So this semester's a bit crazy, and I have to blog for my PR class, so I'm going on hiatus. Feel free to visit me at insightsofatwentysomething.blogspot.com
In the 10 December 2007 issue of Newsweek (the one that's current right now, I think--the cover story is fertility & diet), the TipSheet mentioned a 2008 Russian Reading Challenge on Ex Libris. I only got to reading the issue today, because of finals/projects, so I might be a bit behind. But I'm definitely going to do this.
I read Crime and Punishment for AP English my senior year, and I've been stuck on page 28 of Anna Karenina since I dragged it out to Colorado last Christmas. I really should've realized that skiing + sleeping in a loft with two other people + Russian tome does not equal finishing said tome, or making a dent in it, really.
And Karenina, along with The Brothers Karamazov and War and Peace, are on my list of books to read before I'm...well, I haven't come up with a deadline yet. I guess, before I'm dead. That should do it.
The problem is, however, the challenge is for at least four books. I don't have time to read four, or probably even three, tomes. So, since I don't have a clue which of the new translations of War I should pick up, and I already have editions of Karenina and Brothers--even though they are the Barnes & Noble Classics editions. Is that bad?--I'm going to have those be my two tomes. So that leaves at least two other books I need to come up with. And there, I remain, stuck. I know next to nothing about Russian lit, just the names of the big players and their equally big books. Except Lolita, but I don't really want to go there.
So if anyone has any suggestions, HELP! Anything will work: history, nonfiction, poetry, someone's even reading modern sci-fi/fantasy. The only thing I'm worried about is length/time commitment. I'm still dealing with classes, obviously, and prepping for my portfolio review (much more stressful than I anticipated, putting together a bunch of my work), and interviewing for internships, etc etc.
Currently reading: Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde; still working on Paradise Lost by John Milton, with intro/commentary by Philip Pullman
(tangent: apparently, people are complaining The Golden Compass is either too anti-Catholic [my pastor, the rest of the Church] or not anti-Catholic enough. Go figure. I haven't seen it yet--probably will this week--so I'll let you know what I think in a few.)
John Mayer has a new single coming out--according to Wikipedia, on November 27--called "Say" or, sometimes, "Say (What You Need to Say)". It's for the upcoming film The Bucket List, which sounds incredibly depressing (but probably not fully), so I'll probably wait till it comes out on dvd so I can cry by myself. Although, I generally don't cry at movies. Anyway. The song is great, it reminds me of the earlier stuff John did, back when he was crooning to college girls, but has a bit more depth. He still is making us college girls swoon, bless his pop-y little heart, but he's also gotten older in his music (oddly enough, as he got older in real life. isn't that just strange? [end sarcasm]), especially with the Trio and Continuum. I might be slightly biased, as I am in the facebook group "All I want from life is a one-night stand with John Mayer", but that's mostly for the entertainment value. And I'm a little irked at the guy for re-releasing Continuum, but since I think there's only five or six additional songs (well, plus Say), and they're live, I might live. Or there's always iTunes.
My mom bought frozen individual portions of salmon somewhere--just a piece of frozen fish, sealed inside a clear bag inside a colorful printed one--and it says on the back: Ingredients: Wild Salmon. Contains: salmon (fish). Really.
I'd've taken a picture, but my camera is all melty. As in, I take a picture, and the image is pink-y and melted. Which sucks, but now I finally have a decent excuse to get a new camera. This one's three years old, and it's too big & heavy. It has only a 3x optical zoom, and I rue it when I need it the most: at events where there is no chance for duplication. The Jason Mraz concert I went to at Fair St Louis last year, the Ben Folds concert at school, the Obama rally last month... It does use AA batteries though, so I just use rechargeables, which is really nice. But now I've lost two of my batteries, so it's not nice anymore.
My dream is also to get good SLRs, both digital and 35mm. Digital's easier, sure, but I just love using film. I could go for a Canon, but part of me is saying, suck it up, save your money, get the Nikon. My dad just says, we have a Canon sitting unused, what's wrong with that? well, it's from 1983. It still works well, and I've used it in both my photography classes, but it takes forever and a day to advance the film, and the flash takes three times as long as that to warm up between shots. Not good.
