Tilting at the Universe

Day 9.

2011-09-09T15:04:00.000-05:00

Day 9: Something old.

By the way, just like to mention that since I'm an expert at picking the hits - I've been rocking Adele's "Someone Like You" pretty much since the album 21 came out months ago, and look what song made it to number 1 on iTunes. Mmmmm-hm.

Day 8.

2011-09-08T11:01:00.000-05:00

Day 8: Trees.

I know, this is a single tree, but I'm pretty sure it's gigantic enough to qualify for the plural.

Day 7.

2011-09-07T10:38:00.000-05:00

Day 7: Technology.

Day 6.

2011-09-06T10:36:00.000-05:00

Day 6: What I read.

Day 5.

2011-09-05T23:48:00.001-05:00

Day 5: Childhood memory.

My dingle doll! She has a little bell inside her tummy. I love her.

Day 4.

2011-09-04T23:50:00.001-05:00

Day 4: Someone I love.

Yes. Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec. Yes.

Day 3.

2011-09-03T21:50:00.000-05:00

Day 3: Favorite color.

Day 2.

2011-09-02T23:58:00.000-05:00

Day 2: Clouds

30 Day Photo Challenge

2011-09-01T23:44:00.001-05:00

Thanks to my lovely friend Clare, I caught wind of a photo challenge a-happenin' on some other lady's blog. (You know the type. Adorably retro. Wears hair accessories. Owns a typewriter. Married and pregnant. Probably cooks with olive oil.) So I thought, this would be the perfect thing to start on my otherwise dormant blog!

I of course am bending the rules a bit because Nice Lady's challenge is over now, and, well, no one will know. So don't click through looking for a self-portrait, I've scrapped that entry.

Day 1: What I Wore

(thanks to Mel, now I have to have rounded borders)

Foreign idols.

2011-03-11T17:39:00.000-06:00

This year I decided to try something different with American Idol. Especially after last season, which once again strove to new heights regarding contestant favoritism, the use of rudimentary logic (and only rudimentary logic), and out-and-out evil. And that was just Kara.

I got an idea from a poster over at the EW message boards. I would shield myself from any backstories, any early performances, any personalities, any information at all, really, regarding the season 10 finalists, by not watching until the final rounds began. Then, I would only watch the performances of the top thirteen - no contestant packages, no judges' comments, no banter with Ryan.

And you know what? I did it.

I was a little bummed I couldn't check out the new judges (Steven Tyler and J. Lo), especially since everyone seemed to like them. And really, I imposed the moratorium because of how awful the judges were last season - which has, really, no bearing on this season. But, it seemed like a fun experiment so I went for it.

What was most striking this past Wednesday when I finally tuned in was how it was like having an American Idol dream. You know, faces you've never seen before, weird new stage, the band is missing. Only this was totally not a dream. (And yes - the band is most definitely gone! I don't even know what to say to that one.)

The good news is, I think most of the contestants deserve to be there. Shall I break it down for you?

The Best

Scotty McCreery, a sixteen-year-old (!) country boy with a voice like Josh Turner who makes you feel like a predator for rooting for him; Pia Toscano, a young lady who sang "All By Myself" with the most pristine, capable female voice Idol has had in years; and Jacob Lusk, who I think must love gospel and has a powerful, multi-octave instrument to work with.

The Really Good

James Durbin, who admittedly looks, sounds, and prowls somewhat like Adam Lambert; Haley Reinhart, who has a voice like BUTTAH; Thia Megia, the first truly talented Asian girl to ever be on the show; and Karen Rodriguez, who aspires to be the first Latina Idol and has the chops to do just that.

The Okay

Lauren Alaina, who seems very capable but chose a bad song; Stefano Langone, who just...seemed...okay, good voice but no spark; Ashthon Jones, who was not memorable; and Naima Adedapo, who got the pimp spot but seems like a very wild card - I see lots of highs and lows if she sticks around for a long time (which, actually, makes for great Idol TV).

The Uggghhhh

Paul McDonald, who refused to sing while acting very strangely, and Casey Abrams, who sports an unrepentant beard and whose spasms make Taylor Hicks look depressed in retrospect.

I really enjoyed forming my opinions completely independent of any manipulation on the part of the show. It does feel weird being at this stage of the game and not "knowing" any of these kids, but that's okay. That will allll come in time.

Can't win for losing.

2011-02-26T01:30:00.000-06:00

I've been trying for over a year now to make a little extra money. All attempts have failed. Miserably. Let's recount, shall we?

This will of course sound bad, but when an elder passes, sometimes there's a little something to pass along to those he or she is survived by. And my great-aunt was always talking about how set she was. So I thought, perhaps she had left us a little something.

No. Okay, that's fine. She said I could have the records. I organized and bagged them and took them to a local record shop that buys vintage albums. Apparently they only buy albums from weirdos who bought scores of records in the sixties and seventies and them put them under a bunch of protective plastic and then sat and waited for the twenty-first century to come rolling around. Even though I had classics--CLASSICS--they weren't in good enough condition for the hoity-toity store. If you're keeping tally, we're still at $0.

Tax season arrived. I did mine. Got the Making Work Pay tax credit and a better-than-usual refund, close to $1200. I was excited and already making plans to divvy it up between debts and hack away at things I owed, plus maybe treat myself to a new vacuum cleaner or ironing board. You know. Be responsible.

But because the IRS waited two full years to clear their heads and compute the fact that I'd withdrawn from my state teaching retirement account early (back in 2007), even though I reported the 1099 for it in '08, they took my entire refund. And then said I still owed them $150. I don't have a problem with paying the tax on the withdrawl. I have a problem with being hit with it two years after the fact.

Still at $0.

As you may have perceived, my mom runs a foundation here in town and always needs help with the scores of work. One night she offered me a weekly job on Saturdays, ten to six - for one hundred dollars. I figured hey, that's what I'm making now per day! I could definitely use an extra $400 a month. We even sat down and had a formal interview and everything.

Come to find out, no, she didn't say an eight hour work day, more like four! And who said anything about a hundred dollars each Saturday? She meant a hundred dollars a month! What, do I think money grows on trees?

So...that was...tentative, at best.

I came to the very heavy decision of selling my flute and piccolo. Found a pawn shop. Drove all the way to south city. The guy offered me $50 for the pic and said that my flute was a student model (it isn't) and that he couldn't use it. I should have gotten $200 easy for the flute. But nooo.

So we're at fifty and some change.

I found a bookstore that buys used books. I gathered all the books I didn't want anymore - hardbacks, even! -and I'm telling you, I keep my books in MINT condition. Bagged 'em up, drove another twenty miles to drop them off. I get a phone message a week later from the owner, offering me $4.75 for the lot of them.

Obviously I didn't bother collecting that.

So then I found out from a coworker how to adjust my withholdings to allow for more income each paycheck. This HAD TO work. It couldn't NOT work. I filled out a new W-4 and faxed it in to our corporate office. I blissfully anticipated a thousand dollar check and finally being able to breath a little easier.

A week later I was fired.

This brings our tally back down to $0. Are we having fun yet???

So, you know the saga of what happened next, I got a new job, yadda yadda...but for reasons ridiculous and unnecessary, I had to leave that job last month. Boss was great - gave me a month's severance. But I wanted some extra padding because, as you know, the people behind the curtain are constructing class warfare by not hiring anyone who has ever sneezed in their lifetime. So I signed up for a medical trial. *deep intake*

I signed up on a Friday, my birthday. The very next day I was taking the trash out, the trash missed the dumpster (yeah, I throw it over the gate), I went inside to pick it up, the doors closed on me. I pushed against them - stabbed myself with a rusty nail. Just as the AP said he would, my mailman came around the corner at that exact moment, so he opened the doors for me.

I proceeded to go pay $45 for a tetanus shot. I called the medical place in near-tears, telling them what happened and asking if this now disqualified me from the screening. They eventually called back and said that I was still good to go.

The upcoming trial was for an allergy medicine, required two over-night stays in two weeks, paid $780. I went for the screening, they announced I had pathetic veins, and that I needed a study that either had hourly blood draws (instead of this one's every ten to fifteen minutes) or used a patch. The recruiter gave me an option: do the patch trial for alzheimer's medication, that requires you literally to drive out to east Jesus every day for four weeks (no overnights) for $900, or do a morphine trial with overnight stays and hourly blood draws for $1140.

I sucked it up and chose morphine. Went back a few days later for a new screening, thinking how nice the extra money would be.

I say all this to say that yet AGAIN they decided my veins were too crappy to handle a quick blood draw. So not only did I drive out to east Jesus twice in one week to be rejected, they couldn't even have analyzed me well enough the first time to say hey! No blood draws period! Next!

So. Our total in my far-reaching attempts to give myself a little cushion, a little padding, a little security in life: ZERO DOLLARS.

Thank you and goodnight.

Whether you like it or not...

2011-02-16T13:46:00.002-06:00

...Natalie Munroe is right. As usual, I will attempt to keep this brief.

Many kids today are exhibiting negative behaviors that result from poor (or lack of) parenting, school systems that have backed away from accountability, and a media that feeds them the most assanine ideas about social relationships and gender roles.

If you raise a child to believe that the most important thing is what they want in the moment - by tolerating temper tantrums instead of controlling them, by being overly apologetic, by coming across indecisive and weak, by giving them everything they demand - then that child will, really through no fault of their own, grow up with a distorted sense of their place in the world, and with little coping ability when their wishes are denied.

If you raise a child in avoidance of all pain, they will be unable to handle most forms of physical and emotional pain and struggle, they will become angry when confronted with situations that lower their level of contentment, and they will be incapable of doing those things which bring them greatest success - because great success is very difficult.

Children. Need. Standards. They need a bar that is set in plain view and they need to be told that it is their job, with parental guidance, to reach or exceed it.

Parents. Need. To. Discipline. If therapy is required for you to overcome the trauma of a light spanking when you were three, then get therapy. Only through limits, expectations, and correction will your children have a chance at being the best they can be, at contributing to our great society in beneficial ways, at having a single hope of maintaining functional, loving, other-directed relationships.

If you want your kid(s) to be angry, resentful, impatient, disrespectful, and distant, then go ahead and ignore standards and discipline and excellence. They will never truly be able to love you, and I can only believe they will accuse you of being a poor parent when they are finally grown (however long that now takes).

School districts need to equally respect the students and support the teachers, be an example and a guide for parents who may not have made the best choices, and always, ALWAYS expect the best from everyone involved. The only way to truly leave a child behind is to let them believe they're still in the race.

The media needs to stop portraying all kids as entitled brats and parents as impotent bystanders; I firmly believe that when this began, the most impressionable adults fell for it, and the disease spread from there.

Some people believe that the "disengaged, lazy whiners" Ms. Munroe lets off steam about in her blog will be hit with the hard reality of the capitalist workforce and true self-sufficiency once they become adults. Some will; some will adjust, however grudgingly. But I believe that enough of them will fight back against this sudden influx of rules and standards and rigidity to stage a quiet revolution. To bring an already crippled economy and social structure to its knees and then a painful, irreversible death.

I hope I am wrong. The comments on the article linked to above show that there are many, many people who recognize the problem, understand its roots, and feel the time has come to do something before it's too late.

My question is - will we?

Facebook statuses.

2011-02-12T16:51:00.000-06:00

I've posted about Jess Neil's totally brilliant graphic design work before (yup, too lazy to link back to it), and since I made it back to her page recently, I thought I'd share some more awesomeness with you. Basically, people send her their facebook status update and she puts a super-cute/witty design to it. I have been so jealous lately of people who can do things like this - which is silly, because I'm creative too, but not like this!

Make sure you check out Jess's tumblr page - and bookmark it, too, because there can only be more awesomeness to come.

Florence + the Machine.

2011-02-07T15:46:00.002-06:00

The length of this review of Lungs by Florence + the Machine is justified by the sheer and overwhelming brilliance of it (the album, that is).

I get excited when I stumble upon an artist who knows music, really knows it and respects the beautiful and powerful possibilities of melody and accompaniment. I glossed over Florence + the Machine for a long time because, well, their name sounded similar of course to other indie groups who had failed me over the years. But what a true revelation these passionate music-makers are.

What is so special about this album is that the quality of the songs does not deteriorate as we get into the latter tracks. We can all agree that that is just about never the case with the average album. I've always hated the way albums are front-loaded, but there is none of that here. The arrangements make phenomenal use of percussion but especially thumping, low-pitched drums throughout, in exhilerating, inventive rhythmic patterns. The use of a harp (with a male at the strings, no less) only serves to add greater depth to the overall soundscape, and he really does play his fingers off. Its inclusion reminds me of Joanna Newsom but also Jump, Little Children and how the cello wended its way through their accompaniments.

"Dog Days Are Over" is the perfect way to kick off an album, with bright but meaningful music, modern 60s pop in the style of Nicole Atkins (see Neptune City). "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" is actually one of my least favorites until the massive chorus hits its stride in all its gothic harmonies; and until I listen to the allusions to King Midas in the lyrics and am persuaded to dig a little deeper. In "I'm Not Calling You a Liar" some of Florence Welch's melismas remind me very much of Sia as she was on Some People Have Real Problems. And this is only one instance in which she is vocally reminiscent of other singers, yet she still maintains her own unique and quite beautiful stamp.

That's one of the best things about Lungs. Florence Welch can really sing. Sometimes when grasping for real music beyond what we're repeatedly and mind-numbingly served, you have to settle for slightly sub-par singing. Florence lets loose in every song and proves she's the real deal.

"Howl" is sonically like some of the more haunting songs of the 80s, specifically "Silent Running" by Mike and the Mechanics (the accompaniment in the chorus is actually a pretty awesome approximation of it, and the crazy violin fits perfectly). This song is relentless, moving forward and forward and then - the end. It's a rush.

"Kiss With a Fist" reminds me of something the Ting Tings might record in a grittier moment, or even something from a female punk band from days gone by. Sound like opposites? I know! "Girl With One Eye" sounds most like a torch song; when she starts wailing toward the end and the drums are pounding, it's almost tribal. The album can really be loosely divided into songs with a more traditional structure and beat, and then freer, more experimental structure and rhythms. There are far more of the latter than the former, which is awesome.

I think it's funny that the title of "Drumming Song" specifies it, but as I mentioned, the percussion is already such an integral part of each track that during the first few spins I could only determine that it was in fact "Drumming Song" by its lyrics.

I think "Between Two Lungs" might be the song of the album, and my favorite. It takes its time establishing the groove, with ethereal vocals in the background, and it's here you notice what a grasp of melody Florence really has as a songwriter. This is the other "modern 60s pop" song on the album, the kind Kate Nash could one day accomplish if she ever stops trying so hard. When the song opens up around the 3:15 mark, it just hits me every time that this is perfect music I am listening to. Her voice is beautifully unbridled and everything just "makes sense." I so wish it were longer.

In "Cosmic Love" the use of reverb and the harp truly achieves a "cosmic" sound, a kind of expansive experience that you want to see set to visuals. Here again is where the use of a choir in the chorus adds to the feel of the music's "bigness." When Florence sings, "And I heard your heart beating," a bass drum conveniently comes right in and thump-thumps. Not original, but somehow perfect.

"My Boy Builds Coffins" is short and hard for me to focus on, but when I do, I like it a lot. In the bridge of "Hurricane Drunk" Florence's vocals are reminiscent of some of the early 90s R&B singers. And the percussion in the chorus of "Blinding" just gives me chills. Here you finally notice that every song has been constructed possibly a layer at a time, and this is why you listen again and again - your mind is trying to make sense of it all while still fully enjoying it.

So many of Florence + the Machine's songs have a particular atmosphere, as if with the music we're being edged away from normal conceptions of the world and shown what lurks just outside - and this is accomplished through both the lyrics and the layout of the compositions.

I've seen lots of adjectives attached to Florence + the Machine's music: epic, huge, majestic. And they are all correct. This is the kind of stuff you want to hear performed in an amphitheater - nay, a canyon. You want it to fill every single molecule of air around you; you want it to be your clothes, your skin. You want to be it and it to be you, to make you better. People should strive to fill their lives only with things that make them feel this way, and thanks to true artists like F+TM, it gets a little easier to do.

Domesticated Friday: World's Best Oatmeal.

2011-02-04T15:03:00.000-06:00

Today I will be sharing the recipe to the best oatmeal in the entire world. You're welcome.

I learned it from my mom, and it's funny now to think there was actually a time when I would get forlorn that I couldn't have her oatmeal more often. The logical solution would be to learn how to make it myself, but I'm not a cook by nature so it took me years to get around to it. I'm glad I did.

What's great about this oatmeal is the creaminess factor. YUM. If your oatmeal is gritty or kind of dry or too lumpy, you're doing it wrong. Unless you like it that way, in which case I will try to understand that.

The big difference here is the use of evaporated milk instead of regular milk, which is how you get the uber-creaminess. Also, a longer cook time than you're probably used to, and if my mom has taught me nothing else, she has taught me that the best food results from sloooooooow cooking.

