C is for Cookie!

Our bookclub’s annual cookie exchange is Saturday and until tonight I had given exactly zero thought to my cookie recipe. You may think I could just go with whatever I made last year but au contraire, I cannot. Two reasons, the first of which is one of general principle. I have never repeated a cookie in the seven or eight years of this cookie exchange. Even in the years when my fellow bookclubbers were popping out the kiddies (an activity inversely proportionate to the time available to bake Christmas cookies, reason #473 to stay childfree) and occasionally brought store-bought cookies, I came with a new recipe ever year. I figure if I can’t entertain my married-with-kids friends with any kind of exciting singles social life, I can at least rub in how much free time I have for baking.

The second reason is a more practical one. I have no idea what I made last year. Except for the almond lace cookies two years ago and the coffee/chocolate cookies from the first year of the exchange, I don’t really know what I made any year. I like the variety. I usually pick one or two kinds of cookies each year and make them multiple times – for the exchange, for my co-workers and (if it’s a really great recipe) for the family once I get to my mom’s. And then I am done with them. Perhaps I am a cookie whore (see above re: substituting baking for a dating life).

I think I’ve found my two cookies for the year. And yes, there usually need to be two kinds, my bookclub includes a woman who has given up all forms of caffeine (which is sick and wrong, but I still love her) and another allergic to coconut. This seriously cuts down on my options, but if I make at least one non-chocolate or non-coconut cookie, I can just gift each woman with a double set of the one cookie she can eat. This year’s chocolate option (assuming I can find cocoa nibs by Friday night) is Clotilde's Very Chocolate Cookies, found on the website of the excellent David Lebovitz, but originally from Chocolate and Zucchini by Clotilde Dusoulier. After reading David’s blog, I want to add a whole bunch of cookbooks to my Amazon wishlist (this is nearly as senseless as giving up chocolate – I cook as little as possible and I only bake recreationally).

Number two, which could perform alone if I can’t get my hands on those nibs(dirty!), is off my go-to baking site, Martha Stewart online. I love her for baking, though I find some of the entrees I’ve tried there in the past kind of bland. So I’m trying the Lime Meltaways and hoping I don’t end up with a dough that’s too dry, since this seemed to happen to a few folks in the comments section. Cross your fingers. I’ll post pics once I’m done with the baking on Saturday.

Why WGA Writers Are On Strike

"

This seems like a pretty clear explanation to me (you'd almost think these guys are professionals). And it's REASONABLE, people.

ps. I've thought of one more thing I can do. Until writers get more for DVD sales, no more buying DVDs. Since the holiday season is coming up soon, maybe that's one way to hit the corporations in the one place it'll hurt.


eta: Other folks are talking about boycotting DVD’s and internet streams of tv and movies. As was pointed out in an interview by my favorite comedy writer Pam Ribon, we need to make sure that any effort like this needs to include telling the networks (and I’d guess the press and WGA since the networks aren’t going to share that info) why we’re doing it. Otherwise they could just use any dip to support their ridonkulous* argument that the streams are too new to have profits they can share.

*I first learned this word when a WGA writer put it in an episode of How I Met Your Mother. Credit where credit is due, ya know?

I love TV. I probably watch way too much of it, but those folks who say (in a tone I always hear as snotty whether they intend it or not) “we don’t have a television” or even just “we don’t have cable” have a high bar to get over if they’re ever going to be my friends. TV is the dominant creative artistic medium of our time (even if some of that dominance has diminished in the last few years). At its best it can fun and informative. At its worst, I change the channel or turn it off. TV is not perfect, but it can be inspiring (The West Wing), soothing (Dancing with the Stars), exhilarating (The Amazing Race), gut-achingly funny (30 Rock), even intellectually challenging (Battlestar Galactica). The writers of most of this brilliant entertainment are set to go on strike at midnight tonight.

Most of the coverage I see of the potential strike has a “what it means for viewers” angle, which I guess makes sense given that most of us are viewers and not creators. But it really misses the point. I’m probably going to be inconvenienced by this strike. My favorite shows will go away for a while (some of the newer ones may never come back). I’ll NetFlix, and I’ll read, and I’ll spend more time online.

What I will try not to do is just mindlessly consume whatever crap the networks put on in place of my shows. Because I value what the writers do. All of it (okay 99.9%) comes out of their amazing creative and hardworking brains. These are thinking people, and I like to believe I have some kinship with that. I like to think I’m more like the writers than the studio execs who spend their days thinking about financing and marketing and such (there’s a reason I’d never get a business degree).

As thinking, creative people it was ironically the Writers Guild of America (WGA), not the bean-counters, who realized back in the 1980’s that the VCR was going to change how people watched TV and movies. So they got residuals for videotape sales added to their contracts. The amount was miniscule, but it was a start. As DVD sales have sky-rocketed and begun to count for a larger piece of the profits they’re asking for more. And they’re asking to add residuals for internet airings of their shows and movies. The principle behind that is the same as in the 80’s; here’s a new medium that is changing how we consume their product and they should share in the profits of it. The studios say they can’t figure out how to count those profits. Seems like it’s pretty easy to say “we just sold that episode for $1.99 on iTunes, here’s how much of that is profit and here’s your share.” It’s not that they can’t, it’s that they don’t want to. The network heads are under pressure by their own corporate bosses (GE, etc.) to raise their profits. I get that. I just don’t think that’s the writers’ problem.

