I seem to have developed a cold over the night. Combined with dog allergies, my body has rejected my nose. or something.
So I need to go to the store and get myself some Cold-Eeze, Ricola, and herbal tea so I can be awesome instead.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Blerg
Why can I write a four-page blog post (though I know you wish I couldn't) easy peasy lemon squeezy, but I can't write more than one paragraph at at time on my major paper? It's difficult, difficult lemon difficult.
Maybe I have adult ADD. or ADHD.
Do you ever just listen to your entire iTunes library on shuffle? It's fascinating the songs you forget you have.
My coffee has been laced with Kahlua. Watch out world!
Maybe I have adult ADD. or ADHD.
Do you ever just listen to your entire iTunes library on shuffle? It's fascinating the songs you forget you have.
My coffee has been laced with Kahlua. Watch out world!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
I'm OK, You're OK
I decided to make a finals playlist that I will be playing as I prepare for my imminent psychotic breakdown: I think I might call it "The Depths of Despair." (and this is my explicit language warning. yay.)
"iieee" by Tori Amos
"well, I know we're dying / and there's no sign of parachute"
it's sort of like my theme song
"The Perfect Fit" by The Dresden Dolls
"Can't you just do it for me, I'll pay you well / Fuck, I'll pay you anything, if you could end this" I'm good for nothing too.
"Eight Easy Steps" by Alanis Morissette
to fuck up your life
"How to keep smiling when you're thinking of killing yourself"
"Livin' On a Prayer" by Bon Jovi
The title pretty much says it all.
"Woman Like a Man" by Damien Rice
"I need a piss / Wanna hate / Fuck it up / Come"
"Kiss With a Fist" by Florence and the Machine
My quarter is trying to kill me--it will probably end in our mutual destruction:
"You smashed a plate over my head / Then I set fire to our bed"
"Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush
Because I'm running up a hill, and if anyone wants to swap places, you can steal this moment from me.
"Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf" by The Killers
and I'll drink it by myself.
"Mind's Eye" by Josh Ritter
"My day might be coming, but yours is coming first / I'll knock you out of your day lights"
"Help I'm Alive" by Metric
Again, the title says it all. But here's more:
"If I stumble / They're going to eat me alive"
"Hero" by Regina Spektor
"I'm the hero of this story / Don't need to be saved"
"Mr. Zebra" by Tori Amos
"Ratatouille strychnine / Sometimes she's a friend of mine"
There are some people I would to whom I would like to serve this dish.
To those who have finals--good luck to us. To everyone else, you suck.
"iieee" by Tori Amos
"well, I know we're dying / and there's no sign of parachute"
it's sort of like my theme song
"The Perfect Fit" by The Dresden Dolls
"Can't you just do it for me, I'll pay you well / Fuck, I'll pay you anything, if you could end this" I'm good for nothing too.
"Eight Easy Steps" by Alanis Morissette
to fuck up your life
"How to keep smiling when you're thinking of killing yourself"
"Livin' On a Prayer" by Bon Jovi
The title pretty much says it all.
"Woman Like a Man" by Damien Rice
"I need a piss / Wanna hate / Fuck it up / Come"
"Kiss With a Fist" by Florence and the Machine
My quarter is trying to kill me--it will probably end in our mutual destruction:
"You smashed a plate over my head / Then I set fire to our bed"
"Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush
Because I'm running up a hill, and if anyone wants to swap places, you can steal this moment from me.
"Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf" by The Killers
and I'll drink it by myself.
"Mind's Eye" by Josh Ritter
"My day might be coming, but yours is coming first / I'll knock you out of your day lights"
"Help I'm Alive" by Metric
Again, the title says it all. But here's more:
"If I stumble / They're going to eat me alive"
"Hero" by Regina Spektor
"I'm the hero of this story / Don't need to be saved"
"Mr. Zebra" by Tori Amos
"Ratatouille strychnine / Sometimes she's a friend of mine"
There are some people I would to whom I would like to serve this dish.
To those who have finals--good luck to us. To everyone else, you suck.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Brilliant!
This is my friend Raye's wreath made by her friend/neighbor. I love it! One Christmas, not this year but soon, I will make my own. Happy Christmas!
Saturday, December 4, 2010
More Book Lust
Yesterday, I finished Collection Development. Our final assignment was turned in and we gave our presentation. There are a few more presentations next week--I plan on bringing a thermos of rum with some eggnog or maybe coffee with Kahlua.
