queenlyzard

New header entry to my journal:

These are my communities-- I will shamelessly plug for them at any opportunity:

1)  I have a new community!!! bookaddiction is a place for people who are serious readers.  My idea is that I'll pose interesting topics for discussion that can only be answered by people who have done a lot of reading.  None of this "what's your favorite book" nonsense that you see at other book blogs.
UPDATE: And it's working!!!!!!!

2) jewishbyculture -  a place for those of us who consider ourselves Jewish despite not following the religion.  Anyone interested in Jewish culture (or even just Woody Allen movies) is welcome. Gets occassional attention.

3) thelexicon - Pretty much defunct. Co-moderated with sentinel1966, our intention was to make a master list (or "Lexicon") of the coolest words of all time.  Post your recommendations, and tell us why you love them!

4) transtemptanon - I'm not actually a mod here, but I was involved in creating this community, and I feel very motherly towards it.  This is a support group for people who have given up various religious or superstitious beliefs... but sometimes find themselves missing them, or tempted back to old ways of thinking.  Here, we gently help each other remember to see the world clearly and scientifically.

I also belong to a bunch of communities, but rarely post at any of them. Ask me about any of them before thinking you know something about me because I'm a member of _____.

Thank you all for your excellent comments.

I am home from work (yes, I went to work this sick. I survived, and did my best to wash my hands every five minutes and not breathe on any customers).

I am overwhelmed. I have fallen behind on reading LJ, again, and on my book-journal as usual.

I am working fri, sat, and sun.

I have a Chem test tomorrow evening that I need to study for.

I have a research paper on Johann Pachelbel due Monday for my music class, and while my grade could certainly survive me blowing it off, I'd really hate to lose that A. And the only books in the library system that even mention the guy are Reference, so I can't take them home with me to work on.

My head feels like it's stuffed full of bees wrapped in dripping wet cotton, which is at least an improvement over last night, when I couldn't get to sleep for hours and hours because it felt like a team of mining gnomes had gone spelunking up my nose into my head and were trying to slip my skull from the inside.

Either way, I'd dearly love to just sleep for about a week.

Yikes?

So apparently, I managed to avoid the porcinefluenza just in order to come down with a good old-fashioned raging head-cold.

I forget-- are you supposed to starve a cold and feed a fever, or the other way around? And what if you have a fever with your cold?

Mostly, I've been drowning my woes in a never-ending cup of green tea with lots of honey.

Off to work for a few hours. Wish me minimal contact with customers.

I have discovered wikianswers. Or rather, I have discovered that I can answer them. When I'm not too busy tearing my hair out at people's inability to write a proper coherent question and/or just read the book.

My philosophy professor points out that Language determines Thought, and thought shapes reality. More and more, at school and in life generally, I am really worried about the thoughts-- and realities-- of people who can't use their own native language in a coherent fashion. Are their minds as fuzzy and unfocused as the stuff that comes out of their mouths?

Er, anyway. The point was that I have yet another new and unneeded Black Hole in my daily allotment of time. Help!

...inspired by the dog who woke me up entirely too early this morning.

...

It isn't easy being a canine superhero. On the one paw, I can run faster than a speeding automobile. However, I am sworn to use my powers in secret and only for the greater good, and so I cannot make use of my super-speed to chase the shiny cars that whizz tauntingly down our street at all hours. I concede that's probably for the best-- they're fun to chase, but I don't know what I'd do with one if I caught it.

I can leap tall fences in a single bound -- an invaluable skill for a Dog of Destiny-- but I still can't manage doorknobs. This leads, as you may imagine, to some embarrassing situations. Since my humans fail to understand me when I bark "You must let me out right now! It is a matter vitally important to the future of all dog-kind!" I am reduced to the humiliating subterfuge of pretending that I have a weak bladder and that their carpets will suffer a soggy fate if I am not immediately allowed access to the yard. Hardly the kind of story one wants to tell one's puppies. And the wasted time can come at a high cost.

Last night, for instance, in the wee hours of pre-dawn gloom, Dexter, a sheepdog in my district, sent up the chilling howl that means "I'm in over my head here and paddling for all I'm worth. Help! Help! And quickly!" I roused my groggy human with a petulant whine (like all her kind, she slept through the howling without twitching an eyelash), and vanished from the yard as soon as she turned her back. In the near-darkness, I could make full use of my speed, and it took me barely five minutes to reach Dexter's farm some twelve miles away. I ran flat-out, for his howl was one of panic and desperation. Every normal dog within hearing distance must have felt their fur stand on end, and as I neared the farm I heard the approaching bark of Sandy, a German Shepard of my acquaintance, and a fine bitch whose skills, while not supernaturally enhanced like my own, were impressive enough for any dog.

...

Ok, so I don't really have a storyline to follow this up with, sadly enough. I suppose it might be a vague sort of murder-mystery. I wonder how our doggy hero got his powers-- a bite from a radioactive tick or flea, perhaps?

Anyway, it was fun.

PMS sucks. I've spent all day feeling like I'm on the verge of a panic attack for absolutely no reason. All I want to do is curl up into a tiny ball under the bed and suck my thumb. I've compromised by spending most of the day curled up into a tiny ball on the couch reading instead. Yay me.

{1222-1227}

*** 1222) "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

No, I've never read this-- or any Austen book-- before now. Amazing, isn't it? I enjoyed it quite a lot-- the short chapters offset the period language and made it easier to read than I expected. I love Austen's dry, situational sense of humor, and I was thoroughly swept away by the main plot once I got into it, which did take me a little while. I don't know that it will become one of those favorites that I read over and over, but I'm definitely happy to have read it once.

Quotes:

Charlotte: "' Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other, or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation...' " 24 Not sure if I agree entirely, but it's a very interesting point to consider!

