Captain Kidd against the Black Pearl

Memes

2010-09-12T21:35:57Z

No update for you!

Actually, it's more that there is little to update you on. My life is much the same; though I do now have an office again at work. This makes it easier to do therapy with people. It also means that the three years worth of collected Stuff For Work that I have, that was residing in my house, is now out of my house. YAY! The most important thing of the last three months or so is that I have finally consented to let myself use the awesome Bread and Badger octopus soap dispenser in my bathtub.

The woman behind Bread and Badger said that she was working on a steampunk design. I am all about that. As soon as that comes out, I'm getting a steampunk spice shaker and a moustached spice shaker. I will have So Much Fun pretending that scary steampunk things are coming out of the steampunk spice shaker. Like, um, victorian engine poison. I don't know, it seems cool in my head. Fortunately for my wallet, I think it'll be a while before she completes it.

Okay, Meme. Comment and I give you four fandoms. You repost and list your favorite character from each, with explanation. Just in case you are wondering whether or not you want to click, there will be no surprises here. Only not-surprises and rambling. thistlerose gave me Harry Potter, Star Trek, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Dark is Rising.

Harry Potter: I have to choose between Remus and Sirius again? Remus is easier to justify: he's bookish, intelligent, wants to be a good person, a charismatic teacher, and a person of sense. Sirius, on the other hand, is an overly attractive near-genius who spent half of his life in jail because he was framed and also because he was a jerk.

From the distance of years of reading Sirius/Remus fanfic, and then years of not reading Sirius/Remus fanfic, it currently strikes me as easier to love Remus. Therefore, I prefer Sirius. At the moment. But mainly because I want to be difficult.

Star Trek: Leonard McCoy. He's a good friend, he's grumpy, he's loyal, he tells off anyone who he thinks is wrong (while paying some attention for appropriate time and place, unlike certain others I could mention), and he's really, really good at caring for people. He acts on his opinions. He's an actual adult. I couldn't possibly tell you what I mean by "He's an actual adult," but I vaguely feel that this is a rare situation in TV and Movie characters.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Captain Jack Sparrow. I don't have much of an explanation for this, other than that he is Captain Jack Sparrow and brilliantly conceived and acted; and in fact, suspect that I would have a different answer if I saw the movies again or had thought about them more to begin with, just to have a more interesting answer.

Dark is Rising: Bran. As evidenced by my deep love for McCoy, I have a thing for characters who are difficult on the outside but full of strength and caring. (Hopefully rymenhild will not kill me for reducing Bran's character to one sentence. He's more complicated than that! But that is why I like him best.) Bran is not, in fact, an actual adult, but given that he is supposed to be an adolescent at the time of the books, this does not bother me. He's an adolescent in wonderful and interesting ways.

Avatar

2010-02-08T01:10:44Z

I enjoyed Avatar. The world, Pandora, was beautiful, and watching it in IMAX 3D was worth the price of admission all by itself. It doesn't hurt that the religion on Pandora was the sort I love to bask in: everything living has energy and is sacred, taken seriously, and seen with wonder. (Which is to say those of you do not share those tendencies towards that kind of thinking will probably roll your eyes a lot at those aspects of the movie; but it is very very pretty to watch while they are espousing these beliefs, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.)

When the main character, Jake Sully, met the Omaticaya people (the indigenous tribe with which he became involved), they said to him that he could not "see". He asked them to teach him, to which they replied, "It is hard to fill a cup that is already full."

Jake responded, "I'm empty."

Oh boy, was that true. He meant that he had no knowledge of their world, unlike the other humans the Na'Vi had met, but it seemed to me it went beyond that. He had values -- courage, mainly, and some ingenuity in manipulating situations -- but no beliefs. He was a Marine, and at the beginning, he basically floated around following the CO's orders regardless of the fact that it meant he was betraying the Omaticaya people and the world of Pandora. He did and said what he could to try to complete the mission, without considering the larger implications or ethics. I wished, for the first part of the movie, that the Na'Vi had thought a little more about the character implications of Jake being empty enough to learn what they had to teach.

