Not for me--don't worry, Mum. I just took the advice of several people, and watched Season One of Call the Midwife through Netflix. Am now watching Season Two because I thoroughly enjoyed Season One.
I find the show fascinating. Everything I have read of the post World War II era in England is beautifully represented in the shows. The births are definitely very realistic (Chris says its to traumatic for him!), but the variety of situations and the well-interwoven personal stories of the midwives are intriguing and often thought provoking.
My thanks to everyone who told me I should watch it. You know me well.
Showing posts with label Hobbies and Entertainment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hobbies and Entertainment. Show all posts
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Monday, May 23, 2011
A Morning of Pins
So having nursed Blueberry at 3:30ish this morning, I then stayed up to say goodbye to my APs who flew off to Thailand. They've been staying with me the last two weeks as we had weddings and showers and baby dedications. I've really loved having them in the same country as me for the last two years. Spoiled me a bit, to be honest. But the time has come and once again we will have not just a few states but oceans between us for long gaps of time.
Result: I've been feeling a bit blue.
I couldn't fall back to sleep after they left the house (at 4:30am), so I was browsing on the internet. Add into that the dark and rainy day outside, my blue and tired mood, and a delightfully sleeping baby girl, and I have spent a lot of time playing with boards on Pinterest this morning! Rather soothing actually.
What is Pinterest? Pinterest is this fantastic site wherein you can put together boards of pictures that interest you. You can go visit my page here to get a better visual for what I'm talking about.
I love this site because I'm always finding images of ideas/dreams/things to make/places to go/etc on the Internet that I either bookmark or add to a list on Evernote. Bookmarks can end up being a mess. And Evernote, while I value it greatly and it has really helped keep me straight in my internet wanderings, isn't very good when it comes to the visual collections that I can do through Pinterest.
You can do practical posts (like this one I've been doing while researching what bike seat to get for Blueberry) or just fun posts (like my geek post) or dreamy posts (like my places I want to see post).
I just love it! And I find it to be an intriguing concept if you want to see what really makes people tick. After all--isn't a picture worth a thousand words?
PS. If you would like to become a member, it's an invitation only site. I have a few more invitations I can send, so drop me a comment on this post and I'll invite you!
Result: I've been feeling a bit blue.
I couldn't fall back to sleep after they left the house (at 4:30am), so I was browsing on the internet. Add into that the dark and rainy day outside, my blue and tired mood, and a delightfully sleeping baby girl, and I have spent a lot of time playing with boards on Pinterest this morning! Rather soothing actually.
What is Pinterest? Pinterest is this fantastic site wherein you can put together boards of pictures that interest you. You can go visit my page here to get a better visual for what I'm talking about.
I love this site because I'm always finding images of ideas/dreams/things to make/places to go/etc on the Internet that I either bookmark or add to a list on Evernote. Bookmarks can end up being a mess. And Evernote, while I value it greatly and it has really helped keep me straight in my internet wanderings, isn't very good when it comes to the visual collections that I can do through Pinterest.
You can do practical posts (like this one I've been doing while researching what bike seat to get for Blueberry) or just fun posts (like my geek post) or dreamy posts (like my places I want to see post).
I just love it! And I find it to be an intriguing concept if you want to see what really makes people tick. After all--isn't a picture worth a thousand words?
PS. If you would like to become a member, it's an invitation only site. I have a few more invitations I can send, so drop me a comment on this post and I'll invite you!
Sunday, January 23, 2011
My Life in Scraps
So I've decided that I'm definitely a big fan of this online scrapbooking business. Less mess, less fuss, and cheaper (although I can see it could cost just as much as regular scrapbooking if I so desire). And just because I can, I've built a new blog to share my pages (and other scrapbook related information)! See: My Life in Scraps.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Movie Review: Rebecca
If you are a writer or simply a lover of good writing, read Daphne Du Maurier's Rebbecca. This has been my favorite Du Maurier books (and truthfully, just one of my favorite books all around) for many years. (Quick note on Du Maurier for those unfamiliar with her. She is a rather interesting English author with a love of the mysterious often with hints of the supernatural thrown in. Some of her books are great. Some are just weird).
