- 10:34 is enjoying this series of grammar posts: http://ozarque.livejournal.com/tag/amer
ican+english+grammar - 11:01 is in awe (again): hotlink.ellenmilliongraphics.com/ellen/b
annerpostcardshow.jpg She does so much and does it so well! - 20:34 "Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food" by Bryan Walsh (Time Mag Online) http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,881
6,1917458,00.html
I wonder if it's coming time to write another post about me, choices, values, analogies, predictions (in my ongoing desire to be clear, right, and yet not arrogantly bossy). Hm.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
ozarque posted a nifty writing form/idea: http://ozarque.livejournal.com/599342.honlyonechoice, kyaraelf, I'm thinking especially of you). ruthling might not, at least this year... I posted in her comments, and then thought of some more, and am posting all of them here... it's funny how my mind pulled pieces of my lifestory, and then some of them mutated a bit as I wrote them, seeking a wordvoice that might fit them. I wonder how they would change if I let them be drafts and rewritten further before putting them down.
THE RAIN THAT STOPPED, leaving lamp-lit mist we all walked in for hours, saying little. My lifelong sense and expectations of friendships, colored forever with joy, for all that circle itself has not remained.
THE DEEP NIGHT DOWNPOUR that forced a pause on a leaving journey. Between places, I napped until the headlights could guide me again. I remember that night each time I pass back there: I never wholly left. I have stopped minding.
THE IMPLAUSIBLE RAIN in fantasy novels, where no on really seems to be soaked through, risk hypothermia or pneumonia, or have their footwear (and feet) rot.
THE WEARING RAIN that exhausted her spirit, eroded her joy.
THE WEDDING RAIN that, meant to indicate both good and bad luck, failed brutally.
THE RAIN THAT WASN'T FIRE: a fire might've cleared the space wholly, yet less ruinously, than the rain caused the flood. She thought she could recover, clean and reorganize all the old and unneeded things silted through, some half-rotted. After a year of suffering, she still does not believe herself mistaken.
THE BLESSING RAIN that is always the same though the stories keep changing. The wheat, the corn, the flowers, the garden. The roof that tested, no longer leaks. The sorrow that eases. The clouds on the mountain; the creeks shall be full.
THE RAIN I SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED, soaking half-dry laundry. I must now buy more propane for the dryer or face mildew. Yet I am grateful, because I can, for now.
THE ASPHALT-DUST-SMELLING RAIN that blesses my skin and makes my nose laugh after a long, dry, hot day. It may be time for an ice cream cone.
Podcasts from How Stuff Works: Stuff You Missed in History Class, thanks to DVS in SWAPA. Need iTunes specifically to listen to 'em.
A short essay on memorization (specifically of poetry), and why this isn't the "spitback" we (we?) hated in High School: A Word on Rote Memorization by Mark Bauerlein. Wish I'd had this handed to me in high school chemistry. Thanks maybe tosupergee? I forget. Maybe to Jed.
On retouching photos, in which a 46-year old woman is edited. Was this successful? Why did they do it? Impossibly Beautiful from Shakesville, via supergee.
Something that made me think about where I've been slacking in my own family responsibilities (this is a good thing, here, as I have been doing just that in certain ways): Dude, man up and start acting like a mom: How I learned to stop sulking and embrace my life as a stay-at-home father by Aaron Traister on Salon. Can't remember who posted this first, but thank you.
China Miéville has some reasons I hadn't heard of to appreciate J.R.R. Tolkein. This is via Supergee too, but seems right up Jed's alley also. And Chris Cobb's?
Continuing in the literary vein, an essay by Terri Windling on Beauty, Beast, and Marriage. Again with probably from Jed or Supergee.
The Achipelago of Weird, a metaphoric approach to coping with people who think you are just out there, and vice versa. Great phrasing; the comments fill out this idea a little, and add what I would've added had I been there for the discussion.lepi and mysteryelfx might appreciate this one especially. Well, many of you, but those two occasional readers of my blog come immediately to mind.
Three Swarthmore Reunion pics that make me happy: Folk Dancers, musicians and physics teachers (yes, Jim).
