|
|
Friday, January 1st, 2010
| |
9:57 pm
|
|
| Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
| |
7:56 pm - Just finished
|
Miss Lulu Bett by Zona Gale
I love semi-forgotten novels like this. It's like, who ever heard of Zona Gale, but apparently at the time, it was as much of a best seller as Sinclair Lewis' Main Street. The book sort of reminded me of another, once a best seller, now hardly heard of, book called The Lemon Jelly Cake by Madeline Smith.
And it may be a little while before I finish another book. I just started Tess of D'Urbervilles. Not quite as long as Dombey and Sons, but still, a big chunk of a novel.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Saturday, November 14th, 2009
| |
5:26 pm - books since October-
|
|
| Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
| |
10:26 pm - finally finished
|
With Dombey and Sons. All 987 pages of it. Phew. It was one of my favorite Dickens ever though. Nearly, but not quite as good as Great Expectations.
In the meanswhile, I've also finished
Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones
Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
Eccentric Glamour by Simon Doonan
Living Beautifully Together by Alexandra Stoddard (again. I re-read this book whenever I'm feeling down and need a lift. Everyone's got a book like that, right?)
Style Statement by Danielle LaPorte and Carrie McCarthy (can you tell I have a secret weakness for self help books?)
Push by Sapphire
The Big Necessity by Rose George
I think I've also maybe read another book in the mix too, but I can't remember what it was. Some inconsequential fluff of a book, no doubt. I'll remember it soon enough.
Also, in the meanwhile, my main laptop computer died. I'm surviving using my netbook and a mostly but not quite 100% functional laptop that my husband had as a back up computer (and is that ever a long story, in and of itself....) But as we did the fun thing this fall and went on vacation to Vegas and spent too much money having fun, there is no more money for new laptops or other useful things like that. Pooh. And work has failed to provide the extra hours that they're normally able to give me by this time of year, so, no extra money there. Never mind. I've got a solid roof over my head, a little extra in the bank for emergencies and my every actual _need_ provided for and that's enough. The rest is gravy.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Saturday, September 19th, 2009
| |
6:24 pm - recently finished
|
Soul- Tobsha Learner
My Soul to Keep- Tananarive Due
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress-Dai Sijie
Beauty and the Soul: The Extraordinary Power of Everyday Beauty to Heal Your Life- Piero Ferrucci
It may be some time before I'll post more books. I'm digging my way through Dombey and Son by Dickens. I love Dickens, but he does take some time and effort. Five days of reading and I'm only to page 200 or so.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
| |
8:25 am - recently finished
|
The Water Devil- Judith Merkle Riley
In Pursuit of the Green Lion- Judith Merkle Riley
My Husband's Girlfriend- Cydney Rax
Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate- Brad Warner
Death From the Skies- These are the Ways the World Will End- Phillip Plait
Proven Guilty- Jim Butcher. Yes, yet another of the Dresden Files
Oh, and I watched all of season 5 of House. Not that that counts for what I'm trying to do here.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
| |
10:45 am - books finished
|
The Great Mortality-John Kelly. About the Black Plague of medieval times. really interesting
The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster- Kaye Gibbons. Not nearly as good as the first book, Ellen Foster.
Catching Fire- How Cooking Made us Human- Richard Wrangham
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Monday, August 3rd, 2009
| |
11:05 pm - books finished
|
Fool Moon- Jim Butcher
Grave Peril- Jim Butcher
Summer Knight- Jim Butcher
Death Masks- Jim Butcher
Blood Rites- Jim Butcher
Imani All Mine- Connie Rose Porter
The Moon and The Sun- Vonda McIntyre
Yes, I am working my way through the whole of the Dresden Files. I'm trying to break it up a little though.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
| |
7:45 pm - Finished yesterday
|
|
| Monday, July 6th, 2009
| |
8:34 am - finished- last week
|
The Pig Who Sang to the Moon- the emotional lives of farm animals- Jeffery Mousaieff Masson
Storm Front- Jim Butcher
Basketball Jones- E Lynn Harris
Slammerkin- Emma Donoghue
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Monday, June 29th, 2009
| |
7:37 pm
|
I know the premier of the show was like, what, a month ago, but I've finally been able to catch up to the massive backlog of stuff on my DVR. I watched Glee today for the first time. It'll come out as a regular show this fall, I guess.