Unrelatedly? Jake's love interest was awesome and could totally have done better than him.

I spent some time thinking about Jake and his Avatar body. For anyone who did not see the movie, Jake can't walk -- he was in a car accident that left him unable to move his legs. He and the scientists had genetically engineered "Avatars" -- bodies that looked like the bodies of the Na'Vi people. Jake and the scientists would lay inside a box, and their consciousnesses were transferred to their Avatar bodies. There was some movie-related speculation on whether the Avatar body was as or more real than the (for want of a better word) real bodies. I found this interesting mostly in light of a chapter I had just read in the book, The Brain that Changes Itself. It discussed scenarios where our brains became confused by illusion, and our neurological maps and physical sensations were affected by fairly obvious tricks. (Read the book! It's great!)

I find I am not motivated enough to expound on this further. Call me if you want to know more, it's more fun to talk about than to type about it.

The best part of the conceit of the Avatar bodies is that it effectively turned Jake and the scientists into some version of the mythological figures that, like Davy Jones in Pirates of the Carribbean, keep their heart outside their body, and can only be killed if their heart is killed. The Avatar body can be killed -- but the actual person is still alive, inside their box. There are problems with the metaphor, of course. I will restrain myself from listing them. But I love the image of the person's life hiding in a box, far away from the physical dangers of the body's surroundings; and actually more fragile and defenseless, if you know where it is.

I spent the entire movie waiting for the Evil Technology Money People to destroy the lives of the Noble Savage Forest People. When that conflict actually happened, instead of cringing with annoyance at the trope or with anger at the villains, I found myself thinking about my clients' often antagonistic relationships with classmates or partners. We grow up hearing, "It takes two to fight." But, you know? That's not always the case. Sometimes, if one side is sufficiently determined or powerful, the other side doesn't have a choice. They can only capitulate or fight back.

Maria Tatar notes

2009-11-30T02:07:06Z

As promised (months ago), notes from Maria Tatar's talk from Harvard Book Store.

Maria started by showing us a photo from Pan's Labyrinth -- I couldn't find it online, but this comes closest. She pointed out that there are two portals in the photo: the open window behind the girl, and the open book she is reading.

She talked about reading being an escape from reality: comfort and consolation. Immediately afterwards, much to my relief and validation, she discussed the idea of reading “as if for life”. Specifically, she called it “deep reading” -- a term from Tim Wynne Jones -- as a way to help navigate the real world.

Later, she talks about "empathic imagination", which strikes me as a related idea. She described it as the use of beauty and horror to hook child, and arouse curiosity. This gets the readers inside to look, explore, and examine perils and possibility. I believe that she means the way we can, while reading, mentally try on the different emotions and reactions we see in the characters. She characterized reading as an act that leads to emotional knowledge about the self, and labeled reading as having two different functions: escape and development of empathy.

When she reads, she is investigating the characters -- not identifying with them.

**

She talked about the somatic experience of reading -- “spine tingling”, for example, is a real physical phenomenon that occurs while reading. I suspect there were awesome places she could have gone with this, but if she elaborated, I didn't write it down.

**

Children and the author mutually construct the world of the book.

**

When Lucy reads the Magician’s Book, she sees herself. She is dazzled by the image*; at this point, she can’t go back to reread past pages. This is similar to how we can’t go back to childhood once we have passed it. She referenced J.M. Barrie, who as an adult played pirates with boys; and Lewis Carroll, who took sketchy photos of girls. Both of them, she states, understood the child’s mind well.

*(Possibly the image is how others see her, but is neither more nor less real than how she sees herself. Though it is more dazzling.) [I have no idea if this was my thought, Maria Tatar's, or some combination thereof. Just to be precise in terms of citing.]

She suggested reading with a child as a way to try to recapture the vanished sense of wonder. At this point, I will suggest that you all read Anne Fadiman's introductory essay in Rereadings, of book of essays that she edited.