A short essay on memorization (specifically of poetry), and why this isn't the "spitback" we (we?) hated in High School: A Word on Rote Memorization by Mark Bauerlein. Wish I'd had this handed to me in high school chemistry. Thanks maybe to
supergee? I forget. Maybe to Jed.On retouching photos, in which a 46-year old woman is edited. Was this successful? Why did they do it? Impossibly Beautiful from Shakesville, via supergee.
Something that made me think about where I've been slacking in my own family responsibilities (this is a good thing, here, as I have been doing just that in certain ways): Dude, man up and start acting like a mom: How I learned to stop sulking and embrace my life as a stay-at-home father by Aaron Traister on Salon. Can't remember who posted this first, but thank you.
China Miéville has some reasons I hadn't heard of to appreciate J.R.R. Tolkein. This is via Supergee too, but seems right up Jed's alley also. And Chris Cobb's?
Continuing in the literary vein, an essay by Terri Windling on Beauty, Beast, and Marriage. Again with probably from Jed or Supergee.
The Achipelago of Weird, a metaphoric approach to coping with people who think you are just out there, and vice versa. Great phrasing; the comments fill out this idea a little, and add what I would've added had I been there for the discussion.
lepi and mysteryelfx might appreciate this one especially. Well, many of you, but those two occasional readers of my blog come immediately to mind.Three Swarthmore Reunion pics that make me happy: Folk Dancers, musicians and physics teachers (yes, Jim).
- 21:11 I am printing a SWAPA. See what reunions do to me? I don't have time for this! Clearly, I failed my willpower roll (again)...
Another day of a fair bit of driving around for various errands and appointments and an unexpected but useful nap and lo! the only useful work being getting an invoice ready to print. I have GOT to stop having days like this.
I laughed at this, fromsupergee: Star Trek FlowChart, for knowing which movie is which. Hee! I haven't seen about half of these, actually. Or I might've just forgotten. I did see the most recent Star Trek movie and liked many things about it. It made me start thinking about which sets of folk tales/audiences permit messing with "canon"/expansion of canon, and which don't. (I was thinking particularly of Lord of the Rings in contrast to Star Trek, and inherent structure. I told R that if I were some cool lit academic, I could probably get a dozen papers out of this idea, pushing and stretching it, and he just gave me a look. But I mean, really, Grimm & Lang & Andersen, and then Disney & Tepper and McKinley and... ok, ok, it's been done.)
One of Debby's recent posts reminded me to say that we went to see Andre Rieu! For Christmas, Mom arranged for her, MonkeyBoy, sisterK, and R (only he was on call so it became me) to go to the 30th Anniversary concert in Manchester on April 21. Morgan loved, which was the point. So did the rest of us. Music! Dancing! Some of his favorite songs ("the dolly song" and "the bull song") from DVDs! Balloons!!
I slowly read books by the Dalai Lama and by Pema Chodron. I love the way these books make me feel: hopeful, respectful, possible. I'm also reading Dirty Laundry: 100 Days in a Buddhist Monastery. This is a fascinating contrast to works the other two, actually (in both structure and content), and reminds me that Buddhist and Zen practitioners and monks are probably all ordinary people with all of our ego-quirks and drives. They have inspired this question: Is serenity something you can learn, or does the habit of it happen, like wisdom, while you are working on other things?
This question might also be influenced by recent readings innellorat's and ozarque's LJs. Mind you, they are working on really different processes, but I can see how musing over their posts might poke me into wondering about serenity and wisdom and acceptance amid, during, in response to, and maybe even in celebration (sometimes) of change.
Nellorat's posts this month also are really making me think about health, my own perception and reaction to body shape and size, what my resistances are and my strengths (in terms of governing and increasing my health in my body). Some ofellenmillion's recent art, and some of lepi's practices in the last year+ are part of this weaving, and I think so is my swimming and some good news I received today (thyroid, sugars, liver all tested normal or excellent). I thank you all, especially Nellorat, very much. (I may write more details later, or I may not, since I'm not sure it would be much more than a snapshot of current thinking rather than serious process/change/growth. Either way is OK.) If you're interested in this sort of thing, go browse her blog.