That principle I mentioned actually goes back way before the 80’s, to the days of radio. Unless the studios want to walk away from residuals altogether (which I’m sure they’d love to do) it’s unconscionable to try and leave the internet out of it.

So as a viewer I will do what I can to show that I’m not on the studios’ side here. It isn’t much and it’ll go against the grain. I’ll watch my shows until they run out of union-generated scripts. I will try to keep track online of when those run out, and I’ll stop watching if they bring in scabs. I won’t go so far as saying I won’t watch reality TV, which is what they’ll fill the schedule with (the WGA has GOT to get those “editors” in the union one of these days to strengthen their position) but I won’t watch reality crap (either pre-existing crap that we all know is just on because it’s cheap to produce, or new crap they start filming now to fill time slots). As I said, it’s not much and maybe I should say I’ll just turn off my TV. But I’m trying to be honest; I know I won’t do that.

This matters to me for lots of reasons. One I wouldn’t have been able to predict a few years ago is all about the influence of the internet on TV. Several years ago, I was surfing around, looking for websites about a show I had just fallen in love with but that none of my friends were watching – The Amazing Race. What I found was Television Without Pity (now a part of that crazy GE corporate family, but still fabulous). Turns out that several of the funny creative people who were writing about TV on that site are now funny, creative people writing for TV (Pamie, DJB, Stee, AB Chao, just to start with). These folks don’t know me, but I feel like I know them, at least a little. I want this strike to work out for American labor, and for principle, but also for these good people. I believe in this strike because I believe in them. I want them to be able to make their rent, and car payments, and mortgage payments even when they might be between gigs. And the way that happens is if they get a tiny piece of the money that studios continue to make years later from their work. I wish them luck. And I hope there’s a deal coming quickly, for their sakes more than for mine.

What Kind of Intelligence Do I Have? (assuming I have any after this week)

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Music Nirvana (well, actually, no Nirvana this time)

At left: It all starts with this guy.

Some days my ipod just loves me. I turned on my shuffle song function this morning at the bus stop and by the time I got to work I didn’t want to take off my earphones – I was on a musical role. This play list might not excite everyone, but for me it’s just about perfect.

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You – Van Morrison
Gone Daddy Gone – Gnarls Barkley
The Big Sky – Kate Bush
Yes, Yes, Y’All – Sergio Mendes
Border Song – Elton John
God – Tori Amos
Until the End of the World – U2
Ladies Choice – Hairspray soundtrack
Jackie Wilson Said – Van Morrison
Colorful – Rocca Deluca and the Burden
One Week – Barenaked Ladies
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant – Billy Joel
Politik – Coldplay

I have no idea how to find copies of these songs to link to, plus I'm afraid of the record industry. But I highly recommend them all!

At left: Well he is a snazzy dresser, but I'd have expected a better haircut.

So, gay Dumbledore.

(note: there’s at least one serious Book 7 spoiler below – do I still have to warn about that several months on?)

On the one hand, I’m glad to hear it. I think Jo Rowling has written the books from a moral viewpoint which is pretty similar to mine, so I’m not particularly surprised. And I do remember thinking while reading Book 7 that some slashers were really gonna go to town with Dumbledore/Grindelwald.

I do wish Jo could have made it just a little more apparent in the books. I see that it wasn’t a central point and plenty of details of how she envisioned the world of Harry Potter didn’t get included in the books. Also, given that most of all the books were from Harry’s pov, it might not have been too easy to fit in information about Dumbledore’s sexuality.

But we do know a bit about Lupin’s romantic life with Tonks, and Bill with Fleur, (or for an example that didn’t end in marriage, the torch that Snape carried for Lily) so it’s not impossible to include glimpses into moments of these straight relationships among the adults. And all the stuff about the kids starting to date was a missed opportunity. I would have loved for one of Harry’s Griffindor roommates to be gay and have that not be a big deal – Seamus or Dean, I think, since there was already so much going on with Ron and Neville. Neville in particular could have ended up very cliché, and would have defeated the purpose; all of his fumbling would have been re-envisioned as fey or something I expect.

Declaring that Dumbledore is gay is a small step in the right direction, I guess. Making a beloved authority figure gay can only be good, especially a beloved educator who clearly cared a great deal for his students. That might be the most important effect, in my opinion, and might really help cut off at the knees for a generation of kids the myth that all gay men are a threat to molest young boys.

I just wish it could really qualify as cannon. Is it still slash fanfic if it comes from the original author?

Now I'm off to see if I can find some slashy quotes from the last book. :)

Cindy got a Pig! Cindy got a Pig!

My friend Cindy has been obsessed with Seattle's Pigs on Parade since they had the first set in 2001.

In honor of the Pike Place Market's Centennial, they made another series of Pigs on Parade as a fundraiser this year.

Last time, Cindy didn't buy a pig (she tried taking part in the eBay portion of the auction, but got outbid). So last night we went to the live auction (loads of fun, but I didn't expect a cash bar so we didn't get nearly as liquored-up as I would have liked). Cindy won the first pig in the auction!

The pig above has already been renamed "Pigmen Miranda" and will live in the breezeway that leads to her backyard!

Yay, Cindy!

A fun book-themed meme from 50 Books.

Memes are a step up from quizzes, right? I know I had to do more work to finish. One of these days I'll be doing real posts on a regular basis. This is like training wheels. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

1.Hardcover or paperback, and why?
Paperback, so I can carry them around. Plus with hardbacks I always worry about what to do with the dustjacket and if I should re-sell it because I spent so much money on it. If you wait too long to sell a hardback and the paperback is out, the resell is for shit. Probably 95% of the hardbacks I own are parts of a series because I got too impatient to wait for the paperback.