Here is what you will need:

1 cup oatmeal (I use Quaker 1-Minute oats)
3/4 cups evaporated milk
2 1/4 cups water
1/3 cups suger
3-4 pats of butter
a small saucepan

Total prep time: approx. 25 minutes

Bring the water to a boil. Add the oatmeal slowly, about a third at a time, stirring after each third. Then add the evaporated milk pretty much right away, because the mixture will be making an attempt to boil over.

Let the water, milk, and oatmeal come to a boil again but don't walk away. You kind of have to babysit this dish. After it reaches the boiling point, turn the heat down to the low end of medium. Stir frequently. The pet milk will form a kind of coating if it sits too long.

About 8 minutes after you reduce the heat, add the sugar. About three minutes after that, add the butter. If you're used to adding these after the oatmeal is served, that's fine too. I have noticed that if you add the sugar while cooking, it's better to do so toward the end or you won't taste it, so don't jump the gun.

Continue to stir frequently. You will notice as you do this that the oatmeal pulls away from the sides of the saucepan a bit. That means it's nearly ready. When you see it pull away and start to reveal the bottom of the saucepan, it's done. (When you get really good, you can take the oatmeal off the heat before you see the bottom; makes it even creamier)

This makes enough for two people, or three small children. My dad adds cinammon to his, which gives it a very nice added flavor. (I know next to nothing about spices beyond salt and pepper, so stuff like that is cool to me)

And there you have it! The world's best oatmeal. :-)

Crack a book.

2011-01-27T12:09:00.000-06:00

Well, I hate for my first post of the year to be a rant, but what can you do. I'll keep it short.

"Just because you graduated college and make 30k/yr doesn't mean you're intelligent. Memorizing information on a page and spitting it back is intellect a monkey could be trained for - don't flatter yourself." -- some idiot on a message board

I realize that dumping on the act of getting a college degree is the new black, but once again I find my feathers ruffled by the overwhelming illogic of "arguments" like these. I hear them more and more. Before I continue, I of course have to qualify all this by saying that not going to college does not mean you're not smart or successful. Or a good person, or anything like that. It's not for everybody. I understand.

But it's pretty obvious to me that statements such as the one above are just the pathetic whining of a growing populace who either did not go to college or did but couldn't hack it, and is now using muddled postmodern feel-good tactics to ease their self-perception and bolster a tarnished self-esteem. And really, is this new? How often do we hear others bring someone down not in spite of, but because of their achievements?

Every single person who goes through the gilded gates of higher learning may not be brilliant, or come out brilliant, but does that mean they should not take advantage of the opportunities that exist to better themselves? I'm sorry if the person you work with is just a bum with a degree--it happens. But idiots like the one quoted above are simply vicious, lazy thinkers who assume (likely unwittingly) that if they bark loud enough about how stupid everyone else is, no one will realize just how much they themselves are lacking.

And don't even get me started on what kind of person actually thinks monkeys sit around reading books and reciting them back to their trainers.

Anyway--if people continue to tear down the value of continued learning (so they can feel better about how much they don't know), where does it end? What's next, high school's unimportant? Junior high? School in general? Because just going to school doesn't mean you know anything!

Basically, these kinds of "arguments" can most likely be traced back to a desire to eliminate standards, so that those who don't fit the status quo can manufacture their own prominence using faulty logic and wishful thinking, rather than skills or wisdom. Nietzsche, my boy, you were definitely on to something.

My 2010 music picks.

2010-12-31T20:45:00.000-06:00

It's a tradition, you know.

"John Wayne," Sons of Sylvia

The first track on their album drew me in more than any of the others I previewed, and I love it for the epic heights they strive for, from the lead singer's unexpected vocal leaps into the stratosphere, to the audacity to tell a woman he's going to come save her just like John Wayne would. Before all the American Gothic ticks were smoothed out of their creativity, this song slipped through, a little dusty, a little dangerous, and all heart.

"It Is What It Is," Lifehouse

Though the height of their fame came ten years ago, Lifehouse is still one of the best groups around. Their latest album felt a little more uneven than the others, but this song, with its slightly R&B flourishes and seriously effortless melody, is mellow and earnest at the same time, and really never gets old.

"You Lost Me," Christina Aguilera

I raved about this after she performed it at the AI finale, and the recorded version proves that sometimes nothing can match the raw emotion of a live song. Still, it's out of place on a mostly throwaway album for its simplicity and haunting arrangement, and I have to give props once again to Sia for writing this song out of the depths of her totally eccentric and fascinating soul.

"Paris (Oo La La)," Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

This band does vintage rock 'n roll and blues and does them well. I saw this performed on the Tonight Show and was blown away. It's gritty, it's got swagger, and it even feels a little dirty though it's not (I think). Grace's voice is captivating. I love it when a group creates a guitar and rhythm lick that's completely infectious and makes me want to dance to it, which I should not be doing.

"God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise," Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs

The title song from his fourth studio album is the best one, and again, I've raved about it here. Ray is just a genius. That's it. It's like he has access to this place juuuuust beyond our own dimension, and he just reaches in and pulls out melody after gorgeous melody, and sets them to perfect lyrics. You need to own all of his albums, but if you're wary, start with this song.

"Islands," Shakira/The xx

Everything Shakira does is fabulous, but that's beside the point; this song off her latest Spanish-language album (but sung in English) is particularly fabulous, and I was surprised to find out it was a cover of an original by The xx. It's just that the lyrics sound exactly like what she normally writes herself. Anyway, her version is breezy, summery, yellow, danceable; the British group's version is low-key, a little brooding, and obviously very hip. I think they wrote a great song, and you should check them out.

"Straight to You," Josh Groban

Unfortunately in our current society, an un-ironic man singing un-ironic lyrics is a strange thing, to be held at bay and regarded suspiciously. This is why Josh will always just kind of be on the outside, doing what he does. (Well, that and he got famous singing classical crossover in other languages) His latest album is a much better reflection of him. This song is beautiful. That's all, it's just beautiful, and as it's a cover of a song from 1991, it was reworked to be this kind of ethereal moment in time. (The original? Not so much) And the words just slay me. "And the sky will throw thunderbolts and sparks/Straight at you/But I'll come running/Straight to you..."

"Roll Away Your Stone," Mumford and Sons

So I just got their album two days ago. Typically when some band is poised to be the next big thing, I shy away; can't explain it, I just do. But I also want to support real music, and they obviously have it in spades. They're a London-based folk group, guys in their twenties, who create very earnest and tightly-drawn songs; some are boot-stompers, some are more delicate. My favorite so far is "Roll Away Your Stone," but I kind of get the feeling this is an album where my favorite will keep changing, until I love 'em like a Ray LaMontagne.

Any good music to share? ;-)

The way it was.

2010-12-31T16:41:00.000-06:00

This was one of the best Christmases I can remember - or, perhaps I mean holiday seasons, because so much good happened before Christmas day. I got my first bonus check ever, not just from my new job, but ever, and though I'd been given a hint beforehand, it was still amazing and helped me buy gifts.

Two of my coworkers got me presents - that actually related to who I am! One lady gave me the most amazing pair of gloves, with wool inside so soft I'm telling you...it's like hands in a yummy cloud. She knew I only had some piddly dollar gloves and I kept complaining but never did anything about it, LOL.

The other lady gave me a photo album from Crate and Barrel that looks like a little binder (with a magnetic flap to hold it shut), holds 72 photos, and is the most fiery, lipstick-red I've ever seen. In other words - fabulous! I had been wanting a small album for just my very favorite photos, and even though she didn't know that, she still knew I enjoy photography and based her selection on that. Who knew it was possible???

I took my grandmother to see the huge annual lights display at a local county park. Night photography is hard enough, but from a slowly moving car, nigh on impossible; however, I still managed three shots for my beautiful followers to enjoy.

Then, we had Christmas Eve off from work. And then, it snowed ALL DAY.

Among the very few things I hope for in life, a white Christmas is one of them. It was already snowy white when I got up that morning. At one point I was leisurely reading a book, Christmas music in the background, snow falling outside the window. Perfection.

I stayed over my parents' house like usual, since I have no family of my own (but please, no sympathy), and the day was mostly spent wrapping presents, decorating the tree (I know, so late), and watching Christmas movies. We had hamburgers and fries for dinner. I made chocolate- and white chocolate-chip cookies.

Everyone came over the next day, per the usual. Times change; relatives die; relatives move. So for the last few years it has all made me feel a little forlorn. But this time, things felt different. One of my mom's friends spent the day with us, as well as a one of her cousins that we only see on holidays. Cool Cousin brought her boyfriend over. There were twelve of us in all, I think. The eggnog flowed. Games were played. I almost burned the meat. Someone felt their name was written on the shrimp tray. Good times were had by all!

Today, the snow has melted, and the year is closing.

It never fails that you never know what a year will bring. I always look back and am SHOCKED at what went down the last twelve months. As you know, this year it's no different for me.

So there's really nothing to do but close my eyes and take a step into the next year, with no expectations, no goals, just the knowledge that I'm still here.

The making of a Christmas tree.

2010-12-19T20:30:00.000-06:00

This year I bought a Christmas tree for the first time ever. So, are they getting easier to put together? In the past we've always had to put each individual branch in a hole on the stem, but the one I bought was in three simple sections, and the branches just kind of fell down into place. I had to separate the smaller boughs and make everything look pretty, but wow - I love it when things get better and make more sense.

So anyway, it was important to start out with the necessary ingredients.

With those in place, putting together tree was a snap. :)

And after the strategic placing of ornaments that took far too long:

Happy Holidays! (Six days till Christmas, yay!)

Where's my paycheck?

2010-12-05T16:29:00.001-06:00

If only the recording industry knew what was good for them.

Although I do have a degree in music, I feel that I possess an intuition that would be hard to teach, let alone go to school for. You see...I have this weird talent for picking the hits.

When I first saw Katy Perry's new single "Firework" on the iTunes singles chart, I was pleasantly surprised, but definitely not shocked. "Firework" was one of only two songs (along with "Teenage Dream") that I bought from her new album when it came out. I'm definitely that kind of music buyer - I rarely buy entire albums unless it's from one of my absolute favorites and I therefore trust and support them. So, with everyone else, I just buy songs if they have so much potential that a 30-second snippet blew my mind.

Remember when I blogged about Kings of Leon's new album and posted a video for "Use Somebody"? And then, a few weeks later, the song exploded onto the scene and eventually won them a Grammy? Yup. It was one of the four songs I got from Only By the Night on iTunes. The others were "Sex on Fire" (the first single), "Manhattan," and "Closer," which not only appears to be one of their most popular songs now (and a song I consider essentially perfect) but also shows up as a remix on their newest. I'm telling you - I can pick them. Want more proof?

I pegged "I Do Not Hook Up" as the perfect second single for Kelly Clarkson's latest album. And lo and behold, it was the second single.

I concluded that "The Truth" was the only logical follow-up to "Live Like We're Dying" for Kris Allen. I also felt that it would be perfect attached to one of those crappy CW shows, where songs go to become famous (counterintuitively). And as I wished, the song became his second single. Although, his handlers did miss out on my CW suggestion, proving that someone should be paying me for my ideas.

I knew after one listen that "No Air," the duet by Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown, was going to be gigantic. And...of course...it was. ;-)

"Lay There and Hate Me" was one of four songs off of Ben Harper's latest that I purchased; while I don't know about it's single-ness, he did perform it on the Tonight Show to promote the album.

I touted the awesomeness of Owl City's "Fireflies" on this blog before it too became a number-one hit.

I routinely predict Carrie Underwood's singles - "I Told You So," "Just A Dream," "Before He Cheats."

And I also tend to purchase songs that have intrinsic worth without need of being a Top 10 hit. I noticed that Alicia Keys' "Superwoman" was nominated for a Grammy, and it was the only song I bought off of that album; I got three songs from Gnarls Barkley's second effort, one of which, "Going On," was nominated for a Grammy; and good ol' Bucky Covington, of American Idol fame, was even nominated, for "The Bible and the Belt" - the only song I got from his debut.

So, with that track record, I'd like to recommend some amazing songs that should be singles, that would help struggling albums: "Can't Breathe," Leona Lewis; "Let It Rain," Jordin Sparks; "D Is For Dangerous," Allison Iraheta; "God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise," Ray LaMontagne (and the Pariah Dogs); "It Is What It Is," Lifehouse.

Just my opinion. ;)

A very special Domesticated Friday.

2010-11-26T15:52:00.004-06:00

It's special because 1) it's basically my Thanksgiving post, and 2) it involves actual cooking. O_O

So today, let's talk dressing.

Although Stove Top dressing really is good, it obviously pales compared to dressing made from scratch. And, I think it's important for younger generations - not just old folks - to know how to make staples such as this, because tradition is crucial and knowing how to do something yourself is becoming an increasingly lost art. I'm not a cook by any means, but I understand the importance of the skill. (The real skill. Not just microwaving Hot Pockets. Which I just did)

Please note: the recipe is for Thanksgiving, and presumes that you will be feeding at least 10 hungry people; there will be enough left over to freeze and use for Christmas, too! You're welcome. =)

P.S. You also may want to have an assistant.

So, here's what you'll need:

6 eggs
1 1/3 cup milk
4 tbsp butter
1 bottle of sage
3 loaves white bread
4 boxes Jiffy cornbread
1 full stalk of celery
2 onions
1 jar chicken bouillion cubes
2 packages Italian sausage (five links/pckg)
Salt, pepper
1 mixing bowl
1 large bowl
1 ginormous roast pan

(We ended up only using 3 loaves, so disregard that fourth one in the picture; there's only one onion in the picture because my mom had already started on the other one; and we decided against dipping into a second sage bottle based on how the finished product "smelled," so yeah, taking pictures of this whole process was not easy!)

First, prepare the cornbread according to the instructions on the box. It will require four of the eggs and all of the milk. Typically one box of cornbread cooks for twenty minutes; four boxes won't take an hour, and you can just keep an eye on it; when it is solid and showing very light hints of brown, put a knife in the middle and test; if anything comes out a little creamy, leave it in a bit longer.

While doing this, begin toasting the bread slices. Gather them in the large bowl for ease of later access.

While the cornbread is cooking, cut up the onions and celery. Always make sure to wash your veggies first! Set them aside when finished.

Open the sausage packages. Cut the skin off of the links. Place them in a skillet and brown them as you would hamburger, keeping in mind that sausage is a bit thicker than beef so you will want to continuously split them into smaller and smaller pieces with the spatula as they're browning.

By this time, the cornbread will probably be done and all of the bread should be toasted. You can set the sausage aside on the stove for a bit later.

Get a medium saucepan and the bouillion cubes. You'll want to use two cubes per cup of water to start. You can always add a few more later depending on how you like your chicken broth. I think my mom used about eight cups of water; so, sixteen cubes. Warm the water and cubes in the saucepan until the cubes are dissolved; you don't need to bring it to a boil, but if you do, make sure to let it cool because you don't want to pour hot broth on the bread.

Next, you're going to sautee the veggies. Melt the four tablespoons of butter in another skillet. Put the chopped onions and celery in the skillet and stir them in the butter until they are no longer crisp, but also not yet browning. Set them aside.

Now for something that's a bit gross, but ya gotta do it. Take a mixing bowl and fill it about a quarter of the way with water. Take the toasted bread and dip it, two to three slices at a time, in the water till submerged (don't linger), and then squeeze and tear them into smaller pieces in the roast pan. Then, add two eggs and stir them in. When finished, scoop the cornbread out of the pan and put it, without soaking it, into the roast pan.

Stir the breads together to mix them thoroughly. Then add half of the bottle of sage and stir again.

Next, add the sausage and vegetables; stir!

You're almost done! At some point you will add salt and pepper, but since as we all know, the "old recipes" aren't always exact, I can't really tell you how much. Neither can my mom, who goes on "feeling." I would say, for the salt, shake evenly (and not very quickly) over the dressing for about ten seconds.

Pour half of the pan of broth into the dressing and stir. When it is fully absorbed (you don't see any standing broth), add the other half of the bottle of sage; stir again. Add the other half of the pan of broth and stir WELL. There may be sausage or cornbread hiding along the bottom that you can't see because the roast pan is so big, so really get along the bottom and sides to make sure everything is evenly distributed.

I would describe the consistency of uncooked dressing as...kind of juicy. But that's the way it should be. Even with the broth all absorbed, it's still...kind of juicy. So now, you can separate it into smaller pans that will be easier to cook it in; only fill the larger pans about halfway to ensure that it cooks all the way through.

When you're ready to cook the dressing, whether it's right then or the next day, cook for 1 hour on 350 degrees. That's all it takes!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Saying goodbye.

2010-11-14T20:36:00.000-06:00

To autumn leaves, that is. I haven't posted any from this year yet on this blog, so after I spent a couple of hours in the crisp morning I decided to give you guys a little foliage treat. :)

By this time next week, all of these leaves, and I do mean all of them, will be gone. Sad.

Sneak peek.

