I was feeling listless and dumb. Apparently reading isn't enough for me. I also need to be creating now, especially after NaNoWriMo is over.
Dan came up with an ongoing project in which United States Presidents are matched up with television characters with whom they share attributes. The criteria is vague.
Do you have an idea? Leave a comment. Send an email. I think I want to do this George Washington to Barack Obama chronologically, but that means I need to figure out who James Madison is. That may take some time...
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
Ra Ra Riot - Dying is Fine
This video was posted on Youtube more than a year ago but its my new favorite song. So there. Mostly the chorus makes me want to dance like I'm one of the Peanuts Gang.
Job Interviews and Thank You Notes
I had a phone interview today. Most advice suggests a "Thank You" note afterwards. If pressed for time, a thank you email will do.
This felt incredibly awkward. I mean, I had just talked to the person twenty minutes before. I had ended the conversation with a thank you. Did I really need to send a note? I agonized over this briefly. Will he think I'm needy? I mean, he told me that he wouldn't get back to me until Monday. Is sending him an email now too much?
I ended up sending a short one. After all, advice I had read on getting jobs had gotten me this far. It feels weird, taking so much advice from the internet and books, but most of it is concurring advice, so I decided to go with it.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
There Will Be No Christmas This Year, America
A headline on CNN caught my eye as I perused:
Jobs cut today = 20,650
I know the networks will place this in the "Too Close To Call" category, but seriously: no Christmas this year. Consumers can't spend if they have no money. If no one has money to spend, businesses will lay people off. Those people have no money and can't spend any. More businesses lay people off.
The madness will never end!
I have finished four books this week
Notice I say "finished" rather than "read." This is because one of these books I actually started on Thanksgiving (Thursday). So to be fair, I've only started and completed three books within this week. But that sounds a hell of a lot less impressive. This is also less impressive because two of them were Young Adult books.
Sunday:
I was skeptical at first. But I have read all her other "Tudor" books, beginning with The Constant Princess and ending with The Queen's Fool. Or is it The Virgin Queen? Anyway, I had read all the others and was resigned to this one.
It is a recreation of Mary, Queen of Scots exile in England. Not allowed back to her kingdom in Scotland, or to her in laws in France, she has no court but many follwers. Told from the point of view of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her two prison keepers/hosts, Bess and George, it is compelling, if only because of Bess. She has worked her way up from being a poor widow's daughter to a Countess. All of this is threatened by Mary, Queen of Scots who attracts Bess's husband George while emptying their treasure rooms with her needs.
Oh, the conflict!
Monday, I read All We Know of Heaven.
It is also the title of a Sue Ellen Bridges book I read when I was in junior high. That was a tale of love gone completely wrong. This book is the tale of two high school students, best friends Bridgett and Maureen, who look incredibly alike in pretty much every way.
So when Bridgett, reckless driver extraordinaire, offers to drive Maureen's truck because Maureen's leg aches on the way to the cheerleading competition...well, things go incredibly wrong. There is a fatal car crash. The truck crosses the midline.
The two girls are mistaken for each other. They look so alike. People expected Maureen to be driving. "Maureen" is dead and buried before the doctors realize they have made a mistake. Dental records don't lie, and chipped teeth don't repair themselves.
Major tear jerker. Very embarrassing to read on the metro.
Tuesday brought Twilight.
This one took the least amount of time. From the moment it was in my possession to the moment I turned it back in, time had elapsed six hours. Really, I probably spent three of those seriously reading the book.
Classic vampire love story? Yeah. Enjoyable to read? Of course. Inspiration to scream madly whenever anything Twilight related comes on screen? I don't see it, personally, but that's just me. I enjoy the read and realize why girls/women love the vampire love story.
The vampire is just a bit dangerous. He's beautiful. He bites. He's generally about three times as old as his love interest, and because he's a vampire, he's super interesting. There are probably very few people on the planet that would be less interesting than a vampire. And this vampire is interested in an ordinary girl/woman.
The interesting part to me was that the major vampire battle scene took place "off camera." Instead, there's lots of anxiety about this. But we don't see the action. This is primarily a romance. I'm reading the second one soon, but as it stands I've checked out three other books from the library that I'll read first.
Thursday (today) I finished Assassination Vacation.
This book is kinda up my alley. Or at least Sarah Vowell is up my alley. In my teen years, most of my family vacations were historically nerdy. I visited Laura Ingalls Wilder homes. I went to Gettysburg. The same trip as Gettysburg we visited Hershey, Pennsylvania. We toured the factory but did not go on the rides. Instead, we visited Hershey's museum, which had artifacts like his ticket for the Titanic (he ended up not being on the ship after all) and Native American knick knacks he had picked up. Hershey wanted to preserve history along with make sweet, sweet candy.
Vowell also mentions her favorite website, FindAGrave. I was obsessed with this website when I was a teenager.
The only issue I had was that there were no footnotes or endnotes. She does cite a few books within the text, and says a lot of the information comes from historical sites or pamphlets, but still. She knows a lot. How can I go back and replicate her research?
I have started Water For Elephants. Its the first NaNoWriMo novel to be a best seller.
Sunday:
I was skeptical at first. But I have read all her other "Tudor" books, beginning with The Constant Princess and ending with The Queen's Fool. Or is it The Virgin Queen? Anyway, I had read all the others and was resigned to this one.
It is a recreation of Mary, Queen of Scots exile in England. Not allowed back to her kingdom in Scotland, or to her in laws in France, she has no court but many follwers. Told from the point of view of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her two prison keepers/hosts, Bess and George, it is compelling, if only because of Bess. She has worked her way up from being a poor widow's daughter to a Countess. All of this is threatened by Mary, Queen of Scots who attracts Bess's husband George while emptying their treasure rooms with her needs.