I had been moderately excited about Glee, because Fox has been advertising the heck out of this as a "misfits make good" kind of show. The Geeks find their place in the world sort of thing. I was never in glee club myself in high school, but I had friends of the choir geek and band geek persuasion, plus I was a drama club geek (always put backstage though, sadly), so I figured I might actually enjoy looking back on high school sort of for once.
The advertising makes a big deal out of the misfits. There's an Asian girl (who seems like she's possibly a lesbian). There's a fashion obsessed boy who's probably gay. A geeky boy in a wheel chair. And a fat black girl. There's also a pretty girl, who even though she's a little awkward and pushy socially is very pretty and very talented. And then there's the football quarterback who just wants to sing.
When I watched the commercials, the pretty girl and the quarterback didn't even stick out in my mind, so I was a little surprised, well, not that much really, when the two of them turned out to be the focus of the show mostly and the cast of "misfits" that I'd actually been looking forward to seeing were relegated to back up. Both of the Glee club and of the show.
But more than the general feeling of disappointment, there are two very problematic scenes that stick in my mind hours after having watched it.
Firstly, in one of the first rehearsals Pretty Girl is having to share the lead with the kid in the wheelchair (To show you how little role the 'misfits' played, i don't even remember their names, but I can tell you that Pretty Girl's name is Rachel). Anyway, the song isn't going well, so Pretty Girl stomps off the stage. She threatens to quit glee because anyone could see how ridiculous it was that she should have to split lead with a kid in a wheel chair. The audience isn't supposed to question this. Of course Pretty Girl should have a lead that is equally attractive to her, and able bodied. grrr.
Oh, and in a later scene, pretty girl very nearly pushed this kid off the stage during a dance number. We're supposed to laugh at this. It made me feel kind of stabbity personally.
And then there's a fat girl.
She's black, so of course, she has the only approved characteristic for a fat, black female on TV- she's sassy and she's a diva. We only get to hear her sing solo for a few seconds, so it's hard to tell, but I personally thought her vocal chops were way better than Pretty Girl's. She did a pretty nifty few seconds of an Aretha Franklin song. Nevertheless, we're supposed to believe that it's self evident that the Fat Girl belongs in the back ground. In fact, at one point, the Fat Girl complains about being left in the background, with a line about how she's Beyonce and (somebody else's whose name I don't remember), and the audience is supposed to laugh. How can this girl possibly think she's like Beyonce? Ha ha ha.
There's other stuff I could complain about. Like how the glee director is trying to figure out how to get more members and another teacher tells him the only way is to get a couple of the "popular" kids on board. Because you know, getting any more misfits and losers would just be pointless or something?
Also, I find it hard to believe that in a high school the size of the one depicted, there are only five kids interested in the vocal programs. See, at my high school, which was probably the same size as the one depicted, there were three different choirs, in addition to several smaller vocal groups. There was the concert choir, which was invitation only. The regular choir which was audition only. There was glee club, which was for anyone who wanted to sing. There was a jazz vocal group. There was a madrigals group. There was a group that got together just to do recitals of solo singing. In short, probably hundreds of kids involved in the program. Kind of geekier than being on the football team or cheerleading, but some of the kids on the football team or the cheer squad were also in one of the choirs.
Anyway, Glee. It sort of drew me in because it looked like it would subvert some of the typical high school show thing of "the most important thing is to be popular and pretty". The commercials go on about how the most important thing is to just be yourself. Really, Glee is just more of the same "the thin, able bodied and pretty end up on top of the social hierarchy".
