was not very imformative. He leeringly asked us to sign a loyalist petition and pledge our allegiance to the King. We told him that since we were women, we were clearly not allowed to read or write so he'd have to ask our fathers and our husbands.

The actual skirmish in the town was not as exciting as I hoped it would be. Actual revolutionary war re-enactors came in from Pennsylvania and New Jersey and were really excited to be able to skirmish in an actual town instead of on an open battle field. However, this led to a production that was really more for them than for us. We were pretty excited with the rebels (that's us amurricans) finally began to die. There was much booing of the loyalists and "huzzahing!" of the rebels. One of the re-enactors children was among the spectators. He was carrying a bayonet larger than he was. This was the conversation that ensued:

T: That kid is going to get hurt.
S: Nah, he's more likely to bump into someone else.
T: Exactly. He's going to hit me with it and I'm going to kick him.

The last activity of the day was a reading of the Declaration of Independence in the Tavern. We were all excited for the prospect of beer and liberty until we got to the tavern and THERE WAS NO BEER. There were cups! But they were empty. There were toasts! But no beer to toast to. Regardless, the reading was kind of fun. The tavern keeper read the preamble and then different people around the room were asked to read the different complaints. The tavern owner was smart enough to pick educated looking adults, so it was pretty nice. However, one women read redress as "Red-ress" as opposed to "Re-dress" and another man kept talking about the "Tye-ranny" of George the III as opposed to the "tier-anny" of George the III.

The lack of beer was a bummer, but luckily the Staten Island Ferry has its very own bar! So we toasted Staten Island and Richmondtown with our Michelob Ultra as we sailed away from one time zone and went back to our own.

Seriously?

2008-04-01T19:16:00.000-07:00

During class today, a student asked to make an appointment with me on Friday to go over some of the course material. What is the problem? you might be thinking.

Well, here is the problem. This same student comes late to class almost every week, and leaves early from class more often than not. He failed his first exam. The material that he wanted to make an appointment to go over was the material for today - since, as usual he left early.

I relented and agreed to an hour on Friday. But I am resentful. I am not paid for any of my time that I spend meeting with students outside of class hours except for a single office hour - which I spend between the two classes I teach on Tuesday afternoon. I am going to have to make a special trip to University for this student because he couldn't be bothered to sit through the normal class time.

When I told him I would only give him an hour on Friday, this student was resentful and wanted even more of my time. I told him that when he began attending the full class sessions, I would give him more time outside of class.

Overheard in NY

2008-03-28T08:42:00.000-07:00

The Creationists Are Going to Love This One

Ghetto girl: Hey, look! What's that? I think it's an egg!
Friend: What the hell?! What's wrong with you? Monkeys don't lay eggs!
Ghetto girl: ... Well, how was I supposed to know that?!

--Bronx Zoo, Jungle World

Overheard by: cracking up behind them

Jaded?

2008-03-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

So, I got a comment on the post today from my time in South Africa last year. The comment said: "Such a jaded person should be left under their rock and NEVER taken out - not one good thing to say - how sad!" and was left by "anonymous" (of course).

I thought that was an interested comment as I remember have a quite good time that day. I got out of Pretoria and got a chance to see some very important site in the general area. Maybe I did highlight the more unfortunate things that happened to me, but that makes for good reading.

But on the off chance all the people who I know read (yes, all three of you) think that I am jaded and should be left with mold spores under a rock, be sure that I am not. I am maybe a little bitter and cynical, but I do know how to have a good time and enjoy life.

American Idol

2008-03-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

I admit it. I like it. I watch it.

Something that I find really irritating is when the judges tell a contestant that they are being "original" when they cover a cover of a song. Example? Tonight, David Cook sang Chris Cornell's version of Michael Jackson's song "Billie Jean". Ryan Seacrest mentioned it briefly during his intro of David, but the judges subsequently ignored it.

Hello? Not original. Chris Cornell's version was original. David Cook's version is a retread of someone else's originality. I don't have a problem with that in general - just that the judges praise originality when there is none.

This happened a couple of years ago when Chris Daughtry sang the Live cover of the Johnny Cash song "I Walk the Line". Chris sounded good, and it was a good choice, but not original.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go listen to the Chris Cornell version.

Kitty Love!

2008-03-24T20:00:00.003-07:00

Happiness is watching your cats bat at each other through a chair slip cover. Hee hee!

