14 posts tagged “meme”
From Glamour Mama:
1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
Grew cardoons. Taught a class entirely online. Recoiled at the sight of a homegrown tomato (freakin pregnancy hormones!).
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't really make resolutions at the new year. It seems so artificial. I keep a notebook with various goals and crap like that, and I'm doing reasonably well with them.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Well, not physically close, but some of my friends did, yes.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully, no.
5. What countries did you visit?
Texas.
6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
A fucking cocktail, man. Lately, I've had to give up sugar, too, because while I do not have gestational diabetes, I had some warning signs that I might be headed there. Do you know what it's like to give up gin and chocolate at the same time? HUH?? Do you, punk?
7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
None, I guess, although I will remember this as the year that my son first went to preschool (3 hours a week), that we conceived our second child, that we accidentally stumbled into a Japanese festival in Jackson, Wyoming, and made fun of the sign for the tea room that said "Cha-dou" because we're snobby that way.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Probably the kale that wouldn't quit. Oh, right, we got the farmer's market started, too. I'm sure there are other things, but why dwell?
9. What was your biggest failure?
Pregnancy-induced grumpiness. Constant and entirely futile attempts to make people care about the rampant illogic in our political discourse. Still cannot make myself actually like people.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing physical. I believe the wounds caused from beating my head against rhetorical brick walls are entirely psychosomatic.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
If you asked my son this question, he would tell you it was the Kota the Triceratops that we bought him for Christmas. Otherwise, I don't know. The new washing machine is very nice, but it is, after all, just a washing machine. We don't buy a lot of stuff other than groceries and clothes for the kid. Oh, right, I did get a new computer for work (which is also home), and I like it a lot.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My husband because he's amazingly right for me. My son because most of the time even I can't believe how well behaved, charming, and kind he is.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Most people's, especially during the election cycle. It has occurred to me recently that we have definitely become a people who ask not what we can do for our country but what our country can do for us. Yes, the government just owes us all, doesn't it? My own behavior appalled me for a couple of months there at the beginning of the pregnancy, but I have an excuse...or something.
14. Where did most of your money go?
House payments, car payments, groceries, gasoline. I guess health insurance would be next on the list, but it's not much compared to the others.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Having another baby. Texas. Blackberry-mint jam. I invented it this year, and I waxed rhapsodic.
16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
Hard to pick just one. "Chicken Fried" by the Zac Brown Band comes to mind. I hated that song when it first came out, but it grew on me. "Learning How to Bend" by Gary Allan, definitely, because it reminds me in some ways, as does "Roll With Me" by Montgomery Gentry, of the project I've been undertaking, especially this year, to be a better wife and mother. Yeah, "Roll With Me" is a song to take to heart.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? about the same, I think--maybe a little calmer
b) thinner or fatter? fatter--or, really, "pregnanter"
c) richer or poorer? same
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Kept in touch with my friends and family.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Worry about people's idiotic political opinions which apparently aren't going to change anyway, no matter how carefully you spell out why they're idiotic.
20. How did you spend Christmas?
At my parents' house with my grandma. It's quite a thing to have four generations together who can actually enjoy each other's company. We cooked, we played games, we listened to Kota the Triceratops grumble and roar.
21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Yes. With my husband, about three separate times. Sometimes people think our marriage is somehow easier than theirs. The trick is that when we're getting bored and frustrated with each other, we make an effort to notice each other all over again. It's always small things. Sometimes it's just that instead of griping about what my husband isn't doing, I take a look at the fact that he's teaching my son how to hold a screwdriver or something, some tiny little thing, and I think he's wonderful, and I fall in love with him again. I think how much we've been through--all the moves, the miscarriage, the financial stress (which has been immense at times), the Green Card, just all the shit--and how even after all of it, he still looks at me with the same unwavering devotion as always. So, I keep falling in love with the same man, over and over. Occasionally, I feel like I'm cheating on my husband with my husband. It was a good year.
22. What was your favorite TV program?
Dirty Jobs, I guess. Oh, I like In Plain Sight a lot, too. I'm kind of obsessed with Mary. I've just recently got hooked on Reno 911!, too, and there is always The Colbert Report, a perennial favorite. Jon Stewart, on the other hand--lately, I could take it or leave it.
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Nope. Hate is something I've given up on.
24. What was the best book you read?
Hmmm...I was actually pretty impressed by Richard North Patterson's Protect and Defend, and that's probably the book that I most remember from this year. I either chose stupid books this year or else my tastes are just changing, because there were actually a few books this year that I didn't even bother finishing. I also reread a lot of books this year and discovered that my passions for Jorge Amado and Izumi Kyoka remain intact--nevermind that, as an American, I'm not supposed to read foreign literature.
25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
That approximately one-third of my CDs go entirely unloved and unlistened-to.
26. What did you want and get?
Pregnant.
27. What did you want and not get?
An ice cream maker.
28. What was your favorite film of this year?
We don't watch movies, generally, until they're a couple of years old. I think the only 2008 movie we actually saw in 2008 was "Tropic Thunder" which we liked. Oh, "Get Smart"...? We just saw that. What year is that from? Whatever. Does Colbert's Christmas special count? That was fucking brilliant. Colbert and Stewart singing about Hanukkah is good times.
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
We went to Jackson, Wyoming, where we stumbled into a Japanese fire festival, which was pretty cool. That is also when we learned that a Toyota Yaris is just not equipped to deal with mountain passes. There is something to be said for a powerful engine. I turned 34.