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| |
3:20 pm - finished-
|
Been sick as a dog with the flu. Not up to what I'd call a lot of reading. More television watching. Finally feel better enough to be sitting up, rather than just lying down.
Despite that, I finished some books.
Thursday- Daughters of Juarez
Saturday- Bloody Bones- Laurel Hamilton. Yeah, I know I'm reading the series out of order, but if I wait for the right books to show up at my library, I'll take for freaking ever to read them all.
Monday- Dark Side of the Moon- Sherilyn Kenyon. It was okay for genre tripe, but I suspect I might have enjoyed it more if I was more into the series. As it was, there were whole pages that I kind of skimmed over because I was like, "Whoa, big expository lump there!"
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
| |
10:29 pm - So I got a dragon egg
|
And I'm not entirely clear on what I'm supposed to be doing with it, but I was told to post it somewhere. So here it is.
ETA- So, I guess I have this figured out. Maybe. Anyone reading this can click on the egg and that helps it to "hatch" and it might die if it doesn't hatch.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
| |
7:00 pm - Finished today
|
Body of Work- Christine Montrose. It's about the first years of medical school and specifically about human anatomy lab and dissecting cadavers. Also the most fascinating book I've read for a while.
Still working on-
Dark Side of the Moon- Sherrilyn Kenyon
just started- Daughters of Juarez by Teresa Rodriguez. This book is about a serious and heavy topic. Don't start reading it unless you feel strong, because it's hard and it's true.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_in_Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rez
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| |
12:12 am - Finished
|
On Saturday- Simplexity by Jeffery Kluger
On Sunday- Freckles- by Gene Stratton Porter
Reading now, Dark Side of the Moon- by Sherrilyn Kenyon
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
| |
6:00 am - book finished (last night actually)
|
Angels and Demons- Dan Brown. I can't believe it took me two days to finish such a piece of tripe.
still reading-
Freckles- Gene Stratton Porter
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, June 7th, 2009
| |
12:19 pm - book finished
|
Guilty Pleasures- Laurel K. Hamilton
reading now:
Angels and Demons (yeah, yeah, I know...) by Dan Brown
Freckles- Gene Stratton Porter
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Thursday, March 5th, 2009
| |
6:31 pm - For WordWitch.
|
Okay, you'd better answer me. Anyone else who might happen to read this can answer too.
1. Can you cook?
2. What was your dream growing up?
3. What talent do you wish you had?
4. Favorite place?
5. Favorite vegetable?
6. What was the last book you read?
7. What zodiac sign are you ?
8. Any Tattoos and/or Piercings?
9. Worst Habit?
10. Do we know each other outside of lj?
11. What is your favorite sport?
12. Negative or Optimistic attitude?
13. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
14. Worst thing to ever happen to you?
15. Tell me one weird fact about you:
16. Do you have any pets?
17. Do you know how to do the macarena?
18. What time is it where you are now?
19. Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
20. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
21. Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
22. What color eyes do you have?
23. Ever been arrested?
24. Bottle or Draft?
25. If you won $10,000 dollars today, what would you do with it?
26. What kind of bubble gum do you prefer to chew?
27. What 's your favorite bar to hang at?
28. Do you believe in ghosts?
29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
30. Do you swear a lot?
31. Biggest pet peeve?
32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?
33. Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Monday, July 7th, 2008
| |
9:47 pm
|
Oh, and since it's one of the hottest days of the year so far, it seemed a no brainer that I'd want to bake a cake. I made this one.
http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/2008/07/thunder-cake.html
I hope the raspberries don't sink to the bottom of mine, like they did on hers. I drained mine pretty well, didn't use quite as many as the recipe called for, and let mine come to room temperature. I'm little worried about the batter though. I didn't have the sour cream the recipe called for, so I used ricotta cheese. It wasn't quite as liquidy though. Maybe I should have stirred a little milk into the ricotta to bring it to a better consistancy. We'll see. The cake's still in the oven, with about half an hour to go. Smells great though.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| |
9:34 pm - Tell me I'm not the only person...
|
|
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
rosecampion's journal