Today I finished my genre advisory class with Nancy Pearl. Tear. We discussed science fiction and fantasy. Fantasy is probably the genre I am the most familiar with. As a young'n I read The Chronicles of Narnia (which I don't think hold up very well as an adult). Later in elementary school I read The Book of Three and then finished up The Chronicles of Prydain. In junior high I started The Belgariad by David Eddings and then continued with The Malloreon. After that I read most of the Shannara books by Terry Brooks. During this time the Harry Potter books were coming out as well (I don't really care for the last three). In ninth grade my English class read The Hobbit, and in high school I read The Lord of the Rings as the movies were coming out. In high school and college I mostly left fantasy behind as I read more "literary" books. I say "literary" because readers' advisory is not about being an English critic; it's about matching books with readers. (So hard!) At the end of college I started reading the His Dark Materials trilogy. And the summer before grad school I read Little, Big which I'll talk about in just a minute.
For fantasy I read Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, which I've already discussed. Here is my annotation: "Richard Mayhew is an unlikely hero whose ordinary life has left him unprepared to deal with the shadowy underbelly of London--a dangerous subterranean world that exists beneath the gaps of the city."
I haven't read all that much science fiction. I do seem to watch a lot of sci-fi movies and TV shows though. Science fiction are often novels of ideas, which make them ripe for discussion. I really enjoyed reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, once I got going, though I couldn't really tell you why except that it's a Philip K. Dick novel. I do look forward to watching Blade Runner. Here's my annotation: "Before there were Cylons, there were Androids, and Rick Deckard retired them for a bounty. As he hunts down the latest model, he must confront his own ideas of empathy, morality, and what it means to be human."
And then I book talked Little, Big by John Crowley, which went pretty well if I say so myself. Here's basically what I said.
Imagine you are a stranger in your own life and to your own family. That is the fate of Smokey Barnable who knows his wife's family thinks they talk to faeries, but he doesn't believe a word of it.
Little, Big is the history of this singular family who live on the border of another realm. It is a secret history of America. And it is a very great love story.
In this novel the reader will:
visit Edgewood which is not to be found on any map
learn Brother North-Wind's secret
build a house made of memory
and discover the enigmatic plans of the faerie's parliament
With intricate design and dense, gorgeous prose, Crowley works his magic on us. I believe this is not a novel to read once but to get lost in over and over. Ursula Le Guin warns "Persons who enter this book are advised that they will leave it a different size than when they came in."
So you should all go buy and read Little, Big which was actually out-of-print for a while. In terms of the best fiction written in the last fifty years, this is near the top of my list.
To finish this whole thing I want to reproduce some of Roz Kaveney's thoughts about genre. This is from a review of Little, Big called "Wit and Terror" that was published in Books and Bookmen:
"Fiction consoles, but it also disturbs, awakes unease. There are questions that have to continually be asked and fiction is one of the best ways to pose them; not least because, truthfully, its answers have to provisional and conditional. The genre and subdivisions of the novel have their obsessional questions and their usual answers; one way of judging the basic seriousness of a piece of genre fiction has to do not so much with the originality of its solutions as with the strenuousness of the efforts it takes to come to the standard ones. The thriller for example has its traditional great Matters—for example, the questions “Can a just man be nurtured by a fundamentally unjust society? Nurtured thus, can he build justice within it?” The regular answer of the thriller is yes; the best thrillers show the price the avenger has to pay as being more than a sap across the back of the ear or a bullet through the windscreen. The campus novel has its conflict of abstract knowledge and institutional power; the novel of life among the urban intelligentsia has its search for balance between sexual equality and sexual justice; so-called hard science fiction has its demonstration that by natural grace and scientific ingenuity you can escape the deaths the universe has in store.
"And the fantasy novel? Too often critics have taken as the sole and crucial matter of fantasy the preoccupation of Tolkien, the quest for a remedy to the world’s pain that will not destroy innocence with the temptations of power. Impressive and popular as The Lord of the Rings is, it manages it landscapes, vast green-leaved or slag-heaped vistas of pathetic fallacy and implied morality, far better than its people: it leaves the impression that important issues have been turned by sleight of hand and Georgian prettiness into questions of good and bad practice in urban planning and rural conservation. After all, the Grail is only worth seeking is you can believe in a god who put it there to help those who help themselves, in an Avalon to which burned-out heroes can retire with dignity. There is another great Matter for fantasy, one of more obvious resonance for the creative artist—the reconciliation of faerie and humanity; of the passion, power, and wit of a world of sensuality, magic, and danger with the requirements of a kind and ordinary life."
(Two more weeks. Two more classes. The end is in sight.)