We're on vacation next week (lepi is part-time housesitting or sorts, thank you dear!): off to NY and Philly, bracketed if we're lucky by some birthday parties, and not getting the garden planted but at least frost will be almost surely gone by the time we're back. Not to mention continuing to practice really silly run-on sentences.
I laughed at this, from
supergee: Star Trek FlowChart, for knowing which movie is which. Hee! I haven't seen about half of these, actually. Or I might've just forgotten. I did see the most recent Star Trek movie and liked many things about it. It made me start thinking about which sets of folk tales/audiences permit messing with "canon"/expansion of canon, and which don't. (I was thinking particularly of Lord of the Rings in contrast to Star Trek, and inherent structure. I told R that if I were some cool lit academic, I could probably get a dozen papers out of this idea, pushing and stretching it, and he just gave me a look. But I mean, really, Grimm & Lang & Andersen, and then Disney & Tepper and McKinley and... ok, ok, it's been done.)
One of Debby's recent posts reminded me to say that we went to see Andre Rieu! For Christmas, Mom arranged for her, MonkeyBoy, sisterK, and R (only he was on call so it became me) to go to the 30th Anniversary concert in Manchester on April 21. Morgan loved, which was the point. So did the rest of us. Music! Dancing! Some of his favorite songs ("the dolly song" and "the bull song") from DVDs! Balloons!!
I slowly read books by the Dalai Lama and by Pema Chodron. I love the way these books make me feel: hopeful, respectful, possible. I'm also reading Dirty Laundry: 100 Days in a Buddhist Monastery. This is a fascinating contrast to works the other two, actually (in both structure and content), and reminds me that Buddhist and Zen practitioners and monks are probably all ordinary people with all of our ego-quirks and drives. They have inspired this question: Is serenity something you can learn, or does the habit of it happen, like wisdom, while you are working on other things?
This question might also be influenced by recent readings in
nellorat's and ozarque's LJs. Mind you, they are working on really different processes, but I can see how musing over their posts might poke me into wondering about serenity and wisdom and acceptance amid, during, in response to, and maybe even in celebration (sometimes) of change. Nellorat's posts this month also are really making me think about health, my own perception and reaction to body shape and size, what my resistances are and my strengths (in terms of governing and increasing my health in my body). Some of
ellenmillion's recent art, and some of lepi's practices in the last year+ are part of this weaving, and I think so is my swimming and some good news I received today (thyroid, sugars, liver all tested normal or excellent). I thank you all, especially Nellorat, very much. (I may write more details later, or I may not, since I'm not sure it would be much more than a snapshot of current thinking rather than serious process/change/growth. Either way is OK.) If you're interested in this sort of thing, go browse her blog. We're on vacation next week (
lepi is part-time housesitting or sorts, thank you dear!): off to NY and Philly, bracketed if we're lucky by some birthday parties, and not getting the garden planted but at least frost will be almost surely gone by the time we're back. Not to mention continuing to practice really silly run-on sentences.jaipur posted a couple interesting things recently (as usual, admittedly), first about turning your LJ into a book, and then about LJ as a social medium, and what other social media sites were replacing it or not. At root, for me, both posts relate to the question of "what's your blog for, anyway?" Which leads to (possibly) and "how can you make that happen for you?"
( Mine is for.... (skip this if I've explained this to you already) )
What's yours for?
- 20:44 Just received EMG-zine anthologies: http://ellenmilliongraphics.com/fantasya
rt/emggroup.php?id=37 + vol 1. WAY more beautiful in person!!
Recommended highly. Get both together if you didn't already.
- 18:44 A jug of wine, a loaf of bread ... and the house all to myself (and a very large dog and a demon cat) for the weekend.
- 21:00 Good Faeries and Bad Faeries dancing at the end of January in Eugene, Oregon:
http://www.faerieballs.com/
Enjoy the music! - 22:21 Check out http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/ -- comprehensive. Amazing resource. Go spend a moment, an hour, a day, reading.
