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10-20-30 Virus
I saw this one over on Autumn’s Mom and Ms. Mamma, and thought I would do it myself. 🙂 The idea is, I tell you what I was doing 10 years ago, 20 years ago, and 30 years ago. Since I’m over 40, I added 40 to this meme. Feel free to join in and do this one as well, if you’re interested. 10 years ago – 1997 – I was working as an HR Assistant at a small local company, and not really loving it. Actually, I got passed over for a promotion I wanted, which led me to accepting a job that was a much better match for…
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Jolene
Jess had a post the other day about being a dorky 8-year old, and taping songs off of the radio. Back in the day, we would take our cassette player, plop it in front of the radio, and tape our favorite songs, cursing the DJ if he talked over the intro or outro (that’s a real term, ’cause I live with radio talk, so I know!). That reminded me of how my friend Jennifer and I would spend our Sunday mornings…first, I would walk to her house, which was maybe a mile or two from my house…then, I would make pancakes for us (I was 5 years older than she…
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Calling All Wordies!
I saw this over at the hidden side of a leaf.  A fun site called Free Rice, where they give you a word with a list of 4 synonyms…you pick the right one, they donate 10 grains of rice, which are paid for by advertisers to the page. Kind of like The Hunger Site, but with learning! For each correct answer, the next word gets a little harder. For each incorrect answer, the next word gets a little easier. Hey, you can show off (at least to yourself), learn something, and have fun, all while helping to alleviate hunger. Fun!
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Do we need help from St. Joseph?
I saw an article on the Wall Street Journal about the huge increase in sales of St. Joseph statues spurred by the lagging housing market. Lore claims that if you bury a statue of St. Joseph in your yard, it will guarantee you a quick home sale. Um…ok, I’m tempted to give it a try. I’m ashamed to admit that, but the thought did cross my mind. Then I thought, wait, I’m willing to risk a lot worse than my home not selling by being an atheist, right? If I’m willing to risk not getting into heaven someday, I should be willing to risk not selling my home. In other…
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Waterboarding
I find Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey’s equivication on whether the interrogation technique called ‘waterboarding’ constitutes torture or not to be deeply disturbing. Waterboarding was considered a war crime when practiced against Americans in WWII and in Viet Nam, yet for some reason, Mukasey can’t seem to make up his mind as to whether the treatment involved is equal to torture. This, from Malcolm Nance, a veteran of counter terrorism operations in Iraq: 1. Waterboarding is a torture technique. Period. There is no way to gloss over it or sugarcoat it. It has no justification outside of its limited role as a training demonstrator. Our service members have to learn that…
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Synchronicity
Last night, as Maya was doing her Earth Science homework, she asked me if I had ever studied the Richter scale. “Um…”I thought about it a bit, “No, I don’t think so.” “Really?” Clearly my education has been lacking. Or maybe we DID study it in 6th grade, and I just don’t remember. Then, a few hours later, we were getting ready for bed, and we had an earthquake! (SF Gate is trying to scare us, telling us that it was the biggest earthquake since ’89, and raises the danger of a big one on the Hayward fault.  Should we be scared? Who knows. Maybe it’s time to put together an earthquake…
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Happy Halloween…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq2RXSboWMs[/youtube]
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Man of the Century
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNSIOd9LTh4[/youtube] One of Ted’s coworkers loaned him a very cute DVD the other day…has anyone seen Man of the Century? The premise is that Johnny Twennies lives in the1990s, but he acts as though he’s in the 1920s. He’s a newspaper man who still works on a typewriter, swears like a pre-schooler, sends messages by telegram, and he’s trying to keep his job and get the girl. Very cute. Very clever. We never found out WHY he’s still in the past, but I was glad he was, because I liked this film. Give it a rental/Netflix. You won’t be sorry.
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the curious incident of the dog in the night-time
I loved this book. Again, it was a quick read, which I seem to be getting a lot of lately, so I polished it off in 2 sittings. The first thing I noticed when I started this book was that the first chapter appeared to be chapter 2. Hmmm. Did I get a bum copy? Doesn’t look like a bum copy. The next chapter is 3, then 5, then 7. Oh, OK, prime numbers. Christopher Boone is writing a murder mystery, and he is an autistic savant living in Swindon, England, and loves ‘maths’. He finds great comfort in numbers and the way they work…it helps him to cope with…
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The Almost Moon ~ Alice Sebold
I read The Lovely Bones a few years ago, and it almost broke my heart. If you haven’t read it, it’s the story of a teen aged girl who is raped and murdered by a neighbor, and it takes awhile for her body to be found. The oddly uplifting story is mostly of the girl watching her family from heaven, wanting to comfort them with the knowledge that she is OK now, and trying to come to terms with the transition from her earthly life to the non-corporeal existence where she now finds herself. It’s shattering and very well written. Alice Sebold’s other book, Lucky, is a memoir, and I…
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Seether – Veruca Salt
I’ve decided to post this video today to divert myself from posting a review of The Almost Moon, which I finished a few days ago, and which I wrote the review for on Tuesday, but I don’t want to post it today because I just posted a book review YESTERDAY for crap’s sake, and can’t I just slow down with the books or something? And I had a good excuse with Number the Stars and Ethan Frome, as they are very short and easy reads, but now I’m back to regular grown up books, and I can’t stop. Would it disturb you to know that as a tween, I used…
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Ethan Frome
I read Ethan Frome as part of my 2nds reading challenge, where you read a second book by an author of whose work you’ve previously only read one book. That’s just awkward…I always have trouble explaining this challenge. Anyway, awhile ago I read The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton, for last winter’s classics challenge. I thought it was a sad, tragic tale, and so well written, that I wanted more of Ms. Wharton. So when I saw this challenge, I thought it would be the perfect time to pick up Ethan Frome. If you haven’t read Ethan Frome (wikipedia page, plot spoilers!), it is the story of a man…
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Open Letter to Creepy Guy
Dear Creepy Guy, (Why say “Dear”? You are not dear to me. A better start would be, “Hey Asshat”) Hey Asshat, Just because you get some kind of creepy thrill from giving me the willies every morning on the bike trail doesn’t mean you’re going to stop me from walking my daughter to school. You ride by on your way to work (or wherever you’re going, I assume work because it’s the same time every day), and you stare at me, and sometimes you scowl, and sometimes you smile a skeezy smile, and once you blew me a kiss. Perhaps you think you’re sexy and charming, and I harbor a…
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If All of the ‘Cool Kids’ Jumped off of a Bridge…
Would you? Apparently, for me, the answer is sadly, yes. I had no intention of joining NaBloPoMo this year. Just a few weeks ago, I was considering giving up blogging, wondering if I had anything left to say. My hiatus may have only lasted 6 or 7 hours, but it was real in my head and heart during those long hours. 😉 So, when I saw that it was time again for National Blog Posting Month, with its goal of posting at least once a day, every day, during the month of November, I thought, um, that kind of goes against my new blogging philosophy, my “I have a life”…
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Number the Stars
Number the Stars is the story of Annemarie, a 10 year old Danish Christian girl in 1943. Denmark is occupied by the Nazis, and now they are preparing to deport all of the Jews, including Annemarie’s best friend, Ellen, and her family. Annemarie’s family works with Ellen’s family to spirit them away, and the events occurring around Annemarie do not always make sense. But she wants her friend to be safe, desperately, and is willing to be brave to help. While the characters in Number the Stars are fictional, the events portrayed are very much real. I had never read anything about the rescue of the Danish Jews before. What…