Midterms

2008-03-24T16:27:00.000-07:00

It is midterm season, and I have elected to punish myself this year by giving short answer exams (rather than multiple choice). I have done this partially to make up for the fact that I have given them no writing assignments. Normally, I assign either two short (3-5 pages) papers or one longer paper (5-7 pages). But I just couldn't bring myself to read them this semester. It is a soul destroying, disheartening process. So I went with the short answer/essay exams.

I realized after I turned in one of my exams to be copied that there was a term leftover from a previous edition of the exam that I didn't go over specifically in class. Because I am fair, I told my students that that question would be extra credit. When I was reading through the exams, I noticed that one of my students had an extremely technical answer. In fact, it was so technical, I had to look it up to see if it was correct or not. And upon looking it up on teh interwebs, what did I find? The answer was copied from a Wikipedia article.

ON AN EXAM.

I am used to getting papers plagiarized almost exclusively from wikipedia entries, but this is the first time a student has done this on an exam. This student must have used a blackberry under his desk to surf the internet and look up the answers. As a professor, what am going to do about this? I mean, I know what to do with this student - he fails the midterm and will likely fail the class. But what do I do in future exams? I am not allowed to collect their cell phones prior to class because of insurance purposes. I guess I will have to have them leave their cellphones on their desks in a place where I can see them.

Ridiculous.

okay, one more.

2008-03-16T20:08:00.001-07:00

Baby did a Bad Bad Thing.

2008-03-16T13:20:00.000-07:00

New Fishie!

2008-03-15T20:44:00.000-07:00

One of those days.

2008-03-05T13:30:00.000-08:00

I am still angry about that article. The Washington Post did a follow up interview with Charlotte Allen to allow her to clarify her position and I couldn't even finish reading it before I got so angry that I had to close my browser. Note to the WaPo: if you are going to publish an oped that is a "satire" of misogyny, then don't let a misogynist write it. Furthermore, if you are going to continue to call it satire, don't allow her to participate in a Q&A that does nothing but point out that it is NOT satire, but actually what the writer believes. Publishing a piece like that in a respected newspaper gives Allen's word weight that they simply don't deserve, no matter how she originally intended the article.

* * *

Yesterday was definitely one of those days. I was fighting a cold all weekend. By Monday, I was a puddle of phlegmatic goo. My students have their first midterm today, so I trudged out to campus to teach and answer questions on Monday. I told them from the outset that I would be cutting class short because I wasn't feeling well and I heard some muted cheers. Thanks, guys. I feel like crap, so you win. See if you get a curve on your exam.

Because of my extreme sick and tired-ness, I definitely overslept my alarm on Tuesday. My eyes opened at 8:54 am when I was supposed to be teaching at 9:10am. I quickly threw on some clothes and some contacts and ran out the door and onto the subway. I made it to class with no breakfast and feeling slightly smelly by 9:25. Clearly, I rode the elevator up with one of my students who always wanders in late and I thought to myself how much I miss the days when I could wander into class late or opt just to skip it. Sadly, as the instructor, those options are now barred to me.

For class, we were doing a modelling exercise involving these little plastic beads. The last person to use them did not close the bags tightly so as I pulled them out of the drawer, they spilled out all over the floor. At that point, there really wasn't much that could happen to make a day worse. But then it started to rain on me on my walk home from class. And then I realized that I submitted the wrong exam to be copied for my Wednesday class.

On the upside, last night I got a good night sleep for the first time in several days and I am feeling much better.

Seeing Red

2008-03-04T09:21:00.000-08:00

My friend's boyfriend pointed me in the direction of this article in the Washington Post entitled "We Scream, We Swoon, How Dumb Can We Get" written by a woman ... against women.

I don't know who this Charlotte Allen is, but she clearly has serious penis envy. And I don't know what's wrong with the Washington Post that they would publish such total drivel. If you can't be bothered to read the article, it's all about: the idiocy of women who support Obama; Clinton as a poor candidate because of her poor choices - chalked up to her being a woman, of course; and the supposed biological differences between men and women. I actually read the article twice because I thought she was being ironic at first. But on second read, I realized that this chick was totally serious.

I don't know what makes me angrier. Her idea that the stupid things men do are rooted in some kind of ancestral "save and protect" mentality or that women are biologically preprogrammed to be nurturing mothers and make a home. Clearly I must be some kind of genetic anomaly because frankly, children annoy me and the only thing I am truly nurturing towards are my fish and my cat.