When Alaistair Fowler provides comments on Paradise Lost, you know that he's a scholar who has spent decades studying, teaching, and reading scholarship about Milton. He may not always be right, but his expertise, and the fact that a scholarly press edited and vetted the book lends his annotations and marginalia legitimacy. When Joe Internet provides his annotations "proving" that Shakespeare didn't write the plays, they were written by Francis Bacon, Thomas de Vere, or the Loch Ness Monster, the information can be both misleading and a waste of time.from "The Cloud and the Networked Book: Science Fiction and the Future of Reading" by Robert Bee in the January 2009 issue of The Internet Review of Science Fiction [accessed 9 January 2009]
Fan created annotated books will have to be approached with the type of skepticism that we currently approach—or should approach—blogs and web sites. At their best, amateur annotations and marginalia have a promising future with the rise of Web 2.0 and social media, allowing readers to participate more deeply in literature, but they rarely, if ever, go through the vetting process and face the unfortunate possibility of being entirely false.
I should note that I pulled this excerpt because it connects to a conversation I was having with
lepi, turbocat, Mo, and Barbara the other night. It's not actually the main thrust of the article, which is about reading nowadays: from book to hyperlinked "marginalia" and back again, with digressions into technological tools for "eReading" and various writerly approacheds.Nutmegger, care to comment?
...the most serious fault in our zoning laws lies in the fact that they permit an entire area to be devoted to a single use.[unknown first name] Raskin, quoted in The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Jane Jacobs. p299. Viewed at Amazon (see link)
Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the new way to be smart
A light-weight book about massive datasets and the consequences. It encourages us to pay attention not just to data mining and privacy (of which there is probably none, although there certainly can be respect), but to how even basic statistical techniques (regression, multivariable regressions, and standard deviations) can be used when the data sets are large enough.
Examples and uses include:
It's intentionally introductory as far as stats and statistical technique go. The discussion of how to do regressions is very sparse; the discussion of how intuit and cross-check standard deviations pretty clear (without equations). There's a very weak explanation of causality and almost none of how correlation can be mistaken for causality. The explanations of the need for randomization and comparable datasets is woven in pretty well, and the problem of attrition in longer-term studies. The bits contrasting expert opinion/experience and data-driven "opinion" are interesting in both a touching and slightly scary way.
Good endnotes (with citations).
*I wish they allowed us to set the "randomization" or variation in those recommendations.
A light-weight book about massive datasets and the consequences. It encourages us to pay attention not just to data mining and privacy (of which there is probably none, although there certainly can be respect), but to how even basic statistical techniques (regression, multivariable regressions, and standard deviations) can be used when the data sets are large enough.
Examples and uses include:
- marketing analysis (offermatica.com testing web layout/text choices, google adwords testing differnt ads you write, automatically weight the ones that get more click to appear more often), Amazon's recommendations*
- Ashenfelter's wine quality predictions
- The academic success rate of "Direct Instruction" which was one of the factors underlying "No Child Left Behind"
- Poverty Action Lab testing social policies
- consumer empowerment with Farecast.com (looks at the probability of your chosen airline fare dropping/rising) and such
- evidence-based medicine
It's intentionally introductory as far as stats and statistical technique go. The discussion of how to do regressions is very sparse; the discussion of how intuit and cross-check standard deviations pretty clear (without equations). There's a very weak explanation of causality and almost none of how correlation can be mistaken for causality. The explanations of the need for randomization and comparable datasets is woven in pretty well, and the problem of attrition in longer-term studies. The bits contrasting expert opinion/experience and data-driven "opinion" are interesting in both a touching and slightly scary way.
Good endnotes (with citations).
*I wish they allowed us to set the "randomization" or variation in those recommendations.
I don't have much truck with the ' religion is the cause of most of our wars' school of thought because that is manifestly done by mad, manipulative and power-hungry men who cloak their ambition in God.-- Terry Pratchett, in http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic
(Thanks I think to
supergee)More or less germane to my recent reading, including Breaking the Spell by D. Dennett and Ursula Vernon's rant in response to some of the comments on St. Snargus and the Trout
In that conversation last weekend we talked a bit about appropriate metaphors with respect to sensitivity, accidentally (or not) causing discomfort and upset in the listener*, and/or illustrative enrichment of communication.
With that in mind: Metaphor in Mediation: Mediation is a _What_?.
With that in mind: Metaphor in Mediation: Mediation is a _What_?.