I often play games online, on sites like Yahoo! Games and Addicting Games. My favorites are crosswords--well, I don't know if they're really "games"--Tetris-like ones, and puzzle games. Everything from Inspector Parker to Snood (or Pop and Drop on y!g) to Bejeweled are fun. And about three years ago, I was completely obsessed with Bejeweled. I'd play for long stretches of time--seems like it was hours, but it probably really wasn't. And over the years, more and more knockoffs of my original fave have been created. There's a Roman coin one and a happy-face one called "12 Swap" on Addicting; there's a stamp one on Yahoo; I've seen Halloween and Christmas versions; and even corporate-sponsored ones, like a Tyson (as in chicken, not bite-your-ear-off boxer) one that I think was Thanksgiving-esque. I don't know why there's so many different versions out there; I've played a few of them and none are as fun, or as enthralling, as the original is to me. That could be because the graphics aren't as good, or because I don't really played Bejeweled anymore. But I really think it's because nothing's ever as good as the original. The movie's never as good as the book, the fake Gucci purse deteriorates within several months, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera (quoth the King of Siam).
I just finished reading A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore. The basic plot is brilliant: an average guy (called in the book a Beta Male, who Moore describes perfectly throughout) becomes Death. Well, not quite Death. More of Death's Little Helper (although when Charlie, the main character, makes the Santa reference, he gets shot down). Add in some "sewer harpies", a seven-foot-tall black man who wears green suits because his mother named him Minty Fresh, an oddly-powered toddler girl, and some crazy writing, and you get this book. Some textual examples (because supporting evidence is always needed for a well-written essay):
"Well, sweet Tidy Bowl Jesus skipping on the blue toilet water, we wouldn't want it to get fucking weird, would we?"
(a man is mad because he hears Charlie calling his dog Mohammed)
"'Well, I have named my dog Jesus. How do you feel about that?'
'Well, then I'm sorry, I didn't realize you'd lost your dog.'
'I have not lost my dog.'
'Really? I saw these flyers all over town with "Have You Found Jesus?" on them. It must be another dog named Jesus.'...Charlie noted that more and more lately, he had a hard time resisting the urge to fuck with people, especially when they insisted upon behaving like idiots."
and so on throughout the book. It's incredibly brilliant; it's the kind of sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek writing that makes me fall off my chair and simultaneously curse the gods for not being able to come up with stuff like this. Seriously. I found a paper from seventh grade, and it's complete crap. The main character was named something like Catherine Mayer, but I called her Star. I'd always wanted a cool nickname, and mine's vaguely unusual, but not really.
Moore's apparently a very prolific writer; all of his stuff is now on my library list. The oddest thing is I found this book during one of my weekly perusals of our "library", aka my mom's four-bookcase-plus collection (my personal library only covers a little more than seven shelves, or maybe a bookcase and a shelf), and much to my surprise, Moore is the author of Lamb, a book that was recommended to me last winter and that I really wanted to read but couldn't remember the title or author. Lamb is subtitled "the gospel according to Biff, Christ's childhood pal". I remembered the Christ part, and that was it. So now I'm ecstatic I've found the book again. I'm reading that over Thanksgiving. That is, if I ever get around to finishing The Well of Lost Plots or if I don't decide to make a more significant dent in Paradise Lost or Le Morte d'Arthur. But I've been reading the former since I bought it in July (August?) and am still in the first part (canto?), and I've been reading the latter on and off since I got it, which was probably freshman year. Of high school.
I'm a little sick of how early stores start decorating for Christmas. I went somewhere about two weeks before Halloween, and it was all snowglobes and carols; even after Halloween seems early. My mom decreed that Christmas decorations could only remain up for one month, from St Nicholas Day to the Epiphany. I'm definitely stealing that rule for my own household. Because of the exposure for two weeks of friends' and classrooms' decorations, we were itching to decorate when we got home from school on St Nick's Day. Last year, Nordstrom had on one of their windows something to the effect of, "We believe in celebrating one holiday at a time. Our Christmas decorations will go up November 23. (or whatever was the day after Thanksgiving). Happy Holidays." Totally fantastic. I haven't gone yet this November, but I'm assuming something similar is there again. It's never made sense to me: people throw up their lights shortly after Halloween, or sometimes even after Thanksgiving, but by the 27th, they're all taken down. Whatever happened to the twelve days of Christmas? Or at least wait until after New Year's, that's still colloquially part of the Christmas season. Bah humbug.