Her arguments don't even hold up - she claims that women have been verbal skills because we had to be able to "remember where the berries were" during our hunting and gathering days and men have better math and spacial relationship skills because "they had to be able to map out the trajectory of a spear." Um, remembering the locations of food patches is a cognitive mapping skill and would also fall under navigating spacial relationships.

She ends her article with this:
"So I don't understand why more women don't relax, enjoy the innate abilities most of us possess (as well as the ones fewer of us possess) and revel in the things most important to life at which nearly all of us excel: tenderness toward children and men and the weak and the ability to make a house a home. (Even I, who inherited my interior-decorating skills from my Bronx Irish paternal grandmother, whose idea of upgrading the living-room sofa was to throw a blanket over it, can make a house a home.) Then we could shriek and swoon and gossip and read chick lit to our hearts' content and not mind the fact that way down deep, we are . . . kind of dim."

Even if that is meant to be ironic, it still validates all of the ridiculous, outdated stereotypes present today against women.

I am so angry I can't even continue to articulate. Read the article. Be outraged.

EDIT: Apparently it is tongue-in-cheek. But it should have been clearer.
http://jezebel.com/363215/

Last Weekend

2008-03-03T19:30:00.000-08:00

I made a new friend. He asked me to come over to his place and takes some photos of his zoo. Here are the highlights:

Grendel by John Gardner

2008-02-28T21:59:00.000-08:00

fiction/literature, (c)1971, 175pp
rating: *****

Grendel is a retelling of the "Beowulf" myth from the point of view of Grendel. It's pretty important to have read "Beowulf" before reading this book or you will be hopelessly lost. The majority of this book deals with life at Hrothgar's hall prior to the appearance of Beowulf. We are introduced to Grendel immediately who tells us all about his life and what he has observed. He has observed the settling of this area by the nomadic bands and the building up of Hrothgar's empire. He is entranced by Hrothgar's "Shaper", a harpist and storyteller, though the storyteller's words cause Grendel auguish because he knows what the Shaper says is untrue but he is so entranced by his words that part of him believes. After an encounter with a dragon, he begins his marauding on Hrothgar's hall until the inevitable meeting with Beowulf.

Apparently this book is widely used in high school classes, though I never had to read it. I read up a little bit about the style of the book so that I would appreciate it more. There are 12 chapter and each of the twelve chapters corresonds to one of the zodiac signs, starting with the first chapter and an encounter with a Ram. Each chapter also deals with different ideas of philosophy, including using philosopher's own words. Grendel himself goes through several different phases in thinking about the meaning of life. There are also meditations about propoganda (through the role of the Shaper), the role of religion on society, and the meaning of war.

Throughout the book, Gardner plays with different literary styles as well. Most of the book is told through stream-of-consciousness of Grendel. However, he shifts to a lyrical style (which echoes the original text) and screenplay style (very Beckett-esque).

I started reading this a long time ago and I couldn't get all the way through it. However, this time it really captivated me and made me think. And sometimes it's nice to read a book you really have to think about.

Friday Seminars

2008-02-28T21:48:00.000-08:00

One of the most annoying things about my graduate program is that we have mandatory Friday seminars. They are "mandatory" for everyone - faculty and students. During the second semester, our second year Ph.D. students give talks about various topics. Occasionally we have visiting professors speak (though those are usually on Thursday night - less mandatory; I only get in trouble for not going if it's something directly related to my area of interest). The rest of the empty seminar slot are filled by "senior students" or recent grads giving update about dissertation work.

In small doses, I think this is an excellent idea. However what ends up happening is that the same people get roped into speaking again and again about their dissertation data. And since my advisor is instrumental in these seminars, I am roped into giving these talks about once a year. I am supposed to give a talk about my dissertation data for the THIRD TIME in May. I have already given a talk about what I was going to write my dissertation on (the first time). I have given a talk about my exploration of most of my data (the second time). I am still working through all of my exploratory data (since the first time I gave my talk I hadn't finished collecting it yet) - what am I supposed to talk about in May?

Another thing that irritates me about these seminars is that they are scheduled from 2-4 in the afternoon. That pretty much kills my day. It's hard to motivate myself to start working on my dissertation stuff when I know I'm just going to have to break to go down and listen to people talk about the same things I've already heard them talk about at least once before.

