Catherine
May. 16th, 2009
02:48 pm - Saturday
I was out walking in the neighborhood when two nine-ish-year-old boys walked past me. Both were carrying big plastic cups of something potable, and one was carrying a ham bone that had aluminum foil around its base and was eating the meat off it.
"No, they have to load and then fire," I heard one of them say as I went by, "they can't just fire continuously. But with a crossbow-" and then they were out of hearing range.
Apr. 29th, 2009
09:50 pm - Breaking News
Small Beer Press is having a clearance sale. This means you can buy Magic for Beginners for $1.
Mar. 14th, 2009
05:09 pm - In Which My Horoscope Is Mocking Me
Libra (Sept. 23 - Oct. 23).
No matter how punctual and polite you try to be, the mischievous child inside of you is determined to take life at a certain pace and get answers to impertinent questions along the way. Your honesty is adorable.
My honesty is adorable?
Mar. 3rd, 2009
08:29 pm - Books and Movies, February 2009
Books
The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton
Silk by Alessandro Baricco
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
Movies
Pickpocket
Theft, in the sense of pickpocketing, can be a recreational activity. Or you could be listless, live in a cheap apartment, read novels all night, and pick pockets on the Paris Metro during the day. It's not a bad movie, it's just annoying. I kept wanting to grab the main character and shake some sense into him, but maybe that was the point. Maybe the director would have said, "ah, but there are some people, they are like this, no? And they drift until they are in prison, when they finally kiss the women they have loved the whole time, no?" Maybe. I'd just rather be doing something else when movies about them are playing.
The Third Man
I was going to say something useful and ingenious like, "I love Hitchcock!" but it's actually Carol Reed. The Third Man is an adaptation of a Graham Greene book. I haven't read the book, I can't make any book-movie comparisons, but I loved the movie. A writer of cheap westerns (novels, not movies) goes to Vienna because his friend Harry, who lives there, has offered him a job. He arrives just in time to see Harry being buried. And a mystery ensues: Harry was hit by a truck on the street outside his apartment. Three men carried him from the pavement to the sidewalk: two were his friends and no one can identify the third. The two friends say it was just the two of them, and there was no third man. Watch Holly Martins, author of such works as The Oklahoma Kid, solve the mystery.
Feb. 28th, 2009
11:43 am - Books and Movies, January 2009
It's a fairly short list, so I won't put it behind a cut.
Books
Resistance by Agnes Humbert
Movies
I accidentally put the movies I watched in January in the post about books and movies for September-December 2008. So for info about the movies I watched in January, go there and check out The Hustler, The Color of Money, Free Enterprise, and Primer. I went back later and added the links to each movie's imdb page (in case you're interested in more information).
Resistance was good. It's about the author's experience of WWII. She was a member of a group that published an underground newspaper right after the occupation of Paris, and she was caught. She spent years in prison and in work camps before liberation. It's hard to tell exactly how accurate the story is. The first part is taken directly from her diary, so it's as accurate as a diary is, but most of the book was written after the war, as a recollection of her time in prison and in forced labor. I'm willing to believe it's fairly, if not perfectly, accurate, but I have no particular grounds for that belief. What impressed me most was Humbert's attitude: she was always positive, if occasionally vindictive (e.g., "I don't think killing is right, but we have to wage war to stop the Germans, and people will die in that war"). She closes the book with this statement, naming some of the people who worked with her on the newspaper and some she met while doing forced labor:
There are just people: those fight for civilization, and those who fight against it. Just those two camps, no more. Boris Vilde was Russian, and so was Anatole Lewitsky. Pierre Walter, born in Metz to German parents, chose France, and Georges Ithier was Panamanian by birth. We say they died for France; I believe they died for France as well.
I like it: there are just people.
Jan. 31st, 2009
09:05 pm - On Me
Four people tagged me on this meme, so I guess, maybe, I can think of some things to say about myself...
( 25 Random facts About Me )
![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/dwaggins/sick.gif){kind=small}
sick09:08 am - Health
I slipped on some ice on Thursday and landed on my tailbone. I'm okay, and it feels better now than it did then, which I'm taking as a sign that nothing's broken, but ow. I'm trying to move around as much as possible to keep from getting stiff. I feel like Bender:
Bender: I think I have whiplash.
Leela: You can't have whiplash, you don't have a neck.
Bender: I meant ass whiplash.
Also, I'm coming down with a cold. Also, I think I have a grey hair. I haven't pulled it out to get a better look, but it shines differently than the other hairs.
Jan. 28th, 2009
08:58 pm - Four-month Media Update
So apparently I haven't updated about the books and movies in my life in four months. There haven't been a lot, but there have been some.
( Books and Movies, September-December 2008 )
Dec. 28th, 2008
10:57 pm - December
December is going, um, away. I used to think November was the shortest month, but here I am with three more days of December going, "wait, I have the BEST idea for Thanksgiving next year!" Ah well.