Darcy:  " 'The power of doing any thing with quickness is always much prized by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.' " 49 Austen actually has a real knack for being snarky, come to think of it.

of Elizabeth: "It was not in her nature, however, to increase her vexations by dwelling on them. She was confident of having performed her duty; and to fret over unavoidable evils, or augment them by anxiety, was no part of her disposition." 227 I envy her that! And they totally got her wrong in the movie with Kiera Knightly (although I liked the movie all the same, romantic piece of drivel that it was. We watched it and read the book for book club last month. I really was annoyed at the movie for leaving out some major plot-points, though).

of Mr. Bennet "...where other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given." 231 What a marvelous description!


*** 1223) "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck

Enjoyable, although verging on the overly simple at times. Unexpectedly funny in places, although I wouldn't describe it as a humorous work on the whole, as many people do. A wonderfully astute sketch, a pie-slice of life, a celebration of normalcy and oddity... all the stuff I tend to find boring in standard "literature," but written sparely and lightly enough that it isn't boring.

"...there are two possible reactions to social ostracism-- either a man emerges determined to be better, purer, and kindlier or he goes bad, challenges the world, and does even worse things. This last is by far the commonest reaction to stigma." 132

" 'It has always seemed strange to me,' said Doc, 'The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.' " 135


**** 1224) "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

Marvelous-- everything a novel should be. A tall tale, and a wonderful one. A grouchy old man in a nursing home recalls his days with the circus, and as he finds his power over his own mind and body slipping away from him, he is reminded of the experiences that make life worth living. Adventure, intrigue, and wonder abound.


*** 1225) "War of Worlds" by H. G. Wells (on audio)

Wells is an excellent storyteller, and even though I already knew the basic plot of this one, I followed it with no less eagerness for that. It was amazing being reminded throughout how different the world was a mere hundred years ago-- no mass media, no means of communicating over a distance, no rapid transit of any kind. Nothing electric, for crying out loud. How did they manage? It's amazing to see how even such little questions as food storage were handled so differently then. I found it interesting to speculate, too, how science fiction has changed over the years-- I mean, in every era, we imagine, for example, aliens coming to earth with technology we've never seen, but the way in which we envision that futuristic technology depends so much on our own stage of development. Wells' Martians wouldn't even start to be a threat today, and "Independence Day" would make no sense at all in his time.


**** 1226) "Bagombo Snuffbox: Uncollected Stories" by Kurt Vonnegut

Well, if these are the stories that didn't make it into the original collection, I'd better go read those ASAP, because these were amazing. Vonnegut seems a little less cynical, a little more lighthearted and uplifting, in his short fiction. I expected the reverse. He has fun playing with little "what if" scenarios, but realistic and un.

And I'm very glad I finally got a good look at the title. I've been thinking of this book as "Bombago Snuffbox" for years. I really can be rather lysdexic at times. Oh wait, crud, that's the actual name of the place, too? I had that wrong as well. Oy, what am I going to do with me?


*** 1227) "Timequake" by Kurt Vonnegut

Interesting, but not my favorite of his books by any means. Took me a bit to get into this one. Also, very baffling in parts because he talks about himself alternately as a character in the book and as the author writing it.  Impossible to tell fact from fiction for a large part of the novel.  Some good quotes, though:

"I myself say atomic energy has made people unhappier than they were before, and that having to live in a two-hemisphere planet has made our aborigines a lot less happy, without making the wheel-and-alphabet people who 'discovered' them any fonder of being alive than they were before.
"Then again, I am a monopolar depressive descended from monopolar depressives. That's how come I write so good." 89 I love Vonnegut.

Vonnegut's suggested further amendments to the US Constitution:
"/Article XXVIII:/ Every newborn shall be sincerely welcomed and cared for until maturity.
"/Article XXIX:/ Every adult who needs it shall be given meaningful work to do, at a living wage." 152

"At the time of their invention, books were devices as crassly practical for storing or transmitting language,albeit fabricated from scarcely modified substances found in forest and field and animals, as the latest Silicon Valley miracles. But by accident, not by cunning calculation, because of their weight and texture, and because of their sweetly token resistance to manipulation, involve our hands and eyes, and then our minds and soul, in a spiritual adventure I would be very sorry for my grandchildren not to know about." 157 A fascinating theory.

"Any dream of taking care of our people [needs] some scheme for giving us all the support and companionship of extended families, within which sharing and compassion are more plausible than in an enormous nation..." 164

"Still and all, why bother [to write]? Here's /my/ answer: Many people need desperately to receive this message: 'I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people don't care about them. You are not alone.' " 193

{1222-1227}

Dear friends who sell your artwork and craftwork online, I've set up an Etsy account but I'm not really sure how to start selling my stuff. Can I request some constructive criticism when you have a moment?

Some preliminary promotional pictures of my hand-woven baskets are here.

- I want to know, not what you think they are worth, but what you'd be likely/willing to pay for any of them. I don't want to make them so expensive they won't sell at all, but I also worry that if I under-price them too much, it will be unfair to others who make similar crafts. 

Also feel free to tell me (nicely, please) if you'd just plain never consider buying such a thing.

- I'm worried about what to say about shipping time and cost, because they are all different sizes and I don't have a reliable source of boxes to pack them in.

Do I just get a bunch of too-big boxes so I can send them out at any time, or do you think people would mind waiting the extra few days while I rustle up an appropriately-sized box? Does weight or size make a bigger difference in terms of shipping cost? Should I charge a flat shipping fee for all items or should it depend on size (they vary from about 3" to 6" across)?

- I'm worried, too, about the possibility they will be damaged in the mail. I plan to stick them in sturdy cardboard boxes and surround with packing peanuts--  will that be enough? Do it cost anything extra to ship them marked "fragile"? (planning to ship within the US only so far). What kind of return policy, if any, is sensible to have?

- Which photos, if any, do you like? Do I need new ones altogether? I plan to have a few pictures of them in groups and in use for the front page, and then close-ups of each individual basket (empty) from several angles.

I defer to your greater experience! Thanks for any helpful tips you can offer!