This is your brain:
This is your brain on boredom:
This is what happens when you don't have a lot of homework and you do have a lot of free time. It probably took me 2 1/2 - 3 hours, including minesweeper and crossword breaks. Even when I'm doing something amusing/not tedious, I have to take breaks. Kind of sad, I suppose. It all started when my cousins and I were watching pretty much the entire series of Alias on dvd. One of them made a desktop of all the cast, and I asked her to send me the pic of Michael Vartan. And then this was born. What's been pointed out to me, and could mean something psychologically, I guess, is everyone with the exception of Teddy Geiger is older than me (he's a year younger), and with the exception of Marlon Brando (who I'm calling 24 cause the pic's from A Streetcar Named Desire), are at least six years older. Batman's 29. Hmmm...
Oh, for those interested, in a left-to-right, quasi-clockwise manner: Johnny Depp, Michael Vartan, Clive Owen from King Arthur, Jason Mraz, Christian Bale, Justin Timberlake, Orlando Bloom from Pirates of the Caribbean, George Clooney, John Mayer, Brandon Routh from Superman Returns, Marlon Brando from A Streetcar Named Desire, Teddy Geiger, Batman, Hugh Laurie, Alan Rickman, David Beckham as Prince Philip for a Disney ad, Shane West, Jake Gyllenhaal (who, incidentally, is also on my wall, since I bought this issue of Entertainment Weekly in an airport while in Europe), and Gerard Butler. And the average age is 34.368, and I am currently 20.364. But I did pretty well, only Alan Rickman's older than my parents. But that's okay, he's practically married anyway. (Shut up, I know Johnny Depp is too, and Clive Owen is legally married, but whatever.)
And besides, at least I'm not Iggy Pop.
Listening to: Fleetwood Mac's The Dance. Someone please explain Lindsey Buckingham to me. Why is a song called "Tusk"? I love it, but it really makes me wonder...(and now I have that song in my head.)
Some of my friends and I went to the Barack Obama rally tonight. Not because we necessarily support him, but as representatives of the ONE campaign. Our prez, aka Bono, prepared a question in case there was a Q&A, memorizing it on the Metrolink on the way over. No dice, though; there were no questions. BUT:
I mentioned one.org like, a scrillion years ago, once, but here's some more info (some of which I didn't know until I became more active in the organization on campus):
Everyone probably remembers the commercials when it first came out, the snapping ones with Bono and George Clooney, and also (I think) Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt, but probably not what they were talking about. The group's tagline is "The campaign to make poverty history". They are working to eradicate poverty, reduce the occurrence of AIDS and other diseases, and ending world hunger. Lofty goals, it seems, but we as Americans are fully capable of helping the poorer countries of the world. The major issue of the campaign is to allocate more of the US budget to helping poorer nations. Additionally, the UN's Millenium Development Goals share major similarities; cancelling debt and reducing maternal and child mortality are major points for both. Many developing countries are suffering the consequences of diseases that the developed world has not experience for years, if not decades. Malaria and tuberculosis are two such examples. Also, providing women with education and healthcare--both during pregnancy and not--can further a community's chances for survival, and the campaign supports this as well.
Right now, the ONE Vote '08 campaign is also running. It's being co-chaired by Sens. Bill Frist (R-Tenn) and Tom Daschle (D-S Dak). A brochure I picked up sums it up nicely and, at least for me, strikes a chord: "In 2008, we will choose a new President. The number of people whose lives will be affected is much higher than the population of America itself. It is in America's strategic interest to fight poverty and global disease. Regardless of party, ethnicity, religion or ideology, ending hunger and stopping the spread of disease is the right thing to do. Use your voice to create change."
Did I mention they're nonpartisan? Be a Republican, be a Libertarian, be apathetic. But make your voice heard. This is a big thing for me, and probably for a lot of people in my age range. I couldn't vote in 2004 (I'm young for my class), but I remember how loud and near-violent (or so it seemed) my classmates got. But are they going to be as active in '08? Maybe; but I doubt it. But I for one am going to further educate myself on the issues--I won't be a "check here for Republican/here for Democrat" voter--and a good way to do that is to get involved.