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Being able to continue eating the garden produce up til the end of it. The pregnancy could have been timed better. I was so fatigued and crappy and nauseous that I did not get in most of my end-of-summer chores, and so we now find our store of pickles somewhat wanting. Green tomatoes went to waste because I had not the energy to deal with them. For an Arkansas girl, letting green tomatoes go to waste is something akin to blasphemy. *sigh* Maybe next year, though with an infant and a wild preschooler, I don't know. I already talked about it with my husband and we're already thinking up ways to make the food preservation deal as easy on me as possible for next year. If more shit gets frozen instead of canned and for one bleeping year we waste some electricity to freeze it, so be it. I have bigger fish to fry. Besides, apparently Idaho gets less of its electricity from coal than the national average, so perhaps I can quit blaming myself every time I think about the devastation of Appalachia.
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Grass stains.
32. What kept you sane?
If anything did, it would be my husband. I love my son so much it's indescribable, but my husband keeps me as sane as possible.
33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I realized that I have a crush on Mike Rowe. And I fancy Kal Penn rather like I fancy a pint of Ben and Jerry's. So yummy.
34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Just the general hypocrisy, name-calling, and illogic rampant on both sides of every issue. Mostly, I don't want to talk to people anymore because if they're talking about anything remotely political, I feel an almost compulsive need to point out every logical flaw in what they're saying. It's a personal failing, I know, but it's making me (probably literally) insane. Especially, I expected more from Jon Stewart. He's been a big disappoinment on the ideological-hypocrisy issue.
35. Who did you miss?
John and Kurt. That's nothing new. I miss them every year since about 2001. Oh, and Shmuel--been missing him a lot lately, too. We all just live too far apart now. Bulgaria? Oregon? What is that all about?
36. Who was the best new person you met?
Diane. I actually think I met her in 2007, but I've just recently started getting to know her, and she's a great person.
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
People think they deserve a lot more than they actually do without being thankful for most of what they have. Ideologies are, at root, all the same and eventually become fundamentalist and rigid and equally frightening. Anytime you close your mind off to the possibility that you're wrong, you're fucking doomed. At some point, I let "depressed" become my normal mental condition, and that's just stupid. People see what they want to see. I learned a long time ago that going to college doesn't mean that you're smarter or more thoughtful or, certainly, more worthwhile as a person, but I just realized this year that most Americans who have gone to college really do think that it does, just like people who live in cities think they're smarter because they live in cities. That shit blows my mind. I guess the life lesson is that people will go to extraordinary lengths of self-delusion to convince themselves that they're better than other people.
38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Pretty much all of this, except the parts about going to church, because we don't.
Alternate Title for this Post: OK, I'm kinda through talking about abortion, how about you guys?
Politics will return in short order though, particularly as I saw in the Sunday paper today two particularly ridiculous things. Anyway, this distraction meme was lifted from mcco12. In the same spirit, I will order that any of you who wish may do it, but I won't actually tag anyone.
Two names you go by
Hmm, I normally keep that secret.
1. A not-uncommon English name that begins with the same initial affricate as does 'gin.' It ends mellifluously with a syllable consisting of a lateral liquid consonant and a nice eeeeeee sound.
2. "You fucking pedant."
Two things you are wearing right now
1. My very awesome slippers. Wool felt with a supportive footbed akin to that of a Birkenstock.
2. Red spectacles that my son has abused almost to the point of rendering them useless. But they're cute.
Two things you want very badly at the moment
1. for it to be spring.
2. for my husband to get safely to work. And also not to have this song stuck in my head.
Two things you did last night
1. ranted.
2. raved.
Two things you're going to do tonight
1. eat melon mousse.
2. go to bed at a reasonable hour. Maybe.
Two things you ate yesterday
1. homemade pizza
2. tembleque with bananas (my recipe came from Bittman, but the idea to combine the banana pudding recipe with the tembleque recipe was mine, all mine, and such a delicious one.)
Two people you spoke to last
1. Mr. GinBaby, also known as T.
2. The kid.
Two things you're doing tomorrow
1. going to the office where I have to pay for our car registration.
2. making playdough.
Two longest car rides
1. Er. I spent the better part of a month in a car with a Japanese guy and a cat. We went in a loop from Montana to Chicago down to New Orleans then across to Las Vegas and back to Montana.
2. Montana to New Mexico, and then back, several times, countless times. Usually I drove it as close to nonstop as possible, with lots of Red Bull and DJ Krush.
EDIT: Oh, goodness...I think actually that time we drove, when I was maybe 14 or so, from New Mexico to Washington, D.C., was longer, especially because I believe we also went up to Pennsylvania to see some family, and when we came back through Oklahoma, there was such a horrible blizzard that we couldn't go more than about 20 miles per hour, and our car kept freezing up, and I was stuck in the back of the Ford Escort (that wretched car! it would later spontaneously combust as we were trying to move from New Mexico to Montana. Spontaneous combustion is never OK.) with a fragile, antique picture from some person named "Aunt Mary" whom I did not and do not know. The damn picture kept shifting around as our ridiculous car was buffeted about in the Oklahoma apocalypse of snow, and I was cautioned many times and had to take great pains not to break Aunt Mary's picture. Oh, lord, that was a long trip.
Two favorite vacations
1. Malaysia, Christmas 2003.
2. That flyover-zone tour.
Two favorite beverages
I don't know. This is entirely dependent on mood.
Two things which make you happy
1. spending time with my husband and son
2. a good book.
Two favorite places you like to hang out
1. at home
2. on the bank of a river--I'm not overly picky about which river, but the Blackfoot is good.
I got tagged by the evilest of Evil Wombat Queens--or perhaps she is just the wombattiest.
Here are the rules
1. Grab your nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag 5 different people.
From Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, Edition 20:
"pontine [angle]. Cerebellopontine [angle].
pubic [angle]. The angle formed by the junction of the rami of the pubes.
[angle] of refraction. The angle formed by a refracted ray of light with a line perpendicular to the surface at the refraction point."
Uh, yeah, so I'm at work, and this is the nearest book because it's the print reference I use most. It's a great medical dictionary, really helpful, if any of you are looking for a good medical dictionary.