My December has been good. I'm far happier now than I was this time last year. Actually, I guess my year in general has just been pretty awesome.
If you're in Atlanta, you may have noticed that I am not there. I'm sorry. I didn't get myself together to make the trip. And a couple days of not doing much in a row = magic.
My holidays have been good. I've spent time with some of the people I don't see much (though not all; see paragraph above), and I'm almost done sending my Christmas cards. See a pattern here? My tenuous grip on time has just fallen completely apart. I'm okay, I just have trouble with the way the days join together. They have seams like I've never seen before. Or rather, I've seen them all the time and still don't understand, like watching the secret panel that falls out of the wall. How did that just happen?
And here I am at the end of December with the same old regret: why why why didn't I slip some curry powder into the pumpkin pie?
![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/dwaggins/smile.gif){kind=small}
goodNov. 29th, 2008
07:59 pm - On Giving Thanks
From Ralph Waldo Emerson's On Friendship:
I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new. Shall I not call God the Beautiful, who daily showeth himself so to me in his gifts? I chide society, I embrace solitude, and yet I am not so ungrateful as not to see the wise, the lovely and the noble-minded, as from time to time they pass my gate. Who hears me, who understands me, becomes mine, — a possession for all time. Nor is Nature so poor but she gives me this joy several times, and thus we weave social threads of our own, a new web of relations ; and, as many thoughts in succession substantiate themselves, we shall by and by stand in a new world of our own creation, and no longer strangers and pilgrims in a traditionary globe. My friends have come to me unsought. The great God gave them to me. By oldest right, by the divine affinity of virtue with itself, I find them, or rather not I, but the Deity in me and in them derides and cancels the thick walls of individual character, relation, age, sex, circumstance, at which he usually connives, and now makes many one. High thanks I owe you, excellent lovers, who carry out the world for me to new and noble depths, and enlarge the meaning of all my thoughts.
Thank you, friends.
*(via Secondat)
Nov. 19th, 2008
06:10 am - On Waking up in Cold Weather
I'm considering staying in bed all winter.
I wore legwarmers to work yesterday, because it was under 40 degrees outside and when outside is colder than my refrigerator I wear legwarmers. I thought, "surely it will be warmer out when I take a walk at lunchtime." Alas, no. Not even close. It snowed.
They were flurries, and they went away in a couple minutes, but snow is snow. So I'm considering staying in bed all winter.
Oct. 5th, 2008
05:15 pm - In Which There Is Feasting, of Sorts
Yesterday was the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi. He wasn't born on nor did he die on that day, but that's when we celebrate him. We used to take the dog over the sacristy every year on the first weekend of October for the Blessing of the Animals, all because of St. Francis.
But that isn't what I want to talk about. The real reason I'm posting is that one of my favourite prayers is attributed to St. Francis (though, as the internet is quick to point out, there is no record of it prior to 1912). I like it, it speaks to me:
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.
Sep. 11th, 2008
Sep. 10th, 2008
06:19 pm - On Employment
FYI, I'm volunteering with the Small Press Expo again this year. It's at the "Marriott Bethesda North Hotel," which means it's at the Marriott by White Flint. Last year was a lot of fun, and I'm pretty sure they're still looking for volunteers. If you'd just like to come but can't volunteer, let me know, as I have a couple free passes I'm supposed to give away.
This year's panels and presentations are:
Center for Cartoon Studies Workshop
Critics' Roundtable
Cartooning in Collaboration/Collaboration in Cartooning
The Page as Canvas
Herge and the Clear Line
The Kramers Ergot 7 Panel
Kim Thompson: Vingt Sur 20
Children's and YA Comic Books
Lloyd Dangle Presentation
Frontline Cartooning
Drawing the Election
Sep. 2nd, 2008
09:36 pm - On August
August was a pretty good month. I liked it. Gold star, August!
Here's what I watched and read.
( August )
![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/dwaggins/snore.gif){kind=small}
tiredAug. 30th, 2008
08:48 pm - On Names
I just found the World Names Profiler, which shows name frequency per million in certain countries around the world (most of them are English-speaking, though Argentina and France are there, too).
Apparently, there are 1.99 people with my last name per million in the U.S., which works out to about 600. Total. Incidentally, that's half as many as still live in Germany. Is it weird to have a name that makes you think, "wow, 1200! I have 3x more relatives than I thought!"?
Aug. 21st, 2008
02:45 pm - On Diversity
So, I was reading this description of this game:
Diversity is more of an escape-the-house game, rather than escape-the-room; in order to finally achieve freedom, the player must exit first a bedroom, then an office, then a nursery and finally a bathroom.*
and it took me a full minute to realize that the point of the game was to exit a room in the game. For one glorious minute, I thought someone had developed a game that involved leaving your computer, opening the door, and going outside. And maybe you win if you make a new friend who is different from you in some way? I mean, it's called "Diversity," after all.