Traditionally, this has led people to refer to such items as "only figures of speech," with the implication that a metaphor is nothing more than a kind of linguistic ornament. Even today, when metaphor is the hottest domain in the field of cognitive science, that tends to be the popular understanding.
This is unfortunate, because metaphors are the most powerful tools we have for bringing about changes in human feelings and attitudes. Definitions don't have this property, but metaphors do. Changes that are brought about by logical argument and "true facts" take a very long time, often such a long time that they're obsolete by the time they're accomplished; changes brought about by coercion happen quickly, but they last only until someone comes along with a more powerful weapon, a larger bribe, or some other kind of superior force. Changes that result from metaphor, by contrast, happen very fast and and are longlasting.
via ruthlingruthling :
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (I've never even heard of this one)
Anna Karenina (She irritated the hell out of me. Actually, I think I listened to the unabridged on tape, and didn't actually read it. I forget. I'm pretty sure we have a copy as well.)
Crime and Punishment (thank goodness I didn't have to read it in Russian)
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude (actually I might not own either of these but I think I have both in the basement. The first one might moved come in when R did )
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary (Again, I think I have a copy -- between high school English classes and inheriting a lot of books from my grandparents and my hubby having been an English major we're pretty well stocked... Actually, I might have read this. But I can't always recall whether I did or not!)
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov (I might have a copy, but I think Mom does, not me. I think I've read a couple chapters. In Russian. A logn time ago.)
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair (I'm pretty sure I read this, not Madame Bovary, but I could be wrong. )
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner (I keep meaning to borrow this from Dad)
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 (i haven't finished it either, Ruthling, but it got me to read some history. It's also not my book; I borrowed it off the shelf at a restaurant and promised I'd bring it back...)
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales (I've read part of this, if not all -- my sister had to read it for a class in high school and I have this bad habit or reading anything she's reading while she's reading it, which is, of course, a very irritating thing to do to one's younger sister which is probably why I developed the habit in the first place *chuckle*)
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World (and listened to most of it on CD -- fascinating, and I "get" it much more now than I did at 14 or 16)
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King (I love this version or Arthurian Legend )
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The 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
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince (and the Little Prince, too *chuckle*)
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 (Like Guns, Germs and Steel, I haven't finished -- in this case, I should if only to drive my husband crazy *chuckle*)
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere (I agree with Ruth: better as a minseries on TV than as a book )
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 (I read only part of this; didn't feel like I had to read the whole think to get it)
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita (Books by Normal Kelin were uch more useful to ema as a teenage, which is when I read Lolita too)
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey (This was hysterical - -I read this in my 30s, and my appreciation of Jane Austen went from "ehh" to "hah! Cool")
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road (We might have this)
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 (annoying little prat )
The Three Musketeers
ruthlingruthling : These are 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. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you own but have not read.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (I've never even heard of this one)
Anna Karenina (She irritated the hell out of me. Actually, I think I listened to the unabridged on tape, and didn't actually read it. I forget. I'm pretty sure we have a copy as well.)
Crime and Punishment (thank goodness I didn't have to read it in Russian)
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude (actually I might not own either of these but I think I have both in the basement. The first one might moved come in when R did )
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary (Again, I think I have a copy -- between high school English classes and inheriting a lot of books from my grandparents and my hubby having been an English major we're pretty well stocked... Actually, I might have read this. But I can't always recall whether I did or not!)
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov (I might have a copy, but I think Mom does, not me. I think I've read a couple chapters. In Russian. A logn time ago.)
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair (I'm pretty sure I read this, not Madame Bovary, but I could be wrong. )
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner (I keep meaning to borrow this from Dad)
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 (i haven't finished it either, Ruthling, but it got me to read some history. It's also not my book; I borrowed it off the shelf at a restaurant and promised I'd bring it back...)