I am definitely feeling better today. Either two days of getting lots of sleep and listening to whatever my stomach told me did the trick, or it was a false alarm in the first place. I realized it's not entirely too early for some pre-PMS after all. Today my appetite is back with a vengeance-- yay! I really should have bought that pesto sauce while it was on sale. Oh well-- tonight we fired up the grill and I got to cook the portabello mushroom caps I bought the other day. Nommy. We also had grilled fish, eggplant, onions, and curried cauliflower. I love food.

I called out of work tonight.

Either PMS is showing up a week early or I've caught the Wilburitis. Or maybe just a perfectly normal bug, who knows, but I don't want to risk giving it to everyone else, just in case. I feel guilty enough about going to classes this morning without a face-mask. I should have thought of it, but I was terribly groggy.

I don't actually feel sick yet-- just threateningly "off". Muscles a tad bit more achy than usual, skin a bit more sensitive to the touch, coughing and sneezing this morning (so was half the class, oh well), and the big clue that this isn't my usual conditions playing up-- my stomach has felt wibbly all day. In short, time to get lots of rest, take extra vitamins, and hide in bed for a day or two in the hopes that I can fight this off before it turns into a full-blown case of the nasties.

One downside to my miraculous wonderful asthma meds-- they do knock my immune system down a notch. Usually, I'm the last person to catch whatever is going around. Thank goodness for small mercies, eh? I'm not giving up the medication, though-- being able to breathe is a major plus.

I'm insanely thirsty, and craving salty stuff, and don't feel well enough to risk eating a solid meal. I've spent the evening alternating chicken broth with noodles in, juice, and greek olives.

The real kicker is that I swung by Fresh&Easy after class this morning (shoppping there is my new addiction, I swear) and absolutely everything I've ever wanted to eat was on clearance sale. And I didn't feel well enough to want any of it. I passed up some marvelous foods that I can hardly ever afford... but did bring home a few of the more durable items that I think will keep ok in the fridge till I feel better. Plus some Rosemary Rolls and two kinds of juice, both of which are on the list of good stuff to eat while sick.

I'm stuck right now between feeling silly and like I'm being a baby for staying home tonight... and being terribly afraid of just how sick I might get. There's a warning ache at the back of my throat and a certain stiffness to my jaw that may be signs of much unhappiness to come. And I have Chem class tomorrow evening.

In the meantime... I'm well-stocked with books and movies, and with any luck I'll feel well enough to come hang out on the intarwebz a bit, too. And maybe, just maybe, I'll manage to do my chemistry homework as well. Wish me luck!

EDIT: And of course, now that it's later in the evening I don't feel a bit tired or even partciularly unwell and I feel bad about not having gone to work and am wondering if it was just a cranky stomach making me feel all lousy, which is certainly possible. And I haven't done my chem homework. I did read three novels today, though. Really must get back to book-blogging soon.

So, they're a bit late. Imagine, if you will, that it's Halloween.

And I'm coming for your braaiiinns....

Note the "blood-spattered" T-shirt (I couldn't rustle up a hospital gown on short notice)

And I didn't spend nearly enough time making evil faces in the mirror. But it was fun to go to work looking like this!

quick survey a friend of mine needs taken for her class:

Greetings,

You have received this e-mail as a request to participate in a study conducted by students at the Indiana University School of Journalism. We are interested in learning more about your use of traditional and new media and would greatly appreciate if you could complete this short online survey. Your answers will remain completely confidential and anonymous. After completion of this survey, we ask you to please forward this message to your friends and relatives or anyone you think might participate as well.

Below is a direct link to the survey, which should only take about 5-10 minutes to complete. 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s. aspx?sm=RgqneMRnppJ_ 2fmnHbqTFw9Q_3d_3d

Thank you for your time and consideration.

The students of J423, IU School of Journalism

Ps. If you have any questions about this survey, please contact Prof. Lars Willnat at lwillnat@indiana.edu

Gah! Too much I want to do, read, write, think... movies I want to watch, websites I want to check out, etc, etc.... And so little time in a day. Particularly when my body insists on sleeping 12 hours straight every other night. Granted, I love sleeping. Fascinating dreams, being nice and toasty warm, no physical pain... But oh, how I wish there was more time in a day!

I may have the energy to do all the stuff I need to (eg, going to lots of classes and work), but I sure as hell don't have the time to do anything I want to. Bah. I wish I didn't have to work today and tomorrow. One day off a week is not enough. But I do need the money...

A graphic design class's video version of "Little Red Riding Hood." Muchly awesome. I've never been a fan of graphic-design-style art before, but this is incredibly clever.

Thank you bottledgoose !

Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

via kittylady

Proposed humorous names for H1N1 flu and related concepts. Definitely read the comments. Includes:

Names that make sense include: pigfluenza and heinie flu (pronouncing H1N1 as if it were a word. Catchphrase: don't let it kick your ass)

Names that make no sense but are hilarious anyway: Ham and Eggsema, Sowmonella, babeonic plague

Terms for a grouping of cases: snoutbreak, hamdemic, aporkalypse.

I love you, intarwebz.

via the_resa

Pretty (Bad Ass) in Pink: a women's "gang" in India fights for civil rights and social change.

Ok, we all know I'm a slob and a packrat, but this has to be recorded for posterity.

Among the things I just found in a box approximately 1 foot square and containing primarily origami things:

- A full-sized container of white glue that I've been looking for for ages
- part of a broken telephone headset from at least 6 years ago
- a bar of partially melted chocolate
- an allergy symptoms questionnaire from my doctor's office (current one, amazingly enough)
- a set of plastic utensils from Delta Airline, still wrapped in their now-greatly-rumpled paper napkin and encircling label.
- a nearly empty roll of packing tape
- black plastic tinsel
- a notebook
- a sample-sized packet of personal lubricant
- a sandwich baggie of woefully old cracker crumbs
- an unopened package of mulling spices
- an amusement park token from I-don't-know-where or when
- a scrunchie, an empty mini-whoppers wrapper, an advertisement from our bookstore's last Christmas sale, and several cloth face-masks.