I still think that would be a cool game (not that the real game doesn't sound cool), however:
a) it would be hard to score, unless you live in the Truman Show (or the Your-Name-Here Show)
b) it would play right into the hands of your local chamber of commerce ("Behold! A local business establishment! Perhaps it contains people I could meet! Or at the very least, coffee.") (or maybe that's not a bad thing?).
If I ever own, say, a local bookstore, I'll look into developing such a game. And handing it out to my local customers. "Why, it's a delightful romp about making new friends. By the way, we're having speed-dating on Thursday night!"
*from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
scottique
Aug. 17th, 2008
10:48 pm - Wedding Songs
My friend Emily is getting married, and, in order to save money, she's coming up with the playlist for the reception herself. She put out a general help request for songs, and I've sent her this list:
( wedding songs? )
which is okay, I guess, well, I don't know. I know I'm missing a lot of songs I've heard and thought, "if I was a wedding dj, I'd play that". I'd suggest a lot more jazz/swing music, but I'm not sure how into it she and her guests are.
The other suggestions people seem to be giving her are things like "Mambo #5" and "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)". It's not that I don't think those are good songs, but for her wedding? She did specify love songs or party songs, so I guess that's what people were going from.
So here's what I want to know: if you were dj-ing a wedding reception (or were coming up with a playlist for your own reception), what song(s) would you make sure to play?
goodAug. 15th, 2008
08:53 pm - On Addictions
I've been scratching my arms to bleeding all day, which is probably because of all the mosquito bites, but might be because I've watched all of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and now there's no more and I'm in withdrawal. I know that sounds extreme and silly, but Dr. Horrible is pretty fabulous. I guess I should have taken the title as a warning, "this will not leave you feeling wonderful. If it would, it would be called Dr. Wonderful's Sing-Along Blog. But it's not. Consider yourself warned."
If you can, you should watch it, for free, here. There are 3 fifteen-minute-ish acts, so you can watch it without committing to the full 45 minutes at once.
Also: there is laundry.
Aug. 11th, 2008
01:04 pm - More New Old Books
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st
Stored in a sky-lit reading room on the top floor of the Biblioteca Nazionale in Naples are the charred remains of the only library to survive from classical antiquity. The ancient world's other great book collections -- at Athens, Alexandria and Rome -- all perished in the chaos of the centuries. But the library of the Villa of the Papyri was conserved, paradoxically, by an act of destruction.
Lying to the northwest of ancient Herculaneum, this sumptuous seaside mansion was buried beneath 30m of petrified volcanic mud during the catastrophic eruption of Mt Vesuvius on August 24, AD79. Antiquities hunters in the mid-18th century sunk shafts and dug tunnels around Herculaneum and found the villa, surfacing with a magnificent booty of bronzes and marbles. Most of these, including a svelte seated Hermes modelled in the manner of Lyssipus, now grace the National Archeological Museum in Naples.
The excavators also found what they took to be chunks of coal deep inside the villa, and set them alight to illuminate their passage underground. Only when they noticed how many torches had solidified around an umbilicus -- a core of wood or bone to which the roll was attached -- did the true nature of the find become apparent. Here was a trove of ancient texts, carbonised by the heat surge of the eruption. About 1800 were eventually retrieved.
(via Arts & Letters Daily)
Aug. 8th, 2008
01:53 pm - Ice and Aladdin
I've been watering my plants with ice. It's generally too hot outside for normal, liquid-based watering to be effective for long, even at night, but with ice the moisture evaporates slower and plants don't just get a jolt of water followed by hours of dry. But the main reason I do it is that, since ice cubes make pretty good projectiles, I can water most plants from the doorway.
Also: how fantastic is this?
An astonishing project is underway in Timbuktu, Mali, [a city in] one of the world's poorest countries. On the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, experts are opening an enchanted Aladdin's Cave, filled with hundreds of thousands of ancient documents.
The Ahmed Baba Library alone contains more than 20,000 manuscripts, including works on herbal medicine and mathematics, yellowed volumes of poetry, music and Islamic law. Some are adorned with gilded letters, while others are written in the language of the Tuareg tribes. The contents remain a mystery.
(via Bookslut)
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blankAug. 3rd, 2008
07:18 pm - Books and Movies, July 2008
I woke up to a thunderstorm Saturday morning. At exactly 5 am. I sleep with my head about four feet below the roof, and this storm came right overhead. Lightning kept striking within 1000 feet of me, so I ended the night on a couch downstairs. Then woke up and came back upstairs. I expected to see trees and powerlines down all over yesterday, but there wasn't any wreckage. I guess it was cloud-to-cloud lightning after all.
( Books and Movies )
accomplishedJul. 28th, 2008
01:18 pm - Spam
The vast majority of spam email I get is titled along the lines of "Heyy real men!" which is fairly entertaining, considering.
But today is a special day! I have just become the proud recipient of an email called "New JRR Tolkien noovel is published - 34 yyears after his death," which I take to mean that the internet finally gets me. I love you too, internet.
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