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales (I've read part of this, if not all -- my sister had to read it for a class in high school and I have this bad habit or reading anything she's reading while she's reading it, which is, of course, a very irritating thing to do to one's younger sister which is probably why I developed the habit in the first place *chuckle*)
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World (and listened to most of it on CD -- fascinating, and I "get" it much more now than I did at 14 or 16)
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King (I love this version or Arthurian Legend )
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The 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
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince (and the Little Prince, too *chuckle*)
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 (Like Guns, Germs and Steel, I haven't finished -- in this case, I should if only to drive my husband crazy *chuckle*)
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere (I agree with Ruth: better as a minseries on TV than as a book )
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 (I read only part of this; didn't feel like I had to read the whole think to get it)
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita (Books by Normal Kelin were uch more useful to ema as a teenage, which is when I read Lolita too)
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey (This was hysterical - -I read this in my 30s, and my appreciation of Jane Austen went from "ehh" to "hah! Cool")
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road (We might have this)
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 (annoying little prat )
The Three Musketeers
Tried intalling some extension jambs this morning into our office/library casement window. Perhaps because ours have been sitting around for Far Too Long™, I couldn't (by myself) get the top one in. It's a bit bowed and I'm having trouble. Hopefully R and I together can finish it when he comes home ... but that would require not reassembling the office library from it's current interestingly disheveled state. And I want to finish cleaning it up. Hm.
I think I was inspired by Bruno the Carpenter -- MonkeyBoy and I read it at daycare the other day...
I did kinda go crazy in here. I put together an old oak table that (without the leaves) is 4' x 4' -- which is really darn large for a space only 8' (maybe) wide. Except it would just look wrong in the corner, and finally I have a surface deep enough to be a useful (and beautiful! Though old) desk. (Plus I have a sentimental attachment to it, mostly 'cause I like it better than any other desk or table in the house). Now if I can just figure out where to put the telescope, and swap the metal (skinny) table for the (silly prefab) computer desk, and put the table in the big basement (and more not-useful-right-now computer and telephony equipment on it in case we every really finish the hardwire networking), and get the old blond veneer bookshelves from the other basement (not so sentimental, despite having been were my grandmother's), then I could put these other papers and crates and boxes away, or sort of...
In other news, thank youturbocat for a serendipitous and delightful evening yesterday! I did wind up going to Best Buy, where I successfully resisted replacing my 2004 Dell Inspiron 1100 (reliable, slowing down, 20GB drive with perhaps 2 GB left open, a bunch of apps I don't know whether I could delete and more stuff that just is bigger than the comp was meant for) with money I don't have anyway. It was hard, though. Good thing they didn't have an opened/returned/floor model available. And REALLY good they didn't have such with Creative Suite any-version on it (I have CS1, and it just makes me wonder with the software I want to use costs more than the hardware to run it on).
I digress (from what?). Back to work!
I think I was inspired by Bruno the Carpenter -- MonkeyBoy and I read it at daycare the other day...
I did kinda go crazy in here. I put together an old oak table that (without the leaves) is 4' x 4' -- which is really darn large for a space only 8' (maybe) wide. Except it would just look wrong in the corner, and finally I have a surface deep enough to be a useful (and beautiful! Though old) desk. (Plus I have a sentimental attachment to it, mostly 'cause I like it better than any other desk or table in the house). Now if I can just figure out where to put the telescope, and swap the metal (skinny) table for the (silly prefab) computer desk, and put the table in the big basement (and more not-useful-right-now computer and telephony equipment on it in case we every really finish the hardwire networking), and get the old blond veneer bookshelves from the other basement (not so sentimental, despite having been were my grandmother's), then I could put these other papers and crates and boxes away, or sort of...
In other news, thank you
turbocat for a serendipitous and delightful evening yesterday! I did wind up going to Best Buy, where I successfully resisted replacing my 2004 Dell Inspiron 1100 (reliable, slowing down, 20GB drive with perhaps 2 GB left open, a bunch of apps I don't know whether I could delete and more stuff that just is bigger than the comp was meant for) with money I don't have anyway. It was hard, though. Good thing they didn't have an opened/returned/floor model available. And REALLY good they didn't have such with Creative Suite any-version on it (I have CS1, and it just makes me wonder with the software I want to use costs more than the hardware to run it on).I digress (from what?). Back to work!