As far as pleasure reading goes, I just finished I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, and it was awesome. Now, much as I love Will Smith, the movie will probably disappoint. Vampires! Too bad they're not vampirates.
OK, anyway, I guess I'll tag: ::flowers & thorns, Janette, Kimura, The Greenhows, and kitty, but y'all are just going to do what you want anyway, no matter who I tag. Bless your hearts.
AFI's top 100 movies. Bold the ones you have seen. Strike out the ones you couldn't finish. Star (*) the ones you have seen more than once. Also, I'm putting question marks [??] for the ones that I think, "Seriously? One of the greatest movies of all time? Who the fuck are you kidding?"
1. Citizen Kane (1941)
2. The Godfather (1972)
3. Casablanca (1942)*
4. Raging Bull (1980)*
5. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
6. Gone with the Wind (1939)
7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
8. Schindler’s List (1993) [??]
9. Vertigo (1958)*
10. The Wizard of Oz (1939) *
11. City Lights (1931)
12. The Searchers (1956)
13. Star Wars (1977) ****** (srsly, doods. I went through an entire year of junior high school in which I watched this movie every single day after school. Every single day. Ponder the nerdery involved for a minute.)
14. Psycho (1960) **
15. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
16. 2001 : A Space Odyssey (1968)
17. The Graduate (1967)**
18. The General (1927)
19. On the Waterfront (1954)
20. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
21. Chinatown (1974)*
22. Some Like It Hot (1959) [??]
23. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
24. E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982) * [??]
25. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) (Oh, Gregory Peck. How I love to lick your creamy center!)
26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
27. High Noon (1952)
28. All About Eve (1950)
29. Double Indemnity (1944)* (Hard boiled = super cool.)
30. Apocalypse Now (1979) ** (I find it odd that I've seen that movie multiple times. It's kind of a downer. )
31. The Maltese Falcon (1941)*
32. The Godfather Part II (1974)
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)*
34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)* [??] (It's good, but it's no Dumbo.)
35. Annie Hall (1977)**
36. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
38. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
39. Dr. Strangelove (1964)***** (My son did actually shout "mein fuhrer" the other day while trying to prevent his hand from raising in salute. Ah, he's headed for greatness, that one.)40. The Sound of Music (1965) (Even pondering this movie, just hearing a few bars of one of these songs is enough to induce convulsions. Good God, how do people stand this shit?)
41. King Kong (1933)
42. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
43. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
44. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
45. Shane (1953) (What kind of communist hasn't seen Shane, for chrissakes?)
46. It Happened One Night (1934)
47.A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
48. Rear Window (1954)********* (OMG! You have no idea. Grace Kelly is so fantastic in this, and the framing and the...I loooooove this movie.)
49. Intolerance (1916)
50. Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) - is this the first one? then yes, otherwise no.
51. West Side Story (1961) (Generally speaking, I don't *do* musicals. Except Chicago.)
52. Taxi Driver (1976)***** (Travis Bickle is some seriously compelling shit.)
53. Deer Hunter, The (1978)
54. M*A*S*H (1970)**
55. North by Northwest (1959)**
56. Jaws (1975)*
57. Rocky (1976)
58. The Gold Rush (1925)
59. Nashville (1975)
60. Duck Soup (1933)
61. Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
62. American Graffiti (1973)**
63. Cabaret (1972)
64. Network (1976)
65. The African Queen (1951) (I HATE this movie. HATE. Blind boiling hate.)
66. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) ***
67. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) (Um, I've seen the play--does that count?)
68. Unforgiven (1992)
69. Tootsie (1982)* [??] (No, seriously, wtff? This movie is stupid.)
70. A Clockwork Orange (1971)** (God, of course, man. I love me some ultraviolence.)
71. Saving Private Ryan (1998) (Because I find Tom Hanks absolutely intolerable.)
72. The Shawshank Redemption (1994) *
73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) * (Yummy man-meat here.)
74. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) *
75. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
76. Forrest Gump (1994) (The very idea of this movie makes me vomit. Also, the Tom Hanks thing. Also, the blind boiling hate thing again. WTFF? I never saw it, but I say with confidence that this is not even among the top 100,000 best movies ever made.)
77. All the President’s Men (1976)
78. Modern Times (1936)
79. The Wild Bunch (1969)
80. The Apartment (1960)--I think I've seen this, but now I can't think of what it is.
81. Spartacus (1960)
82. Sunrise (1927)
83. Titanic (1997) (Gay, so gay. Not in any of the literal senses. In the, "Kate Winslet, how could you do this to me? I've been your fan since Heavenly Creatures, and now this shit? Alright, alright. Make your money and get it over with, if you must" sense. And then in the, "What is that screeching alleged 'love' song there? It's from what? Noooooes!"
84. Easy Rider (1969)*** (Drugs and motorcycles, baby!)
85. A Night at the Opera (1935)
86. Platoon (1986)** (I've seen this a really depressing number of times. I don't know why.)
87. 12 Angry Men (1957)
88. Bringing Up Baby (1938)* (I LOVE this movie. Oh, the repartee!)
89. The Sixth Sense (1999)*
90. Swing Time (1936)
91. Sophie’s Choice (1982)
92. Goodfellas (1990)**** (What? Like I'm a clown to you?)
93. The French Connection (1971)
94. Pulp Fiction (1994)*******
95. The Last Picture Show (1971)
96. Do the Right Thing (1989)
97. Blade Runner (1982) **
98. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
99. Toy Story (1995)
100. Ben-Hur (1959) (I don't really *do* this sort of epic thing either. Or whatever this is.)
So, there's mine. Perhaps more interestingly, what movies should be on this list replacing the ass stink of Forrest Gump and Tootsie?
The Big Lebowski? It would really pull this list together, man.
Meme of sorts--the idea was stolen from Jack, but I've changed it a bit to suit me.