...WTF, self? What's truly sad is that I'm not throwing most of it out, either. Also, I didn't find either of the two things I was actually looking for. I am also now slightly scared to look anywhere else.

The weather here has been very strange lately (a few days ago I started to write this entry by saying that the weather had been rather schizophrenic of late... and got mentally side-tracked into a lengthy attempt to match weather patterns to actual symptoms of various mental illnesses. I still cannot determine whether the weather is bipolar or has borderline personality disorder).

A week ago, the day was so hot I went to campus in shorts and a tank top. That night the hot spell broke and Tuesday dawned chill and blustery, with high winds, clouds, and the threat of rain. I spent the week grumpy because of the cold and the effect it has on my lungs (necessitating some very expensive medication). Over the weekend it heated up again and although I was chilly when I dressed this morning, by the time classes let out at noon it was blisteringly hot again. And dry as hell. Still preferable to cold, though.

I had my period about a week and a half ago, which I mention only because I usually get a short spurt of energy around that time-- a few days of drive which even verge on the manic at times, followed by a prolonged crash. This time, to my happy surprise, the high days were less rushed and frenetic, and better still, no crash followed. My energy levels haven't remained exactly stable, but on average I've had a lot more energy over the past week than I've had in a long time-- at least, consistently. It's been really nice. Mind you, there's no shortage of stuff I need to get done, and I still need a lot of sleep, hence the fact that I'm still not posting often, etc... but it's really nice to feel for a change as if I'm keeping up with the wave of STUFF TO DO rather than being crushed by it. I've even managed to spend a very little time doing things for enjoyment, like going to a symphony concert yesterday.

I don't know what's causing this, but I hope it lasts!

http://averagecats.com/ :the antidote to LOLcats. Via staysonpaper

You may also enjoy cute animal photos with snarky comments at f. u. penguin.

A story a true heroism: a gynecological surgeon offers free procedures to reverse the effects of female genital mutilation, improving their health and restoring their ability to experience pleasurable sex.

Thank you zarq for this link!


( The Kindest Cut: full article text under cut )

I may not be able to do much to help, but I can do this:

http://community.livejournal.com/save_dave/283.html

I've got a lot of thoughts about this sort of thing, but not enough spoons to write them down. Some day, I will explain. But for now, I will simply pass along the stories of people who need help, and trust that we will all do what we can, that what goes around comes around, and that we'll all keep holding each other up.... and that things will get better.

This is beyond fucked-up. I'm sorry, but that's the only word I can use to describe it.

Please, please, please

1) Read. Hear the story. Thank you to shadesong for linking me to the story, via, unfortunately, this link about how the lawsuit has been dismissed.
2) Pass it along, tweet it, post it, whatever you can to get the word out.
3) Donate or get involved with activism if you can.

 

( Story beneath cut: woman denied access to her lifepartner's deathbed )

Sir Terry Pratchett, international bestselling author, geeks out about his favorite computer game, programming, and the joys of creative modding.

..braaaaaaaiiiins!

Yes, I'm going to work today dressed as a zombie (instead of, as usual, just feeling like one).

All I can say is, I make ugly look goood.

Also, zombies should not wear glasses. But it can't be helped. Well, maybe I'll take them off at work. That would at least give me a reason to walk around all day with my arms outstretched in front of me!

A great short article about the value of graphic novels. Thank you whoever I stole this link from.

( quoted article with comments, which are awesome )

Best signs from the gay-rights march. Thank you shadesong !

And the digital generation at its most excellent-- an incredible music video made entirely from web-cam clips (courtesy of zarq )

So, I currently have 5 books listed as "must read this one next, absolutely definitely ASAP"... and that's not even taking into account which ones are due at the library this week.

Slept late today, in spite of alarm clock. Why? Why does my body insist on 13 hours sleep in a single block?

Although, I admit, it was hard to drag myself away from my dreams... one of those great long epic sagas that, among other things, sounded like a brilliant concept for a novel while I was dreaming it. To my amazement, even once I woke up, I was able-- just barely-- to salvage enough coherence for a good short story. If I can only find the time and brain to write it.

Started writing this morning, didn't get far. Wound up spending the day cleaning my room instead. Now, I'm the sort of person who barely notices the existence of a mess until I have to clamber over it to get to things, and hardly even then. So for me to decide that my room was too messy and needed to be cleaned was... well, epic. To tthose of you who have seen my room before: it was worse than that, if you can imagine such a thing. And if you can, you have my sympathy. In short, it was Not Pretty.

It is now in much better state thanks in large part to the existence of surgical masks, which allowed me to clean without dying of respiratory allergies! Yay! Wish I'd discovered these things years ago.

Also, I love San Diego. It's mid-october and I spent the day in a bikini top and shorts. Not typical for this time of year, but I'm not complaining.

Want very much to make this entry better-written than it is, but I just feel so terribly terribly pressed for time. Last few days (thanks to a certain time of month,) I've been relatively energetic, full of ideas and thoughts and bother why do they all come at once in a great big lump where I can't untangle them all and have time to write them all down it all just goes by so fast and then I know I'll wake up one morning soon and my brain will have gone back to being full of grey soup damnit!

*breathes*

Should eat something (I mostly skipped meals today in favor of cleaning-- I hate how much eating slows me down, but I also hate the crash if I run on adrenaline too long instead of food) and put my butt to bed. Classes tomorrow morning.

Damnit I want to write.

And I still haven't found my concert tickets, which were a main incentive for today's clean-up.

I still havne't posted my new hot chocolate recipe.

And I know I had an idea today for another post, something brief and funny, and I can't remember what it is any more. I /hate/ the way my brain works.

And I need to.... but if I keep making /that/ list, I'll be here all night.

Pic heavy link coming up, but I just have to post it.

Disney Princes Calendar Pages. (Disney guys drawn as semi-realistic pin-ups).