2. If I were to own a book shop I would call it…
Lots of Plots? Ehh, I don’t know. Lane’s Books? My Inevitable Bankruptcy?

3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is…
Oh, this is tough. Usually if I quote it’s from poetry or a movie (I don’t have the memory to quote from novels). Maybe this, from Dorothy Sayer’s Gaudy Night.
“She went to bed thinking more about another person than about herself. This goes to prove that even minor poetry may have its practical uses.”

Or maybe the first line of May Sarton’s Journal of a Solitude “Begin here. It is raining.” It's immediate and does exactly what she intends for the whole book.

4. The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be…
Neal Stephenson. I love both his scifi and history of science novels, but I wouldn’t be so intimidated that we couldn’t have a good time.

(note: the original meme wrote (mis-wrote?) the options as “alive or diseased.” bwah)

5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except from the SAS survival guide, it would be…
The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry. Lots of different pieces and styles to enjoy, plus little bios of the poets.

6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that…
Temporarily takes away just enough memory so I could experience each of my favorite books like it’s the first reading.

7. The smell of an old book reminds me of…
My grandma’s house, especially the shelf in her living room that held a set of 1950’s era World Book Encyclopedias that I read to learn all about Greek mythology.
Or, you know, dust that makes me sneeze.

8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be…
Now that I’m thinking about Gaudy Night, I’d have to say Harriet Vane.


9. The most overestimated book of all times is…
Hmmm, maybe Finnegan’s Wake? I like James Joyce’s other novels and I don’t mind working hard to understand a great piece of literature (I once took a class on Ulysses where we covered one chapter a week, and it was really fun!) But the Wake is so dense it’s really like mental masturbation.

Look, there are worse books, clearly. But the Wake is like the emperor's clothes. Everyone's afraid to admit that it fails because they assume the fault is their inability to understand, not the fault of the book.

10. I hate it when a book…
Tries to change or be too much at the end. With this same meme, Jag Soker Job sites Middlesex for this (an otherwise almost flawless book). I think the problem goes back at least as far as Robinson Crusoe. I never knew until I actually read the thing that he leaves the island about ¾ of the way through. Nobody ever mentions it because that part of the book is stupid.

Another Blogthings Quiz

Your Personality Is Like Acid

A bit wacky, you're very difficult to predict. One moment you're in your own little happy universe... And the next, you're on a bad trip to your own personal hell!

What Drug Is Your Personality Like?

Well, that last bit is cheerful, huh?

But if you lose, the devil gets your clothes

Growing up on the edge of Appalachia, I had a knee-jerk anti-country music bias. I thought of it as mostly music for ignorant hillbilly types, and since I continually felt the need to prove that wasn't me I basically rejected anything that smacked of country.

There were a few exceptions (and the list has grown over the years), like I adored the Coal Miner's Daughter movie. It always made my meemaw cry. And there was Devil Went Down to Georgia. It's a ridiculous song, as is hilariously pointed out in this article from McSweeney's. But by the end of the song, I can't help singing along with "I done told you once, you son of a bitch, I'm the best that's ever been." And when it gets the radio edit ("son of a gun") I always get irate.

But check out that picture. Yeah, I can see why I didn't want to be associated with that kind of fashion.

I haven’t brought this up, but since no one is actually reading this thing yet no one from work will know before I want to tell them (I hope).

I’ve been studying for the LSAT and thinking about going back to school (again!). I don’t really want to be a full-time student again; I’m actually quite bad at that because I get lazy and waste much too much time. I often react to stress by avoiding action until it’s almost unavoidable or until it’s scarier or more painful to do nothing, a bad habit that grad school just exacerbated. It has taken years to get past it and I don’t want to move backward on that. Plus, how would I make any headway cleaning up my credit/getting out of debt if I quit my job?

Luckily there’s a really good law school here in Seattle that does a part-time/evening program (not Big U, which only does a fulltime program – boo!). I’ve been talking to several good friends about becoming a lawyer, and just recently sat down with a lawyer and retired judge who I know through work. Once we got through the official work-related reasons for the meeting, I asked him some questions about law school, particularly about this part-time program and if he thinks I’m too old to start this. He was so supportive! He even told me that the current head of the Seattle Bar Association didn’t start law school until she was older than I am now. Lovely to hear when the guide to law school books say things like "average age of entering student to law school X is 24."

Anyway, so I’m sitting here tonight (on a Friday night) studying for the LSAT. Okay with occasional breaks for Sci-Fi Friday and my new resolution to blog more frequently. These logic puzzles are a bitch! I’m wait-listed to take the LSAT at the end of the month and frankly I almost hope I have to wait ‘til December for a seat so I can get better at these little monsters!

ps. the above cartoon was found on the very funny blog The L Word: Law School and Life

You Are a Lemon Cake

Strong, sexy, and overpowering. You know who you are, and you're not afraid to show the world your fabulous self. You're confident, charming, and extremely popular.

What Kind of Cake Are You?

Hmm, I'm not sure this is right -- I took the quiz and there are several ways I could have answered differently. I may actually be chocolate cake. Oh well, all cake is good. And quizzes are always fun.