List seven songs you are (were) into right now (at the time period in question). No matter what the genre,
whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must
be songs you're really enjoying now (were really enjoying then). *I mostly went with albums, I guess, because that's mostly how I remember them, not just one song by a band, but such and such an album. If it's not italicized, then I mean the song. Why am I saying this? It's not like it matters.
Newest Acquisitions (last 6 months, give or take)
- Brad Paisley - Time Well Wasted
- Josh Turner - Your Man
- Elvis Costello - My Aim is True (I lost this CD in Japan and just recently reacquired it).
- Marty Stuart - Badlands
- Johnny Cash - The Sun Recordings
- Masters of Reality - self-titled first album (another re-acquisition)
- Prince - um, the album that has "Sexy M.F." and "7" on it. Whatever it's called.
Childhood (1980-1988)
- Pat Benatar - Hit Me with Your Best Shot
- Jerry Jeff Walker - Sangria Wine
- Hank Williams, Jr. - Country Boy Can Survive
- Madonna - Get Into the Groove
- Prince - When Doves Cry
- Guns n Roses - Welcome to the Jungle (a song to which I still remember all the lyrics, God help me)
- Talking Heads - Burning Down the House
- Steve Earle - Guitar Town
- Dwight Yoakam - Guitars, Cadillacs
- Clint Black - Better Man
- Garth Brooks - The Dance
- Metallica - Master of Puppets (yeah, I know, it was already old by then, but this is when I first started listening to it)
- Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine (this is nearly all I listened to in the first half of 1992)
- Nirvana - Nevermind (pretty much all I listened to in the second half of 1992--well, that and NIN)
- Violent Femmes - Kiss Off (and all the other Femmes as well, it's just I think of that song the most, I guess)
- Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (naturally)
- Primus - Pork Soda
- NIN - Broken and The Downward Spiral
- The Spent Poets - self-titled? I think. Damn, I had totally forgotten about them. They sang about Virginia Woolf and Walt Whitman and such. Good lyrics. I wonder if I still have that CD around somewhere.
- Consolidated - The Myth of Rock
- Soundgarden - Power Child
- And of course, Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana--and Mudhoney (Here Come Sickness!) and Screaming Trees and name a fucking Seattle band, and I loved them, except Queensryche or however you fucking spell that--fuck! they had a gratuitous umlaut, too, didn't they? Bastards. Anyway. Yay Seattle.
- Volumen - everything. You guys already know.
- Sonic Youth - Sister (I know it was old, but I think it's still my favorite album by them)
- The Pixies and Frank Black. I guess if I had to pick two songs that I think of most in this era, they might be "Is She Weird?" and "Brackish Boy."
- John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
- Bill Frisell - Bill Frisell Quartet
- Los Amigos Invisibles - The New Sound of the Venezuelan Gozadera.
- Morphine - all of it.
Post-Divorce, Post-Uni (2001-2006--much of that time was spent across the sea)
*remarried in 2005, but this husband cares not at all about music--it's all just background noise to him
- Miki Dozan - Lifetime Respect
- Moomin - Triple M
- DJ Krush - Milight
- Elvis Presley - Rhythm & Country
- Foreign Legion - Kidnapper Van
- Elvis Costello - My Aim is True and This Year's Model
- XTC - Skylarking
Yes, by the way, that does mean that I still have both Purple Rain and Appetite for Destruction in my collection, along with some nice, vintage Duran Duran (regrettably perhaps, I do not still own a copy of Slippery When Wet, but I can still sing every word of "Livin on a Prayer" which I feel is my duty as an American). Why not?
Well, it appears the thirst for trivia about the GinBaby is unquenchable. People can't get enough of me.
Which is to say, however immodestly, that I've been tagged by the good Kirk with the 7-or-8 Things About You meme. I hadn't yet met this version, but I had previously done the 5 Things No One Knows About You. I will paste that into the body of this post so that you can learn all there is to know about me without so much as having to click a link. Awesome, I know.
I've been having to give this some thought. For one thing, as previously mentioned, my two very best friends read this. Itchy Dawg has known me since I was 19; sgazzetti has known me since we were in grad school together. They have seen me in a lot of stages, with many different colors of hair. There is very little about me that they do not know. For anyone else who might be reading, the challenge is coming up with 5 more things (in addition to the 5 I listed before, as, according to Kirk, there are rules about these memes that they don't count for a full 5) that no one really knows about me that are also interesting. As it happens, I had actually listed far more than 5 things the last time I did this, so you are, in effect, going to get a sort of blizzard of new, potentially incriminating information about me. I know, I know--it's probably going to be a thrill a minute.
First, the previous post:
I got tagged with that damn "5 things no one knows about you" meme. You know the one. I think I am probably the last person in the world to have been tagged with that. It's going to be a bit difficult, because my two oldest and dearest friends in the universe both read this blog, and I don't think there is much they don't know about me. But I shall give it the old college try.
1. For many years, until I was well into high school, I absolutely refused to use the word "cool" to describe anything other than the temperature. I thought people sounded like ass saying everything was "cool" all the time, and I similarly thought that any word that wanted to be so cool as 'cool' could not also be used by my mom. Sigh. Somewhere along the line, I gave up my ideals and sold my vocabulary downstream, no doubt for a case of wine coolers.
2. Let's see. I was in FFA, as in the Future Farmers of America, for three years. I participated in many FFA events, including soil judging and meat judging (wink, wink, snicker, snicker). I was never much good at soil judging, because, honestly, I am completely spatially unaware and thus unable to determine the angle of slope of any given piece of land. It was vexing, that whole "slope" business, as if you can't farm on a hill! I did well at meat judging (ahem!). This was also the era in which I raised pigs (and then, yes, sold them to people who would kill them and devour their fatty bellies--made a tidy little profit doing that).