In order to avoid burnout on HP before I even get to book 7, I'm concurrently reading the Dresden files books by Jim Butcher. Thanks lepi! These are sufficiently different that I'm not mixing them up. (I've been known to muddle together in my memory stuff by two pretty different writers when I'm reading them concurrently. Makes for even more peculiar stories...)
lepi! These are sufficiently different that I'm not mixing them up. (I've been known to muddle together in my memory stuff by two pretty different writers when I'm reading them concurrently. Makes for even more peculiar stories...)If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions. - Oliver Wendell Holmes
from my Buddhist quote of the day google-add-in
Every day I get stretched a little. Is good.
from my Buddhist quote of the day google-add-in
Every day I get stretched a little. Is good.
Dropped off some BookCrossing books at Uncommon Grounds recently
Am loving my printer (HP 7110) for doing such a damn nice job with my sister;s wedding invitations
Am loving InDesign CS1 for making such nice small files (contrasted with Photoshop)
Am impressed with myself for whipping together a website to go with the invitations, which may go to show my best designs are the ones I don't really think about. This is not to say I am a good graphic designer; I am, I hope, adequate and improving.
Have not bought a car. SIGH. It gets more needful every dang day.
Have seemed to be always in motion, which does not translate to getting enough done or being efficient, although it does have some entertainment value.
Was unsurprised to realize I'm sleepy.
Am loving my printer (HP 7110) for doing such a damn nice job with my sister;s wedding invitations
Am loving InDesign CS1 for making such nice small files (contrasted with Photoshop)
Am impressed with myself for whipping together a website to go with the invitations, which may go to show my best designs are the ones I don't really think about. This is not to say I am a good graphic designer; I am, I hope, adequate and improving.
Have not bought a car. SIGH. It gets more needful every dang day.
Have seemed to be always in motion, which does not translate to getting enough done or being efficient, although it does have some entertainment value.
Was unsurprised to realize I'm sleepy.
Finished this the other day. *chuckle* Moderately predictable, very cheerful.
So this orphan future guy trying to make good as a composer/musician tells his sweetiepie that the only thing in the way of getting married is money. Turns out, contrary to all his beliefs about her so far, that she has some. Piles. Lots. Okay... but then her grandfather steps into the picture with a plan for the fellow's life. Yikes! Plan with girlfriend or no girlfriend and independence? After some reflection and effort (often under some serious influence of controlled an un- substances) the latter wins out, and he hops aboard a colony ship. Fun and mess and psychotherapy of various kinds (including some near-Buddhism, cool!) ensue. And of course, so does the end of the world. Quick thinking, tricks, and getting some folks over the barrel become also necessary.
Some lines made me chuckle out loud, but I forgot to mark them/write them down to share. I haven't read much of SR's work; if I read Callahan's Cross-time Saloon it was in high school and I don't recall it. I'm pretty sure haven't been drawn to other stuff by him yet -- quite possibly a mistake on my part. My impression was that SR added a nicer, sillier aspect to Heinlein's story, without completely removing some of the essential and characteristic (and some annoying if I took them seriously) traits of Heinlein.
Enjoyable. Recommended for beaches, airplanes, bathtubs, and hammocks. Also during breakfast at a diner.
So this orphan future guy trying to make good as a composer/musician tells his sweetiepie that the only thing in the way of getting married is money. Turns out, contrary to all his beliefs about her so far, that she has some. Piles. Lots. Okay... but then her grandfather steps into the picture with a plan for the fellow's life. Yikes! Plan with girlfriend or no girlfriend and independence? After some reflection and effort (often under some serious influence of controlled an un- substances) the latter wins out, and he hops aboard a colony ship. Fun and mess and psychotherapy of various kinds (including some near-Buddhism, cool!) ensue. And of course, so does the end of the world. Quick thinking, tricks, and getting some folks over the barrel become also necessary.
Some lines made me chuckle out loud, but I forgot to mark them/write them down to share. I haven't read much of SR's work; if I read Callahan's Cross-time Saloon it was in high school and I don't recall it. I'm pretty sure haven't been drawn to other stuff by him yet -- quite possibly a mistake on my part. My impression was that SR added a nicer, sillier aspect to Heinlein's story, without completely removing some of the essential and characteristic (and some annoying if I took them seriously) traits of Heinlein.
Enjoyable. Recommended for beaches, airplanes, bathtubs, and hammocks. Also during breakfast at a diner.
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