**

We worry about stereotypes in fairy tales, and their effect on children, but beauty is described very abstractly. If I am recalling the argument correctly, she means that we don't need to worry about kids developing an over-dependence on the idea of physical beauty or developing body image problems from fairy tales because of how abstract the descriptions of beauty are. If I am not recalling the argument correctly, I have no idea of where she was going with this. :)

"Radiant ignition" is beauty, described with light and sparkle; it has an abstract quality. Horror, on the other hand, is described with specific details and instructions. I suspect she talked about Pan's Labyrinth again here, as that had fabulous examples of detailed horrifying images. (But was the beauty abstract or detailed? But I suppose the beauty in Pan's Labyrinth had a tinge of the grotesque and horror, so it might not be the best example.)

**

Tatar's book, Enchanted Hunters, is named after the lodge where Humbert Humbert seduces Lolita. Tatar feels that, by the end of the book, it describes us as readers, who have fallen under the spell of the language and become investigators. (See use of investigator above.) He is a pedophile who makes us bibliophiles.
--I'm pretty sure that last sentence is a direct quote, as it doesn't seem like the kind of thing I'd come up with on my own, and I'm finding myself feeling somewhat horrified by it.

********

Maria also spent time answering questions. This was my favorite:

Q: With the kind of immigration we have now, are there children's stories around migration, displacement, immigration, or refugees? [The man asking the question tells us he is an Indian (not Native American) who grew up on stories of colonialism.]
A: “Literature makes immigrants of us all. A child setting out in stories is often imperialist, master of all they survey.”
Q [greatly paraphrased]: No, really. Are there stories SPECIFICALLY for immigrants?
A [even more paraphrased]: Oh. Um. Not that I know of. But there’s always a shock effect; they can still use these stories to think about how to navigate the real world.

I can write out my notes from the rest of the question/answer session as well, if anyone is interested; but I found it less interesting than the talk, and I feel this is as much of an information dump as one LJ entry can handle.

muchabstracted @ 2009-06-17T21:29:00

2009-06-18T01:24:24Z

Anyone want Dreamwidth invite codes? Or know anyone who does? (I got an account in case LJ goes belly-up some time; cross-posting has been easy.)

awesome meme!

2009-04-21T01:58:14Z

Stolen from shprintzah. Choose your favorite author for each letter of the alphabet and a favorite accompanying book (or series).

A--Asimov, Isaac: I, Robot
B--Baldwin, James: Sonny's Blues
C--Courtenay, Bryce: The Power of One
D--D'Aulaire: D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths
E--Eddison, E.R.: Worm Ouroboros
F--Fadiman, Anne: Ex Libris (Ed. note: Go read this. Now.)
G--Gaiman, Neil: Neverwhere
H--Hyde, Lewis: Trickster Made This World
I--Ibbotson, Eva: Which Witch
J--Juster, Norton: Phantom Tollbooth
K--Kushner, Ellen: Swordspoint OR Korman, Gordon: Son of Interflux
L--Le Guin, Ursula K.: Paradises Lost, or else Language of the Night
M--McKinley, Robin: Deerskin or (I know this is cheating, but shprintzah did it) Montgomery, L.M.: Anne of Green Gables OR (dude, everyone's an M) Milton, John: Paradise Lost
N--
O--Oaklander, Violent: Windows to Our Children or Hidden Treasure: A Map to the Child's Inner Self
P--
Q--Quinn, Julia: The Duke Who Loved Me
R--Ragan, Kathleen: Fearless Girls, Wise Women, & Beloved Sisters
S--Sayers, Dorothy: Gaudy Night
T--Tarr, Judith: Alamut
U--
V--Valente, Catherynne: Orphan's Tales
W--Woolf, Virginia: Mrs Dalloway
X--
Y--Yolen, Jane: Sister Emily's Lightship or The Wild Hunt
Z--Zelazney, Roger: Amber series

Still thinking about N, P, U, and X.