Additionally while these are "mandatory", there are a lot of faculty members that rarely if ever darken the door of the lecture room. These are also random students who somehow get exempt from these because, "they're just so busy." While, I AM BUSY TOO! But my advisor says, "If I can't get my own students to come ..." Six years of this! I am tired of it. My small form of revenge is to find the facet of my dissertation that my advisor is least interested in, and I'll talk about that.

Tiny Fey is hysterical

2008-02-25T07:53:00.000-08:00

Words to Live By

2008-02-24T12:49:00.000-08:00

A writing schedule brings balance to your life – not balance in the pseudoscientific, New Age, self-help sense of wondrous fulfillment, but balance in the sense of separating work and play. Binge writers foolishly search for big chunks of time, and they “find” this time during the evenings and weekends. Bing writing thus consumes time that should be spent on normal living. Is academic writing more important than spending time with your family and friends, petting the dog, and drinking coffee? A dog unpetted is a sad dog; a cup of coffee forsaken is caffeine lost forever. Protect your real-world time just as you protect your scheduled writing time. Spend your evenings and weekends hanging out with your family and friends, building canoes, bidding on vintage Alvar Aalto furniture that you don’t need, watching Law & Order reruns, repainting the shutters, or teaching your cat to use the toilet. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you don’t spend your free time writing – there’s time during the work week for that.

- Paul Silva, How To Write A Lot

Top 12 Movie Scenes!

2008-02-24T12:31:00.001-08:00

MY TOP 10 12 FAVORITE MOVIE SCENES EVER (2nd Edition)
I can't even find the first edition

12. Hot Stuff The Full Monty (1997)
When the men are in line for unemployment and the song "Hot Stuff" comes over the loudspeaker. They can't help but do a little of their choreography while they are standing there.

11. It's Raining Men Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
The fight between Mark Darcy and Daniel Clever. They're too posh to fight properly, so it turns into an awkward, bumbling sequence to the tune of "It's Raining Men". One of the best uses of a musical soundtrack.

10. The Slowest Car Chase Ever Enigma (2001)
Dougray Scott and Kate Winslet are chased through English country fields by a private investigator. Car chases are so much more fun when they are done at 30mph in a WWII era buggy. Plus, this scene culminates with a satisfying, yet incredibly awkward kiss. Love it.

09. "...you'll remember this moment when we were so close." Igby Goes Down (2002)
My favorite scene from my favorite dark comedy. Sookie tells Igby what she thinks about after she's done having sex. Igby's response? "You're a real fuckin' upper." Dialogue perfection.

08. "I'd like to dedicate this to my grandpa, who showed me these moves." Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
The ending scene at the beauty pageant in Little Miss Sunshine was the perfect ending to a perfect movie. Making a mockery of child beauty pageants has never been so funny.

07. The Baptism Montage The Godfather (1972)
The juxtaposition between the baptism and the string of violence is riveting. And don't think I missed the symbolism.

06. "How are you going to kill this bunny? Swingers (1996)
Trent's pep talk to Mikey in Swingers when he is getting ready to pick up a girl. Priceless - and is followed by one of the most cringe worthy scenes in movie history.

05. The Tango Roxanne Moulin Rouge (2001)
Another instance of juxtaposition. The way that "Roxanne" is retooled is almost sinister, as is the flashing between Satine's night with the Duke, Christian's jealousy and the tango dancers.

04. "You can't handle the truth!" A Few Good Men (1992)
Best courtroom scene ever. Hands down. I can almost forget how crazy Tom Cruise is in real life.

03. "And like that ... he's gone. The Usual Suspects (1995)
The final reveal where Verbal Kint's lies all crystalize for the police officers is magic - and one of the few endings I didn't guess before it happened.

02. "I want my father back you son of a bitch." The Princess Bride (1989)
Inigo's vengeance for his father's death at the hands of the evil Count Rugen is sweet. He finally gets to tell Count Rugen, "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father - prepare to die!" over and over again, and he ends with this line as he kills him with a final blow of the sword.

01. How do you solve a problem like Maria? The Sound of Music (1965)
When Maria finally marries Captain Von Trapp, she walks down the aisle in this huge, gorgeous wedding dress. The camera pans up and the wedding march morphs into a reprise of "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?" I've loved this movie since I was a little girl, and while twenty years later I'm not so sure about the implicit message that the problem is solved by marrying her off, this scene still makes me smile.