2010-10-31T18:41:00.000-05:00

You can see the rest of the photos at my photo blog! Really, you can! Plus lots and lots and loootttssss of fall foliage shots. :)

Blog anniversary.

2010-10-30T12:48:00.001-05:00

So it was actually Thursday, but oh well. :)

And hey, two blog posts in one day! Don't miss my ode to Halloween below!

Okay, so in honor of my second full year of blogging, I will, as last year, simply give you links to my favorite posts from the last 365 days. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for staying with me.

This poem just might be the saddest I've ever written. Mine was a brief foray into poetry, and now it is finished.

You want proof Bob Marley was a pretty smart guy?

I was obviously seeing red that day!

The top 10 movies of the 2000s.

It's hard to say goodbye.

This actually sums up my favorite things really well!

This song and this song are two of the most perfect songs ever.

Love you, Casey! In a non-scary, non-stalkerish way.

Mariposa, eres mi amiga, mariposa, eres divertida....

My best Domesticated Friday post. =)

I'm tellin' y'all, they're real!!

You know they're cute.

What would my trips be without a retrospective???

Take a moment and learn something.

I still think it's a great question.

OLD. BUILDINGS.

Fight the future.

And because of this, I can finally enter my next decade of life feeling like it's worthwhile again.

Halloween. :-)

2010-10-30T11:11:00.001-05:00

I love Halloween.

I love that when I was a kid, the trees were usually bare by October 31st and it added so much to the spoooooky tone of the day. I love that more often than not, there's a full moon. I love all the cheesy Halloween movies they show on the cable networks, even though I usually don't watch them; I just like knowing they're there. And I totally love the fact that every single year without fail, I miss the showing of "The Great Pumpkin" on TV.

I love pumpkins, and jack-o'-lanterns, and friendly scarecrows. I love reading Sleepy Hollow and "The Raven." I love the old pictures of me, my brother and my mom at the pumpkin patch when I was still in a stroller. My dad was there too, of course; he was taking the pictures, especially the one where my brother is hugging a small pumpkin to his chest as tight as he can and making the most ridiculous grimace ever. He was four. Nothing has changed.

I love the autumn colors, and the cooler air, and the massive bowl of candy that I fill and then never hand out because my apartment doesn't have an outside door so nobody ever comes by. I love Halloween candy.

I love that I will be chowing down on white chocolate chip and toasted pecan pumpkin cookies in just a few days.

And I love scary movies. Real scary movies. Not horror flicks. Not camp. Real. Scary.

I have decided that I will watch two of my favorites this weekend; The Skeleton Key is about a young woman (Kate Hudson) in Lousiana who goes to work as a hospice nurse for an old man (John Hurt) and his wife (Gena Rowland) living in a big old plantation house. The wife is doing fine, she's just a tad creepy. The husband can no longer speak but is trying desperately to convey a message to the nurse. Hoodoo happens. A dark past is uncovered. Rain falls. Real chills ensue. And honestly, I won't even say the name Papa Justify out loud because I'm quite sure he will come and get me. Honestly.

The Mothman Prophecies was one of my top 10 movies of the past decade. It's the best X-Files movie Chris Carter never made. After the death of his wife (Debra Messing), a D.C. journalist (Richard Gere) becomes enthralled in investigating strange occurances in a small West Virginia town. You know something is wrong when he gets lost, shows up at a house to ask for directions, and finds out from the angry homeowner that it's oh, just the third night in a row he's done this. At 3 a.m.

This movie is so scary exactly because of what you never see, and that's where truly scary movies succeed. While ashen drawings of a giant humanlike moth with red eyes are hastily etched, and residents are petrified by the keening sounds they hear in the forests beyond their house, you're left biting your nails and wondering when the mothman is finally going to just come and eat you.

Anyway. I think I will also rent District 9. Peter Jackson + aliens + verisimilitude = my kind of movie.

So what are you all up to this weekend? Parties? Handing out candy to the kiddos? Watching movies in the dark? :-D

So, this is it.

2010-10-04T20:30:00.000-05:00

I realized something today. I realized the will to blog has left me.

It's been a very weird year. I haven't blogged as much as last year, obviously, and whether it's because my life is literally not the one I had when I first began this, or because I simply have run out of things to say that anyone would want to read, the end result is that I should probably give it up for a while.

Not that my leaving will make a dent, of course. I never searched for a big audience, even though that's what most bloggers want (myself included). I guess I just want to not feel that I'm neglecting something. By making my leave of absence official, it will now be okay not to blog for a week or more at a time, because I have rescinded my obligation to it.

I do still reserve the right to blog, however. There are Domesticated Fridays left to create. I want to do a blog retrospective on my anniversary, just like last year. I have to tell you all the wonderful music from the year 2010 at the eve of it, as always. And there may be photos to share and what not. I'm just taking a break from an obligation I can really no longer fulfill.

I will still keep up with the blogs I read, however, and comment as usual. Mel, Don, Diana, Clare, Inga - even Ryan C., who knows I drop in about once every four months; this will continue! So don't worry, I will not be neglecting my blog friends...just my blog itself.

So. I'll see you around. :-)

My story.

2010-09-28T19:04:00.001-05:00

Now that I am at the end of my strange journey, I will post it here for posterity.

On a sunny day in mid-June, I was just getting into my car with my best friend and her husband (who had driven two-and-a-half hours for the visit) to go to the Dave Matthews Band concert we'd been planning for months, when I got a phone call from my job. My boss needed me to come in early the next morning. I asked her why. She said she needed to...talk about something.

Those cryptic code words really mean "you've obviously done something terrible and so begins an investigation to see if you need to be fired." And because I knew this, the concert experience was basically ruined for me. I apologized several times to my friend, once I got done crying.

I went in the next morning bright and early to find that an incident the previous day had obviously been deemed a violation most foul. Here's what happened in a nutshell: a ten-year-old girl did something stupid, and when called on it, she lied to my face and said that I told her to do it. I responded by telling her she was lying. Oh, excuse me: in a raised tone of voice. (For those who don't know, I was an assistant director at a learning center)

So, following procedure, I was put on suspension (yup, they call it suspension) so they could investigate the crime scene and interrogate witnesses. I sulked home. It was just two days before a ten-day vacation I'd been planning for half a year.

I went on the vacation. What else could I do? I tried to keep my mind off the life-changing event that I just knew was going to happen, even though it defied logic, and have a little fun, and it kinda worked. Sorta.

On the long drive back home, I learned that I was to report to my place of work the next day for a short meeting. Another code for "you're fired." So I went the next morning, and was fired. For telling a child she was lying. In a raised tone of voice. Not screaming. Not writhing hysterically on the floor. Not frothing at the mouth. Just an upset tone.

So, I was done for, essentially. I had NO savings. I applied for unemployment and was denied. Why? Because in my great state, an employer can asked to be relieved of their burden of giving you back the money you'd been putting into the system on grounds of "misconduct." It used to be that you just had to wait a few more weeks; the worse the infraction, the longer you had to wait for your weekly checks. Now they can summarily deny you and keep stepping.

So I researched. I knew I could appeal, but I needed legal bolsterings. I found that there is a legal definition of misconduct that most, if not all states adhere to, dating back to a 1941 case entitled Boynton Cab v. Neubeck. So in my appeal letter (which, I must admit, was brilliantly written) I laid it all out there: what I did, what misconduct is concerning unemployment benefits, and why what I did does not apply. They accepted the appeal (they probably do no matter what) and I was given a date for a phone conference on September 3rd.

In the meantime, I borrowed what I could from my parents (which was difficult, because my mom is also out of work, though she was laid off and received her benefits); my grandmother covered my August rent; and a few friends paid for utilities or sent gift cards out of the pure goodness of their hearts.

In the end, though, I knew I had to file for bankruptcy. In this economy? Sending resume after application after resume and hearing nothing back, not even a "thanks for applying"? Aside from blowing what little I had on the fate of lottery tickets, it was my only option. I'm not ashamed to say I did it. I'm sure all of you reading this know someone, or several someones, who have done so. It's amazing how you can mention it, and then someone says their brother and husband have done it, or their sister has filed three times, or they themselves are looking into it. I would only recommend it as a serious last-ditch effort, but it does give peace of mind.

While sitting in the law assistant's office enumerating all the money I didn't have, I got a phone call from a medical company wanting to set up an interview. (And you don't think God has a sense of humor...) So I went that Thursday, put my best foot forward, and received a job offer the next Monday. I started that Thursday.

In the meantime, my appeal was postponed two weeks because my former boss, forced to act as "witness" for the corporation that tossed me, was going to be out of town. So, two weeks later, I sat in my car on the phone with an appeals court referee, ready to humbly and succinctly plead my case. And guess what? The witness didn't show. Which means that my old company knew they had no further grounds to deny me the money I really could have used a long time ago. In fact, I'm sure they knew they had no grounds to fire me in the first place, and just were looking for any reason to dump my meager salary off their books. They'll ruin a life to take care of a little overhead.

Last Friday I got the letter in the mail that I had won my appeal. And today, I just happened to check my bank account, and there it was. The money due me.

This was, obviously, one of the hardest things I've ever gone through. I didn't detail the anxiety, the restlessness, the feelings of failure, the fear of the unknown and therefore hopeless future. How I struggled not to feel like a bad person. I'm not going to talk about the days in which I woke up and my first thought was, "I have nothing." No job, no money, no security, and certainly no husband to support me. I'm not going to say I was suicidal, but imagine the thoughts you can have when there is very little to live for. Being 29, this was already a year in which I was looking back over my life and realizing my goals were completely unmet; I was trying so hard not to let this get me down, but then everything imploded. Everything.

So today, having been at my new job for a month, knowing that I'll finally be making enough money to actually save some, and being given peace of mind with the small windfall I had to fight for, I feel like I can finally be happy. Worries never go away, but they diminish.

Now I can pay those good people back. Now I can replace my broken ironing board. Now I can buy a pair of tennis shoes to work out in. Now I can finally have Chinese food from my favorite restaurant. I was broke for so long - far before I ever got fired - that it feels strange to know that now, I can have.

Of course, the money lessons I've learned are numerous. But that's...another post.... :-)

The queen wants her breakfast!

2010-09-27T21:55:00.000-05:00

So, we know that going to Italy and taking a tour of haunted places around the country are on my bucket list. Were it not so expensive, spending the night in a real European castle might be on the list, too!

Thanks to this heady article, I can now spend inordinate amounts of time daydreaming about pretending to be a princess for a day or two in Ashford Castle in Ireland, or Gritti Palace in Italy (kill two birds with one stone, perhaps?), or--if I dared to be exotic--the Kasbah du Toubkal in Morocco (oooooooh...)

A day of history.

2010-09-26T21:59:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, IL.

Photos were only allowed in the Plaza, not in the exhibits, so unfortunately I can only give you a limited view of this brilliantly done memorial, but I'll give you a brief idea of what I experienced.

There are two main exhibits. The first is the pre-Presidential years, which takes you through, logically, the years before Lincoln was elected president. There are scores of excellent wax figures that give a snapshot of important scenes--young Lincoln at the hearth in his log cabin; sitting on a parlor sofa with Mary Todd during their courting phase; debating Stephen Douglas. And especially a depiction of a slave auction in New Orleans, which is believed to have given Lincoln his first conviction against the practice of slavery. In addition there are plenty of authentic possessions and letters on display, to give a very full understanding of his humble beginnings and eventual rise to the presidency.

The White House years was extremely eye-opening. Because of his anti-slavery stance and intentions, Lincoln was ripped to shreds by the media, by politicians, and by a large cross-section of the population. Dozens of political cartoons published during his presidency--some even before he was sworn in--depicting him in very unsavory ways are displayed on the wall in slanted frames; holographic faces in another room spew vitriol. Then we get to the war itself; read about the lives and fates of four Union and four Confederate soldiers; watch the death toll rise on a huge digital wall map, in four minutes going from 0 to over 1.3 million as battles break out again and again. We see Lincoln at the telegraph office, hunched over and weary, reading the daily body counts.

Then we see Lee surrender, and large murals show the celebrations that the war is over. A procession of portraits show how his terms aged him, from fresh and expectant in 1861 to almost gaunt by 1865. Two theater posters herald the local premier of "My American Cousin;" a wax John Wilkes Boothe sneaks into the president's box, where Lincoln sits contentedly with his wife. A huge newspaper front page declares the president dead.

Photographs from each of his coffin's eight stops on the long journey back to Sprinfield hang on a wall, in each city a funeral until he is finally interred in the place he called home. The last room holds a replica of his coffin, navy with white trim, the wall swathed in a giant cloth dyed red, white, and blue, and in the middle a portrait of Washington. The wall's upper left trim reads "Washington the Father." The upper right reads "Lincoln the Savior." And if you're not already welling up, a recording of a choir softly hums Amazing Grace.

To experience Lincoln's entire life with such depth, to know the ugliness he endured, and the tragedies--he saw his mother, his first love, and two children die--was an extremely unexpected and fulfilling experience that I wish everyone could have.

But you'll have to travel to the Land of Lincoln first.

I don't think so, Tim.

2010-09-21T21:44:00.001-05:00

I stumbled across this fascinating article in the New York Times Magazine about a school in New York City (of course, where else?) named Quest to Learn that uses video games as a central educational resource. There are so many different facets of life and education that the article directly and indirectly touches on, that this blog post will probably become over-long, but hey, where else am I going to post this?

What I want the reader to understand is that I'm not anti-video game. Dear God, the hours and hours I spent in the days before worries playing on systems from the Atari 2600 to the XBox 360. I also am not saying that a video game design course couldn't be integrated into existing curriculums and used interdisciplinarily to great effect. It's just that some of the ideas and philosophies driving the Quest to Learn school indicate what amounts to a scrubbing of all pre-21st century pedagogy in favor of funneling learning through video games.

Video games, essentially, teach us how to be more robotically functioning - greater response time! improved dexterity! increased peripheral vision! There has always been a decision-making function. In the great, old Atari game Pitfall it was, should I cross the lake by hopping on the croc heads or by swinging on that there vine? Decisions happen every day, nearly every instant, as physicists in favor of the infinite universes theory can tell you. So while video games can give us improved military skills and heap more decision-making on us, what they fail fundamentally to be able to teach us is the why in life.

Let's get to the thick of things. The article states, "In a speech given the day before the start of the 2009 G-20 economic summit, Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, offered his own tacit approval, suggesting that playing video games, especially online multiplayer games, fosters collaboration, and that collaboration, in turn, fosters innovation — making it good training for a career in technology. 'Everything in the future online is going to look like a multiplayer game,” Schmidt said. 'If I were 15 years old, that’s what I’d be doing right now.'"

But that's just it, Eric - I'm not 15. Nor are about five billion other people on the planet. Just because video games are fun, and because there are grown-ups who find dealing with them easier than dealing with being a grown-up, does not mean that a diversion meant primarily for people who don't have responsibilities 18 hours out of the day is suddenly supposed to be all we ever do and see.

Interestingly, the school implemented a social network for the students, staff, and parents called Being Me that is essentially Facebook on a smaller scale. "In the coming weeks, mostly through the school’s wellness class, students would work on learning things like how to tag photos, update their status, credit the work of others, comment meaningfully on blog posts and navigate the complex politics of 'friending.'"

In other words, teaching them how to use Facebook, which I'm quite sure many of them already do.

It continues: "It was another effort on the school’s part to look at the things kids are already doing — social networking, playing video games, tinkering with digital media — and try to help them do it with more thought and purpose, to recognize both their role and their influence inside a larger system."

Facebook doesn't require thought and purpose. That's the point. You know what does? Writing an essay. Collaborating on a research paper. Putting together a science project. Learning a new piece of music in band or orchestra class. Those are all things that require thought and purpose. But not nearly as much as is required to "friend" someone, I guess.

In one particular paragraph, a short list of technologies kids quickly master nowadays is given - social media, Youtube, gaming, music sampling, cell phones - yet Michael H. Levine laments that because schools today put a limit on or ban such things inside their walls, "it does little to teach students how to live in the 21st century." Really? How so? It seems to me that, by that list, kids are doing just fine outside of school learning how to live in the present day. They should be going to school to focus on things that TV, radio, movies, magazines, and video games are not out to teach.

The school has a set-aside space called Smallab in which "[s]tudents can thus learn chemical titration by pushing king-size molecules around the virtual space. They can study geology by building and shifting digital layers of sediment and fossils on the classroom floor or explore complementary and supplementary angles by racing the clock to move a giant virtual protractor around the floor."

In my opinion, this is the kind of technology we should be focused on. It allows students to learn by experiencing the subject matter in a heightened and visual way, in an exciting way even, in a way they couldn't just a short time ago, without turning the subject matter into a "video game." Not to say that there can't be game-like elements - I mean, teachers have been turning subject matter into games for decades (hello, Spanish Bingo!) and yes, it makes things more fun for everyone. That clearly is not the same as saying "video games are winning over school, so let's cave in and bring video games here and hope the students like us for it." Which is essentially what this school is doing.