3. I have a weakness for murder mysteries. I am especially fond of Agatha Christie (oh, Hercule! my love!), Dick Francis, and Ian Rankin. I don't look at the end to find out who did it, but I do try to figure it out on my own, and a writer can really only earn my respect if I can't figure it out. But those three write so well, I reread their books many times, even when I know who did it.
4. I have long had a serious Monkees fixation. I know not how I succumbed to the affliction, though Nick at Nite had a lot to do with it, along with little supervision and long hours of insomnia. You don't know schizophrenia until you have listened to Hank Williams, The Monkees, and Helmet all in one sitting, as I have.
5. The year I was 12 we lived in Albuquerque. It was the most terrifying year of my life. To illustrate: One day I woke up to find that our entire apartment complex was spattered with blood. There were pools of blood that had not yet dried all around and broken glass and blood on the walls. It turns out some guy on some drug had gone around punching out windows and just let himself bleed everywhere. Still freaky. And it colored my nightmares (and insomnia) for years. That was also the year some guy probably tried to abduct me. I say probably because I didn't get in the car with him. He was creepy all around, and so I would barely even look at him, but in the few glances I stole, I noticed that he was...oh, no, let's not talk about it, shall we? Shall we just say--if you're sensitive, forego reading this part--that I was confused about why he would be urinating on himself, but I was more confused that the urine was white. For these reasons, among others (someone also tried to carjack my grandma, who awesomely refused to move at all, sitting through several red lights and finally making the guy too nervous, so he jumped out), I will never live in Albuquerque again, not ever, not for any reason. I try my best not even to set foot in Albuquerque.
There are probably other things. I am, for example, completely anal retentive about matching my clothes and always have been. I have no wisdom teeth (and no cavities in all my 32 years!). I have had insomnia and nightmares since I can remember, although Albuquerque didn't help. I have touched a real mummy, actually more than one. I know the proper method for skinning a deer. My IQ is apparently nearly twice my state's average. I know how to weld. When I was 2 years old or so, I cut the top of one of my fingers off; the same year, I hurled myself out of the car into oncoming Phoenix traffic, an act for which I still blame my mother (and, hey, thank goodness for car seats).
Hmmm. Fascinating, isn't it?
Alright, well, that is a lot of fascinating information. Well played, GinBaby. God, I don't know why I'm being such a pompous ass tonight. Forgive me, I beg of you.
So, for the next 5 things, I have been racking my brain. I'll have a go at it, though.
1. My favorite Beatles song is "Here Comes the Sun." It's so simple and clear and perfect. It was the alarm ringtone on my cell in Japan, although it was a version played on the shamisen. It was a good thing to wake up to.
2. In my youth, I read several seafaring novels (Moby Dick, Mutiny on the Bounty, etc.) and developed a secret and urgent fear of scurvy. Just eat your oranges, people.
3. I have a habit of listening to the same CD over and over again for a week or two before finally moving on to another one. Right now, it's XTC's Skylarking, despite my irritation at the Colin Moulding songs. My husband is annoyed by this habit, incidentally.
4. I think Cary Grant is the epitomy of a gentleman and everything men should aspire to be. So smooth, so charming. Such great posture. Ironically, I recently found out (thanks, again, Wikipedia) that my distant relative, Randolph Scott (he's my great-grandmother's cousin or something--my great-grandmother also went to Hollywood and was in a couple of movies and dated Errol Flynn and people like that before coming down with a mysterious and terrible disease, a disease found only in 100 women in the same hospital in southern California, a disease that they told her was polio that was quite demonstrably not polio, a disease that kept her bedridden for years, which just goes to show that southern Cali is eeeevil--but I digress) was possibly Cary Grant's lover. Rock on Randolph--excellent taste!
5. My favorite gin is Tanqueray Malacca, and I am constantly vexed that it is no longer made. When we went to Malacca, I was also irked that they didn't have it available--it should have been flowing from the goddamn fire hydrants in Malacca. I have made my peace with Malacca, the lovely town, but not with Tanqueray. What is up, you fools? That was the best widely available gin ever, and you stopped making it. (I have heard of some boutique gins that are better, but I have not tasted them, as they are not readily available, so for the time being, I am just stuck Malacca-less and grumpy.) I suppose a 6th thing you didn't know about me is that I actually prefer the spelling Melaka, but I am pretty sure the gin is 'Malacca.' Imperialist fools.
Um, sorry Kirk, but I'm having to actually think about yours, and so I'm doing this one, cheap and easy-like, while staying up too late. I'll do yours soon.
First...
1. Friend: Sharise, the daughter of the "token black family" on our block. She lived next door, and her family was awesome.
2. Thing you bought on your own: Jeez...um....I have no idea.
3. Concert you went to: Rick Springfield and Corey Hart, whatever year "Sunglasses at Night" was a big hit.
4. Favorite CD: By CD, I assume you mean "album." Must have been Duran Duran's Seven and the Ragged Tiger, baby.
5. Obsession: Probably Henry McKinnon.
6. Favorite food: Lemons. Sharise and I ate straight lemons all the time off the neighbor lady's tree.
7. Cell phone: Some flippy red one, Nokia.
8. Car: Helga, which was a Dodge small truck. Very small. Gold paint. I think she was an '86.
9. Job: Working at the truckstop in Maumelle, Arkansas.
10. School: The Montessori preschool run by Sikhs.
11. Vacation: Jeez, who knows? First one I really remember, other than camping trips which were legion, is going to Disneyland.
12. Boyfriend/Girlfriend: First real boyfriend was Barry, I guess, a bullrider I met when I was an impressionable freshman in high school.
13. Shopping Spree: WTF? I don't know. Oh, I remember one year for my birthday, when I was maybe 8 or 9, my dad gave me a $100 bill in the mall for my birthday and sat on a bench and watched me spend it. Most of it, sadly, went to Sanrio.