My friend Greg used to work for a company in SF that made online quizzes. My favorite that he did is "What kind of Dog are you?" I was a Bernese Mountain Dog which at the time I thought was not so flattering but I think it actually helped land me a job. I had a job interview soon after taking the quiz -- it turns out my potential boss was a big dog person and loves BMDs, so when I joked about it to her she figured I was the type to work hard and loyally. :)

Also, apparently it's a cake-themed day, because my iPod randomly chose Cake's Hem of Your Garment when I got on the bus this morning.

New (Old) Must See TV

I'm slow on this news, but it appears I will have to put Desperate Housewives back on my fall tv watch list. The luscious Nathan Fillion will be moving to Wisteria Lane this season. Apparently, since that space cowboy career didn't quite work out, Nathan is now portraying sexy gynecologists exclusively (as he did in the excellent Waitress). As a woman, I am wholeheartedly behind the fantasy of the sexy OBGYN but I'm kind of surprised that DH creator Marc Cherry can figure out women quite that thoroughly.

I refuse to watch the end of last season to catch -- I'll just grab the recaps at Television Without Pity. Last year I stopped watching at about the time Carlos got Gabby pregnant against her wishes. Not funny my friends. Plus Terri Hatcher is seriously too fake-tanned and botoxed.

Also, isn't Dana Delany too old to play Nathan's wife? Not that I'm anti-cougar or anything but it just seems a little off. I guess we'll see.

Well, the vacation was wonderful but now a distant memory. Maybe shorter entries means I'll get them done?

In any case, one highlight of the first part of vacation was some of the most unusual (and best!) ice cream I've ever had. Chocolate and lavendar flavored ice cream at Elevated Ice Cream in Port Townsend, Washington. I'm trying to figure out when I can go back with an ice-filled cooler (They have quarts for take-out and there are lots of other great flavors to try. I'm thinking the cardamom for next time).

It's like Wallace Stevens said "The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream." I have no idea what that means, but I love it! :)

Vacation!

Well, at least vacation from work. Back in early May, I got an email from HR pointing out that I have over 200 hours of unused vacation time! This was the occasion for some serious mocking by my boss and our office assistant, both of whom regularly use up every single hour of their leave. In my defense, Big University lets you carry over from one year to the next ad infinitum and as you work there longer you accumulate time faster. I’m currently earning 14 hours a month. Since my boss was getting ready to leave her job and I’d be taking on her role interim (with all the extra work that implies), she suggested I put in for some summer time vaca while she was still around to approve it. So I did a random day off in June and a long 5-day weekend. I saw a Mariners game and spent time with friends and their rugrats, so all-in-all pretty successful. Though the game itself sucked.

Now comes the biggy. I put in for two weeks in July. Now, the fact that I don’t do more vacation isn’t because I’m some kind of masochist. Granted, I do wonder whether certain projects will take a single step forward while I’m gone, but honestly the biggest reason is money. If I’m not at the office, I’m going to want to shop or eat at restaurants or go to the movies. All of these are fine and fun pursuits (in fact, I love them all) but they cost. Years of doing too much of all three, plus living on credit cards during grad school, have put me in a lot of debt. I’m trying to dig out, but I seem to do a two-steps forward, one-step back with my finances.

So I took these two weeks, but was kind of in denial about what I’d do with them. After weeks of asking about my plans and hearing nothing, my mother finally insisted that I should come visit for at least part of the time. So I’m leaving for the East Coast on Wednesday and back in a week. I had planned to take a couple of days before or after and rent a vacation cabin on the water and just sit and read. That hasn’t worked out too well. Most of the places I’d like to rent are minimum one-week stays in the summer (even those that say two-night minimum on their websites, grrr!) and I’ve just lost interest in finding one at this point.

The good news is, before and after the East Cost trip I’ll likely be putting in extra time here on the blog, getting back in the habit (wait, was I ever IN the habit?) of more regular posting. I’ve already eaten out twice and gone to see Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix. At which I bought both buttered popcorm and junior mints – who says I can’t break out and get wild?

Order of the Phoenix or Why I Should Never Read the Book Before Seeing the Movie

I don’t know why I continue to see every Harry Potter movie. I adore the books and I really believe they’ll last as classics of (childrens or popular, take your pick) literature. But every movie version leaves me wondering if the director and screenwriter have ever actually read the books or just a synopsis of plot points. All of the whimsical tone and asides of the books, the wryness, are gone. I love how matter-of-fact the books are about the magic, even as Harry is first introduced to and awed by it.

At first, I blamed the heavy, hack hand of Chris Columbus. His over use of longshots with epic music designed to remind us that this is FAAANNTASY are 180 degrees from how the books approach withcraft and wizardry. And then he left the series and some of the things I hated most, surprisingly remained. Ok, if I had to pick one I could live with, it’s Cuaron’s Prisoner of Azkhabhan. It’s not my PoA, but at least it’s someone’s (Cuaron is the one director of the series I’m sure really read the books and gave a lot of deep thought and respect to translating what he was getting out of it to the screen). I didn’t really love his film, most especially because I just can’t get behind Gary Oldman as Sirius (not an Oldman fan, here).

I know that these latest two, Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, are a real challenge to cut down to feature-movie length. But the things they lose in the process are what build the world of Harry Potter for me. I particularly miss their school experiences and adolescence. Sure Harry’s angsty adolescence is being explored, but what about Ron and Hermione? Good lord, there’s hardly anything left of them. Half the time they’re just standing around for expositions and transitions. Honestly, if I were Emma Watson I would have been tempted to chuck the series for college, too!