Awesome? Hilarious? Hot? Disturbing as all Hell? All of the above and then some. You will never see "Enchanted" the same way again. Or "The Little Mermaid," for that matter. Meeeeow!

Blame bottledgoose

It occurs to me that if a god or gods were in fact undeniably real, as they are in so many fantasy novels, a branch of study would immediately spring up consisting of mathematician-theologians calculating the odds and statistics of, and conditions under which, prayers would most likely be granted.

It could be quite a lucrative profession in fact, although I foresee a debate between churches over whether or not it is proper to sell better chances to the highest bidder, or whether the knowledge should be reserved for church use, or made available to all in need, and so forth. And it would be a busy field, constantly being updated as new miracles occur, are recorded, and are taken into account in the equations.

I envision much debate over which miracles are definitely miracles, which are lucky coincidences, whether it is possible for an event to be both, which god is responsible for which miracle, etc., etc. It would be a marvelous area of study, and very methodologically rigorous in spite of the many points of debate.


...see, this is what happens when you let fluffy-minded people like me read about Kuhn's philosophy of science.


A note to my writerly friends: As I am not a writerly person, I shall not be including this marvelous idea in a story or novel, much as I would love to. If you can give it a good home in one of yours, please do. If it ends up in a published work, I would appreciate a notification and a brief mention in the credits. Thank you!

Name for a cheesy faux-hawaiian entertainment trio: Bikini Bottom And the Boobettes.

(yes, there is a story behind this, of sorts. Someone on my flist a while ago posted a bit about breast names and noted that hers were "tits" since they were too small to count as "boobs." Turning this over in my mind, I wondered if small boobs might be known as boobettes, and then realized that made them sound like backup singers... Er, maybe I should just stop trying to explain now.)

**** 1221) "The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia" by Laura Miller

We read this as a "book club" book over at  bookaddiction a while back, but I never got around to making a personal post on it. I'm going to copy material from my discussion posts there, so this will be a bit longer than my usual book review. In short, in this book Miller talks about her childhood love of Lewis's Narnia series, her disillusionment with the books when they were presented to her as Christian symbolism, and her search for the reason why she still loves them despite disagreeing with their religious premise. Part memoir, part literary criticism and history, part psychology, and with a bit of biography about Lewis and his writings, I found this book very enjoyable and full of interesting ideas. The only thing that frustrated me was the lack of source notes. She presents many references to other works, but no specific sources for her most tantalizing speculations.

Quotes (some that I liked and some that I just thought were good discussion topics)

"...we all know that the books we've loved best are seldom the ones we esteem most highly-- or the ones we'd most like people to think we read over and over again" (p 4).

"...while the process of writing about a book can reveal things you'd never get from simply reading it, it can also make reading a less immediate and visceral experience" (p 5)

"The relationship between book and reader is intimate, at best a kind of love affair, and first loves are famously tenacious" (p 11)

"Do the children who prefer books set in the real, ordinary, workaday world ever read as obsessively as those who would much rather be transported into other worlds entirely?" (p 23).

"...all stories are escapes from life; all stories are unrealistic, or at least all the good ones are. Life, unlike stories, has no theme, no formal unity, and (to unbelievers, at least) no readily apparent meaning. That's why we /want/ stories... Perhaps that's why humanity's oldest stories are full of outlandish events and supernatural beings; the idea that a story must somehow mimic everyday life would probably have seemed daft to the first tellers. Why even bother to tell a story about something so commonplace?" (p 25).

"Like Lewis's, my material life [in childhood] often seemed to be nothing more than the drab and shadowy interludes between the hours when I could read and retreat to an interior realm furnished with the fabulous treasure I had scavenged from hundreds of books." 42

"Gardens make a particularly good image of the self for a writer, because while a garden can be cultivated and enjoyed privately, it can also yield fruit that can be shared with others." 50

"...children are literalists; they lack not only the cognitive skills but also the sheer bulk of information it takes to formulate abstractions and recognize general patterns. They think in specifics, of the concrete, tactile reality they encounter every day. As Philip Pullman... is wont to say, 'Children are not less intelligent than adults; what they are is less informed.' Sometimes they do not see the forest because they're still getting acquainted with the trees." 87

"Once we learn to see things with the idea that they belong to a particular category, we're in danger of missing all the qualities they share with things in other categories, not to mention all the qualities that are theirs alone." (p89)

"Like Lewis, I hankered after the ineffable and the sublime, but the story of Jesus had never spoken to that part of my imagination. Christianity was too monolithic, comprehensive, and established. Temperamentally,  preferred uncertainty, slippery boundaries, little neglected corners of the world where magic lurked unnoticed, and strangeness." (p 100)

"If literary writing has any distinguishing characteristic, it's that the more you look at it the more you see, and the more you see the more you want to go on looking." (p 113)
I am tempted to disagree with this, although I cannot say why. I can think of an example in which it is true-- Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle In Time" (another children's book with an underlying religious message, in some ways). Perhaps I object not so much to that statement as to one which follows it closely:
"The closer and more completely you can come to explaining what a work of art means, the less like art it seems." (114)

"[In school] If anything, the more I enjoyed a story, the less likely it was to be serious, worthwhile literature." 116 How true!!

"Disgust, however elemental it feels, is often just a matter of the company you keep." 122 There is some room for debate on this, from a psychology perspective.

"We want the artists who have changed our lives to lead exemplary lives of their own." (p 125)


This following section is not very well informed, I think, but a fascinating premise to follow up on:

"But surely what the sadist or masochist craves most is a particular /dynamic/, generated by a theatrical imbalance of power, in which one player towers above, possessed of all the strength, glory, and authority, while the other cringes below in utter humility and dependence. The imbalance creates a charged emotional appeal; who plays what role matters less than the voluptuous contrast between them. Often no real violence and very little pain are involved. The sadomasochistic impulse seems to arise not from the urge to behave aggressively, but from the desire to be suspended in an ever-unfolding continuum of overwhelming feeling. And this, in turn, throw new light on the emphasis Lewis put on him submissiveness before God; for here was a man for whom piety and prostration were very much the same thing...