Endgame

2009-03-13T22:09:19Z

I saw Endgame last night, with my brother. It was beautifully acted, I thought, and if only I liked Samuel Beckett's work, I would have had a great time. As it was, my favorite part was quietly beating him to the inevitable* Garfield and Friends reference upon an imprudent mention of a rat in the kitchen.

*Well, inevitable, considering we were in the audience.

It was well-acted, though. If you like Beckett, you should see it. There are performances this weekend and next weekend.

Game Help!

2009-02-15T17:08:47Z

I need your help. I want to buy myself a game for my birthday... but, having gone to the Games Store nearby, I am having trouble figuring out what to get. I don't want a duplicate of the most common ones, ie:

Settlers of Catan (awesome as it is)
Apples to Apples
Scrabble
Boggle
Fluxx

or Royalty or Mystery of the Abbey, as I already own those.

Any suggestions?

Grand Theft Childhood/Current Magazine's Inauguration Issue

2009-01-29T00:37:30Z

I'm reading Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Video Games by Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson, a book about the ongoing controversy over violent video games. I'm enjoying it; they're actually dealing with the issue sensibly and thoughtfully, and are taking the concerns seriously without falling prey to the sloppy thinking of most of my colleagues. (You can guess what most of my colleagues think. I admit I am, personally, a little leery of my young clients playing Grand Theft Auto, for the same reasons.)

My current favorite quote, which is discussing The Great Train Robbery, a 1903 landmark movie:

The brief plot contains multiple murders, including throwing a body off a train; shooting a fleeing passenger in the back; several robberies; an attack on a telegraph operator and the subsequent discovery of his tied and beaten body by his young daughter; the dynamiting of a safe; and a square-dancing posse that sneaks up on and kills the thieves. (The square-dancing scene, which is interrupted by the injured telegrapher who'd been untied by his daughter, is apparently the writer's way of letting us know that the vigilantes who will eventually hunt down and mercilessly shoot the killer are just ordinary folk.)

FYI, if you are interested, Current Magazine is putting out a special inauguration issue. It has the inauguration speeches of a number of important past presidents and photos of them. There are also contemporary articles about them, written around the time each president became inaugurated. It is currently 20% off, or $8. Comment if you want me to e-mail you the order form.

Snow

2009-01-28T03:33:38Z

Can you make it stop? Please? I just want to stop shovelling out my car.

Reusable bags

2008-09-03T00:04:26Z

In other news, I am completely charmed by one of the new designs for Whole Foods' reusable bags. It features a checkerboard of silhouettes of differently shaped bottles, and bears the inscription, "I USED TO BE A PLASTIC BOTTLE"

Much cuter in person than in description, but I have no digital camera.

Meme

2008-08-05T22:57:51Z

You can blame chanaleh for this.

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.

Copy the list and
1) Bold the ones you have read.
2) Italicize the ones you intend to read.
3) Underline the ones you LOVE.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - J K Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (I'm pretty sure I"ve read most of this. I could be wrong. I'm not sure if I should say love or not; I don'trelate to it the way I relate to most books.)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (Well, okay, I skimmed.)
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - C S Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C S Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A A Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - L M Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (Skimmed, again)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - A S Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - E B White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

In almost but not quite entirely unrelated news, Entertainment Weekly recently announced their picks for the 100 best films of the last 25 years.

Copy the list and:
1) Bold the ones you have seen.
2) Italicize the ones you intend to see.
3) Underline the ones you LOVE.