An Offer I Couldn't Refuse

2008-02-24T10:56:00.000-08:00

I watched The Godfather with FR last night for the first time ever. I understand entirely why so many people count it as their favorite movie of all time and I am looking forward to seeing the next one. I think the final montage scenes between the baptism and "taking care of family business" might go into my top ten movie scenes of all time.

But now I'm craving cannoli.

New York Minute

2008-02-22T16:01:00.000-08:00

Had a fantastic, touristy New York day, despite the slushy puddles of treachery lining the streets. I met a friend of mine in Grand Central Station and we proceeded downtown to the Lower East Side Tenement musuem. I thought the tour was a little dull, though quite informative. Mostly, I kept looking around at all the apartments, thinking, "LOOK AT ALL OF THIS SPACE!" Granted, I know it would be different if there were a family of four living in an apartment the size of my current apartment.

Also, we were in one of the rooms and another person on our tour asked what this odd metal box was above the stove. Turns it out it was a gas meter where the tenants would have put in a quarter for gas. It occurred to me that there is actually an only one of those boxes in my apartment too.

We had lunch in Little Italy (NOT the best Italian food in New York by any stretch of the imagination, though guests always want to go there) but I was able to have a glass of wine and cannoli.

When I walked back into my apartment, the lights in my aquarium were off which led me to a moment of total panic. It went a little like this: Why are the lights off in the aquarium? Oh my God the power is out. Oh my God, all of my fish are dead! Oh shit, what - . Then I flipped on a light and realized I just plugged the light into the wrong socket.

Oops.

Out by Natsuo Kirino

2008-02-20T22:06:00.000-08:00

fiction/mystery, (c) 2005, 400pp
rating: ****

I ran across this book when I was looking for more things to read when I ran out of literature when I was working in London. I didn't buy it then because of the sticker price (high exchange rate is a killer on books particularly), but I tucked the idea of this book away. Finally, this year, I decided to read it.

Out tells the story of four friends/colleagues that work the night shift at a company that makes packaged bento box meals. Each one of them has their own reasons for working the night shift, and each one has severe problems at home. Matsuo's family members orbit around each other without ever caring or interacting with each other. Kumiko is mired in debt and has spending problems. Yoshie is stuck caring for her ungrateful children and her aging mother in law and Yayoi's husband gambles and cheats on her. In a fit of rage one night, Yayoi strangles her husband with his own belt and calls her friends to help her figure out what to do. In this way, all four of them are pulled into the more criminal underbelly of this Tokoyo suburb.

Kirino won the Grand Prix award in Japan for this novel and it is well deserved. Though it is filed under the "mystery" section in Barnes and Nobles, it's not really a mystery. We find out exactly what the crime is and how it happens in the first thirty pages or so. The beauty of this book is watching everything unfold and seeing how Masako particularly manages her situation. Kirino has done a good job making all of the characters extremely realistic and this makes the reader invest in them. She also includes a young loan shark, a Brazilian immigrant and a casino owner as supporting characters and does an excellent job fleshing them out as well. The fact that all of these ladies work the night shift and so live in an inverse of everyone around them adds an additional darkness to this novel that makes it even moodier.

The other nice thing about this book is that it doesn't fetishize japanese culture (likely because it is a crime novel written by a Japanese woman). Many works of fiction and movies made by western writers fall prey to orientalism (read the essay if you haven't!). They either play up the young, hip, edgy teenagers or the rigidity of the culture. This book depicts a different side of Japanese culture and life and is refreshing to read.

I only had two quibbles with this book. Quibble #1 - it is quite long, and while most of it is a page turner, it definitely dragged just a little in the last quarter of the book. Quibble #2: The ending is a little ... odd, and somewhat disturbing. To say more than that would give it away. Overall, I highly recommend it.

LOLCLeo

2008-02-15T19:39:00.000-08:00

Hiking

2008-02-11T17:49:00.000-08:00

It was so nice this weekend that we went hiking on my friend's birthday. We went to Great Falls park and hiked one of the Billy Goat trails which basically involved a lot of rock clambering, including one slope at about a 70 degree angle. It was fun though and I got a good workout, especially my arms from using them to lever my body around from rock to rock.

My camera is broken, so my friend lent me her camera to take some photos. Here are a few:

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

2008-02-10T19:26:00.001-08:00

fiction, (c) 2003, 326pp
rating: *****

People have been telling me to read this book for years, and I sort of put it off because it seemed to angsty. Recently though, I've been trying to read the books that "everyone" has read and talks about so that I might be able to converse about them intelligently. (In the last couple of years, I've read The Corrections, The Time Traveler's Wife and The DaVinci Code for this same reason). The Lovely Bones is the most recent in this string of novels.