If anyone seems to understand this series less than the directors, it’s movie reviewers. Before I started writing this, I went over to Rotten Tomatoes to see what kind of reviews OotP is getting. Roger Ebert’s review just about made me lose my mind. He gets that it’s not a very good film, but that’s where the sanity ends. Forgive me, but I’m going to have to quote about a third of the review here.

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix still has much of the enchantment of the earlier films, but Harry no longer has as much joy. His face is lacking the gosh-wow-this-is-really-neat grin. He has internalized the secrets and delights of the world of wizards, and is now instinctively using them to save his life.”

Can you imagine how unbearable it would be (not to mention boring and lacking in character growth) if Harry were still as astonished five years later by the existence of magic?

“There will come a time, I fear, as we approach the end of the series (one book and two films to go), that Harry and his friends will grow up and smell the coffee. They weren't trained as magicians for fun. When they eventually arrive at some apocalyptic crossroads, as I fear they will, can the series continue to live in PG-13 land? The archvillain Voldemort is shaping up as the star of nightmares.”

Clearly, Ebert’s read even less of the books than David Yates did. “Shaping up as the star of nightmares?” Welcome to the party Rog. He’s the embodiment of evil. Jo isn’t pulling punches on that just because these are kid stories. She proudly joins the tradition of writers like Roald Dahl who respect that kids know the world can be tough and scary. Also, the part about smelling the coffee and why they’ve been trained makes me wonder if he stepped away from the balcony for popcorn when Dumbledore’s Army was created? This is explicitly what is happening in that part of the story. I know it gets rushed like everything else in these films, but if that point is lost I’m not sure OotP has a raison d’etre as a film.

"For Harry, like many another leader before him, it is time to leave the nest and begin to work in the world. For the first time since we saw platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross, the city of London has a major role now, as Harry and sidekicks fly down the Thames and swoop past Big Ben.
That causes me to wonder, what is the practical connection between the world of magic and the world of Muggles? Will Harry, or should Harry, become a world leader? Can wands and spells be of use in today's geopolitical turmoil? Or are Hogwarts grads living in a dimension of their own? All will be told, I guess, in the final book in J.K. Rowling's series, and then the retail book industry will be back on its own again."

Okay, a big part of the above is just big old silliness and not germane to a movie review. The HP series clearly has moments of commentary within it on the struggles and nature of modern culture. To twist it this way just reinforces Ebert’s foolish nostalgia for the very bad Columbus films. eta: A much better example can be found in the Harry Potter Alliance, a group encouraging young readers to take the moral lessons they've learned from HP and use it on causes like Darfur.

And “all will be told in the final book” is a complete non sequitor (putting it at this point in the review implies that Rowling’s going to clear up some apparent confusion about how wizards co-exist with a world like ours. Huh? Large portions of the beginning and ending of each book – and sometimes the middle – deal with this all the time.) Is this just Ebert trying to find someplace to mention the final book?

“My hope, as we plow onward through "Potters" Nos. 6-7, is that the series will not grow darker still. Yet I suppose even at the beginning, with those cute little mail-owls, we knew the whimsy was too good to last.”

First, as I’ve mentioned above more than once, the early whimsy sucked. But more importantly, 6 and 7 will and should get darker. It’s only the story of growing up and learning that world’s a complicated and often dangerous place! Someone recently pointed out to me that the villains of each book (not the over-arching Voldemort but the baddies of each year) get more realistic, more adult as the series progresses. The first ones were cartoony – Quirrell and a disembodied Dark Lord living in his turban don’t have anything on Dolores Umbridge, a thoroughly adult, political threat that the teachers genuinely can’t shelter the students from. Again, welcome to the party, that’s the point of the book series as I see it.

But the point of the movies remains a mystery. Unless it’s Daniel Radcliffe’s very pale but well-defined pecs. Talk about disturbing -- I'm much too old to be noticing those. But what's a girl supposed to do when he wears those tight t-shirts?

Waitress

Sigh. . . I need to get better with photoshop so I can replace Keri Russell with myself in these pics.

Loved this movie,though I do wish I could get the completely unrelated (and disturbing) Tori Amos song "Waitress" out of my head.

Elevator Etiquette

Maybe it's because I grew up in a different part of the country. I tell myself that a lot when confronted with random acts of thoughtlessness. I'd rather think that being from the South means I have different (not better, just different) standards of general human interaction than folks here in the Pacific Northwest. It seems less curmudgeonly than the alternative which is that manners are no longer being taught anywhere, the culture is coarsening, and we're all going to hell in a handbasket.

Either way, certain very basic rules of etiquette may need to be spelled out to some people. On elevators I'd start with these.

1. Let people out before you get in.

2. (closely related to #1) Step back and give people room to get out of the elevator.

Come on, people. Can't we all just get along?

ps. This also applies to subway cars, but since we stupidly don't have subways here in Seattle, I don't get regularly irritated by lack of common courtesy in that setting.

Book Lists

From a meme over at 50 Books:

I could only answer some of the questions since I'm not a big book loaner and I don't have kids, but the others were fun. One thing this helped me notice is that some of the stuff at the bottom of my to read pile is more fun than the stuff at the top -- I may have to re-organize/re-prioritize!

I've got a few books here that aren't recent but that I really think I should read (and want to! it isn't guilt but that they seem to have made a difference in how people understand the world. Guns, Germs and Steel is a prime example).

I do love some good listing action!