1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)
3. Titanic (1997) (My college year roommate only made me watch the first half. She doesn't like the second half, for some reason.)
4. Blue Velvet (1986) But only if lynnoxford is there to interpret for me.
5. Toy Story (1995)
6. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
7. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
8. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
9. Die Hard (1988)
10. Moulin Rouge (2001)
11. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
12. The Matrix (1999)
13. GoodFellas (1990)
14. Crumb (1995)
15. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
16. Boogie Nights (1997)
17. Jerry Maguire (1996)
18. Do the Right Thing (1989)
19. Casino Royale (2006)
20. The Lion King (1994)
21. Schindler's List (1993)
22. Rushmore (1998)
23. Memento (2001) (First movie on this list I loved!
24. A Room With a View (1986)
25. Shrek (2001)
26. Hoop Dreams (1994)
27. Aliens (1986)
28. Wings of Desire (1988)
29. The Bourne Supremacy (2004) But only if this is the first in the series.
30. When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
31. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
32. Fight Club (1999)
33. The Breakfast Club (1985)
34. Fargo (1996) But don't tell my mother this.
35. The Incredibles (2004)
36. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
37. Pretty Woman (1990)
38. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
39. The Sixth Sense (1999)
40. Speed (1994)
41. Dazed and Confused (1993)
42. Clueless (1995)
43. Gladiator (2000)
44. The Player (1992)
45. Rain Man (1988)
46. Children of Men (2006)
47. Men in Black (1997)
48. Scarface (1983)
49. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
50. The Piano (1993)
51. There Will Be Blood (2007)
52. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988)
53. The Truman Show (1998)
54. Fatal Attraction (1987)
55. Risky Business (1983)
56. The Lives of Others (2006)
57. There's Something About Mary (1998)
58. Ghostbusters (1984)
59. L.A. Confidential (1997)
60. Scream (1996)
61. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
62. sex, lies and videotape (1989)
63. Big (1988)
64. No Country For Old Men (2007)
65. Dirty Dancing (1987)
66. Natural Born Killers (1994)
67. Donnie Brasco (1997)
68. Witness (1985) (The first R-rated movie I ever saw. My mom took us. In the theater.)
69. All About My Mother (1999)
70. Broadcast News (1987)
71. Unforgiven (1992)
72. Thelma & Louise (1991)
73. Office Space (1999)
74. Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
75. Out of Africa (1985)
76. The Departed (2006)
77. Sid and Nancy (1986)
78. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
79. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
80. Michael Clayton (2007)
81. Moonstruck (1987)
82. Lost in Translation (2003)
83. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987)
84. Sideways (2004)
85. The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)
86. Y Tu Mamá También (2002)
87. Swingers (1996)
88. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
89. Breaking the Waves (1996)
90. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
91. Back to the Future (1985)
92. Menace II Society (1993)
93. Ed Wood (1994)
94. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
95. In the Mood for Love (2001)
96. Far From Heaven (2002)
97. Glory (1989)
98. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
99. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
100. South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999)

And thus we learn that I prefer books to movies. :) Or at least, classic books to classic movies.

On trying new foods

2008-07-12T02:01:14Z

I went for a walk today, and wandered in a nearby convenience store. They have some ready to eat Indian meals from a brand I've never seen before, so I wanted to look at the ingredients, fat content, quality of box design... It was mostly unremarkable, except for the part where the food was prepared by a subsidiary of the Indian Ministry of Defense.

*blinks*

I think I'll stick with Trader Joe's after all.

On a related note, what sort of food do you think the Department of Homeland Security would create? Or our Department of Defense? Molotov cocktails, maybe... "Quench your thirst with a BANG!"

Notable Quote

2008-06-13T02:59:34Z

On the wall of a school I visit for work:

"IF YOU CHASE TWO RABBI
BOTH WILL ESCAPE."

Cry for help!

2008-05-15T23:36:58Z

So I need to replace my computer. Hopefully quickly, as I currently have no access outside of the public library, despite my brother's and chanaleh's help and suggestions in that department. I am having lots of trouble making decisions, and my usual first source for information about computers is out of the state at the moment, so I throw myself on your mercy.

The big question:
I use the computer for word processing and internet, and the occasional use of listening to music. I found it helpful to record my voice, as that has a very occasional use at work, but even that is not too important. Is there any real reason for me to spend the extra several hundred dollars on a Mac, given my salary?