14. Kiss: Third grade, Todd Lenzini. Hott!
15. Crush: Henry McKinnon, then Todd Lenzini, then Jami Hepler, then...
Last...
1. Dollar spent: Went out to dinner tonight at Tacos Tamazula--yum
2. Friend talked to: Zack3. Person you talked to on the phone: John
4. Thing you ate: Some rye crackers with some kind of salty cheese.
5. Place you went: Tacos Tamazula, then my basement.
6. Fight: Physical fight? Ages ago, probably in 6th grade. Verbal fight? Oh, just a couple weeks ago, I suppose.
7. Song listened to: Well, the song my son was singing as he got ready for bed. Tonight it was "Downtown" that old Petula Clark song. My mom taught it to him--not me.
8. Movie watched: The SpongeBob movie.
9. Time you laughed: about 3 minutes ago
10. Time you cried: My heart weeps as I write this.
11. Guy/Girl you kissed: My husband. Or my son. Hmm...I suppose it was my son.
12. Word you said: Honey
13. Person you saw: Zack on his webcam, or my husband in da realz.
14. Store you shopped at: Albertson's, probably.
15. Picture you took: Back in the golden days before my camera broke, a couple months ago.
Current...
1. Favorite band: This varies day by day. Today it's Morphine.
2. Best friend: Kurt, John, Fuyuhiko, and of course my husband...and Zack is getting there as well.
3. Boyfriend/Girlfrend/crush: Uh, my husband? Yeah, I think it's him.
4. Place you live: Mormontown, Jesusland, Middle America.
5. School you go to: The school of ROCK, baby!
6. Favorite thing to do: Garden.
7. Sport you play: None regularly. I do hike and swim fairly often, though.
8. Favorite movie: This also changes pretty often. Usually it's Dial M for Murder. Sometimes it's Kill Bill. Sometimes it's Blazing Saddles. Depends on my mood.
9. Favorite song: Jeez. Like, of all time? Who knows? Maybe "French Fries with Pepper" by Morphine or "I Walk the Line" by Johnny Cash.
10. Favorite food: Tacos!!
11. Favorite celebrity: Hmmm..Jet Li, Johnny Depp, George Clooney. Eric Bana? Hott.
12. Favorite drink: Beer or gin and tonic. In summers, I love me some Tom Collins. Ooh, actually, probably coffee and green tea, but my mind got stuck on adult beverages.
13. Favorite piece of clothing: that i own? My old university hoodie, I guess. Wearing it right now. It's pink and girlie but still a hoodie.
14. Favorite accessory: My aquamarine earrings I got for my first Mother's Day. That's my son's birthstone.
15. Favorite season: I like them all, but spring or fall is best, probably fall. I love when the leaves fall and the weather gets that crispness after the hot summer. It's so refreshing.
via mcco12
total number of books owned:
A few hundred, I guess. I cycle through them a lot, getting rid of ones that I won't read again and keeping only those that I doubt can be replaced or that I reread often. Right now, there are a few hundred, and it is currently at a low point, as I haven't bought enough books in the past two years to make up for what I got rid of when I moved to Japan. My mom buys a lot of books and generally has good taste, so I borrow a lot of books from her, and the library of course.
last book bought:
Well, the last book I actually bought was a kid's book, and it was...hmmm, I don't remember. I buy him a lot of books. I buy more books for my son than I buy for myself. The last book I bought for myself was Ian Rankin's Witch Hunt. I am a major sucker for Ian Rankin.
last book read:
That would be Witch Hunt again. I can't keep an Ian Rankin book lying around unread.
And right now I'm reading a collection of short stories by Dashiell Hammett. These days short stories and poems and magazine articles work out a lot better for me, as I have to get my reading done in small chunks throughout the day. If I can cajole the kid into playing by himself (in a safe manner, of course) and there is no pressing business to attend to, I can read for 10-15 minutes, which makes it hard to get through a novel but perfect for a short story or magazine article. I get a few of those chunks per day.
five books that mean a lot to you:
It's hard to pick just five, really, and I'm sure everyone says that. But, here--I'll try.
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards (yes, Mary Poppins). This was far and away my favorite book as a kid, and I've read it countless times. This book was so important to me because there are two basic messages to it: The first is that, using your mind, you can do anything, figure anything out, and travel
anywhere. The second is a little harder to explain, but basically it suggests that objects and ideas that people ascribe power to through faith are just, well, crutches of a sort. Really, you don't need them. Really, you can do the things that need to be done without them. People are frightened of believing in themselves, so they need these things (in the case of the book, it's a "magical" hat that they wear to get to the land of the whangdoodles, but it turns out that you don't need the hats at all--you can get there using just your mind if you believe in your own power, but the professor
who leads them to whangdoodle-land tells these kids that they need the caps because he thinks it will help them if they have an object to ascribe magical power to--damn, this is sounding stupid, but it is a kid's book, and it is much better done than I'm making it seem). Anyway, this book was the first book I ever read that changed my world. After every reading of it, the world literally and figuratively looked different. All my senses would be sharper, more focused, more alive, and this is also the book that made me question the necessity of religion and so on and so forth. So, yes, it's a corruptor. And, yes, we will be giving my son his own copy any day now.
Next up: A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin. This book is so beautiful, so elegant. The story is basically about (I'm going to leave out the framing device, despite the fact that it is a good one and very well incorporated into the story) a young Italian man whose near-perfect world gets torn apart by World War I, how he survives the many atrocities of the war, how he escapes being a prisoner of war in Germany and walks across the Alps, how he comes to have a new family and what they mean to him. Oh, that is all so reductionist. I love this book for the characters and the telling of the story, and also because it is a story, ultimately, of why love and beauty are the most important achievements and highest calling of mankind and what those things are worth. I can't do it justice here. It's just--no, I can't do it any justice at all. Go read it, I urge you. And many thanks to sgazzetti for introducing me to it.