"'I think games are the future in education,' Wilson said in an interview with the game designer Will Wright last year. 'We’re going through a rapid transition now. We’re about to leave print and textbooks behind.'"

So will there be a video game about the conquests of Hannibal? A video game about Emily Dickinson poems? A video game about the telltale symptoms of bipolar disorder? Why is it that when something new comes along, not only are there people desperate to completely saturate the world with it, but to treat it as though it is unquestionably better than anything that pre-dates it?

One of the teachers, Al Doyle, expounded on how so-ten-years-ago the twentieth century is, along with all of its skills. "Why memorize the 50 states and their capitals? Why, in the age of Google and pocket computers, memorize anything? 'Handwriting?' Doyle said. 'That’s a 20th-century skill.' Realizing this sounded radical, he amended his thought, saying that students should learn to write, but that keyboarding was far more important. He took aim at spelling, calling it 'outmoded.'"

I'm pretty sure that anyone who thinks about it long enough will realize that memorizing information is important because 1) it increases your knowledge set, and 2) how do we know that Google is going to be around until the end of time? It's called "give a man a fish and he eats for a day." Honestly, sometimes I feel like the endurance of advanced civilizations are being sabotaged by people hiding behind halcyon visions of a "future" that's as indetermined as your waking up tomorrow. They get so caught up in ideas and gaming utopias that they fail to pause and consider (as we all learned in Jurassic Park) not "can we?" but "should we?"

Should we become a society that is no more than an extension of technology that could fail at any moment? Should we stop making paper and pencils and become unable to craft a simple grocery list without our smart phones? Should we proclaim the building blocks of written communication "outmoded" for reasons that, honestly, I can't even figure out? (Why in the world does spelling get lumped in with everything else? Are communal language systems somehow holding us back?)

Honestly, I get so pissed at people who clearly are intelligent and have much to offer but instead stand around and yap "new, new, new!!!" without ever coming up with the logical inference that old things/old ways are not by their nature bad, wrong, or a hindrance.

I think the Smallab they have going on at Quest to Learn is completely on the right track - it teaches tried-and-true subject matter while utilizing new technology to allow students a more immersive (and easier to remember) experience. I think the video game angle sucks. "We learned about pyramids today - now let's create a game using a pyramid!" No, how about we learn about how the pyramids were made, what they were used for, how long we think they'll be around, etc. etc.

I don't think the minds behind Quest to Learn ever heard this crucial and modern maxim: Don't give kids what they want. Give kids what they need.

Figurative snapshot.

2010-09-15T23:05:00.000-05:00

Movie you should watch - Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. It's valor and heartbreak on the high seas. The HMS Surprise plays cat-and-mouse with a top-of-the-line French frigate around Cape Horn during the Napoleanic wars. Men are lost at sea, men are lost in spirit. Young boys display bravery not found in most grown men. Music waxes and wanes. You sit in awe. And I haven't even gotten to Russell Crowe.

Song you should hear - "God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise," by Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs. Ray pines for the old days with his usual melodic brilliance in his typical atmospheric, beautiful way, telling the simple, well-worn story of a cowboy missing his girl.

Book you should read - Treason, by Ann Coulter. Hey now, put down that cream pie. If the thought of her gives you hives, quietly navigate away from this page. But if you're ready for the true story of the McCarthy era, or have ever wondered why some consider President Reagan an "evil, evil man," this book's for you. For such a divisive figure, her book is simply masterful in parts.

Funny story. Just kidding, sad story.

2010-09-12T20:09:00.001-05:00

When I was a little girl, no more than three, my mom told me never to touch flowers.

She had a whole garden in our backyard, plus potted plants situated luxuriously in the kitchen. Being a child, of course I thought they were so pretty and looked so soft, but alas, my mom said that when you touch flower petals, the flowers die. So I dutifully obeyed and never touched one.

Cut to me at twenty-six years of age, sitting in the lunchroom with a few other coworkers. The elementary principal had been given a very pretty, large flower and it was laying, in green tissue, on the lunch table. I said wistfully, "I wish I could touch it, but I know I can't."

The principal looked at me strangely enough. "Why not?"

"Because...it'll die."

"Um...no it won't."

And the whole charade came crashing down. We figured out my mom had just told me that to keep little fingers from crushing delicate petals. (But I wouldn't have, honest!)

But, even now, almost four years later, I still can't do it. I look longingly at the pretty flowers and I obediantly do not touch.

Moral of the story: PLEASE lie sparingly to children.

Eeeeeeeeeeee!

2010-09-06T20:45:00.000-05:00

So I was up late last night basically watching whatever show came on following the previous one (too lazy to change the channel) which did result in a fabulous episode of L&O:SVU, but first, I endured an episode of Wings. Watching Wings reminded me of how hot Tim Daly is, and then how he was a central character in Queen, and how I really wished they would put Queen on DVD finally, so I went to Amazon to check, hoping against hope, and guess what they have it on DVD finally and it's totally within my budget now!!!

Okay. Let's back up.

Do you remember, in 1992, when one of the major networks aired Alex Haley's Queen, starring Halle Berry, and it was a three-night miniseries? I do. I LOVED IT. Here's a bit of the story:

It begins in the antebellum south, probably Georgia, and Martin Sheen is from Ireland and married to Ann-Margaret and he owns a big plantation and a ton of slaves. Their son, Tim Daly, is revealed early on to be hopelessly in love with one of the slaves, Jasmine Guy (remember her from A Different World?). So of course, he marries Patricia Clarkson but ends up having a child with Jasmine Guy (whom he "visits" just about every night in her little slave cottage).

So she has a girl and Tim names her Queen and she is played in her younger years by Everybody's Sweetheart circa 1992, Raven Simone. Then she grows up to be Halle Berry. And a lot of crazy stuff happens to her; Tim goes off to fight in the Civil War and loses an arm, and I think that's when Patricia Clarkson kicks her out of the house, so she goes off into the world pretending to be white and falls in love with (old guy crush alert!) Victor Garber, who finds out she's mixed and rapes her, and so on and so forth, and then the black President from 24 shows up but gets hanged, and then Danny Glover shows up while Halle Berry slowly goes crazy, and on and on.

IT'S AMAZING!!

And FINALLY it is available on DVD. I would check every now and then on Amazon, but only VHS collections would be listed by third-party sellers, and they would try to fleece me for three hundred bucks, which made me very sad.

But...at last...sigh...it can be mine. This will be my splurge item after I've squirreled a few paychecks away. Can't wait! Eeeeee!

Angels, clowns, and a frog.

2010-09-06T15:35:00.000-05:00

Strange bedfellows.....or GENIUS???

......okay, strange bedfellows.

Hard times in the big city.

2010-08-29T14:59:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I spent hours in the waning (and night) light of downtown snapping photos. I figured I haven't posted any photography here in a while, so why not dangle a few morsels?

Because the industrial sector was huge in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries here, there are tons of old, dying buildings that still stand as a testament to our history. In other words--loving it!

Click here to see the graffiti shots over at my photog blog.

Best cousin ever.

2010-08-29T01:00:00.000-05:00

Cool cousin and I had had a hookah date on the books for over a month, so needless to say, I was ready to hit the proverbial (cough, cough) pipe last night. She hadn't been over to read the blog in a bit--can't blame her, I haven't been posting much--so I was able to surprise her with the fact of my new job, after a long, drawn-out prologue, of course.

Anyway, not only did she pick up the check, she decided we needed a shot (and I'm telling you, that second shot of tequila came out of left field), and then hooked both of us up with Jimmie Johns on the way home. Jimmie Johns is the absolute number one food after a night of light or hard drinking, and it helps that they're open till three.

But not only that! She had texted me weeks ago that she picked up something for me at a garage sale based on my blog ramblings. I was in suspense. I don't even remember half the time what I talk about on here.

It was a bag full of vintage Norman Rockwell paintings, framed.

Seriously? It's the best present anyone's ever gotten me. I may be a bit mercurial, but most of the time if someone gets me something, it's because they think I should need it (yes, I meant that) or because of something I said when I was four.

Not so with the Rockwell paintings. I am completely bowled over. They're something I really, really wanted, and couldn't afford to buy, let alone frame. Wow.

So.....thanks, CC. :)

She has agreed to help me hone my photographic craft with a photo shoot in the near future, and I have lots of ideas for it, and I'm going to make sure that the photos turn out really well because it's of course the least I can do in return.

Update.

2010-08-24T23:36:00.001-05:00

I haven't been blogging again. Here, at least. I've been posting a ton over at my photography blog, I guess because it's easier to find something to say about that than it is about my life in general.

But! Guess what. I got a job.

I didn't even apply for it. They contacted me out of the blue for an interview last week. The interview went smashingly, and I got the call yesterday evening. It's a small business that provides pharmaceuticals for clients; I'll be doing lots of office work with the added bonus that there will be NO kids within fifteen hundred yards of the place.

I still have to do the drug test and background check, which I can only assume I'll pass since I don't take any drugs and I've never molested anyone. My first day is Thursday. :)

Wish me luck!

Bonjour, Jean-Pierre.

2010-08-18T17:20:00.000-05:00

I had to go back and find these photos at A Cup of Jo because they are just too cool for words. They are from Spanish artist Blanca Gomez, and I hope she has more cities in mind; I can already imagine a Milan or San Francisco or Amsterdam print. :)

Think about it.

2010-08-17T01:52:00.001-05:00

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? -

- who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought...

Teaser.

2010-08-14T17:21:00.000-05:00

To see more, visit the post at my photo blog. :)

It's still hot.

2010-08-14T12:31:00.000-05:00

Yes indeed. We've had an excessive heat advisory for the last, oh, seven days straight? Temperatures at or over 100 every day, heat indexes something ridiculous like 120. One night on the news, the weather lady said that at five a.m. that morning, the heat index was still 95. Last night my mom and I were coming back from dinner around eight-thirty, and the car's thermometer refused to budge from 100; by the time we got to the house it was finally at 96. And you know what? You do get used to it. You get used to sweat rolling down your back.

Last summer wasn't like this at all. It was in the 80s all the time. But as a result, I believe, the fall colors weren't as vibrant and didn't peak at the right time and were just all confuzzled. So I think this fall we're going to have a pretty awesome show. It's just a matter of getting there. UGH. Is it still August? UGH.

TATU life. :)

2010-08-12T20:43:00.000-05:00

Jo over at A Cup of Jo had a post today about cute matching tattoos. It reminded me that I still want a second tattoo. (I know, I only have one! What?!) I know I want it on the inside of my arm just past my elbow, and I want to be red or mostly red in some way. I just don't know what yet. Gotta get on that!

I also think it would be adorable to no end to get a matching tattoo with my husband. One day far, far in the future, apparently. You'll notice I didn't say boyfriend. We don't take those kinds of chances without a ring, sweetheart.

(photo by Chris Glass via Design Crush)

The whole world's gone mad.

2010-08-10T14:13:00.000-05:00

So you all know how I feel about the job search process.

One of the featured articles on Yahoo today talks about companies strangely not being able to hire middle-level workers (since those were the jobs that were hysterically slashed when the economy took a fall). There are plenty of reasons offered in the article, and I'll let you read it if you want, but the best part about it happened to be the comments section. I'm not a huge fan of these comment sections returning, because so many people are legitimately amoral, racist, sexist, or just stupid, and I hated wasting my time reading past their garbage before and I hate it now. Fortunately, many of the comments for this article actually pertain intelligently to the subject.

People everywhere are angry at the current hiring practices companies have adopted. One commenter really preached it: "I don't want to hear another word from employers griping about not being able to fill positions when they do NOT give the common courtesy of letting candidates know that they have even received application information. They don't return phone calls, they don't want to be contacted, they don't want to pay a fair wage, they don't want to offer benefits, and they certainly don't want to come clean about any going concern issues."

How in the world has it become acceptable to completely ignore the online applications that are submitted, especially when it's most times the only method we have of applying? At my last job we got so many online apps and if we weren't hiring, there was no way to contact them and let them know. We just had to ignore it, delete it from the e-mail system. But the places that are hiring, that have put out ads on Monster and CareerBuilder and so on, can't they at least extend the courtesy of sending a form e-mail that says "thanks for applying"??

And they don't want to be contacted! I have submitted almost 18 online applications and only ONE gave me, in the process, a name and number for a contact. Everyone else - screw you, we don't want to hear from you, we don't give a shit about you.

Another complaint from a commenter was that positions are being eliminated and then combined at a lower salary. His former company laid off a slew of people, then started combining their disparate positions into one and put out ads looking for not only one person to do the job of three or more people, but to do it for much less pay. His theory is that it was done to keep padding the pockets of the top dogs - and it's hard to argue with that. But also...why are Americans being asked to keep taking lower-paying jobs? It should be obvious that employers don't want to pay us what we're worth anymore - that degreed people end up making $25,000 a year or less which is a CRIME - and then they sit around and contribute to articles complaining about how jobs aren't being filled.

I checked in with my temp agency today and the two or three positions they had available only paid nine or ten dollars an hour. I felt bad telling the lady that I just can't go that low, but after reading all the comments from the people at the article, I don't so much now. I have no savings, therefore I have to re-enter the work force in a place that allows me to become financially independent once again. And I won't apologize for that.

I wish I had a proper conclusion for this post, but there are no words to sum up how I feel at this point.

Can't speak Portuguese.

2010-08-08T19:37:00.001-05:00

My Spanish cousin returned to the Dominican Republic today, and on Friday we got to spend some time together. (She'll be back; she usually spends summers here)

I may have mentioned before the many travels she has taken in her 20s, from points across the U.S. to Central and South America, and Europe. Naturally I like looking at all the pictures she's taken. What I didn't know was that while she lived in Paraguay, she visited Brazil. So I forced her to show me the photos and what to my wondering eyes did appear...

...but the Iguazu Falls. You've likely never heard of them, but they are probably the most spectacular array of waterfalls in the entire world. You think Niagra Falls is a big deal? Yeah, I used to, too!

The Falls are situated straddling the Brazil/Argentina border, and are spread across a large swatch of land and down multiple levels. No one picture could ever show the entirety of the Falls; not even two or three pictures could do the trick. Here are three I found via Google that make an attempt to represent them, based on the gazillion pictures I pored through on my cousin's computer.

(photos courtesy of www.commons.wikimedia.org, www.zmescience.com, www.planetware.com)

One more drive-by and it'll technically be a spree.

2010-08-07T13:45:00.000-05:00

Just dropping in, apparently, at my own blog. I didn't know it had been yet another week since my last post. Truthfully I've been excited to work on my photo blog, but I definitely don't want this blog to collect dust and cobwebs, so I'm going to try and do better.

I don't really have anything to say. I'm just here catching up on others' blogs and enjoying a quiet Saturday. My mom is coming over later for dinner (spaghetti and meatballs!) and she doesn't know it, but I recorded an episode of Bonanza so we can watch it while we eat. (It's seriously her favorite show)

Then she's going to go with me to another park with a lake and hang out while I take pictures. She was all upset because I didn't tell her the last time I went. So now she's happy. :-)

Hope everyone out there is doing alllllllright.

Drive-by.

2010-08-01T23:23:00.001-05:00

Did I really, seriously, actually forget to include a picture of the finished banana pudding in my DF post? Yup, I really did. It's in there now, but really! How foolish.

Also, click here to see today's post on my photog blog with more on my trip to Pelican Island.

My blogging friend Miss H has returned, at least for a time. I had started to wonder if she was another casualty - you know, the blogs you stumble across that have been dormant for a long time, and you wonder what happened in that person's life, if they had a major life change or just one day realized they didn't want to blog anymore. In Miss H's case, it was a major life change - getting married! - and I look forward to reading her words once again. :-)

Lastly, Mel has a photography blog also, and as soon as she links me to it, I'll put a link here. If you've never seen her Wordless Wednesdays (which I believe were part of her 365 project), you don't know what you're missing. Girl has natural talent. Therefore, I'm stoked to see her other blog. :-)

(BTW, we have the same camera, and it's really cool and inspiring to see the different things she can do with it that I'd never think of)

Pelican Island.

2010-07-31T23:36:00.000-05:00

Today I discovered a rather large lake about ten minutes from my parents' house. It's in a park I used to go to as a wee one with my mom for little picnics and frolicks on the playground. I have one vague memory of sitting by the lake, but I totally forgot it was there!

I spent several hours throughout the course of the day taking photos of the area, and here are three of my favorite shots so far.

More to come on my photog blog hopefully tomorrow.

Domesticated Friday: Banana Pudding and a Photo Blog.

2010-07-30T19:05:00.002-05:00

Alrighty! Back on track here. First up: my Friday to-do list.

- check in with the temp agency - check
- do two online applications - check
- print out and fax appeal letter (SIGH) - check
- go to the bank - check
- order book from B&N courtesy of gift card from awesome friend - happening shortly
- clean apartment - okay, this will definitely happen as soon as I get done posting this

A couple of weeks ago, I made banana pudding. From scratch! It's something they seem to have available all over the South, not so much in the Midwest. So I bucked the system.