"...my friend asked, 'But isn't that the same thing as almost everyone's relationship to God? It's about bowing as low as you can before an incomprehensible power.'
"
His observation stopped me in my tracks. Surely not every believer is a closet sadomasochist? On the other hand, perhaps sadomasochism is not as exotic as it's made out to be. Perhaps its devotees are merely people whose affinity for a particular dynamic takes a sexual rather than a spiritual form? ...[in church as a girl] I saw the tortured body of a man, swooning in agony, blood dripping from his brow, hands, feet, and side. What would someone with no prior knowledge of Christianity conclude upon walking into /that/ god's temple...

"Remove the overt sexuality and the paraphernalia from a sadomasochistic scene, and the emotional center of helplessness and dependency isn't so very different from the intense bond between parent and child or a god and his worshipper. Perhaps all of these are facets of something universal that I, too, can recognize. It's the desire to be carried away by something greater than ourselves-- a love affair, a group, a movement, a nation, a faith. Or even a book." (166-7)

I confess, I just love the idea of religion as an S&M relationship with God!

"Men like J. M. Barrie and Lewis Carroll preferred the company of children not (as the jaded modern mind sometimes presumes) because they were pedophiles seeking adult pleasures from children, but because they longed for the childlike pleasures they couldn't share with
adults." 174 My instinct is to agree strongly. But this is one of those places where I'd love to see some source material for her conclusion.

"Ideally, reading is a kind of collaboration; the more a reader brings to the book, the more he has to contribute to the experience and the richer it will be." 264

"Fairies, neither angels nor men, neither good nor evil, have no place in God's plan. That is the real source of their appeal and their threat, and the reason why fundamentalists object to witches, wizards, and other occult elements in children's books. It's not that these figures lure readers to Satanism, but that they introduce the possibility that God and Satan are not your only options." 276

"The power of a myth doesn't arise from the particular words used to convey it; it can even be felt when no words at all are used." 286


( more of my own opinions )

*** 1220) "Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates" by Tom Robbins

In spite of my longstanding love of Robbins, it took me a while to get into this book. I often have the same problem with Vonnegut, for some reason. But in the end, as always, I loved it. Robbins has such an excellent grasp of how to mingle the absurd with a realistic story until you have trouble remembering which bits should be hard to believe. And somehow, the most ridiculous parts are always the most true to human nature.

Quotes:

"Silence is a mirror. So faithful, and yet so unexpected, is the reflection it can throw back at men that they will go to almost any length to avoid seeing themselves in it..." 234

"[America is] an 'abusive democracy,' one in which everybody wants to control everybody else. Lately, even tolerance, itself, has been usurped by the sanctimonious and the opportunistic, and turned into an instrument for intimidation, bullying, and extortion." 258

An interesting sociological observation:

" [Skeeter Washington said] '...I fail to detect where they be a hell of a lot of /difference/ between the terms 'colored people' and 'people of color.' Or between ''Afro-American' and 'African-America,' far as that goes.'
'The distinctions are subtle, all right,' Switters admitted. 'Too subtle for the rational mind. Only the political mind can grasp them. I suspect there's a bid for empowerment behind it all, the power going to whoever seizes the right to coin the names. In a reality made of language, the people who get to name things have psychological ownership of those things.'" 211

Switters: "'Politics is where people pay somebody large sums of money to impose his or her will on them. Politics is sadomasochism.' "
Also, he says "Terrorism is the only imaginable logical response to America's foreign policy, just as street crime is the only imaginable logical response to America's drug policy." 394

I had to copy this following passage down (ok, most of it, anyway... I did elide quite a few bits) because it has so much in it that is very astute, although I think it could also be very easily problematic if taken too seriously as an over-generalization. All in all, though, it is an excellent explanation of how situational depression can turn into purely biochemical depression. Although I'm not sure I agree with her assessment (not included here) that the best way to save someone from this fate is to make fun of them until they learn to make fun of themselves!

Maestra: "'All depression has its roots in self-pity, and all self-pity is rooted in people taking themselves too seriously...
For most people, self-awareness and self-pity blossom simultaneously in early adolescence. It's about that time that we start viewing the world as something other than a whoop-de-doo playground, we start to experience personally how threatening it can be, how cruel and unjust. At the very moment when we become, for the first time, both introspective and socially conscious, we receive the bad news that the world, by and large, doesn't give a rat's ass. Even an old tomato like me can recall how painful, scary, and disillusioning that realization was. So, there's a tendency, then, to slip into rage and self-pity, which, if indulged, can fester into bouts of depression...
"then depression can become a neurological habit....
"Gradually, our brain chemistry becomes conditioned to react to negative stimuli in a particular, predictable way...
"Once depression has become electronically integrated, it can be extremely difficult to philosophically or psychologically override it...'" 44-5

So, I was wondering, do dryads get their periods with sap instead of blood? Talk about hard to clean up!

Yeah, yeah, I've got my dot and it's making me grouchy. I admit, though, I kinda had fun glaring my way around the grocery store with a package of tampons in one hand and a large chocolate bar in the other. Look out, world, it's a woman on her period!! (Really, though, most of the time it's more like, "I am woman, hear me whimper... I can haz nap now plz?").

Time for food. Before the cramps hit and I go through another phase of finding foodstuffs about as appetizing as cardboard.

Had a good few days here, health-wise, mentally as well as physically. In that time I have managed, just barely, to catch up on my school work. And turned down an offer for more hours at my job (much as I need the money) because I just can't trust that my strength will last, particularly if I push myself at all. I hate that.

I've done a lot of resting and reading, too. I can't tell whether I'm conserving my strength or hiding from the world. Some of both, I suspect.

At the moment I'm panicking because I just realized I'm smack up against the deadline to apply to colleges for next year. And scholarships. Both of which I need, and badly. And I have a hard enough time with stuff like that (eg, paperwork) when I'm not already in over my head and treading water. I can't let myself wait another year to get into a real college. And I haven't even started figuring out where I'm going to apply (now that it looks like my chances of getting into San Diego State are relatively slim).