Today I finished my genre advisory class with Nancy Pearl. Tear. We discussed science fiction and fantasy. Fantasy is probably the genre I am the most familiar with. As a young'n I read The Chronicles of Narnia (which I don't think hold up very well as an adult). Later in elementary school I read The Book of Three and then finished up The Chronicles of Prydain. In junior high I started The Belgariad by David Eddings and then continued with The Malloreon. After that I read most of the Shannara books by Terry Brooks. During this time the Harry Potter books were coming out as well (I don't really care for the last three). In ninth grade my English class read The Hobbit, and in high school I read The Lord of the Rings as the movies were coming out. In high school and college I mostly left fantasy behind as I read more "literary" books. I say "literary" because readers' advisory is not about being an English critic; it's about matching books with readers. (So hard!) At the end of college I started reading the His Dark Materials trilogy. And the summer before grad school I read Little, Big which I'll talk about in just a minute.
For fantasy I read Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, which I've already discussed. Here is my annotation: "Richard Mayhew is an unlikely hero whose ordinary life has left him unprepared to deal with the shadowy underbelly of London--a dangerous subterranean world that exists beneath the gaps of the city."
I haven't read all that much science fiction. I do seem to watch a lot of sci-fi movies and TV shows though. Science fiction are often novels of ideas, which make them ripe for discussion. I really enjoyed reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, once I got going, though I couldn't really tell you why except that it's a Philip K. Dick novel. I do look forward to watching Blade Runner. Here's my annotation: "Before there were Cylons, there were Androids, and Rick Deckard retired them for a bounty. As he hunts down the latest model, he must confront his own ideas of empathy, morality, and what it means to be human."
And then I book talked Little, Big by John Crowley, which went pretty well if I say so myself. Here's basically what I said.
Imagine you are a stranger in your own life and to your own family. That is the fate of Smokey Barnable who knows his wife's family thinks they talk to faeries, but he doesn't believe a word of it.
Little, Big is the history of this singular family who live on the border of another realm. It is a secret history of America. And it is a very great love story.
In this novel the reader will:
visit Edgewood which is not to be found on any map
learn Brother North-Wind's secret
build a house made of memory
and discover the enigmatic plans of the faerie's parliament
With intricate design and dense, gorgeous prose, Crowley works his magic on us. I believe this is not a novel to read once but to get lost in over and over. Ursula Le Guin warns "Persons who enter this book are advised that they will leave it a different size than when they came in."
So you should all go buy and read Little, Big which was actually out-of-print for a while. In terms of the best fiction written in the last fifty years, this is near the top of my list.
To finish this whole thing I want to reproduce some of Roz Kaveney's thoughts about genre. This is from a review of Little, Big called "Wit and Terror" that was published in Books and Bookmen:
"Fiction consoles, but it also disturbs, awakes unease. There are questions that have to continually be asked and fiction is one of the best ways to pose them; not least because, truthfully, its answers have to provisional and conditional. The genre and subdivisions of the novel have their obsessional questions and their usual answers; one way of judging the basic seriousness of a piece of genre fiction has to do not so much with the originality of its solutions as with the strenuousness of the efforts it takes to come to the standard ones. The thriller for example has its traditional great Matters—for example, the questions “Can a just man be nurtured by a fundamentally unjust society? Nurtured thus, can he build justice within it?” The regular answer of the thriller is yes; the best thrillers show the price the avenger has to pay as being more than a sap across the back of the ear or a bullet through the windscreen. The campus novel has its conflict of abstract knowledge and institutional power; the novel of life among the urban intelligentsia has its search for balance between sexual equality and sexual justice; so-called hard science fiction has its demonstration that by natural grace and scientific ingenuity you can escape the deaths the universe has in store.
"And the fantasy novel? Too often critics have taken as the sole and crucial matter of fantasy the preoccupation of Tolkien, the quest for a remedy to the world’s pain that will not destroy innocence with the temptations of power. Impressive and popular as The Lord of the Rings is, it manages it landscapes, vast green-leaved or slag-heaped vistas of pathetic fallacy and implied morality, far better than its people: it leaves the impression that important issues have been turned by sleight of hand and Georgian prettiness into questions of good and bad practice in urban planning and rural conservation. After all, the Grail is only worth seeking is you can believe in a god who put it there to help those who help themselves, in an Avalon to which burned-out heroes can retire with dignity. There is another great Matter for fantasy, one of more obvious resonance for the creative artist—the reconciliation of faerie and humanity; of the passion, power, and wit of a world of sensuality, magic, and danger with the requirements of a kind and ordinary life."
(Two more weeks. Two more classes. The end is in sight.)
Thursday, December 2, 2010
10 Things
Thursdays are the worst. It's the end of a long day at the end of long week at the end of a long quarter. Blerg.