It's super-super easy to make and sooooooo good.

You'll need: one box of instant vanilla pudding; a box of vanilla wafers; three or four bananas; and 3 cups of milk.

I made mine using a medium-sized mixing bowl; some people use a baking pan. If you want to use a baking pan, line it first with one layer of vanilla wafers; do one vertical row as well (meaning, the cookies sit up against the side of the pan around its perimeter).

Make your pudding. Super-easy. Per the instructions, you just add the milk to the powder and stir until it's consistent and most of the lumps are gone.

While the pudding sits, chop up the bananas right into the pudding. It's up to you how many bananas you use; ask yourself, how many mushy, awesome banana bits do I want to taste as I'm chowing down? I only used two, because I wanted to leave room for extra cookies.

If you're using a baking pan, pour the pudding onto the cookies and spread evenly.

If you're using a bowl, pour in however many cookies you want and mix them in well. They will soften up in the pudding, so don't worry about using too many.

Then, cover and let sit in the fridge for three hours. That's all! If you've never had banana pudding, you MUST try it.

Okay, lastly, I know it has nothing to do with domesticated-ness, but I thought I would now link you all to my photography blog: http://clickonetwo.blogspot.com/ It's called "On Three."

Don't feel like you have to go over and keep tabs on it all the time and all that; I'm just letting you know it's there. :-) I guess I've had it for about three weeks now? So far I've covered topics like the popularity of High Dynamic Range; software that erases photo "noise" (or grain); the philosophy of editing; what being a professional photographer means; 35mm v. digital; and the occasional late-night ramble/confession.

Have a look!

(photo of milk bottles courtesy of www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink)

Bloggin'.

2010-07-30T09:46:00.000-05:00

I hate when the blog radio inside my head goes silent.

I was doing pretty well there for most of the month, thought I'd finally gotten back in the groove, but...nope! Well, I've been kind of busy, for an out-of-work girl. The job hunt never ends, for one thing. I had a couple of interviews this week (one that I didn't even know was happening till it was over; long story), and I did get on at a temp agency. I'm supposed to call on Tuesdays and Thursdays to see if they have anything for me. Fingers crossed. The cool thing is, if I happen to get hired elsewhere, I just call and tell them. No biggie.

Anyway, the thoroughly corrupt corporate office of my former employer denied my employment benefits, so I have to fax in my appeal. And somehow still continue to pay my bills for another month to two months with no income. $%*^($*#()%^*!

So that's what's been happening in my life. I need to catch up on other blogs and hopefully do a DF post today. And link you guys to my photography blog!

Can't help falling in love.

2010-07-22T02:11:00.002-05:00

With all things palatial!

A year or so ago I got a book at Barnes & Noble for like five dollars called Royal Palaces. It includes extremely detailed summary and voluptuous photographs of the worlds biggest, most opulant palaces. It is. Amazing. I cannot get over how beautiful, how ornate, how perfectly designed the rooms and chapels and concert halls and gardens are. It's almost too much. I get choked up. (Cool cousin questions this)

Anyway, I thought I'd just post some pictures from around the web to stimulate your eyes. You know you like it.

The Sans Souci in Germany:

The Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versaille in France:

The Palace of Queluz in Portugal:

The Frauenkirche in Dresden:

And of course, Buckingham Palace in London:

So here it is, another entry on my bucket list: have to get to a European palace before I die. Since going to Italy is tops on my bucket list, I think I can reasonably kill two birds with one stone.

(photos courtesy of www.dechaves.com, www.shutterpoint.com, www.deluxecruises.com, www.skyscraperpage.com, www.singletrackworld.com)

The rest is silence.

2010-07-18T21:14:00.000-05:00

There's this little thing called entropy.

2010-07-17T10:42:00.001-05:00

Today, let's talk about thermodynamics. I will begin with a quote from British physicist Edgar Andrews, and with his unfailing sense of humor, I'm sure he won't mind.

"In the science of thermodynamics the statistical probability that a given system (or arrangement) will arise spontaneously in nature is related mathematically to the degree of order or complexity of the system."

So, however complex a system is predicts how likely it is to be, or have been, randomly generated.

Now, the second law of thermodynamics deals with entropy, stating basically that in an isolated system, entropy tends not to decrease. Meaning, food does not become more unspoiled over time. Razors do not sharpen when left alone. The only way to counteract this is to increase the entropy of another system.

If that doesn't make too much sense (and believe me, I've got web pages open and books spread around me), think of it this way: if something has high entropy, it can exist in a greater number of states. If you break a bowl, then there are a million different ways to arrange the shattered pieces. High entropy, low complexity.

If something has low entropy, it can only exist in a very few number of states, and likely only one, to exist as what it is. Hence, an unbroken bowl. For it to be a bowl, it has to be unbroken (otherwise it wouldn't be very good at doing what it's suppose to do, which is holding things) and it has to be somewhat curved (otherwise it'd be one of those plates from Pier 1). Low entropy, high complexity.

So. Why am I talking about all this?

A few days ago I tweeted an article about a string physicist from Amsterdam who claims our concept of gravity is an illusion, that it's really an "entropic force." His peers aren't quite sure what to think of all this yet, and I can understand their hesitation, because a lot of Einstein's work deals with the fact of gravity (though a different sort than Newtonian gravity).

Anyway! One sentence in particular struck me, and it was his idea that "the force we call gravity is simply a byproduct of nature's propensity to maximize disorder."

I don't talk too much philosophy here because this isn't that kind of blog, but I've been convinced for several years now that chaos is the natural "order" of life in this universe. Which seems oxymoronic (chaos generally means a state lacking order or predictability). But - it would explain the arbitrariness of life; just as thermodynamics explains why everything gets old and dies (one way of stating the second law is "all matter is in a constant state of decay") and why it's much easier to break things down than to build them up.

Anyway. Can you imagine a life in which everything happens when it's supposed to, and the only time negative experiences arise is when they will have minimal impact on your life?

Today, I'm trying to do work for my mom's foundation and also give My Dad The Engineer a head's up on something very cool I found that he may find useful. So what happens? At the exact same time in which I need my e-mail, it becomes unavailable. Not service interrupted or cut-off...just a blank white screen.

Now, if I had been lazing on the beach somewhere, it wouldn't matter. Service unavailable for a few hours? Eh! No biggie! I was just about to catch some waves.

But no, here I sit, able to everything else - blog! research! tweet! - but what I wanted to do, which was retrieve and send important e-mail from my account.

At this point, you may be thinking what I'm thinking..."if everything tends toward chaos, wouldn't that mean that negative things would happen just as often as positive things? What you're describing is chaos supplying a negative circumstance at the time we least need it, which would be on a much lower order of entropy than pure randomness."

Yup. Exactly. The application of chaos resulting in unfortunate circumstances, isn't really chaos at all...and it's definitely low entropy. The question is, what is behind it?

A low entropic "force" is required to counteract naturally high entropy; for example, using intelligence to put bread in the fridge so it doesn't spoil so quickly. That's always been the case. But how to explain what so often seems to be true, that high entropy is applied to something of low entropy, thus disrupting a previously ordered state? This isn't requoting the second law; this is saying an application of high entropy, like dropping a perfectly good bowl and breaking it. Of course this requires intelligence also.

My big point here is, there is no seeming intelligence behind making my e-mail unavailable at the exact time I needed it......or is there?......

My theory is incomplete and rambling, and kind of crazed, but that's okay. I could even be totally wrong, and that's okay too! Because I'm searching for an answer, and I don't care where I find it, as long as it's the truth.

That's all for today.

Billlllz.

2010-07-16T11:59:00.000-05:00

This article talks about what is covered in the new financial reform bill.

What's funny is I was just talking just yesterday with someone about how sad it is there is no true financial education for young people before they go out into the real world. I think every high school should have a mandatory class for seniors, maybe called Personal Finance Education, and it should be as required as freshman gym.

It's already a great start that now you have to be 21 to get a credit card, but even then, you have to understand what you're getting into, and too often it's a "learn from your mistakes" kind of deal, and personally, I hate learning from mistakes. I'd rather learn from someone else or have someone stop me beforehand. College students simply must know what they're getting into before they start racking up the balances.

As another example, it didn't matter how much my friend explained to me the car buying process, I just did not get it until I actually went through it. Luckily everything turned out great, but why should I have gone in unable to conceptualize "financing?" Why did I not have a greater grasp of my ability to seek out a loan with possibly better terms at my own bank? Why did no one tell me about car tax until it was too late and I was looking at coming up with $1200 within a month out of nowhere?

Another issue is personal savings. It's not enough to tell someone that it's important. You have to give them real-world situations. And while I think this is one area where sometimes learning from a big mistake is the only way to true be forced into making a lasting habit change, it's still better to try and get high school and college-aged kids to do the right thing before they get into trouble. They need to understand the rule of putting away at least six months worth of income in the event of job loss or serious emergency; tell them what happens when you don't! Bring in someone with psychic wounds from the experience who'll look them in the eyes and tell them what life is really like when you don't have a plan. The ones who choose not to listen are the ones who cannot live vicariously and you can't do much else for them but wish them luck.

Anyway, there's a portion of the finance bill that's going to require greater personal education about loans, savings, mortgages, etc. There's no better way than to get it into the schools. If they just say, "well, we made a pamphlet," they will have failed and they will have failed us.

For realz.

2010-07-15T22:28:00.002-05:00

Yup. It's hot.

Taaaaagged.

2010-07-14T13:27:00.002-05:00

I've been tagged!

By Mel. I have to answer her questions, then tag other people and give them a fresh set of questions to ask. You can see what Mel had to answer here.

1.If you could spend the rest of your life doing only one thing, what would it be? Honestly, the answer changes all the time. So it'd be scary to pick one thing right now. And do we mean, like, occupation? Or just one obssessive thing, over and over? Oh well...I guess I'll just say sleep. ;)

2.What's the best thing you can bake/cook? Seasoned turkey legs.

3.What household chore is your LEAST favorite? Doing dishes.

4.If you could bring three things to a deserted island, what would they be? My camera, a Bible (longest book EVER), and a lifetime supply of feminine napkins.

5.What's the next big thing that you are thinking about splurging on? A camera lens. Maybe a telephoto.

6.What would you do if you won the lottery and you only had one day to spend your winnings? Pay off my debt and that of all my friends and family. Then buy a camera lens.

7.Post a current photo. If you wish to remain elusive, an abstract or close up will do just fine.

:-D

8.If you could have ANY pet EVER, what/who would it be? I'm just not an animal person. Nothing appeals to me. I really like lions, but that's a bit dangerous. Maybe if it were Simba...then he wouldn't eat me.

Okay, now I have to come up with some...I tag Clare, Inga, Elisabetta, and Don.

1. How would you sum up your life in less than ten words?
2. "Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do and die" - is this true?
3. What job would you take if you knew you would be hired no matter what?
4. Do you think people are inherently good or bad?
5. What is the most unfair thing that's ever happened to you?
6. In "four score and seven years ago," what is a score?
7. If you could change the grass to any color, what would that color be?
8. Which ultimately governs our lives: fate, or chance?

That's all, folks!

Ssssswaaaap.

2010-07-13T16:21:00.001-05:00

I rediscovered the great show Wife Swap last week, and Lifetime (a channel I normally avoid like the plague) shows three episodes in a row on weekdays.

The biggest draw of the show is obviously how people, in new environments with new restrictions/freedoms, handle the stress of a different husband and children. For the first week the wife has to live by the family's usual rules; for the second week, she lays down new rules based on how she normally conducts her home.

What became quickly obvious, however, was that the producers typically just take a very strict family and swap them with a very liberal family. So it's basically a countdown each episode to when the strict wife will have a meltdown over the gross uncleanliness of her new home, or when the liberal wife will cry about how repressed and unloved her new children are.

So at first, I was kind of 'eh' about the procedure. Isn't there any other way to pair conflicting households? Sure, you need to make sure the wives are entering uncharted territory, but it can't always be about the exact same attributes. (And how many families from Kentucky are allowed to apply for this show, really?)

I did see a Christian/atheist swap, a vegan/carnivore swap, and a super-healthy/super-fat swap. We need more like that! I get tired of seeing strict moms getting yelled at by tactless children, or disciplined children being encouraged to break rules and act like a nut by moms who lack serious parenting skills.

Anyway, it's still as riveting as a train wreck, and quite often these typical swaps end with good, important changes being made in each household after the show ends. It warms my heart to see a filthy household made clean just as much as seeing a good kid finally allowed to date. Besides, you never know when a swap will end amicably with lessons learned, or end with threats to leave the show and pronouncements of "no, I really, really hate you."

One of the best ones I've seen featured a swap between a California kung fu mom (all discipline and peace) and a, for all intents and purposes, real housewife of New Jersey. The New Jersey mom's 12-year-old daughter was an absolute spoiled mess. She put sexual photos of herself online. She didn't have a curfew. She truly believed that after twelve short years of life she was owed the exact same respect and gratitude as a ninety-year-old Asian matriach - because her mother never cared to discipline her and her father was a worthless doormat. Therefore, when her parents would be talking to her, she would say things like, "No, I'm done talking to you about this. Go away." (And her father would go away.)

I won't go into a spiel about how heartbreakingly and mind-bogglingly backward, shocking, and horrific this kind of behavior from any child is, because I think the example speaks for itself.

What I loved about the episode is how quickly the daughter began morphing back into a real child once kung fu mom laid down the law. And she didn't do it by yelling or arguing - just by saying, these are the rules, and I expect you to follow them. This might sound foreign, but I've worked with kids more than I ever wanted to, and it is the honest truth that kids want to be disciplined lovingly. They want to know where their boundaries are. They want to know what respect looks like. And when they yell and say they hate you and they want new parents, realize that all they're doing is making sure you still love them by not backing down.

Every child (except the psychotic ones) knows subconsciously that when you say "no," when you say "you need to apologize," when you say, "not till you're older," when you say "I'm not going to let you do this to yourself" - they know that you're actually saying "I love you."

It's not a new sentiment. It's not an original thought. But it's the truth, and that is why I've shared it here today.

The 12-year-old from New Jersey became a real child again - and her parents became real parents - because she finally knew that she was loved.

The end.

Thoughts.

2010-07-12T19:20:00.001-05:00

Of course. I always have thoughts after a trip. Just took me a bit longer this time to get around to it.

At this point in my life, I can't think of a better way to spend the days than revisiting beautiful places, waiting for the perfect light at sunset, or a haze-free vista; for a renewed surge in a waterfall after a rain. There are people that do this for a living. They are obviously luckier than I am.

At Chimney Rock there's a place far above the actual titular rock, known as Exclamation Point. Because there are several overlooks cut into the face of the mountain, I figured this was just another place to pause and take in the view. If I'd bothered to look at the map, I'd have seen that it was actually a strenuous hike. Up stairs.

Yep, that's all you did for four hundred feet was climb stairs. They would level off into landings, of course; a small trail here or there would lead you around a corner to another set of stairs. Having done a ton of hiking the day before and suffering very sore feet and ankles - and only equipped with a pair of flip-flops! - and enduring this excursion in 95-degree heat, I started thinking after a while that maybe it wasn't worth it.

The healthy, sneaker-wearing people jauntily coming back down the stair-trail assured me it was worth it. But really, was it? Was it worth the pain and the heat? At one point I did stop, evaluate the situation, and then I started to take a few steps back from whence I came. But then I stopped again. Yes, it was difficult. It was actually one of the hardest things I'd ever done. (Clearly I'm not in shape)

But I thought, well, at least if I die (haha), I can say that I did it. That it was really, really hard, but I did it anyway. So I kept climbing.

Sadly the picture only captures a small part of how amazing the view at Exclamation Point really is. It spreads out before you like an Alpine valley. You don't hear anything but open air. And you realize, there's probably no other way to get this view...but to climb a million steps.

A good lesson for any budding photographer...or human being faced with living.

Broke-down bonanza!

2010-07-11T17:52:00.000-05:00

As you all know, I have a thing about old, run-down houses. One of my aims on my vacation was to snap some photos of the many, many dilapadated places around the state. I can't tell you how many places I didn't capture but wish I had (included one morning in which I, as an idiot, did not have my camera). There was even some old shack that I passed in Tennessee that looked like it had been shot through by a cannon; the middle had completely buckled in, giving it a sideways V-shape. AWESOME.

Anyway, here we go. :)

Some buildings were just classically run-down.

Some had obviously been long-abandoned, or needed some patchwork, apparently.

Quite a few were succumbing to the winds of time and, uh, foliage.

And, some were just done.

My favorite, however, isn't broke-down or abandoned. It's an older place of business in a small town that gives off a kind of New Orleans vibe, I guess because of the arched windows. I love it!

Next time, I'd like to capture some old houses in different lighting, maybe near sunset, to get a more gothic feel. I'd also like to get out of the car A LOT more; but it can be frightening, because what if by accident I pick a house that, say...is still occupied? And they run me off with their varmint rifle? (A serious possibility)These are things I think about.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed.