I am so scared. No need to tell me that I can do it, you believe in me, etc. I know all that, and I appreciate your support, but frankly, being told I can do something when I'm not sure I can tends to make more more worried rather than calmer. it sucks badly enough to fail at something. It sucks worse to fail when everyone expected you to succeed. And besides, I've never really cared much for being cheered for. I tend to instinctively distrust it, the way you distrust your parents' friends when they tell you how good those new braces/glasses look on you.

Right now, I don't need reassurances, I need a streak of really good luck and some solid brainpower.

Fingers crossed and medicine cabinet at the ready. I will run this gauntlet, somehow.

I wished I believed in a god so I had someone to pray to right now. I swear, if kids knew how scary it was going to be to be an adult, they'd all commit suicide before they graduated from high school.

Please take a few minutes to watch this video about CFS (although I think it applies to most chronic illness). Passing along the message from feyandstrange .



This makes me feel both lucky and not. I'm not this badly off, and believe me, I'm grateful for it. But I empathize with the sentiment all the same. There are very few things mentioned in this video that I can do every day. There are some that I can do only on my "good" days, and the frequency of those varies a lot. And there are some that I worry I'll never be able to do. (And a few that I don't want to-- only to be expected).

Please do consider passing this along. On behalf of all people with chronic and/or invisible health problems, I make this statement:

The one thing that sucks worse than living like this is having friends and family and societies and jobs and doctors and so on who just don't understand. Whether they accuse us of laziness or simply don't "get" why we say we don't feel well enough to attend their party, whether we are told that it's "all in our head" or simply aren't given tips on how to live our best possible life with what we have available to us... we desperately need more people to know, to care, and to help.

Thank you for your time.

today sucks. hurt all over. body doesn't want to do anything-- muscles like lead. And i'm behind on schoolwork. can't do anything about it. typin hard enough. need to wash my hair but can't manage a shower. going to lie back down with a book now. wish me better.

I was wondering how so many of you managed to read that long post about my health! Turns out it cut off halfway through due to lousy HTML (note to self: lj-cut works very poorly when you apply it over other mark-up).

Now you can go read the rest! It's got interesting parts!

Anyways, thanks for bothering to look at it at all.


Also, I slept until 1 PM today. Yikes! I tell my body it can have all the sleep it wants and it goes and takes complete advantage of me, the rat! OK, so I have worked the past 3 days and stayed up till 2AM last night, but still! *grumbles*

The oldest living things. I /so/ want more information about most of these! (link nabbed from shadesong )

Oliver Sacks talks about a particular type of visual hallucination that has nothing to do with insanity. Thanks to shadesong  (I think) for the link!

On atheism, gender, and race relations.

And what needs to be done.

And another good article here responding to those.

I encourage my fellow atheists in particular to read, consider, and PASS IT ALONG!

I know some of you have a lot more experience with cars-- and more importantly, with mechanics-- than I do. I have an '89 Accord that apparently (ie, according to more than one mechanic) needs a new flex-pipe (running from manifold to catalytic converter). The thing is damn expensive, but the mechanic I saw today says I can probably pick one up free or cheap at a junkyard (he recommended one that specializes in Hondas) and he'll install it for the cost of labor.

This sounds almost too good to be true to me, so I figured I'd run it by you guys-- any reason you can think of why this would be a bad idea? Have you gone to a junkyard for parts before? What can I expect from the guys there? Anything I need to know to avoid getting scammed?

Dr. Ramachandran takes you on a magical mystery tour into the brain.  Is this guy awesome or what?

Holy crap, how is this the first I have heard of... a sixth Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book!?!

*jawdrop* I don't know what to think, honestly. Except to be sorry that it isn't being written in collaboration by Terry Pratchett and Spider Robinson.

Went to see "red fish blue fish" tonight. That's the kind of homework assignment I can get behind. My head is still ringing a bit. Impressive stuff, these guys. Kinda like a move avant-garde version of Stomp. My favorite piece that they played was Steve Reich's "Music for Pieces of Wood." The video doesn't even begin to describe how overawing it is to have this echoing around over your head so loudly it makes your ears hum.

And they have all the cowbell anyone could possibly want. Seriously.

The weather got abruptly colder a few days ago, plunging from the high 80s to high 60s. I figured it was just making my allergies act up, as chill weather always tends to do. Now, however, I think I may actually be Sick with some sort of cold or bug. Which would explain the lack of appetite yesterday and the fact that antihistamines did nothing to help my sniffles today. Bother.

I am, in fact, a bit surprised. Among the many reasons I don't think I actually have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is the fact that my immune system is pretty kick-ass. That is to say, while I usually feel exhausted and in pain and so forth, I rarely come down with actual illnesses or infections, and get over them relatively quickly as well. Part of that may be due to the fact that, unlike most people, I know how to coddle my body properly. I am now going to go have some chicken soup and turn in very early in the hopes of nipping this thing in the bud. We'll see if I feel up to classes and/or work tomorrow.

If nothing else, I went to the library today ("just for a few minutes"- ha!), so I have no shortage of reading material and even movies to watch if I end up feeling that lousy.

Why do I always start feeling so much perkier at bedtime? I'm so tempted to stay up late and... well, read, mostly; I'm not /that/ perky... but I know better. I've been measuring my activities out in millispoons lately, it feels like. Not just "do I bother to shave today?" but "Do I dare take the energy to brush my hair? To shower? To get dressed on my day off?" I ate two whole meals today, which was an Accomplishment. I am very tired of being sore and tired. My muscles want hot springs and a massage, but they'll have to settle for chocolate and a lot of lying down. Ok, I'm tired again now. Back to bed and book.