That brings us to my ten things (stolen from a running series by MaryPosa):
1) School makes me sad. At the end of my three hour class tonight I wanted to jab my pencil into my brain. Two more weeks . . . I may die. Mostly I'm just exhausted.
2) Eating hot Dick's. Sometimes one just needs greasy, empty calories to make the pain go away.
3) The Jack Rose. Fast food and alcohol are a magical, magical combination. The Jack Rose is currently one of my favorite cocktails. Take 2 ounces of Applejack (Laird's is the only company that makes this apple liquor; French Calvados is also acceptable). Add an ounce of fresh lime juice, and a half ounce of grenadine (I make my own from pomegranate juice and sugar). Shake it over ice and pour into a coktail glass. Delicious town! GQ says it's the booziest cocktail you'll drink five of. My day is much better, by the way.
4) Kind things said by others about oneself. It's very gratifying and humbling. We're always so inside our own heads, that's it's always refreshing to hear what others think about us, especially when it's the good stuff.
5) I really need a manicure. I was introduced to this cosmetic treatment by Slarue and Rae. My nails were so pretty! Now they're dull and ragged. But who will go to the salon with me?
6) Speaking of cosmetics, my skin is looking pretty good. It's probably all that money I'm spending on strange chemicals and then applying them to my largest organ. Oh, and helpful tips from acne.org like using a featherlight touch and avoiding scrubs. One day I might like to try a more natural oil regimen (oil dissolves oil after all), but I'm afeard for my skin.
7) I finished reading Neverwhere. It's only the second Neil Gaiman novel I've read. I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I think Gaiman's a great storyteller but not as great a writer (he's still pretty damn good). I think The Sandman is genius and I love his short stories, but something in the execution of his novels is lacking. Now I'm reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I'm really liking it.
8) I'm betting most of you have seen the Xtranormal videos. Here's one called Library School: Hurts So Good.
There's also a pretty good one about getting a PhD in the humanities. It makes me laugh. and cry.
9) Now that I have a job where I can listen to my iPod again, I have reunited with my podcasts (and it feels so good!). Listening to TBTL, This American Life, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, The Weeklings, Selected Shorts, and Planet Money makes work a lot better. I'm also more connected to current events. Win win!
10) Tina Fey is a comedy goddess. She was recently awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. It was broadcast on PBS. You should at least watch her acceptance speech. You can see video here.
That brings us to my ten things (stolen from a running series by MaryPosa):
1) School makes me sad. At the end of my three hour class tonight I wanted to jab my pencil into my brain. Two more weeks . . . I may die. Mostly I'm just exhausted.
2) Eating hot Dick's. Sometimes one just needs greasy, empty calories to make the pain go away.
3) The Jack Rose. Fast food and alcohol are a magical, magical combination. The Jack Rose is currently one of my favorite cocktails. Take 2 ounces of Applejack (Laird's is the only company that makes this apple liquor; French Calvados is also acceptable). Add an ounce of fresh lime juice, and a half ounce of grenadine (I make my own from pomegranate juice and sugar). Shake it over ice and pour into a coktail glass. Delicious town! GQ says it's the booziest cocktail you'll drink five of. My day is much better, by the way.
4) Kind things said by others about oneself. It's very gratifying and humbling. We're always so inside our own heads, that's it's always refreshing to hear what others think about us, especially when it's the good stuff.
5) I really need a manicure. I was introduced to this cosmetic treatment by Slarue and Rae. My nails were so pretty! Now they're dull and ragged. But who will go to the salon with me?
6) Speaking of cosmetics, my skin is looking pretty good. It's probably all that money I'm spending on strange chemicals and then applying them to my largest organ. Oh, and helpful tips from acne.org like using a featherlight touch and avoiding scrubs. One day I might like to try a more natural oil regimen (oil dissolves oil after all), but I'm afeard for my skin.
7) I finished reading Neverwhere. It's only the second Neil Gaiman novel I've read. I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I think Gaiman's a great storyteller but not as great a writer (he's still pretty damn good). I think The Sandman is genius and I love his short stories, but something in the execution of his novels is lacking. Now I'm reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I'm really liking it.
8) I'm betting most of you have seen the Xtranormal videos. Here's one called Library School: Hurts So Good.
There's also a pretty good one about getting a PhD in the humanities. It makes me laugh. and cry.
9) Now that I have a job where I can listen to my iPod again, I have reunited with my podcasts (and it feels so good!). Listening to TBTL, This American Life, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, The Weeklings, Selected Shorts, and Planet Money makes work a lot better. I'm also more connected to current events. Win win!
10) Tina Fey is a comedy goddess. She was recently awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. It was broadcast on PBS. You should at least watch her acceptance speech. You can see video here.
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