Skidding in! Domesticated Friday!!

2010-07-09T23:57:00.002-05:00

Well, I decided I can fulfill a couple of the requirements for a DF post, so here goes!

Since I am unemployed, and was always good anyway at wandering around during my off time not doing much, I decided yesterday that I had no choice but to pull myself together. I started making a daily schedule. While it's not something that has to be followed to the exact letter, it does incorporate all of the important things I need to do. And having it all written down, it gives me a purpose, and somehow makes it easier to do things that I would have thought to do before but not had any energy to do. Does that make sense?

Anyway, here's my schedule from today put into the form of a checklist, because you don't really want to see how far I strayed from the time schedule at one point.

* finish cover letter for SLSO resume and e-mail; finish WU online app and submit - check
* work on an Etsy item while watching Wife Swap - check
* grocery store (pizza, milk, apple juice, oatmeal creme pies) - check
* brainstorm photo blog post topics - check
* narrow down note card photos to six per category - didn't get to it, and I know it doesn't make sense anyway, but it will one day, hopefully!

The Etsy item I decided to work on is a baby blanket. I started it while on vacation and got a few more stripe blocks done today.

Another BIG thing that I'm currently working on is gathering items for tomorrow morning, because tomorrow morning...I'm participating in a tailgate sale that a local church holds every Saturday from May to October. It's fifteen dollars to get a space, but I've passed by there several Saturdays and it looks like a mad house, so I definitely think it will be worth it! I'll take pics!

So that's my Domesticated Friday post. Sorry it's so short and skeet, but I'm typing furiously to get done before midnight and still basically have not gotten any work done getting my sale stuff together except for weeding out CDs. So, I bid you adieu and happy last few seconds of Friday.

Thinking.

2010-07-09T14:36:00.000-05:00

I wish I could have done a Domesticated Friday post today, but honestly, my brain is scrambled right now. If I'm in the mood I might do one a bit later, but I make no promises!

I have been thinking that I want to have a photography blog. I'm no big-shot, obviously, but I have lots of thoughts about the whole process and instead of boring everybody here I could just have a separate place. It would be a place to show both sucesses and failures, and mull over ideas on how to really make some money someday, if that's even possible.

Anyway. If I get it up and running I'll post a link, but please don't feel an obligation to patronize both blogs at once. I'm just keeping y'all in the loop, that's all. :-)

Little ones.

2010-07-08T20:16:00.000-05:00

Kids will be kids. :-)

Die Robot DIE.

2010-07-07T14:53:00.000-05:00

Oh my God. I can't even believe this is happening to me. I am officially now one of those people who talks about the good old days when we used to interact face and to face and write down "words" using "pencils" and our best "handwriting script."

I literally cannot finish an online application because the stupid program won't just let me fill in basic information. I can't just type in my university - I have to know a special code! Can't just put my degree - have to know a special code for that too! I already called the place once just to figure out my school code (WHY should I have to do that?!) and of course talked to two different people, the second of whom placed me on hold a total of five times. Do I dare call back and say, hey, guess what, your application process still sucks?

Or maybe I could call back and say, do you think there's a time when I could come in and fill out a paper application? I'll even put a bag over my head so you can pretend I'm not there and then you don't have to talk to me, which is obviously the point of this whole P.O.S "online application" revolution.

There's a problem when even the people at the help desk don't know what to do, because of course they hired some outside firm or web designer to create a completely un-intuitive system. And you know what's the best part about all this? I in all likelihood won't even get a courtesy call for an interview. This is a stupid waste of time, and it's all because it's somehow now en vogue not to want to even look somebody in the eye and shake their hand. You can scan a resume with one eye and then delete it with one finger, all without having to man up and tell somebody face-to-face.

Great job America, great job.

Bombs bursting in air.

2010-07-05T23:06:00.000-05:00

Life has been a drag of late. I wanted so much to go down to the local civic center and take pictures of the fireworks show. But it can be really hard to get motivated at this stage in the game.

That's why I'm shocked I actually did it.

Check her out!

2010-07-03T14:08:00.002-05:00

My friend Mel over at tweeded.com has an Etsy shop. You guys should check it out. I know lots of people who have ambition to do things but they're just ehhhh...so-so at it. Not so with Mel. Her jewelry and the new headband just added today are A. DOR. A. BUL. I keep telling her I want those mushroom earrings because they're just so danged dainty and cute, and my ears aren't even pierced!

So, check out her shop, give her some business, or at least stop by her blog and tell her what you think. :)

Flowers.

2010-07-02T18:20:00.000-05:00

Because blogger was being a butthead and wouldn't let me put in this picture I forgot in the last post, so I'm POSTING IT ANYWAY.

Oh well, in other news, I am now unemployed. It's a grrrreat feeling, let me tell ya!

(For those of you who don't realize, I am being sarcastic.)

The Last Day.

2010-07-02T11:57:00.002-05:00

On Sunday we went to Chimney Rock State Park. To prepare for this excursion I watched Last of the Mohicans, which was filmed entirely in North Carolina but specifically in this Park and at Hickory Nut Falls. So the Chimney Rock people make a big deal out of their famous location, which is kind of cute.

In their pamphlet, they actually call the Falls "the star" of the movie. I couldn't help laughing, but the angle at which the waterfall was filmed was pretty spectacular. From my humble view down below, here is what I saw:

We also went to Looking Glass Falls, which I believe is in the Pisgah National Forest. The Rocky Broad River feeds into the Falls, and it was so cool to see it running alongside the winding road. However, it had been raining on and off all week all over the state, so it made the Falls a little...dirty.

So, I tweaked a few settings on the old camera and finagled my way to better shots.

We fit a LOT into the day, lots of hiking, and I did end up taking pictures in the rain, which was kind of fun, because then I felt pseudo-professional - you know, "anything for the shot!"

And, sadly, the next day, I had to drive home. :-(

Higher and higher!

2010-06-27T18:59:00.000-05:00

Though I'm sure you're all tired of these photos, I won't be stopping till it's over!

Yesterday we went to Crabtree Falls, and then headed up to the summit of Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi at 6,684 feet. The mile hike to the waterfall wasn't as "easy" as the guides said, because of the hard winter last year, but as usual, it ended up being worth it. You can drive right up to almost the top of Mt. Mitchell so that wasn't bad, just a bit of an extra walk up a gentle slope, but still! My legs are killing me!

Oh, and there are a boatload of pictures from today...still getting those ready. :D

Loving it!

2010-06-26T20:46:00.000-05:00

While in Asheville, we're staying at a cabin just outside of the city. It is AMAZING - so quaint and cozy, impeccably furnished, and it has all the modern amenities (namely, cable and wi-fi). Check out my loft bedroom, the downstairs level, the screened patio, and the awesome separate deck with barbecue grill and hammock chair. :-)

At the front of the log cabin there's a view of mountain slopes, and behind it is forest, along with a stream that you can actually hear from the house. How peaceful is that? Tonight we ate dinner (pot roast with banana pudding for dessert) on the screened porch and just shot the breeze. Ahhh.

Be sure to check out my post below on my visit to the Biltmore Estate!

Yes, the photo essay continues.

2010-06-26T18:46:00.004-05:00

So I've ended up posting a kajillion photos. It happens.

Yesterday we drove to Asheville and visited the Biltmore Estate.

Built (commissioned) by George Vanderbilt and completed in 1895, it's the largest home in America and really, it's a castle - 250 rooms on a property of over 80,000 acres (when you see the mountains in the distance - it's still their property). They don't allow photography inside for obvious preservation and profit reasons, so here are a couple of pics I found on Google, to give you a bit of an idea of the scope of the place.

And here are a few of my favorite photos from around the grounds. :)

You can check out more on the Biltmore at their website. It's definitely worth it if you ever get to go!

(Googled photos courtesy of www.ashevilleareaproperty.com, www.flickr.com)

Too many gunsmiths.

2010-06-23T22:22:00.000-05:00

Today we visited Old Salem. But we'll get to that.

Afterwards, we went to Barnes & Noble in Winston-Salem and I gathered a whole stack of books to sit mesmerized by at the cafe. I settled on two: The Black Hole War, by Leonard Susskind (guy thinks he got one up on Hawking!); and a "No Fear" Shakespeare publication of Hamlet. It gives you the entire play, side-by-side with plain English interpretations. Finally! I love old English but it can be headache-inducing after a while, so maybe now I can at least read one of the major classics and feel not totally worthless.

At one of the gift shops in Old Salem, I splurged and got something really cool. Usually, being broke of course, I would get little trinkets, a candle or something, but today I got a leather-bound journal full of beautiful, cream-colored blank pages with all the little imperfections you'd expect from a local, homegrown Moravian craftsman. Love it! :-)

Alright. The pictures. As always, it is a quaint town, no more than a few blocks anymore, and inside the homes and workshops on display you can see the tools of their various trades.

In the Vogler house in particular, it's obvious some families were able to live quite well. I'd LOVE to have that bed!

The Home Moravian Church is still open for worship, and has nearly a dozen panes of beautiful stained-glass.

We ate at the Salem Tavern, still operating after all these years. :-)

Lastly, we visited God's Acre, their cemetery.

It'll sound a little morbid, but I walked along the rows for a while looking for those who had died young. Two in particular had very sad, heartfelt epitaphs.

And lastly, some flowers to end the day.

If you're going to San Francisco...

2010-06-23T16:42:00.000-05:00

For some reason, this trip I've been noticing all the spunky, delicate wildflowers lining the Parkway and the hiking paths, dotting meadows and clustering together where you least expect them.

Rhododendron are apparently a big deal in this state; they are everywhere. And frankly, you can smell their bark along the Parkway and they smell like overspiced and long expired meat. Gross.

Daisies are awesome. :)

BUG!!!!

Today we're at Old Salem (yes, again, so sue me) and then chilling in Winston-Salem. The next big thing is going to Asheville on Friday, where we're staying in a rental property cabin. We'll be hitting the Biltmore, and then waterfalls throughout the weekend. Yay!

Summertime on the BRP.

2010-06-23T09:24:00.000-05:00

Here's a look at some of the other things we've been doing and places we've been.

There's plenty to see along the Parkway, some things clearly visible from the road, others requiring you to pull over and explore. From the road we spotted an old, quaint cemetery bordered by beautiful tiger lilies and imported yuccas.

We pulled over after spying a worn path. (And I experimented in sepia)

There have been so many butterflies flitting about, and a few in particular are clearly ready for their close-ups. They sat and posed for me for what seemed like forever! Such darlings!

We took the many twists and turns that are often flanked by stirring forest views:

And visited the Brinegar cabin, constructed in the mid-1800s by one hardworking family man, and beautifully preserved so that we pampered future generations can see what man really used to be capable of.

At the local cafe, there's a little gift shop nook full of items from local craftsmen and women.

Where would you like to go?

Sunday sundown.

2010-06-22T20:25:00.000-05:00

We spent two nights at Doughton Park, located on the ever-incredible Blue Ridge Parkway. Last year I'm sure I posted like nine thousand photos from the experience; this time I'll just give you a few. Also, I'll be honest, I'm not going to post the best ones because I plan on selling those at some point. Sorry! But these are still worthy regardless.

I was also able to test out the night mode on my new camera, and my friend even brought along a tripod, so I got two really neat shots, of the town lights in the far distance and the DP lodge with windows aglow.

Yes, you heard me - I recently, after much research and inner debate, purchased a new camera, a definite upgrade - a Nikon D3000 digital SLR. Although my Fujifilm camera provides ridiculous clarity and detail, plus a macro lens and 10x zoom, the Nikon just plain gives more options than I've ever had. More than I could ever get into here, but I can, in addition, change lenses if I want, which is a big step forward. Plus I love the organic-ness of the photos, there's a softness around the edges that lends a kind of reality that the Fuji strangely doesn't. Sounds weird, I know.

Anyway, don't forget to check out the post below, with photos of my drive into North Carolina.

Travelin' through.

2010-06-22T17:10:00.001-05:00

So here are some pictures from my drive into North Carolina. It did take me a total of fourteen hours to reach my final destination, but that's because I pulled over once right after entering Kentucky for about a forty minute nap, and then again after entering Tennessee for about an hour nap. So I could have made it in twelve, which was the original expected time.

Anyway, the Great Smokey Mountains stretch from eastern Tennesse into western NC, including Asheville. For someone whose general statewide ecosystem is prairie, this was pretty much an awesome leg of the drive. As I got closer to the border, the mountains that had been in the distance started rising up on either side of the two-lane highway, and I could do a whole blog post on the awe that such grandeur expires but...I won't. :)

P.S. I literally took most of these pics while driving, so excuse the haziness; you're peering through pseudo-clear windshield.

Ghosts. AWESOME.

2010-06-19T19:20:00.000-05:00

Well, wouldn't you know it, there are ghost tours in Asheville and that is where we will be next Friday through Monday. Clearly I will be going on one of them. I can't decide if I want to tour the haunted mansions or the haunted graveyard. Decisions, decisions! Oh, and we get to bring cameras, and there will be EMF detectors, EVP recorders, and other paranormal equipment. Radical!

One of the ghost tour ladies has a blog, and the most recent post has a photograph that will blow your mind. Check out the man peeking out, quite sinisterly, from behind his friend:

He had died two days earlier; this photo was taken the day of his funeral. Guess he didn't get the memo!

I blogged last year about how haunted my old place of employment was, and referenced a particular photograph. Check it out now:

This picture was taken on a sunny day, in a sunny room in which one entire wall was windows with no curtains. The two pictures I took of this lady before this one were also unexplainably dark and blurry, but in this one, you see the distinct cobweb dangling from the upper-right corner of the photo. When I zoom in on my computer, the sinewy web only becomes more distinct and shiny. Try explaining it.

This next picture I took about a month ago at a cemetery. I wasn't even thinking about ghosts - believe it or not! - but my mom pointed out the mist on the left side of the photo:

A science teacher friend of mine pointed out that it's not caused by the sun because you can see that the shadows from the headstones show the sun being in the wrong spot to create the phenomenon. Also, sometimes cameras do awesome things with sunlight, spreading it out in glowing planar rays, but this is clearly more nebulous, white, and asymmetrical. Try explaining this!

Uncertainty.

2010-06-17T10:13:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow night I leave for my vacation. And when I get back, I might not have a job.

That's just the way things go in life. Not much we can do to keep certain situations from happening. But if you're the praying kind, please pray for God's will to be done. If you're not the praying kind, then please send good blogger buddy vibes my way. :-)

So I'm going to try not to think about what's happening at the job and focus on having the awesome trip I've been looking forward to since about two weeks after I came back from NC last year. I don't know that I'll feel like blogging, but who knows, so if you don't hear from me, don't worry! I'm just off trying to enjoy myself.

Is just about ready for bed.

2010-06-12T10:00:00.006-05:00

I see a lot of cool things while browsing blogs, but this is the first time I have simply had to repost. (Thanks to Diana at Express-O for the great sighting) There's a lady named Jess Neil who takes facebook statuses and creates little graphic designs to accompany them. They are so adorable, they literally make my heart hurt.

Check out her tumblr site; you can even submit one of your facebook statuses in hopes that she gives it an artsy flair! She's also working on a T-shirt shop and postcards. All the better, I say!

Domesticated Friday! Longest blog post EVER.

2010-06-11T21:10:00.001-05:00

Well, finally, here we are, June 11th, and I am unveiling the new look of my apartment at last. As this is a Domesticated Friday post (original idea courtesy of Rebel Mel), what could be more Suzie Homemaker than a redecoration?? I can't think of anything! :-)

There is a LOT to this post, so I thought I'd start out with a bit of lighter fare first. People seemed to enjoy the mouthwatering recipe I posted in my last DF entry, so why not give you guys another one? Free of charge!

Pleasing Potato Pizza

3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 tube (10 ounces) refrigerated pizza crust
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound sliced bacon, diced
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped sweet red pepper
1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
Sour cream, optional

1. Place potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and cook for 20-25 minutes or until very tender.

2. Meanwhile, unroll the pizza crust onto an ungreased 14-in. pizza pan; flatten dough and build up edges slightly. Prick dough several times with a fork. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

3. Drain potatoes and transfer to a mixing bowl. Mash with milk and salt until smooth. Spread over crust. In a skillet, partially cook the bacon over medium heat. Add onion and red pepper; cook until bacon is crisp and vegetables are tender. Using a slotted spoon, remove to paper towels and drain well. Sprinkle over potatoes. Top with cheeses. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve with sour cream if desired. Yield: 8 slices.

Next, have a look at my new windowsill garden! Courtesy of Mel; I won her very first blog giveaway a couple of weeks ago (I still feel like I unintentionally rigged it, haha). As you can see, I have not begun growing anything yet because I don't get direct sunlight and I don't want to screw my garden up from the get-go, so I'm figuring out how to get these suckers some good lighting.