Oh, the conflict!
Monday, I read All We Know of Heaven.
It is also the title of a Sue Ellen Bridges book I read when I was in junior high. That was a tale of love gone completely wrong. This book is the tale of two high school students, best friends Bridgett and Maureen, who look incredibly alike in pretty much every way.
So when Bridgett, reckless driver extraordinaire, offers to drive Maureen's truck because Maureen's leg aches on the way to the cheerleading competition...well, things go incredibly wrong. There is a fatal car crash. The truck crosses the midline.
The two girls are mistaken for each other. They look so alike. People expected Maureen to be driving. "Maureen" is dead and buried before the doctors realize they have made a mistake. Dental records don't lie, and chipped teeth don't repair themselves.
Major tear jerker. Very embarrassing to read on the metro.
Tuesday brought Twilight.
This one took the least amount of time. From the moment it was in my possession to the moment I turned it back in, time had elapsed six hours. Really, I probably spent three of those seriously reading the book.
Classic vampire love story? Yeah. Enjoyable to read? Of course. Inspiration to scream madly whenever anything Twilight related comes on screen? I don't see it, personally, but that's just me. I enjoy the read and realize why girls/women love the vampire love story.
The vampire is just a bit dangerous. He's beautiful. He bites. He's generally about three times as old as his love interest, and because he's a vampire, he's super interesting. There are probably very few people on the planet that would be less interesting than a vampire. And this vampire is interested in an ordinary girl/woman.
The interesting part to me was that the major vampire battle scene took place "off camera." Instead, there's lots of anxiety about this. But we don't see the action. This is primarily a romance. I'm reading the second one soon, but as it stands I've checked out three other books from the library that I'll read first.
Thursday (today) I finished Assassination Vacation.
This book is kinda up my alley. Or at least Sarah Vowell is up my alley. In my teen years, most of my family vacations were historically nerdy. I visited Laura Ingalls Wilder homes. I went to Gettysburg. The same trip as Gettysburg we visited Hershey, Pennsylvania. We toured the factory but did not go on the rides. Instead, we visited Hershey's museum, which had artifacts like his ticket for the Titanic (he ended up not being on the ship after all) and Native American knick knacks he had picked up. Hershey wanted to preserve history along with make sweet, sweet candy.
Vowell also mentions her favorite website, FindAGrave. I was obsessed with this website when I was a teenager.
The only issue I had was that there were no footnotes or endnotes. She does cite a few books within the text, and says a lot of the information comes from historical sites or pamphlets, but still. She knows a lot. How can I go back and replicate her research?
I have started Water For Elephants. Its the first NaNoWriMo novel to be a best seller.
Please pay attention while you're driving the train I'm on
I ride the red line round trip every day. Its not my favorite thing in the world, but its passable. I read the Express, I do the crossword or sudoku, or read from the latest book I'm reading.
The night train is peaceful, but usually ends up picking some Metro workers between the White Flint and Grosvner/Strathmore stop. Last night, an off duty Metro worker is riding the train. This is usually no big deal and pretty common. Last night would have been no different except for one thing: the Metro worker propped open the door to the driver's cabin with his foot and they were chatting.
I ride in the front car because the red line in particular makes me motion sick. It helps to be able to see out to the track ahead. But today I was disturbed. A driver who killed and injured people in Los Angeles had been distracted by texting. A conversation with someone seated behind you cannot be much different.
Am I overreacting? Maybe. But I've never seen an off duty person chatting with the driver while the train was moving full speed. The Metro workers beside the tracks? The get on, tap the door to tell the driver they're on, and we're all on our way.
There has to be some kind of rule against this. I mean, the WMATA has instituted a random bag search to enhance security. Don't you think that focusing while you are driving the fucking train is also important to enhance security?
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Axl Rose is a Huge Bag of Douche
Apparently, Axl Rose is pissed that Dr Pepper used the album Chinese Democracy for publicity, claiming it "ruined" the release of his album.
For one thing, if anyone benefitted from PR from this whole debacle, I'm going to go ahead and say Guns 'n' Roses did. I might be biased, but Dr Pepper is currently way more relevant than you. You should be happy this joke was made so your album could get the attention it did.
Plus, Dr Pepper made the people happy with free soda. Axl Rose, when you sue a company that gives people free things, you look like a douche.
[brightestyoungthings]
He's Insane! Let's Give Him A Megaphone
Crazy man with megaphone in Dupont Circle: Give us this day our daily bread, so that we may be fed, so we can give head...
Excellent. Who gave the crazy guy a megaphone?
Excellent. Who gave the crazy guy a megaphone?
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
On Hold With Angels: A Colbert Christmas
I've had the hardest time accessing this over the Internet, so this is only the second clip of it I've seen. Is it so hard to access because they want us to buy it? How evil, how capitalistically Christmas!
Monday, December 1, 2008
Things I Can Do Now That NaNoWriMo is over
- Read a book every day
- Redeem coupons for three free game rentals
- Cook more
- Stay up on the laundry
- Work more hours
- Sleep
- Watch more television
- Edit my NaNoWriMo Novel
Sunday, November 30, 2008
I Own The Cutest Move Of All Time -- WALL-E
"Hey... I know that guy! It's uh, uh... Wally! That's it! Hey - Wally! It's your buddy John!"
Yeah, that WALL-E. Bringing joy every where he goes.
Killers Album gets released; no one calls to let me know
This is what I get for not listening to pop radio anymore or following music blogs.
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