Any ways, the writing in Rebbecca is gorgeous--there's just no other word for it. Her ability to write a chilling ghost story which has absolutely no ghosts or other supernatural elements actually in it is incredible. The book itself has some of the most incredible descriptions that make me--as a writer--despair of ever being able to write something great.
In short, it is everything a book should be: perfectly developed plot, great suspense coupled with sympathetic round characters, and scintillating description.
Any ways, for many years, I've wanted to see Sir Alfred Hitchcock's version of Rebbecca. A few months ago, Chris and I watched a BBC version of Rebbecca - very well done, good interpretation of the book, etc. But I still wanted to watch how the master of suspense would tackle this book.
And initially, I was impressed. It's a black and white (1940's) movie. The character development is well shown. Much of the wording and description is taken straight out of the book itself. The filming is obviously typical Hitchcock (and therefore excellent). The suspense builds. The lighting plays on your mood. And, as it's a 1940's film, the violin wails in the background at all the right parts. For the unfamiliar with the story, the hints of supernatural and mystery would be nail-biting (when you know the end of the story, it does lose a bit of it's power).
And then we got to the best part of the story when the truth begins to come out and climax is being reached and the characters are frantically having to make choices about what they believe, who they will stand by..........and Hitchcock missed it. Suddenly he skips entire chapters in the book. Loses the build up of suspense and description that Du Maurier gave her story. What should have been the most moving scenes of the film with the audience cheering on the protagonist and watching true love win, gets totally lost in the shuffle of "we have to get this film over and done with".
Most disappointed. Read the book. Watch the BBC version. I can't recommend Hitchcock's version. The Master has failed me.
Any ways, the writing in Rebbecca is gorgeous--there's just no other word for it. Her ability to write a chilling ghost story which has absolutely no ghosts or other supernatural elements actually in it is incredible. The book itself has some of the most incredible descriptions that make me--as a writer--despair of ever being able to write something great.
In short, it is everything a book should be: perfectly developed plot, great suspense coupled with sympathetic round characters, and scintillating description.
Any ways, for many years, I've wanted to see Sir Alfred Hitchcock's version of Rebbecca. A few months ago, Chris and I watched a BBC version of Rebbecca - very well done, good interpretation of the book, etc. But I still wanted to watch how the master of suspense would tackle this book.
And initially, I was impressed. It's a black and white (1940's) movie. The character development is well shown. Much of the wording and description is taken straight out of the book itself. The filming is obviously typical Hitchcock (and therefore excellent). The suspense builds. The lighting plays on your mood. And, as it's a 1940's film, the violin wails in the background at all the right parts. For the unfamiliar with the story, the hints of supernatural and mystery would be nail-biting (when you know the end of the story, it does lose a bit of it's power).
And then we got to the best part of the story when the truth begins to come out and climax is being reached and the characters are frantically having to make choices about what they believe, who they will stand by..........and Hitchcock missed it. Suddenly he skips entire chapters in the book. Loses the build up of suspense and description that Du Maurier gave her story. What should have been the most moving scenes of the film with the audience cheering on the protagonist and watching true love win, gets totally lost in the shuffle of "we have to get this film over and done with".
Most disappointed. Read the book. Watch the BBC version. I can't recommend Hitchcock's version. The Master has failed me.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
The Mrs Poirot
My parents have bred in me a love of mystery stories. Whether in a book (physical or audio) or as film, I grew up surrounded by detectives, adventures, suspense, hidden clues, quirky characters, and all the other elements that comprise an excellent mystery.