Next, although okay, I didn't make this, I cannot stop myself from going gaga over this dress I ordered from Old Navy. (All of their products have reviews from customers, which is a great way to figure out if you should buy it, how it will fit, etc. It's how I knew to go up a size, and it fits like a dream!) It is gorgeous and long and amazing, and I can't wait to wear it on my trip. But first, I'm gonna wear it tomorrow and hope my mom doesn't have a heart attack when she sees me because I haven't worn a dress in twelve years. By! Choice!

It's actually floor-length, even on me, and has tiers that make for a really great A-line shape. I could not be happier with it.

Alright, here we go. The apt.

First up is the bathroom. Before:

Notice how it's all kind of thrown together...the shower curtain I got from my old roommate when we both moved out; the rug is from Crate & Barrel from my trip to Atlanta. Random stuff. But look at it now!!

I love brown and pink, so there you go, and how adorable are the flower pictures from Target? Five bucks each! I got the awesome cloth shower curtain from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and well as the rug and toilet seat cover (both of which are super, super soft; I didn't know people could live this way!), and the brown wastebasket with pink lining. Whoa.

Next up, the kitchen. It's kind of hard to makeover a kitchen without, you know, things like brand-new tile. But I did what I could. Before:

Aaaaand after!

Funky pictures, I know. But look what I did: I took the blue-and-white ceramic pieces and put them on top of the cabinets (and literally, I did not notice I had space on top of my cabinets until I decided to look up that day). I moved the picture randomly sitting by the sink to a new location, which you will see soon. I got three vacuum-sealed canisters which I have been DYING to have since forever, and filled them with flour, sugar, and rice; and in case you want that utensil holder, it's at Target. Not new, but everyone loves it. Anyway, I found these three awesome old-timey prints at BB&B and love them every day:

They're on the far wall (obviously). So, not a ton of newness but still much better. Oh, and I got that little cute pouch of strawberry wheat pancake mix from the general store at Cabela's. Y'all know I don't cook so it's been sitting there for like a year. But it's cute!

Moving on - the 'dining nook.' (My dad informed me it's actually called a rathskeller. Sounds...creepy) Look how pathetic it was:

And this was it the first day of redecoration:

And then after I got the etigier this past weekend:

Dishware, in yellow and blue, is from Pier 1 Imports; already had the vase but got blue marbles from Target and the daisies from Hobby Lobby (half off!). The picture from the kitchen is now on the wall, and on the left are photos from my own collection, of autumn foliage (you'll see close-ups later). I'm really starting to feel like a grown-up, folks. I still have no idea what to put on the etigier, but I'm sure my mom will come up with something.

Sadly, I did not take a before picture of the living room, but I only made a couple of changes. I got blue valances from JCPenney (fifty percent off, after-Christmas sale!) which you'll see to the right of the upcoming photo; and then I got a new (to me) TV:

Also, over the TV are more photos from my collection, from my NC trip last year. What was in the place of the TV, you ask? Well, imagine a cheap entertainment center that, seriously, was smaller than the current TV. Uh-huh. Had to go. Thanks, Dad! Getting rid of the E.C. also allowed me to go through a crapload of old CDs and freaking VHS tapes and get rid of pretty much most of them.

Lastly, the bedroom. Before:

Thaaaat's a futon, ladies and gentlemen. SO glad to finally get rid of it. My bedroom's a nice size, so there was always this big space in the middle and nothing I could do with it. Opposite the futon, I had my TV on a little wicker table from my college days. Pretty bare. A spartan existence, almost. Anyway, here it is now!

The bed looks small in proportion to everything else, but it really doesn't in real life; plus, it's just a full-size bed but clearly bigger than a futon! I have so much space at night I don't know where to start. Got the much more expensive E.C. from my old bedroom at my parents' house, and you can't really see it but I also got a nightstand, and now my papasan chair doesn't look so lonely! I love my new bedroom!

Here are the pictures I framed and put on the wall:

And then on the wall by the front door, a LIFE magazine cover from like 1922:

The picture has a history. My parents bought it probably before my brother was born, and I always loved it. Plus, if you look carefully, it is hanging in the apartment on Three's Company!! But my brother had a way of sneaking some of the cool art from the house for his apartment, and this went with him one day. I was devastated. But when he packed up to move to L.A., I pretty much told him that picture was staying here. So, yay!

Well, if you're still reading, good for you, you've made it to the end. Hope you enjoyed! Have a great weekend!

*This post is dedicated to my mom, the interior designer, who helped me do the majority of the work on the big day; and Lorna, whose impeccable taste spurred me on to do this in the first place (and who gave me those wall sconces!).

Por fin?

2010-06-05T11:12:00.003-05:00

You may recall that several months ago I orchestrated a small redecoration of my apartment. And then never showed pictures. You know why? Because a lot of big things didn't happen, and I figured it was pointless to show pictures of something I wasn't all-the-way happy with.

Today, though, at last, I'm getting the rest of my stuff. A bed and entertainment center for my bedroom (and yes, I'm aware E.C.'s are on their very last fiber of relevance), a new TV for my living room, and an etigiere that will go in my dining nook. All of these things are used, of course, donated from family, but I wouldn't accept them if they were in great condition.

So! Maybe next Friday I'll have a Finished Project for a Domesticated Friday post!

Cottage.

2010-06-04T22:37:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I told one of the twelve-year-olds that I wanted her to draw me a cottage. I gave her the specs.

Today I found this on the desk in my office:

Wouldn't it be nice if life could be like that just a little bit? "Here's what I want..." and the next day it's a reality, without blood, without sweat, without tears. Without rejection or missed chances or misunderstandings. Without waiting.

I was half-joking when I told her I wanted her to draw it, the little, cozy cottage in the woods, like in the land of hobbits. But because she is an Artiste - and, it's starting to look like, a really good kid - she drew it anyway.

That was the first thing I noticed about her almost exactly a year ago, when I first came to the center. Her potential for art, at such a young age, is possibly limitless. She does it all. Sketches, paintings; she did an entire spring mural on one of the walls in the classroom using construction paper and magazine clippings. She fitted dolls with new clothes using the fabric scraps on the art easel. She made a papier-mache pinata out of the blue one day. She cut out the most elegant snowflakes to hang from the ceiling last winter, and decorated them with glitter. She drew scarily accurate caricatures of the other students on the computer using an old drawing program. She made an entire safari of animals using play-dough.

And what I love about it is that no one has to prompt her to do this stuff, ever. You just look up and she's either halfway through or already done.

Isn't is kind of amazing to think that every single person has their "something"?

Just imagine if we all got to do our "something" every day for a living. All of us.

Bar B Q.

2010-05-31T15:22:00.001-05:00

One of my longtime friends got married recently, and she had a celebration barbecue this past Saturday.

I hate icing, so my cake always ends up looking like this:

And how, exactly, do they grow seedless watermelons???

Happy Memorial Day.

You Lost Me.

2010-05-30T13:17:00.002-05:00

So I raved about Christina Aguilera's performance on the Idol finale last week of a song off her upcoming album Bionic (due June 8). Even if you're not a fan, check out the song in the video below. I think it's crazy awesome and she is memsmerizing to watch; she interprets the hell out of that song.

As I've been replaying this song over and over the last few days, I wondered what genius had sat down at a piano and plunked it out. Found out last night - Australian singer/songwriter Sia, about whom I'm sure I've blogged at least once. Her last album, Some People Have Real Problems, came out in January of '08 and is fantastic; she's a little quirky, definitely has her own sound, and a serious set of pipes. "You Lost Me" has her stamp all over it. I'm stoked! I love it when a music collaboration comes out so right. I only have to wait like ten days to get the album version and that still feels like way too long.

(for some reason, sometimes video embeds mess up the comment link, so if you don't see it just click on the blog post title and it'll take you to the post's individual page with comment section)

Happy Sunday! I have absolutely nothing on my plate, so I might drive to Old Navy and try on some dresses; I wanna have at least one for my trip!

Manipulated.

2010-05-28T21:48:00.003-05:00

How cool is this? At All Souls College at Oxford, an admissions exam for over a hundred years was an essay built around one single word.

Applicants had three hours to spin a word, like "death" or "innocence" or "style," into a coherent and brilliant piece of work worthy of entrance into a coveted college renowned for the genius of its current and former members (such as Sir Christopher Wren and, seriously, Lawrence of Arabia).

Personally, I would love to write an overbaked essay on the single idea of death. Cue ten rhapsodic pages on stellar evolution (main sequence), Foster parlor songs, and the incompatibility of unconsciousness with memory. Among other things.

There are other essays the applicants must take over the course of two days, most with normal question-based topics, such as "Isn't global warming preferable to global cooling?" (I'd have aced that question. Clearly I'd rather freeze to death that burn up like a Fourth of July barbecue.)

Sadly, the one-word topic essay has finally been nixed, seen as a faulty indicator of the true talent and potential of an applicant.

Shucks.

Random!

2010-05-27T22:31:00.003-05:00

I've lived at this apartment for three years, and last week, one of the trees outside my unit just decided to start sprouting blueberries. I noticed because of, well, all the squashed blueberries on the walkway.

Maybe I should collect them and make some kind of jam.

Edit: someone left a comment saying that these are probably blackberries. (Makes sense, now that I think about it) Thank you, Anonymous.

What a show, what a show.

2010-05-27T22:19:00.001-05:00

Last night's American Idol finale was, in my opinion, the best in several years. Now, I know I said I kinda wanted Lee to win, but then Crystal really outperformed him on Tuesday so I switched to her...and then Lee won. Whodathunk?! I think he'll be one of the more successful Idols in this recent generation of contestants, and I hope I'm right.

Ever since season 4, the finale has been a showcase not only for the entire Top 12 but for famous musical acts, both old and new. (Sometimes way more old than new) And what a lineup this year. When Crystal kicked off a performance of Alanis Morissette's "Ironic," I only caught on about halfway through that - the woman herself would be there. And then she strolled out to the still-caustic, still-badass "You Oughtta Know" and rocked my world. For those who don't know, Alanis is my favorite musician EVER.

The top 6 girls gave a really pretty great performance of two Christina Aguilera songs - "Beautiful" and "Fighter" - before the diva descended and tore into the most brilliant, haunting, emotional, technically outstanding performance the Idol stage has perhaps ever seen. I believe the song is from her forthcoming album and possibly called "You Lost Me." Old-school, a bit bluesy, a bit jazzy, reflective and burning, mournful but strangely never sad, it is going on my iPod the second that woman's album comes out. Best song I've heard in a long time. And, while I've never been any kind of fan of hers, no one can deny she - can - SING.

I didn't have too high of hopes for my boy Casey James to get a good duet partner, and even when he began strumming the classic "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," I still didn't believe Bret Michaels could actually be there. But then, up came the lights, and there was that cowboy hat. With all that the frontman has been through over the past month, he was cleared to attend his eventual win on Celebrity Apprentice. So what's this? He bucks up again and gives Casey the kind of support and attention and credibility he deserves? When he should clearly be lying down somewhere? Hell yeah, man. Hell yeah.

This being Simon's last year, they brought back all the Idol winners and a glut of former contestants to share the stage and sing a mostly forgettable tune in his honor. It's obvious that one of the few things in life that brings me joy is the vision of all the Idol winners together in one place, so this was fabulous. (I wonder what they talk about when they all get together?) The only thing missing, literally, was season 7 winner David Cook. My heart was very sad. But at least Kris Allen was up there where he belonged. :-) Love him!

Janet Jackson was the penultimate performance, a spot taken in earlier years by artists like Prince and George Michael....and Rod Stewart. Yes, Rod's unattractive, gangly self was the "headliner" last year. So Ms. Jackson more than made up for that this year, and also sounded exactly like Michael, which was scary.

The not-so-awesome guests? The Bee Gees, Hall and Oates, Chicago, Michael McDonald (though his voice is still amazing), and Joe Cocker (his too). What I find funny is that "fans" complain every year about the older musicians they bring in, but then every Wednesday complain about the 100% current singers who perform on results shows because they're too "fake." When you can't do anything right, that must mean someone out there just doesn't want to like you, period.

So the season is over, the third guitar-playing white boy in a row has won, and I have to find something to do on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Just in case...I won't delete the season from my DVR just yet. ;)

Encapsulated.

2010-05-25T21:34:00.000-05:00

I've decided that I'm going to make myself a time capsule. In ten years, if I (or even the world) am still around, I will be able to look back and see the things I cared about when I was 29.

I have been very reflective this year. Everyone measures success a bit differently. I know how I measure it, and looking back over my life, it appears I've fallen short of nearly every goal I had for myself. So there's really nothing left to do with that life-that-never-was except walk away from it and start over.

This isn't to say that I haven't learned a lot, and discovered lot of beautiful things in this otherwise ugly world. So before I turn 30 and begin the slow, slow trek up that hill known as Getting Old and Having No Children to Take Care of You, I would like to have a kind of snapshot of all that was good about my life. Who knows where I'll be in ten years, what I will have seen and done? I have no idea if I'll look into this time capsule and smile or weep. And that's what's kind of cool about it.

Booo, it's already midday.

2010-05-23T17:00:00.000-05:00

I slept fourteen hours last night. Is that even an accurate description? I slept fourteen hours today, starting at about twenty minutes after midnight. Subsequently dreamed that I had a baby (a seriously adorable girl), and that I went to work on Monday and not one customer showed up all day. It had that freaky, Steven King vibe to it.

Anyway, I was drawn magnetically yet again to an article about scenic America, and this one is about the ten best road trips. And guess what's second on the list? The Blue Ridge Parkway! Which you may recall from my totally awesome NC trip last summer:

The stretch of highway in Arizona also jumpstarts my sense of wanderlust; I have to take a drive through the desert before I die. Have to.

Well, back to putzing around. I realized I have another three-day weekend coming right up because of Memorial Day. I'm so good. :D

Domesticated Friday!

2010-05-21T21:12:00.001-05:00

For those of you that don't know, each Friday at her blog Rebel Mel does a post all about freebies, food, and finished projects (or lets someone post all about them for her). I did a guest post just a couple of weeks ago, but here I am, on my Friday off, doing my very own on my blog! So let's get started!

First off, I made a pretty reasonable to-do list for my day off. It's almost eight-thirty p.m. as I type this; let's see how it went:

* sleep in – um, does 8:45 count?
* order prints online of butterfly pics at Walgreens - check!
* record saved episodes of Community to a DVD - check!
* mail bills - check!
* clean kitchen - check!
* clean bedroom - okay, I didn't get to this one, but the weekend is young
* blog - check! (see below)
* see Robin Hood with Mom – ahhh, she bailed, we're going tomorrow instead
* watch all 17 saved Jeopardy! episodes - I have watched 5

So basically, I did get done what I wanted while still having a fun, quiet day off. Tomorrow, somehow I committed to going to a dedication ceremony my mom is holding, and afterwards "some people" are gonna do "some things" and I'm tagging along, and then there's the movie, so basically tomorrow will be like a work day. No rest.

Alright, let's talk food! Last year I bought an amazing cookbook full of amazing, shockingly easy recipes. As you may know, I'm really not a cook, but seriously, this is stuff even I could do. I will share the recipe for the first mouth-watering dish that caught my eye upon perusing the book: Apple-Ham Grilled Cheese.

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped tart apple
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
8 slices processed American cheese
8 slices sourdough bread
4 slices fully cooked ham
1/4 cup butter, softened

In a bowl, combine apples, mayonnaise, and walnuts. Place a slice of cheese on four slices of bread. Layer each with 1/3 cup of the apple mixture, a slice of ham, and another slice of cheese; cover with remaining bread.

Butter the outsides of the sandwiches. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook sandwiches until each side is golden brown and cheese is melted. Yield: 4 servings.

The recipe is from the Market Fresh Cookbook by Reader's Digest. :)

Next, let's talk crafts. I'm just about done with a gorgeous, simple scarf that I'm going to wear kind of as a muffler when the colder fall months hit. I'm being creative like that because one skein of the yarn is like eight bucks, and I'm pretty broke; so instead of a full-length scarf it'll be shorter and nice and cozy for the neck.

I'm using Debbie Buss alpaca silk, which is 80% baby alpaca and 20% silk (which translates to super-crazy-soft). The stitch is called the "stockinette stitch," and is created by doing one row of knit stitch and one row of purl stitch, and just alternating back and forth like that. It creates the little Vs you see, which I think looks so classy:

But then as you see here, I just recently lost my mind and did two rows of the same stitch back-to-back without realizing, and kept alternating. What happened was it essentially reversed the pattern on me, so you see those two rows of decidedly horizontal stitches. (Which - stay with me here - is actually what the entire scarf looks like on the "back side." Crazy, isn't it?!)

So, my humble muffler will have a little pattern stripe in it. But then I thought, go with it next time! Why not make a scarf with intentional stripes all through it? It would go something like this:

Row 1: knit.
Row 2: purl.

Do this for eight rows.

Row 9: purl.
Row 10: knit.

Do this for four rows. Then start over at row one, and continue this pattern for the length of the scarf!