Well, I don't think it would be wrong to put Being and Time here, by Martin Heidegger. While it was not the first or last book of philosophy that was and is important to me, I think I'm going to choose instead a related book that really moved me, in a way that Heidegger's obfuscatory and prolix writing cannot. And that book is I and Thou by Martin Buber. You may be wondering, and rightly so, what an old Jewish theologian and I could have in common, but this book has become the foundation of my ethics. As I've said before, much to Zack's irritation, I think Buber's basic point is revealed everywhere in poetry and art, but I never really got it until I got it. I'm not sure I want to do as much injustice to I and Thou as I did to A Soldier of the Great War, but you can go read what Wikipedia says about it, or you could just read the book. It really is a powerful book.
Lost Japan by Alex Kerr should certainly make this list, as this book made me feel less like a hypercritical, imperialist asshole and more like I actually knew what I was talking about. Let me explain. Alex Kerr is a white American like me who lived (and lives) in Japan, although he lived there much, much longer than I did, and he is absolutely fluent in Japanese, while I am not. He knows more about Japanese history and culture than most Japanese people I know, and he deeply loves Japan. I also deeply love Japan, or at least I thought I did until I moved there. No, that's too harsh. But it wasn't what I had hoped for it to be. Japan is a country that, given its natural beauty and rich culture and history, could be almost perfect, and I had fallen in love with that, a love that remained through my first year there, when I was living way out in the boondocks by Mt. Fuji and soaking up all the culture I could handle. Then, though, things started to niggle in the second year. Like all the concrete everywhere--the beaches, the rivers, everywhere is concrete. Like the fact that you go to Kyoto, a city with huge potential, and it's, bleh, another Japanese city until you actually get to a temple. Kyoto shouldn't be another anonymous concrete jungle, I thought. Anyway, thoughts like this made me feel like an asshole. Was I just superimposing my own cultural values on Japan? Was I just being a spoiled brat who wanted a certain kind of Japan all to myself? Was I just suffering culture shock? When I found Alex Kerr's little gem of a book, I suddenly felt that maybe it wasn't just me. Maybe Japan was indeed betraying its own cultural values; maybe I wasn't all wrong. Thank you, Alex Kerr. Thank you so much. I wish I had found the book sooner, as I might still be living in Japan if I had.
And I think I'm going to fill out this list with Abe Kobo's The Woman in the Dunes (Suna no onna). I'm not going to even pretend to have read the original Japanese--no, I read it in English translation. It reminds me a lot of Camus and Beckett, both writers that I cherish, but especially Camus with all the desert imagery. I love this book, as the Mark Helprin book above, for both its elegance and imagery and its meaning, which is that there is no meaning--er, not exactly. It's that you keep shoveling the sand off your house because if you do not, the house will collapse, and, yes, it is frustrating work that never finishes, but this is life, and it does no good to sit around complaining about it, so just get your ass up and get to work. Abe says it much better. I also love that the bug-collector, who has been waylaid in the dunes shoveling sand and searching for water, has a chance to escape and does not. Is it because out here in the desert where his every day is a grapple to survive, the illusions are removed and what is real in life is exposed? This is a book I keep close to me, a book I would like to have cast in gold. I feel quite similarly about Tanizaki Junichiro's Some Prefer Nettles.
Oh, and obviously, Fisher's Hornpipe by Todd McEwen, but I've pimped that book here quite a few times.
(and I'm going to add a new category, so that I can write about 5 books and 5 authors):
five authors that mean a lot to you:
Oh, here again, there are many, and it will be difficult to choose, but persevere I must!
Albert Camus. I think this should be pretty self-explanatory. Like most college freshman, I first encountered him via The Stranger (damn, now I have The Cure song stuck in my head, too--"whichever I choose it amounts to the same, absolutely nothing--I'm alive, I'm dead..."). I have since read--hmm, I think all of his books. La Chute (The Fall) is my favorite. I have an especial fondness for the desert, having grown up in one, and I think this is something that bonded me to Camus.
Jorge Amado. Here, again, I won't pretend to have read them in Portuguese, though I wish I had. He is a writer who, whenever I'm feeling especially black and hopeless, he will always restore my faith in humanity. Gabriel Garcia Marquez does the same thing for me, and I love him, too, but there is an earthy quality, a homely (or homey, however you like it) quality to Amado that works its magic on me in no time. His books focus heavily on the complexity of people, especially women (and his women characters are exceptionally well drawn) and the essential beauty of even their worst decisions and frailest moments. Plus, his books are always filled with lavish descriptions of Bahian cooking, and they make me drool at the descriptions of spices and dende oil and all of it. Damn, now I have a Cure song stuck in my head AND I'm starving. Great.
Wallace Stevens. Man, I'm starting to see a modernist theme. That's me, modernist girl stuck in a postmodernist world. Stevens, I think, would have hated so much of postmodernism, and I suppose so do I. I think that that human project is to construct a worldview and a reality and an order from our imagination and reason. And that is what Stevens is all about. Heavens, could I be any more reductionist today?
Albert Borgmann. And not just because he was my professor for several years, forcing me to suffer the indignities of Immanuel Kant and introducing me to the great glories of Charles Taylor. His books are powerful and moving (and accessible) critiques of postmodern society, of technology, of our contemporary malaise. They will convince you of the goodness of community, the need for old-fashioned human interaction, and the desirability of public spaces.
And now I still can't decide between William Blake, Will Eisner, and Friedrich Nietzsche. I'm quite certain that if Jesus was the son of God and was going to have a second coming, it was either Blake or Nietzsche (or both) and the Christians missed their chance. Hmm, hmm, shall have to ponder.
But for now, having dispatched my meme responsibility, I tag: Itchy Dawg, Glamour Mama, Kimura, Zack, and --what the hell? --Shades_Of_Grey. Get to work, kids.