And, uh, are there any extras I should consider?

All thoughts appreciated.

Superpowers

2008-04-01T01:49:07Z

So if you could have any superpower, what would it be? Right now I think I would choose to know a large (but not infinite) number of languages. I reserve the right to change my answer if one of you is more inspired.

Unrelatedly, if you felt like posting to LJ and yet had nothing to say, what would you post about?

Secession

2007-12-21T04:03:53Z

Dude.

What are the practical ramifications of this?

Unrelatedly, this was the only icon that I felt would not be unintentionally insulting in some way. Sometimes I think I think too much.

Oops.

2007-12-02T21:57:36Z

I got my bank statement Thursday. This did not stop me from spending undisclosed amounts of money on myself today. The less expensive purchase was a CD by the Burnt Earth Ensemble, which is an instrumental, fusion-type group (Celtic, African, Middle Eastern, and jazz) that plays solely on clay instruments made by one of their members, Barry Hall. It's worth looking at the site, or the liner notes of my CD, to see the instruments. They have: globular horns, flowerpotophones, didjibodrans and -- my favorite -- conundrums. The instruments that I don't suspect were invented wholesale are also cool to see.

More importantly:

2007-11-19T02:21:30Z

Anyone know where I can get a dozen acorns by Tuesday morning?

TV Show Meme

2007-11-14T02:12:03Z

When I finish Anne Fadiman's At Large and At Small I will probably post quotes, but until then...

Have a meme!
Gacked from ayelle

Post a list of seven TV shows you love (current or canceled).
Have your friends list guess your favorite character from each show.
When guessed, bold the line and write a little bit about why you like that character.

1. Red Dwarf Not that anyone is still looking, but navelofwine has guessed, correctly, Cat. CAT IS SO COOL! Don't tell me I need to explain why he's the best?
2. Firefly I thought my favorite was someone else, but navelofwine has reminded me, by her guess, that Saffron is super cool. I'm tired, and no one is going to look at this, so I will not elaborate further.
3. Gilmore Girls
4. Stargate Atlantis As guessed as possible by dashieff, who said McKay. McKay is huge amounts of fun to watch, which is unexpected. I don't usually like the obnoxious characters at all, let alone this much. But he's great. Sheppard caught up with him partway through Season One, by dint of -- I don't know. Symmetrical features? Charisma? Sarcasm? Having an interesting friendship with McKay? Certainly the third. So they are jointly my favorite character.
5. Rome Marc Antony, guessed by lynnoxford. I am predisposed to like Antony from 6th grade, when a guy I had a crush on played Antony in his class's performance of Julius Ceasar. But there's just something about Antony. I suspect this is the looks and charisma thing, actually, because now that I think about it more, I generally prefer Octavian on the actual show.
6. Homicide: Life on the Streets
7. Muppet Show rymenhild informs me, quite correctly, that Rowlf is my favorite. I had forgotten. I thought Zoot was my favorite, for reasons I can't quite pin down (but then, Zoot is difficult to pin down in general). But, you know, Rowlf. I think it's his sense of humor.
8. Fraggle Rock. Belatedly guessed, after some prompting, by rymenhild. Cotterpin Doozer! She's cool and rebellious and nerdy and passionate about what she decides she wants to do. And she makes up her own mind, and doesn't let silly things like convention or what other people think affect her. Mostly, anyway. I could be misremembering parts of episodes.

Braaaaiins...

2007-11-02T01:04:14Z

Am tired (and zombielike, see?)

kTHUNK

*waves from floor* All is well, move along, I just wanted to register exhaustion. I have library copies of Melanie Rawn's last, and both volumes of THe Sharing Knife, so I should be set for the night. (Even if my copy of Orphan's Tales Volume 2 had come, rymenhild, I suspect I would not have the brain power for it.)