I will definitely be trying my little homemade scarf pattern at some point this fall. Who knows? It may even end up in my Etsy shop. :-)

Lastly, I just want to show off my "it's new to me!!" bag that Elisabetta gifted me last weekend. She's jetting off to England next week and getting married to her British love, so we literally have no idea when we'll see each other again. (I'm, of course, too broke to make it to the wedding) A couple of years ago she found this fabulous bag at H&M in Chicago, for something crazy like six bucks on sale, and she always uses it as one of her overnight bags when she comes to visit me in the city. I love it soooooo much that she finally let me have it, after months of shameless begging:

Can't wait to use it for my North Carolina road trip!!

Well, that's it for my Domesticated Friday post! Wow, it was even more fun than my first one. Don't know if I can do it every Friday - the Suzie Homemaker part of me is very regressed, it's very sad - but don't be surprised to see one again very soon!

Happy weekend!

Euploea modesta.

2010-05-21T11:30:00.000-05:00

Just some extra, mostly floral, pics from the Butterfly House. :)

Why they lost.

2010-05-21T03:00:00.001-05:00

ALERT! ALERT! American Idol post. :-)

I'm going to detail why each finalist, up to this week, did not succeed in taking the Idol crown.

12. Lacey Brown - I admire her tenacity, but though her voice was quirky, in the end it simply was not strong enough. No matter what, an Idol winner has to have a seriously strong voice, and she was never going to add that to her resume. Plus, her song choices were kinda bunk.

11. Paige Miles - every few years Simon has a moment of clarity, and I agree with him that she had one of the best voices in the competition. It's usually not good, however, to audition for the show because your co-workers want you to, or your mom, or whoever. You have to go in with a plan, and Paige simply didn't have one. In addition, she often looked dazed, as though she still wasn't sure where she was. And nerves were a problem also.

10. Didi Benami - my official favorite; she wasn't my typical fave, with obvious good looks and a heavy emotional side. But her super-sweet personality, killer voice, and strong stance against judge ridiculosity won me over. However, in this field of contestants, one true misstep was one too many. She took an excellent song choice and performed it as though a fourth member of the Dreams, complete with big curls and glittery gown. That simply wasn't her style. She should have gone acoustic and melancholy, and if unsure of the guitar work allowed, simply had guitarists join her onstage. I was broken to see her go, but at least there was one other person who I liked very well.

9. Andrew Garcia - his pretty awesome take on "Straight Up" during Hollywood week haunted him every week of live competition until he finally, I think, just gave up trying to please the judges. I think that in the end Andrew just wasn't as creative as we wanted him to be, and some very random missteps ("You Give Me Something," "Heard It Through the Grapevine") only added to the lackluster-ness of it all. Very sad. Of course, it would have helped just a bit if the judges didn't insist on actually reminding him of "Straight Up" during every single critique.

8. Katie Stevens - another one of the top voices. Yet strangely, she was far better during the audition rounds than live. She does have a short history of pageants, and that perhaps lent to her performances feeling less than organic. She never really felt the groove, never really let the audience close to her. The facade never cracked. It's hard for someone to gain voter sympathy that way. And so, they stopped caring. I would like to note that I think it's freaking awesome she can speak Portuguese.

7. Tim Urban - was never supposed to be here. After a Top 24 contestant was disqualified, the judges brought Tim back, and immediately - and I mean immediately - regretted it. I had to mute his performance of "Apologize," and I've never done that before. After that, Tim stuck to performances that did not challenge him in any way. Which inevitably became boring. I'm a big believer that no amount of looks can keep anyone interested if there isn't anything else going on, however I have to think that a large portion of his votes for a long time were because of just that, his looks. What else did he have, besides an annoying tendency to laugh off relevant critiques, and the audacity in the first place to think he would ever deserve to be an American Idol?

6. Siobhan Magnus - when your signature move is entitled The Scream, something is wrong. It was a terrible gimmick that I noted time and again would create backlash against her, and of course I was right. You just can't hit a triple high C every week regardless of whether you're singing "Paint It Black," "Superstition," or "Suspicious Minds." A perfect example of another contestant who just didn't know how to play the game - but thought she did. She thought her ugly outfits and insistence on artistic ambiguity would rally people around her, and for much too long, it did, but surely not for the reasons she thought. She was eliminated after receiving the pimp spot, a pretty hard thing to do. But not when you're a screamer.

5. Aaron Kelly - in the end, Aaron didn't have anything that no one else had, except for a country style. His voice is beautiful and mature for his age, but at the same time because of his age he just didn't play the game very well. Several weeks in a row of performances at the same decibal and tempo meant he became boring quickly. Still, Top 5 is a great finish and shows that a ton of people liked him very much.

4. Michael Lynche - for me, there just was never anything special about Big Mike. A competent voice but a bit thin, lacking in uniqueness or character. In a cast full of introverts his personality stood out for sure, but that's not enough. However, he's another one of those contestants who inexplicably gets enough votes each week for far too long (think Scott Savol) - and he managed to stay strong even after being eliminated (and subsequently Saved - ugh). Michael lost because eventually it became obvious that in the Top 4, he was finally out of his league.

3. Casey James - trying to stay succinct, I think Casey stopped doing what was working best for him, which was rocking out. After "Jealous Guy" - the only Moment of the season - the judges tried to steer him in a ballad direction, which still seems shady to me. Casey's talent just explodes when he jams, and I think the judges saw how much potential he had and tried to choke it. And in a large way, they succeeded. This was never more evident than when the judges picked John Mayer's "Daughters" for him to sing during Top 3 week. It was beautiful - but only exciting to those who know what to truly listen for. Casey's light was snuffed out, a terrible thing to witness, and I pray for the best for him because his musicianship is unparalleled by anyone in the history of this show.

So next week is Finale Week. Lee DeWyze or Crystal Bowersox FTW.

If Crystal loses, it will be another case of Melinda Doolittle Syndrome, from which Danny Gokey also suffered last year - being so good from the very beginning that there was nowhere to go from there, and honestly she wasn't terribly inventive throughout the season. Also, Lee now officially has the judges' backing for the win, along with a visible season-long confidence course and super-sparkly blue eyes.

If Lee loses, it will be because Crystal gained so many fans from the start that even someone rising up to overtake her will not have been enough in the end. Also, he does have a pitch problem.

I personally am kinda rooting for Lee now. :)

Okay, back to blogging!

2010-05-20T19:43:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday I woke up and thought to myself, "I do not wish to go to work today." Of course I went anyway, but I marched straight into the office and took the next Friday off. And guess what? That day is tomorrow!!!

As I tweeted, I need to make a big list of things to accomplish, even though I may never even get to one of them, because I'm Lazy. But I do want to at least blog, so watch for increased activity. Fair warning, one of the upcoming posts with be extremely long and about American Idol, but I plan to cushion it with other, more palatable topics. :)

In the meantime, I've got a cheap pizza to consume and a little TV to catch up on...ahhhhh...yes....

Top pics of the season.

2010-05-16T19:08:00.001-05:00

I basically watched America's Next Top Model in two marathon blocks this cycle - I just couldn't commit to watching every Wednesday - so while I know you lamented the absence of the weekly Top Pic, here you can revel in them all at once. :)

Oh dear God butterflies!!!

2010-05-09T14:18:00.000-05:00

I went to the Butterfly House with my mom yesterday for the first time. We have a field trip scheduled there this summer but I will be in North Carolina, so I thought it'd be a nice Mother's Day weekend thing to do.

There is a conservatory inside of which dozens of butterfly species flit about freely, and though I had known that, I wasn't prepared for the sheer awesomeness of it at all. You know how normally, if you see a butterfly, it zooms in the opposite direction no matter what the consequence? Not so here. Even though butterflies only live about three weeks, the ones in the conservatory must get used to humans very quickly, because they had no fear (and no shame; four paper kites landed on a lady wearing perfume and basically just took up residence on her legs). It was really, really amazing; I loved it!

For obvious technical reasons you won't see any butterflies in flight in the following pictures, but that just lets me say how awesome so many of them were for posing for me. :-)

Yay!

Yeee-hawww!

2010-05-07T19:40:00.000-05:00

Go check out this guest post I did for Mel over at her blog. She has a weekly series called Domesticated Fridays, and she's awesome enough to have blogger friends show their stuff on her site. Today was my day!!!

Also, she handed out a few blog awards recently, and I was a proud recipient of, I think, all of them. :D Now, as you all probably know, whenever it comes to my needing to re-hand out blog awards, pretty much everybody gets one. If you're a follower, ya get one. But it's not 'just because' - I really do appreciate everyone who comes here to read what I put out there. It'd be lonely without you. Don't feel obligated to accpet it, though, it won't hurt my feelings. :)

The first is the Sunshine Award. Thanks Mel! I would love to give it to Inga, Elisabetta, Epoem, Don, and Diana.

The next is the Happy Award. Thanks Mel! I have to list ten things that make me happy:

1. sleep
2. sausage pizza
3. new music
4. my Sweetheart jeans from Old Navy
5. taking photographs
6. the mountains
7. Parks and Recreation (7:30 CST on Thursdays on NBC, watch it!!)
8. laughing
9. rain at night
10. even more sleep

Ten bloggers that make me happy: Don, Ryan, Inga, Epoem, Clare, Diana, Miss H, Alissa, and Elisabetta. Uh-oh. That's only nine.

Lastly, the Beautiful Blogger award. Mel, you're too kind! :D I have to list seven facts about myself:

1. I much prefer living alone over having a roommate.
2. I've written an entire Star Trek novel.
3. My dream job would be creating movie trailers. (My personal fave? The first Spider-man teaser)
4. I live paycheck-to-paycheck, and it sucks.
5. I don't own a swimsuit. Mainly due to my swimming phobia.
6. My love of and need for meat in my daily diet is on the level of oh, say, a 250-lb lumberjack.
7. I loathe talking on the phone, which sends the wrong message to my friends.

The seven Beautiful Blogger award recipients are: Inga, Clare, Diana, Alissa, Elisabetta, Epoem, and Miss H.

Whew! I think that covers it! Happy blogging!

You don't care about this post.

2010-05-05T23:11:00.000-05:00

It's about American Idol, so just go on about your business.

(For any new readers, I say this because none of my regular readers have EVER commented on my AI posts. I do not expect this to change)

Just about this time last year, I wrote a post about Kris Allen, the contestant I had chosen as my favorite and who moved me to write about his greatness despite the fact that I had no faith in his being able to beat other favorites. As history would have it, Kris went on to win the whole durn thing.

Tonight I come here to write again, about a man who I really...really, really...REALLY don't think is going to win. But who won me over several weeks ago regardless.

Let's just get it out of the way: Casey James is hot. Not a lot he can do about it. He also has the best guitar skills of any Idol contestant ever, and harbors within him a sweet-ass blues voice that, when not channeling Bob Seger, gives hints of other greats like Eddie Vedder. He was one of the maybe two guys during the first week of semifinals to give a performance you could get behind, and maintained a pleasant, good-natured, and authentically Texan facade when certain judges were busy making fools of themselves over his looks.

Some people cry foul in regards to song choice. I say, works for me. I was happy to hear him sing Bryan Adams' "Heaven," as it's just a great, great melody; I literally squealed out loud when he chose "Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and The News (I'll say it again, it takes me back to better days!!); cheered with college marching band-nostalgia when he cut a serious jam with Sam and Dave's "Hold On, I'm Coming"; and realized he does have some pretty solid instincts when he sang John Lennon's "Jealous Guy" and created the only Idol Moment we've had thus far this season (and we're now down to Top 4). He then went on to rearrange Elvis' "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" into a boot-stomping, finger-picking blues revival, and though that performance went sorely underappreciated on the show, I go back and watch it almost daily on my pod.

The judges haven't been extremely kind to him. The blogosphere (what do those guys know, anyway) are far too quick to dismiss him. Judge Kara DioGuardi did Casey a major, major disservice by continuing to bring up his looks, time and time again - giving lazy thinkers everywhere a reason not to like him even this late in the game.

For me, Casey just has that something intangible that even the best writers would be hard-pressed to put into words. It's a combination of the unique (and highly capable) qualities of his voice, his very impressive guitar skills, his song choices, and the overall disposition of a seriously nice guy, that have had me voting lo these several weeks. (I did have a former favorite, but she was voted off during week 10; the very next week Casey sang "Jealous Guy" and that was it. Deal sealed)

There are a couple of other great talents left on the show as we head into Top 4 week. They have been nearly season-long favorites and also have the judges' backing; in the meantime, though Casey's fanbase is extremely devoted, he has his detractors who put him down for circumstances largely out of his control. (But yes, I'll admit "Blue Skies" was a mistake) For these reasons, I am so grateful that Casey has lasted this long, and that he's gotten exposure and will almost certainly be out there making excellent music in the future.

If he pulls a Kris Allen this year, I'll be shocked. If he doesn't, all will still be right in the world...because Casey James is in it.

8 simple rules.

2010-05-03T23:52:00.001-05:00

For participating in an online message board.

For reasons that I will not go into here, I was part of a pretty big group of fans during one of the seasons of American Idol, and had a blast typing furiously to keep up with all their thoughts and jokes and hopes and fears on the AI message boards. (If this makes me a big fat nerd, so be it) That was the only season I participated in such a way, but lately I've been heading over there to see what people are saying about this year's contestants. Cue flood of memories.

So, if you've ever thought about participating in something like that, here are eight simple rules for staying normal while discussing what you like, even respect, about a pseudo-famous person.

1) Do not talk like you're going to marry the celebrity in question.

2) Do not treat them as the Second Coming, who can do no wrong, and whose every breath is a heavenly mist borne earthward on a ray of sunlight guided by doves. Unless you want everyone to gag at the mere sight of your avatar.

3) Do not try to put their name in the hat for the next Peace Prize. I knew people who insisted the contestant we were a fan of was a vegetarian, a non-smoker, who never touched liquor. It immediately came out that he chain-smoked, swigged bottles of Dos Equis between sets at local bars, and preferred pancakes and ribs for breakfast.

4) Do NOT be a Debbie Downer. We're here because we have high hopes for this person, and high hopes are generally synonomous with faith, not out-and-out pessimism.

5) Don't be gross and show a penchant for holding this unattainable person too close to your heart. It's really sad. And uncomfortable.

6) Try to stay realistic. If something they do just happens to not be ultimate perfection, don't overcompensate and act like it is. I don't know how many times I've seen fans rave and rave and rave and RAVE about a performance that was just okay. Clearly, that's how you know it was only just okay.

7) Don't be standoffish to newcomers. It's a big enough deal that someone threw off their day-to-day coolness to come sit at a computer screen and talk shop with people they don't know. Welcome them. They shouldn't have to prove themselves.

8) And lastly, try to get banned at least once (if you're on a big-enough site). All it takes is one sexual fantasy while displaying utter disregard for words that aren't allowed. Mind you, this does not break rule number 1. Everyone's allowed to talk dirty every now and again, and unless they're the textbook definition of rule number 5, it should be obvious that it's for fun.

9) Okay, so there are nine rules... Don't choose the worst picture of said pseudo-celebrity and use it for your avatar for the next ten months. It's not saying that your devotion is blind; it's saying that YOU are blind. No one wants to see an ugly picture of the person they're supporting.

With that, I bid anyone who will be part of a message board community in the future good luck! Now to go finish that post I was working on in that one thread...

Wedding.

2010-05-02T19:43:00.000-05:00

I was in a friend's wedding this weekend.

A friend's favorite poem.

2010-04-29T19:52:00.001-05:00

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

I love trees.

2010-04-25T18:22:00.001-05:00

Yup, I do.

(images courtesy of www.zhenia.wordpress.com, www.bfoit.org, www.cs.swarthmore.edu, www.drawingcoach.com)

Simple things.

2010-04-25T00:14:00.000-05:00

It's funny the things we don't remember after we grow up. Like helicopter seeds. They fall from maple trees in the springtime, and whirl and spin their way to the ground like the vehicle they predate by, surely, millions of years.

I had not given one thought to helicopter seeds since I was a child; so, fittingly, I was with children last week when there they were, once again, in my plane of existence. And how is it that I could go so long without even remembering seeing them? Surely they fall every spring. Is it really possible that I was so caught up in the to-and-fro expected of me that I never really saw them? Or that I simply looked right past them? I don't know which is worse.

It was a sunny and lightly windy day, a Wednesday, and as the kids ran and tried to snatch the seeds right out of the air, I stood up and watched the scene. There was a veritable canopy of trees overhead, broken through here and there with the blue and white of sky, and the seeds falling reminded me of butterflies, the way they take flight at the simplest sound and fill the air with their beating wings; except the maple seeds flutter downward fearlessly, unlike those butterflies who are going ever upward and away.

When a good wind would blow, the kids and I would stop what we were doing and race in their general direction, and leap up and try to catch as many as we could. A simple task and infinitely engaging. And I found myself wondering, as I do more and more, why the world must be composed of moments any more complex than this.