For people living under a rock, The Lovely Bones is Alice Sebold's first novel. It is about a young girls named Susie Salmon who is brutally raped and murdered. She goes to heaven and watches over her family and friends as they attempt to cope with her death and move on with their lives. Through her eyes, we see how her death changes her friends, family and even total strangers. In heaven, Susie herself also gets a chance to grow and change as she learns to cope with her own death.

The Lovely Bones could easily get maudlin and depressing. It could easily have become the literary equivalent to a Lifetime Television Movie about "dealing with death". However, Sebold is very careful to avoid those kind of cliches and instead presents a fresh and interesting look at this subject. While this book is cerainly not an "upper", there is a definite element of hope and the reader feels less badly for Susie and more so for her family members who are forced to go out without her. In a way, Sebold makes death - even violent death - feel almost mundane for those that are dying and presents it as part of the normal cycle of life. There are lots of great characters in this book, from Susie's alcoholic grandmother to her childhood acquaintance Ruth who grows up believes that she can see ghosts and spirits. The writing is evocative and detailed without being tedious. This book was never dull and I finished it under two days. I highly recommend it - turns out all those who recommended it to me were entirely correct.

Delegates

2008-02-06T20:58:00.000-08:00

awesome explanation of the delegate/superdelegate process and why it sucks

Let the games continue...

2008-02-05T21:36:00.000-08:00

In the end, I cast my vote for Hillary Clinton (like 55% of the other people in my state). I feel at peace with my choice, and suprisingly I really really want her to win.

I had been kind of ambivalent for a while as it's hard to decide between Obama and Clinton on the big issues. They have voted identically 90% of the time (though Obama has missed 16% of the votes and Clinton has only missed 6% of the votes). The things they split on are all relatively minor and pretty much come out in a wash (if you agree with this blogger, and I do).

Honestly, I just like the tone of Clinton's campaign better. Maybe I've been beaten down by 8 years of the Bush administration, but I just don't buy this message of hope. I mean, I buy that Obama means it. It's just a little too sunshine and rainbows for me. All of this optimism ... it's just too much for me. I actually prefer Clinton's pragmatism and calculated political outlook to Obama's almost revivalist cry for change. So I voted Clinton on that basis.

That being said, if Obama ends up being the candidate, I will support him fully. This is not the time for a schism in the democratic party considering the possible republican candidates. Granted, of the three front-runners, McCain is the least crazy. At one time, he was semi-moderate (or at least, as moderate as one can be in the Republican party). Now he's been flip-flopping all over the place, selling his soul to the uber-conservatives for the presidential nomination.

Book #5: Getting Stoned with Savages

2008-02-04T19:39:00.001-08:00

Getting Stoned with Savages by J. Maarten Troost
nonfiction/travel, (c) 2006, 256pp
rating: ***

A couple of years ago, I read (and loved) The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost about his time living on Kiribati, an atoll in the South Pacific. I found it extremely funny and engaging and was looking forward to reading this new book.

Getting Stoned With Savages finds Troost back in the South Pacific, first on the islands of Vanuatu, and then on the islands of Fiji. Troost describes life in Porto Vila, the main city on the main island of Vanuatu. He spends an inordinate time talking about the joys of kava, a hallucinogenic drug that is taken regularly by the men and women of the South Pacific. He goes in search of real live cannibals and gives us a little bit of history about the islands. The end of the book talks about having a baby in the South Pacific and the joys and struggles with that.

Overall, this book lacked the magic of the first one. Troost himself seems to understand that, and explains it in the last chapter. An atoll is the great equalizer - while he and his wife were looked at strangely in Kiribati, eventually they were accepted by the locals and were subject to the same whims of nature and the supply chain as everyone else. In Vanuatu and Fiji, Troost lived the life of an expatriate. I got the sense that he really had to go looking to find things worth writing about. His life in Vanuatu was not unlike the time I've spent in places like Nairobi. Sure, there are the trials and tribulations of a third world country (and yes, I am glad my data collection in Kenya ended prior to the civil unrest there), but there are also bars and malls that cater specifically to expats.

So, while this book wasn't bad, it's not as good as the first one.