To get involved is ridiculously easy. Go to the website. Enter your name on the pledge. You're done. Or, get more involved; read about the issues, buy something from the store, contact your local ONE branch. It's up to you.
And, right now, there's the Campus Challenge. We earn points through various tactics--having your school mascot wear a ONE shirt, starting a Facebook group--and the top 100 schools get to send representatives to a conference in Washington DC to discuss the issues. Kind of a meeting of the brilliant minds of the future, if you will. Wait, maybe I shouldn't be telling you this; you could sign up and beat us. Yeah...forget what I just said...
Listening to: eek, a really bad version of Paint It Black by....Vanessa Carlton? WTF mate? Skipping that one... ah, Gimme Shelter. How fitting for the topic at hand.
I just got on Last.fm a few weeks ago; it's fun, cause it tells me who I'm listening to the most. Yeah, sure, iTunes tells me who my tops songs are, but this graphs--they call it "scrobbling", why, I don't know--everything (which, oddly enough, apparently I've listened to John Mayer songs exactly 500 times). And graphing was always my favorite part of math class. Especially when we started using graphing calculators and I could draw pictures with it. Man, I miss my TI-83+ And the best part is, you can listen to it like a radio station--type in an artist, and on their page is a "listen to Jason Mraz's similar artists"--or you load it onto your computer, and it pays attention when you're listening on iTunes. Which can be a problem, since I was burning some Christmas cds the other day, and they all showed up on my "recently listened" parts on my profile & on facebook...
Question: Springsteen's releasing a new studio album this week and Dylan's releasing a greatest hits compilation. Which do you prefer from a legend: new material or time-honored classics?
Answer: Well, I really think it depends. But for the most part, I'm a classics girl. I prefer old U2 (Best of 1980-1990 is constantly in my CD player), old Rolling Stones; but I actually listen to some of Sting's new stuff, also. I bought my dad Fleetwood Mac's Say You Will for his birthday, and had to return it since it's not as good as Rumours-era stuff. But I think my lack of interest in newer stuff is related to my non-fanatic interest in the bands in general. While I like the Stones or U2, I'm not a crazed fan. Sure, I recognize more of their stuff than just a casual listener would, and my favorites are sometimes the lesser-known stuff, but I'm far from knowing the lyrics to all their stuff. I'd put it more at 53%. And I might go to one of their concerts if they come to my city, but I'm not driving to Texas for one, and I'm not paying $250 for a ticket. Hell, I didn't go to John Mayer this summer because lawn tickets were $37, instead of the usual $25. Which is also why I went to a Counting Crows/Goo Goo Dolls concert a year ago: their lawn tix were $20. And I don't like their new stuff much.
Anyone else seen these commercials? Mountain Dew has released a new...flavor..."just in time for Halo 3!!!!" I thought the TransformerToaster one was bad enough. Someone in the marketing department must've been on crack that day...
I've decided that car commercials, unless entertaining, or actively displaying the prowess of the car, should be banned.
To Ban:
-Mercury commercial where the chick picks up the logo and flicks it, and it rings like a bell & the car is formed
-Toyota commercial with the keys "raining". My mom's response: Everyone knows that would really hurt, to get hit in the head with a key. She has a point.
-Jeep commercial with a robot "skateboarding" on top of the car
-commercial for Which Car Company I Don't Recall, Which Proves Just How Idiotic Their Commercial Is, As I Can't Remember It Except For The Fact I Didn't Like It, which "melts" things like jewelry and forms the car, while someone's treacly cover version of "I Melt with You" assaults our eardrums.
-you get the point. These are all really dumb and have nothing to do with selling a car.
To Keep:
-Toyota truck commercials, where they prove how powerful the car is by overloading the bed with manure, or having it climb a ramp that see-saws, or having it go full-speed toward the edge of a cliff.
-Lexus commercial where the silver car has to drive fast enough to not get squished underneath the black one plummeting to earth
-Volkswagen commercials in general. You have the old-school "it even floats" one, the classic "Mr Roboto" one, or the newer "Safe Happens" ones (grab your attention while effectively showing how safe they are). Even the "VDubs Rock" ones (or whatever they were called) last winter, with John Mayer & Slash & that other guy were unusual, and thus entertaining. Exception: the whole UnPimp My Car, or whatever, fiasco. Horrid man flashing the "VDub" gang sign needs to die.