Ooh, look, chocolate!

muchabstracted @ 2007-10-14T19:32:00

2007-10-14T23:33:50Z

gacked from ayelle

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Book Snob
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Literate Good Citizen
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

I didn't get Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm? *smacks quiz* Hmpf.

wireless networks

2007-09-24T03:52:30Z

My favorite of the names for the wireless networks on and around where I am now living:

YOURCUPOFTEA

and

gerund

Cleaning & Stardust

2007-08-26T20:07:33Z

Apparently, powder bleach is more effective than liquid Clorox. My bathtub is no longer spotty just in time for me to no longer use it. Yay!

Last weekend, I saw Stardust with lynnoxford, so I'll join the chorus of people recommending it. It was cute, it was well done, and it had a sufficient number of moments that made me think, "Neil Gaiman wrote this movie/book/graphic novel."

Glancing at movie reviews afterwards, I saw a few that compared it to The Princess Bride. Which was interesting, because it led me to realize that I am physically and mentally incapable of comparing any movie to The Princess Bride. It's not that I'm a rabid fan of The Princess Bride -- I'm not. I like it a lot, but I've never gone crazy over it the way I have, say, over The Faerie Queen or Jim Henson's Labyrinth. (Despite the good example my friends set for me.) I think the problem is that The Princess Bride isn't a movie so much as it is a collection of memories of my high school friends. It's, uh, sort of like high school, the good parts version. :)

Before the movie started, we saw the trailer for The Movie That Must Not Be Named.

That's not Will Stanton. That's not even Will Stanton with a sex drive.

I'm not sure mere text gets across my horror at the concept of this version of Will Stanton, or the absurdity of the statement "Will Stanton with a sex drive". I feel I get my point across better when I can pair it with horrified facial expression and tone of voice.

*scrubs out mind with bleach. The powder kind*

It's also not Will's environment, and it's not Will's family. (lynnoxford points out that it's genuinely not Will's family, since it appears to be kids at a boarding school. WTF? I am driven to Internet-speak!) The Rider comes off as a stock villain, which, okay, is about as good as I could have expected from them. I can't tell what I think about Merriman -- unlike everything else about the trailer, I had no active objections to him. I can't tell if that's because he's acceptably written and cast, or if it's because I lost my sense of perspective when I saw Will acting like a stock Hollywood preteen.

In conclusion, I think they should have consulted rymenhild and genarti and the good folks at Milliways before finalizing the script.

Well, that was relatively surreal.

2007-08-15T00:48:58Z

The drummer for Bob Marley's band heard my weekly drum circle from his hotel room, and dropped by to compliment us and chat about West African master drummers.

Apparently, The Wailers are playing at the Paradise tonight.

I wonder how he would address foreign royalty...

Transformers

2007-08-05T20:28:16Z

Last night, I went to see Transformers with my brother, chanaleh and -- somehow -- my mother. She didn't hate it as much as she thought she would.

My favorite part was the moment near the end, after the advanced technology has all been busted, when they are all in a tiny room trying to figure out how to communicate with the outside world to get help. The blond female analyst points to a short wave radio (I think), and asks if the hacker can do something helpful involving hacking, computers, radios, and Morse code. My brother, sitting next to me, makes a valiant and futile attempt to keep from clawing his eyes out in scientific frustration.*

*Despite this, he greatly enjoyed the movie. Possibly he was not expecting accurate representations of science.

Yes, that was a minor spoiler. I think if you care about spoilers for The Transformers Movie, you should really have seen it already.

...Okay, fine, let me know if I should put it under a cut-tag.

Anyway, my three word summary -- stolen from a fanfic summary somewhere, I'm sure -- is "hilariously improbable crap". I was curled up in my chair cackling for the first half of the film. Don't misunderstand, I mean all this lovingly. The screenwriters did a good job. I do think they could have cut some of the plot, but I will forgive them.

By the way, the neuroscience Hangman word from last week was PARAGIGANTOCELLULARIS. If you don't understand why that's a super cool word, just say it loudly, emphasizing the "giganto" bit, and flail around with your arms. Then you'll see.