Five most recent books you've bought for yourself:
Guns, Germs and Steel – Jared Diamond
A Presumption of Death – Jill Paton Walsh
Life’s a Bitch and Then You Change Careers – Andrea Kay
It’s Okay to Be The Boss – Bruce Tulgan
Connected: 24 Hours in the Gobal Economy – Daniel Altman

Last five books you looked at on Amazon/Chapters/Powell's/etc.:
A Presumption of Death – Jill Paton Walsh
The Untied States of America – Juan Enriquez
Scandalous Love – Brenda Joyce
Africa: A Biography of the Continent – John Reader
The Four-Hour Workweek – Timothy Ferris

Top five books on your "to read" pile:
A Presumption of Death – Jill Paton Walsh
The Problem with Murmur Lee – Connie May Fowler
Love is Murder – Linda Palmer
Everything is Miscellaneous – David Weinberger
Welcome to Your Crisis – Laura Day

Bottom five books on your "to read" pile:
The Design of Everyday Things – Donald Norman
Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentlemen Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail – Stephen Brown
Rocket Boys – Homer Hickam
How the Irish Saved Civilization – Thomas Cahill
The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver

Thrones, Dominations (Yay!)

I had no idea this book existed until I found it on Friday. As part of my glamorous long-weekend off from work I had my tires rotated on Friday (yes, it’s just as good as jetting off to a Caribbean island, I tell you!). I found a paperback copy of Thrones, Dominations in the waiting room at the Les Schwab Tires. Turns out it was there as part of bookcrossing.com , released back into the world a couple of days earlier by another reader.

Thrones, Dominations was an uncompleted Lord Peter Wimsey book begun by Dorothy Sayers that was (finally!) completed by Jill Paton Walsh about ten years ago. I read several of the Lord Peter novels in college, but didn’t know this book even existed! I’m more a fan of romance than mysteries, so the Lord Peter books I liked best were the ones about his relationship to Harriet Vane. They are what I think of when I hear the quotation “Let us not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments” since they are the marriage of true minds. They’re wildly romantic, but in a very cerebral way. I once wrote a paper on Gaudy Night explaining that the one present Harriet would let Peter buy her, an ivory chess set, signaled that one day she would agree to marry him (the descriptions of the chess set and the things she loved about it were also applicable to Peter). They have the marriage I would want – the way they come to understand the people under the complex and thorough masks that the rest of the world accepts as their real selves, and love each other for those real, vulnerable selves and for the strength and intellect that created the masks in the first place.

*sigh* I suppose the fact that they’re the fictional product from the mind of a woman whose own marriage was a disaster may go a ways to explaining why I’m single. But still, a girl’s gotta have standards!

I spent most of my Saturday reading Vanity Fair’s special issue on Africa. This was not the plan for the day, nor am I a particularly loyal Vanity Fair reader. We have a sort of lending library in my apartment building and in addition to lots of paperback books (supplied mostly by the lovely voracious reader and shopper Miss Patty from the second floor) we trade magazines. So my Martha Stewart Living or Entertainment Weekly goes down on the table and if I see a Smithsonian or Real Simple or Vanity Fair that looks interesting I’ll snatch it up. I did that yesterday morning on my way out the door to Starbucks (I’m a creature of habit and Saturday mornings usually mean a caramel Americano and a pumpkin scone – it’s how I know the weekend has begun!)

Anyway, I sat down with VF and found a fascinating and multi-faceted set of stories about all aspects of life in Africa, from the genetic tests that can show each of us the route our ancestors took to travel from the cradle of civilization to wherever we think of them as “coming from” to the story of a family from India who have lived in Congo for 50 years and suffered through its many ups and downs to an account of Jeffrey Sachs’s Millenium Villages Project in eastern Africa. I am reminded again of the importance of recognizing and celebrating complexity and of the great good works being done for those most in need while always remembering (as my friend Carlos continually insists) that these people have agency, lives and plans and opinions of their own. In fact, looking now at the beginning of this paragraph Carlos would fuss at me for the stories I chose to list because each is about a non-African’s experience of Africa (if you want to insist that the Munshi family’s Indian ethnicity means that even after 50 years they are not Congolese).

On the most practical level, I was moved to think more about (and more highly of) the One Campaign and Project (Red). Working at a university, I’ve seen a lot of the white One Campaign bracelets – I thought the original Yellow “Live Strong” bracelets were a silly fashion statement and all of the imitators have just annoyed more. At least Live Strong was a new idea, which the others have just co-opted. It’s basically colored ribbons all over again, just diluting a great idea for AIDS awareness so you start to expect people to wear a rainbox all over themselves to cover their bases. What I liked about the explanation of both One and Project (Red) in VF was Bono’s understanding that yes it’s shallow consumerism and faddism (ok so the words shallow and faddism are mine but the jist is the same) but let’s take those facts of the rich world and instead of just bemoaning them, use them for good. The companies with Project (Red) products are making money with them and rather than apologize for it, Bono points out that it makes the project sustainable. “Sustainable” – I enjoy when someone uses a trendy word of concept with a slight twist like that – clearly, Bono knows from marketing. In fact, Bono wanted to call the issue Fair Vanity is acknowlegement of this concept, but Graydon Carter wouldn’t let him.