{1214-19}
Adult fiction from the "normal" shelves


** 1214) "Sum: 40 tales from the afterlives" by David Eagelman

Fun little book. Reminded me a bit of "Einstein's Dreams." Each mini-story covers a potential life after this one-- some thought-provoking, some absurd, some frightening, some wonderful. The first story was truly the best. A few made me laugh out loud. I was a bit surprised that, although many of them turned classical ideas on their heads and went out on quite a limb, most of the ones involving a religious afterlife of some kind seemed very much based in Judeo-Christian thinking.


*** 1215) "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult

Yes, I gave in a read a popular novel, and enjoyed it quite a bit more than I thought I would. The writing isn't brilliant, but it's compelling and evenly-paced. The story held a good mix of serious content, light moments, and heart-string-tugging. Around about 2/3 of the way in, I realized that there was no possible ending that could make me satisfied given what I knew so far, so I wasn't surprised when I found the end unsatisfactory. I'm curious to know how they changed it for the movie and whether I'll like that ending any better. I suspect I'll pick up another of her books when I want a light human-interest thriller.


*** 1216) "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" by Terry McMillan

No, I haven't seen the movie. I didn't love this as much as the other book of hers that I read, but I did still enjoy it quite a bit. Too much romance for me, and I found myself caring about whether it would work out far more than I wanted to! I guess the story sucked me in against my will. The descriptions were wonderfully vivid and I certainly found myself jealous of Stella (and for more than just the romance!).


*** 1217) "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck

Yes, yes, I should have read it years ago. Good story, and all the more enjoyable for being a lot damn shorter than "East of Eden". Sad and real and all those other things that are the main reason I avoid classics :)

In the intro, Steinbeck is quoted as writing "Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love". Not sure I agree, but it's definite food for thought.
 

*** 1218) "Hocus Pocus" by Kurt Vonnegut

I will never understand why I keep putting off reading the rest of Vonnegut's books. Even when one of them isn't my very favorite-- such as this one, with its complex and meandering plot-- I still enjoy his style immensely. And as always, I found a few disturbingly deep thoughts disguised as cynical witticisms:

"My own feeling is that if adultery is wickedness then so is food. Both make me feel so much better afterward." 120

"Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance." 225

"Beer, of course, is actually a depressant. But poor people will never stop hoping otherwise." 259


1219) "Enduring Love" by Ian McEwan

Book club book. Typical "literary fiction"-- disturbing, off-putting, depressing, and just plain weird. My favorite bit was the epilogue and that's only because it made the novel sound as though it were based on a true story, which would have been excellent indeed. Instead... I might recommend it to fans of Updike's "Rabbit" novels-- it has that same morbid tone of classical hubristic tragedy about it.

"No one could agree on anything. We lived in a mist of half-shared, unreliable perception, and our sense data came warped by a prism of desire and belief, which tilted our memories too... Pitiless objectivity, especially about ourselves, was always a doomed social strategy. We're descended from indignant, passionate tellers of half-truths, who, in order to convince others, simultaneously convinced themselves." 196 A good point indeed! Really, if the novel had focused just a bit more on the neurological factors at play, I might have liked it a lot better.

"I've never outgrown that feeling of mild pride, of acceptance, when children take your hand." 248 This line just struck me so poignantly. It's exactly how I felt, not long after, when I visited with conuly and her two adorable young nieces, who on several occasions reached out with absolute trust to put their tiny, soft hands in mine, making me feel proud and responsible and touched and protective and trusted all at once. It's really something of an overwhelming feeling when one isn't used to it.


Ok, enough for one entry.

{1208-13}

I'm long overdue for, among many other things, a bookjournaling post!

Some kids books I've read since we last spoke:


** 1208) "Not As Crazy As I Seem" by George Harrar

Touching and believable YA story about a young man with, most likely, OCD. He isn't quite sure why he needs everything to be exactly the way it is, but he doesn't want anyone to take his quirks away from him, either. Still, he manages to start developing a sense of himself as more than just "the crazy kid." Moral of story: our problems may be an integral part of us, but that doesn't mean we have to be defined by them.


* 1209) "Everything on a Waffle" by Polly Horvath

A somewhat whimsical story about a girl whose parents are missing at sea (and not, she insists, drowned. Certainly not). While she waits for them to return, she does her best with the various well-meaning but generally inept adults in the world around her. She's got a knack for fixing up other people's lives... and it just may work on her own life, too. A bit unrealistic in odd ways for such a down-to-earth story, but still fun.


** 1210) "Strange Happenings" by Avi

A highly enjoyable collection of surprising and fantastic short stories.


**** 1211) "Clementine's Letter" by Sarah Pennypacker

An early chapter book. Move over, Ramona-- I just can't get enough of Clementine!


**** 1212) "I Am Not Esther" by Fleur Beale

A powerful YA novel about family, religious fundamentalism, identity, and integrity. Kirby and her mother have never been particularly well-off, but they've always managed to get by-- and they love each other, so what could go wrong? Then suddenly, Kirby's mother disappears, leaving her in the care of unknown relatives, who all happen to belong to a strict religious cult. Renamed "Esther" and subjected to strict and bewildering rules, Kirby must manage to survive in a new world while trying to track down her missing mother. As she comes to care for her new family, Kirby is increasingly torn between her old and new lives, unsure about her identity and her loyalties. A moving and multifaceted, and above all, disturbingly realistic, story.


***1213)  "The Bronze Pen" by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

I saw it on the library shelf and could believe there was a ZKS book I'd never even heard of... but it's new this year, which explains why. More outright magical than many of her books, this has her trademark ability to tell a story sweetly and straightforwardly while gently broadening a child's mind about the wide variety of people who make up the world. Definitely for a younger audience than some of her other works, too. Or maybe I'm just getting older.

Here, have two awesome videos, courtesy of westrider .

Cat+Faucet=Hilarity



And for this one, I'm stealing not only the video but also westrider's comment on it, because I can't say it any better myself: "Tuvan Throat Singing, Vladivostok, Yul Brynner, Richard Feynman, cool sunglasses, I have no idea what it's all about, but it's really cool"