The first 5ive for today is:
5 things I just realized today:
1. The lemon thyme is surely dead. It must be replaced.
2. My son already knows who Momotarou is.
3. Somewhere, sometime I seem to have lost 8 pounds. It seems to have all come off my thighs, as these pants I'm wearing are getting a little baggy there. I attribute this to many, many trips up and down our stairs to our basement, the basement that is haunted by Young MC.
4. My feet have that icky look they get after a long winter. Time for the pumice, before sandal season is upon me.
5. I have had "E-Ticket Ride" stuck in my head for a couple of days, yet I have not heard that song in years. I used to
have that CD, but I lost it in the divorce, along with my truck, my Christmas ornaments, and the city of Missoula, Montana. I have similarly had "Speeding Motorcycle" stuck in my head, despite that CD having suffered a similar fate.
That was the 5ive I had planned, and then I got tagged with that damn "5 things no one knows about you" meme. You know the one. I think I am probably the last person in the world to have been tagged with that. It's going to be a bit difficult, because my two oldest and dearest friends in the universe both read this blog, and I don't think there is much they don't know about me. But I shall give it the old college try.
1. For many years, until I was well into high school, I absolutely refused to use the word "cool" to describe anything other than the temperature. I thought people sounded like ass saying everything was "cool" all the time, and I similarly thought that any word that wanted to be so cool as 'cool' could not also be used by my mom. Sigh. Somewhere along the line, I gave up my ideals and sold my vocabulary downstream, no doubt for a case of wine coolers.
2. Let's see. I was in FFA, as in the Future Farmers of America, for three years. I participated in many FFA events, including soil judging and meat judging (wink, wink, snicker, snicker). I was never much good at soil judging, because, honestly, I am completely spatially unaware and thus unable to determine the angle of slope of any given piece of land. It was vexing that whole "slope" business, as if you can't farm on a hill! I did well at meat judging (ahem!). This was also the era in which I raised pigs (and then, yes, sold them to people who would kill them and devour their fatty bellies--made a tidy little profit doing that).
3. I have a weakness for murder mysteries. I am especially fond of Agatha Christie (oh, Hercule! my love!), Dick Francis, and Ian Rankin. I don't look at the end to find out who did it, but I do try to figure it out on my own, and a writer can really only earn my respect if I can't figure it out. But those three write so well, I reread their books many times, even when I know who did it.
4. I have long had a serious Monkees fixation. I know not how I succumbed to the affliction, though Nick at Nite had a lot to do with it, along with little supervision and long hours of insomnia. You don't know schizophrenia until you have listened to Hank Williams, The Monkees, and Helmet all in one sitting, as I have.
5. The year I was 12 we lived in Albuquerque. It was the most terrifying year of my life. To illustrate: One day I woke up to find that our entire apartment complex was spattered with blood. There were pools of blood that had not yet dried all around and broken glass and blood on the walls. It turns out some guy on some drug had gone around punching out windows and just let himself bleed everywhere. Still freaky. And it colored my nightmares (and insomnia) for years. That was also the year some guy probably tried to abduct me. I say probably because I didn't get in the car with him. He was creepy all around, and so I would barely even look at him, but in the few glances I stole, I noticed that he was...oh, no, let's not talk about it, shall we? For these reasons, among others (someone also tried to carjack my grandma, who awesomely refused to move at all, sitting through several red lights and finally making the guy too nervous, so he jumped out), I will never live in Albuquerque again, not ever, not for any reason. I try my best not even to set foot in Albuquerque.
There are probably other things. I am, for example, completely anal retentive about matching my clothes and always have been. I have no wisdom teeth (and no cavities in all my 32 years!). I have had insomnia and nightmares since I can remember, although Albuquerque didn't help. I have touched a real mummy, actually more than one. I know the proper method for skinning a deer. My IQ is apparently nearly twice my state's average. I know how to weld. When I was 2 years old or so, I cut the top of one of my fingers off; the same year, I hurled myself out of the car into oncoming Phoenix traffic, an act for which I still blame my mother (and, hey, thank goodness for car seats).
Hmmm. Fascinating, isn't it?
Now, you're tagged. Sucker!
Four Jobs I've Had:
- Teacher
- Medical Transcriptionist
- Assistant cook in a Vietnamese restaurant--which means I have made a lot of damned spring rolls
- Ethics tutor/grader of tests (very fun, grading freshman ethics tests--such a power trip to give out those F+ and F- grades)
Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over:
- Dial M for Murder
- Blazing Saddles
- Hoosiers (and don't give me any lip about it, either)
- GoodFellas
Four Places I've Never Been To But Would Like To Visit:
- NYC
- Andalusia
- Ireland
- Yosemite NP
Four Songs on My CD Player Right Now:
1. This Mess We're In -- PJ Harvey and Radiohead
2. Dolphins Were Monkeys--Ian Brown
3. Only You--Portishead
4. Pumping on Your Stereo--Supergrass
Yeah, it's the CD from Yan-Yan again. It's a damn fine mix CD. He had good taste.
Four TV Shows I Like:
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Good Eats
3. Mythbusters
4. Project Runway/Top Chef
(I almost never watch any of these, as I am not well attuned to TV schedules--I totally forget about them usually. Also they are all poorly synchronized with the toddler-care and work schedules I am on. Oh, shit, and The Daily Show and The Colbert Report should have made the list, too, but we only get 4.)
Four Places I Have Vacationed:
- Kumamoto, Japan
- Malaysia
- Glacier National Park
- Vietnam
Four Favorite Foods
2. Ramen, like you get in Japan--I'm not talking about the instant stuff
3. Biscuits and gravy
4. Cherries
Four Places I Would Rather Be:
- In bed
- In bed with my husband
- In bed with a book
- In bed, warm and not working (I work nights, and I would rather sleep, for sure)
My Groups
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