And speaking of Graydon Carter, if you read much VF you know it’s pretty unlikely you’d ever see Pres. Bush on the cover (Carter just despises him) but there’s a whole series of 20 covers for this issue and sure enough he’s on there. Apparently, Bono put in a call to Karl Rove to arrange it! That man knows everybody doing this kind of important work and he doesn’t really care about the rest of what they do. It’s like that sustainability model – whatever works in the world we really live in. that reminds me a lot of how I’ve explained my work as a fundraiser to some of our alumni who can’t get past the idea that a public university should be financed completely by the public. I tell them that simply isn’t going to happen in the current political climate and if they prefer they can think of what I do as a kind of rear-guard action filling in because the state won’t meet its obligations. I’m not entirely sure I see it that way myself anymore, though I certainly used to. Now I see the value of the interactions and discussions that occur as the result of having to go to the private sector for support. They ask important questions of us about accountability, goals, value-added, impact.

I had forgotten some of the meanings of the One Campaign’s title (if in fact I ever really know them). Clearly there’s a reference to the U2 song (it’s a love song, but lyrics like “we’ve got to carry each other” hooks right into another of the articles, an interview with Archbishop Tutu where he explains the concept of ubuntu – basically that it's our interconnectedness that makes us human). But the title’s also a goal – that rich countries should be putting 1% of their GNP (or budget? I’ll have to check) toward foreign aid to the developing world. Currently the most generous nations are doing about half of that. I’m going online later to research if there are organizations that help private donors give 1% to similar causes. There should be and I got caught up yesterday thinking about putting together a group with my bookclub to pool that kind of money and invest in something like microfinance.

I don’t feel like I’m explaining very well exactly how I got caught up in reading the magazine, or why I was so moved by it. But it reminded me again that there are causes I can be so passionate about and I need to be working in one of them.

Three-Day Weekend, You Complete Me

Seattle weather on Memorial Day weekend is notoriously unpredictable. This year we had cloudy, rainy, sunny, hot, cool and all of the transitions between.

Luckily, Saturday wasn't rainy (though it started out cloudy and cool, things got better as the day progressed) because I had a cookout to go to at Golden Gardens. It was such a good time and really relaxing. I don't know if it was the hours in the fresh air or all the wine, but I feel less tense and anxious than I have in months!

More pictures from the day are on Flickr here.

ps. Not to give a false impression -- none of the pictured rugrats are mine. But my friends all have such cute kids (thank god I don't have to lie that their kids are adorable!) that I couldn't resist some snapshots!

How I love Virginia Tech

So seriously, y’all, this is not the kind of thing I had in mind to write about on this blog. I work on a college campus where two weeks ago a man shot his exgirlfriend and himself. Then today, in the area where I grew up, this horrific shooting with 33 people dead.

I just can’t understand. Who the hell are these guys? If you’re so pissed about your life or so unhappy, kill your own damn self and leave the rest of us out of it.

It was actually scarier to see today’s coverage at Virginia Tech than the pictures from UW two weeks ago. Which is completely bizarre because at first we didn’t know the shooter was dead at UW and it happened two blocks from my building when we were sitting in a staff meeting. But the Tech campus is where I grew up. We were there every weekend in the fall for football games. For probably twenty years, my mom has had a parking space for the games that’s across the street from the dorm where the shootings started this morning. Sure it’s naïve, but that’s a safe pace in my mind and memory. I went to computer camp there (yes, geek!). My sister took her SATs in Norris Hall and my cousin’s high school graduation was next door in Burress Hall. There’s a duck pond on campus where I infamously (among my family and friends, anyway) fell in during a high school field trip and lost my favorite white sandals.

My Dad was a Tech alum. He loved that place so much. He's been dead for almost a decade now, and I can count on one hand the days that I'm almost glad he didn't live to see. This is one of them.

I hate hearing people say “I didn’t think it could happen here” and intellectually I know this shit can happen anywhere. But I have a child’s emotional attachment to that place. It CAN happen there, but god damn, it should not.

Albums? Discs? Isn't This All Hopelessly Old School?

So Pajiba.com has started doing fun once-a-week, waste time at your desk questions like “the first three sonds that pop up on your “shuffled” iPod. Today’s was five “Desert Island Discs” – the five albums you, personally, would want with you if you were stranded on a desert island. It’s not a “best of list,” just your own wishes.

Here’s what I wrote (and by the way, the preview function on their page made it look like I’d put in no spacing, so instead I put in extra and looked like a dork!)

“Wow, this is tough. There's a radio station here that does "desert island discs" but they only let you pick three, so I thought this would be a breeze. I thought wrong.

1. U2 - The Joshua Tree
2. REM - Automatic for the People (this is supposed to be personal "comfort music" so don't hate me for not picking Murmur or Fables of the Reconstruction or something)
3. Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
4. Van Morrison - Moondance
5. Paul Simon - Graceland

Ooh, that last choice was tough. Sorry Aretha Franklin, Kate Bush, and David Bowie!”

Upon further review, I wish I’d added some Queen.
And the only reason Kate Bush's Hounds of Love didn't make the cut is that I figured the same moods could be covered with the Tori Amos.
Also, I do listen to new stuff, I swear!

On the off chance someone’s starting reading this yet, what’s your five?

btw. excellent movie reviews over at Pajiba. I'm hanging out a bit there while Television Without Pity works out some weird intermittent connectivity issues (I'm going into TWoP withdrawal, people!)

Ah ha ha ha HA

I'm really paying attention to what I find funny these days. And man, this stuff is it! Normally, I don't find a lot of movie comedies all that great. And maybe these movies won't be. But their trailers crack me up.

With this one -- Blades of Glory -- it's the line "Matching junk."