Deathly Hallows came out. Deathly Hallows was read. Deathly Hallows was discussed. Harry Potter is over. At least until the next film. Oh well, there's other fantasy series (anyone have any recommendations? I'm a bit lost on that point. though I did pass on The Golden Compass and Sabriel to my cousin, so I feel like I did some good).
Does anyone ever get the feeling that their electronics are somewhat smarter than they are supposed to be? Occasionally, my computer will do things that I'm not sure are Proper Computer Behavior, but usually I can figure it out. But my iPod? Whole other story.
I have several score of playlists, but even when I'm not in one that's very specific, it manages to play songs that go well together sometimes. When I'm not in a "mood" for something specific, I usually put it on my five-star rated playlist (which covers classic rock to pop to broadway to punk) on shuffle. But it'll still play Genesis, Aerosmith, Paul McCartney, Rolling Stones. They're all the same genre!
And then there's the times that it plays something that goes with whatever I'm doing. I was just on Jason Mraz's website, seeing when he was poppin' over to the STL next--unfortunately, not very soon, he's in Europe, where I wish I were--and, lo and behold, No Stopping Us moseys up on shuffle.
The creepiest actually happened while I was reading Deathly Hallows. Same wide-ranging playlist, on shuffle. Beware spoilers. Some are just glancing similarities, others are more in-depth, but this is still freaky:
1) War-Edwin Starr (War *huh* what is it good for) --during the Death Eater aerial attack/death of Moody
2) Mad World (forget who sings it, it's that song from Donnie Darko) --while Harry is visiting his parents' graves (lyrics: I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad, the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had). Not terribly obvious, but there is the link between Donnie & Harry: dying to save the world
3) Ice, Ice Baby-Vanilla Ice --the sword is in the frozen lake that Harry has to dive into and get. This one's mostly the title
4) Rebel, Rebel-David Bowie --the chapter that they visit Luna's father, who's a kind of rebel wizard (or at least, he was). Again, mostly the title.
5) You Give Me Something-James Morrison --Griphook tells Harry that he won't help them unless he gets something in return. This one's just the title, as there is no undertones of romance in the chapter that I could tell.
6) Heaven-Los Lonely Boys (How far is heaven?) --Harry sees Remus & Tonks laid out with the other casualties.
Obviously, the majority of the time, my iPod is not intelligent, and the songs it is outputting have nothing to do with what's going on in my world (ie, Sweet's Wig Wam Bam is playing right now. Cause I am, in fact, attempting to romance my own Indian warrior at this very moment.) but I think that makes it even more jarring when the little man inside the iPod puts out something particularly germane.
And yes, there is a little man inside my iPod. His name is Pete, and I feed him Doritos. He's not friendly with Steve, the little man in my car. Which is why I still can't listen to my iPod while driving, and have burnt about seventeen cds in the past four days because my six-disk changer is still cooperative. For now.
Listening to: whatever Pete selects. Right now, Semi-charmed Life by Third Eye Blind.
Reading: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I read that people have compared it (detrimentally) to the DaVinci Code. Are you kidding me? Must be the people who think Harry Potter is teaching Satanism to kids. Completely not the DaVinci Code. So much better than DVC. Would make a better movie, too, and Tom Hanks wouldn't need to have horrible hair. Oooh! That could work! Tom Hanks could play the father, Paul, while he's older (1970s) and his son, Colin Hanks, could plays Paul when he's younger (1950s).
Recent Comments
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Lightchaser said:
I've heard lots of wonderful stuff about Kostova's book. As far as fantasy series go, The Song of Ice and... read more
on Intelligent Electronics -
Autumn said:
I know what you mean - I sat there thinking I'd read that before. It's sort of like Pern meets... read more
on Has anyone read Eragon? -
elsbels said:
heh, yeah, i totally agree...i just finished it. man, that was an easy read. my main objection is this: it's... read more
on Has anyone read Eragon?
Hey, thanks for the comment! Sorry for the long response time, I've put myself on internet moratorium to get used... read more
on Intelligent Electronics