In this completely different movie (it's a kid flick where no one better be saying "matching junk"!) it's the T Rex and his "big head and little arms"!

I've been watching them over and over, and they're still funny. During some really stressful work moments, my boss and I have been watching the Blades of Glory trailer in her office. We're considering it a team-building exercise. :)

Firstly, Pamela Ribon is a goddess. Secondly, this little piece about the Violent Femmes is a prime example of why I worship her. I can identify and also just love the evocativeness of the writing.

Does everyone who ever got introduced to the Femmes have a story about hearing them from an older, hipper, more rebellious kid? Or is it just people roughly my age and Pamie’s? I first heard the Femmes from a girl named Meg. I was supposed to be her Geometry tutor but I can’t say we really got much learning done. I mostly remember riding around in her Beetle with loud, loud music blasting. And trying to pretend that I was cool and this was no big deal, I did that all the time and I totally already knew the Femmes and all the words to all their songs. Of course, I knew them not at all, but I knew that they were rebel music, angry music, and most importantly, cool music.

After I graduated from college (and was, I hope, much cooler than I'd been in high school), I saw the Violent Femmes live at HFStival in Washington, D.C.
Almost every cool band I’ve ever seen live was at one of those day-long festivals. They were so much better run than Lollapaloza, at least to my recollection. I saw Courtney Love (she dived into the mosh pit to attack a guy wearing a t-shirt that said something about Kurt), the Ramones (they went on right after the special surprise guest of the evening – Tony Bennett. How’s that for some audio whiplash?), James, the Rollins Band, Afghan Wigs, Bush, PJ Harvey. . . good times.

At some point, I’m not sure exactly when, my sister and I were in a car together for several hours and I played th Femmes for her. We listened for hours, at high volume. I think we were convoying with my parents, because I remember laughing with her about the fact that they were probably listening to Click and Clack in their car. I don’t think we fought that whole car ride, and I credit the Violent Femmes. Beara still loves the Femmes (and my sister is not a rock/punk/rebel kind of girl!).

43Things

I've done a quick cut and paste so I can share my list of goals from 43things here. I'm over there as LaneT if you want to follow along!


1. identify 100 things that make me happy (besides money) -- see previous entry

2. keep my house clean – this actually has to start with MAKE my house clean

3. work my way out of my current "financial crisis" – I had to put that last part in quotes, because otherwise it sounds too dramatic. But nevertheless, between last year’s root canal (they're not as bad as they sound!), the maxed-out credit cards, the unexpected $1K car repair bill, and the need to pay for my work-trip to Chicago up front and get reimbursed later, the next few months are tight, tight, tight.

4. drink more water

5. wake up when my alarm clock goes off – This is step one to waking up earlier. First I have to wake up when intended!

6. have better posture

7. meditate daily

8. run a 5k – I’m going to use the couch to 5K plan

9. take more photos

10. fly in a hot air balloon – I really want to do this at the Arizona Hot Air Balloon Fiesta but I’ll take something a little closer to home

11. write poetry – I actually wanted to call this one “Start writing poetry again." Ironically, the site had a much less wordy option, and i think poetry should NOT waste words.

12. pay off credit cards

13. eat more fruits and vegetables

14. work on a Presidential campaign

15. be more involved with my church -- I started going when I first started this blog, as one of my ways to try getting a life. It's pretty much the only thing that stuck!

16. knit a scarf -- this should really say "knit a whole scarf" I sort of know how to knit but I keep giving up because my stitches are so uneven!

17. keep my blog updated -- look, I'm doing it right now! :)

18. Take a vacation in British Columbia

19. Plan my trip to Chicago -- it's for work, but that doesn't mean I can't have fun

20. Start saving for a condo -- after I deal wih #3

21. Give myself a weekly manicure -- I love to pay for a pedicure, but manicures just don't last on me so I'd rather not pay for one on a regular basis.

22. Make a calendar of inspiring quotations

23. Organize a July 4 party

24. Make weekly coffee dates to keep up with friends

25. Lose 10 pounds -- dude, this is so just a beginning

26. learn to setup RSS feeds -- I'm so ignorant, I'm not ever sure I phrased that correctly.

16 Things That Make Me Happy (84 to go!)

I've joined the social networking site 43 Things.com -- it's designed to help you set goals (silly to serious) and get support in making them. I only have 26 so far, but the advice on the site is to have 20-43 so that'll do it!

I can't figure out the short-cut way to get my list of goals onto this site, so until I have time to type them all up again, I'll start by telling you about one goal idea I got from the site, "Make a list of 100 things that make you happy (besides money)." I've started with that one because I figure if I know what things make me genuinely happy, I'll have an easier time setting goals that I'll actually find fulfilling instead of doing the things I think I should, the things other people expect me to want. On first thought, only 16 things that make me genuinely happy occurred to me, but I'll have more.

The first 16:
1. Popping bubble wrap
2. Warm laundry, right from the dryer
3. Flower bouquets
4. Listening to just the right music for my mood
5. Snow
6. A really rich cup of coffee
7. Squirrels
8. A good haircut
9. Getting a pedicure
10.How I feel after a workout
11.Puppies
12.Strawberries -- small and sweet, or chocolate-covered
13.Rollercoasters
14.Singing
15.Storms
16.Driving with the top down on my Mustang

Does it make me a little pathetic that I could only do 16? I'm pretty sure it doesn't, because these are really like little serotonin shots straight to my brain!