These mysteries ranged from young adult/children's literature like Nancy Drew, Edith Blyton's Famous Five and Secret Seven series (which, incidentally, I picked up a copy of each of those series from PaperbookSwap the other day and was delightfully pulled back into those childhood worlds), or the mystery-lite of Patricia St John's books, to more adult mysteries like Agatha Christy and all the various types of mysteries that would show up on PBS's Masterpiece Mystery nights.
Whenever my parents are back here in the US, they go through an inordinate amount of books on tape because of the amount of driving they have to do while they are here. So, when visiting them recently, I was not at all surprised to find in their cars various books on tape/cd checked out from the library. I was even less surprised that some of them were mysteries.
Well, one of those mysteries was Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled which I enjoyed immensely. Upon arriving back home and looking for something new to read, I obtained for myself the first book in this series: The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax. And I have to admit to having fallen completely, head-over-heels in love with Mrs. Pollifax.
In terms of beautifully portrayed character, she reminds me of Agatha Christy's Hercule Poirot--the chubby little Belgian detective with the perfectionistic tendencies, perfect manners, and keen mind. While the suspense in the book is high and the mystery quite well developed, the book is also hysterically funny in parts as you deal with the character of Mrs. Pollifax who feels almost oxymoronic with her surrounding circumstances. After all, the character is based upon a quirky, white-haired, 60ish year old woman who is involved in various charities and other volunteer activities, yet who feels she has nothing to live for but is not quite ready to commit suicide. She goes to the CIA and very pleasantly inquires as to whether or not she can volunteer as a spy for them, thus fulfilling a life-long dream. And it just goes from there.
Read, relish, and enjoy!
These mysteries ranged from young adult/children's literature like Nancy Drew, Edith Blyton's Famous Five and Secret Seven series (which, incidentally, I picked up a copy of each of those series from PaperbookSwap the other day and was delightfully pulled back into those childhood worlds), or the mystery-lite of Patricia St John's books, to more adult mysteries like Agatha Christy and all the various types of mysteries that would show up on PBS's Masterpiece Mystery nights.
Whenever my parents are back here in the US, they go through an inordinate amount of books on tape because of the amount of driving they have to do while they are here. So, when visiting them recently, I was not at all surprised to find in their cars various books on tape/cd checked out from the library. I was even less surprised that some of them were mysteries.
Well, one of those mysteries was Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled which I enjoyed immensely. Upon arriving back home and looking for something new to read, I obtained for myself the first book in this series: The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax. And I have to admit to having fallen completely, head-over-heels in love with Mrs. Pollifax.
In terms of beautifully portrayed character, she reminds me of Agatha Christy's Hercule Poirot--the chubby little Belgian detective with the perfectionistic tendencies, perfect manners, and keen mind. While the suspense in the book is high and the mystery quite well developed, the book is also hysterically funny in parts as you deal with the character of Mrs. Pollifax who feels almost oxymoronic with her surrounding circumstances. After all, the character is based upon a quirky, white-haired, 60ish year old woman who is involved in various charities and other volunteer activities, yet who feels she has nothing to live for but is not quite ready to commit suicide. She goes to the CIA and very pleasantly inquires as to whether or not she can volunteer as a spy for them, thus fulfilling a life-long dream. And it just goes from there.
Read, relish, and enjoy!
Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.
~ Mortimer J. Adler ~
~ Mortimer J. Adler ~
Saturday, August 1, 2009
China on the Mind
Almost back to back, I've been reading through two different historical fiction novels located in China. Both of them were highly intriguing, seemingly well-researched, and, I felt, worth mentioning here.
The first one that I read was Forbidden City by Muriel Molland Jernigan. Set in the late 19th/early 20th century, this particular novel deals with the fate of a young woman raised in a prestigious household in China and how she becomes the famous Empress Dowager Cixi. While it's obviously historical fiction, the lady who wrote it was a missionary kid who actually lived in China during the Boxer Rebellion and who is very familiar with details of that time, culture, and people.
I found it to be an intriguing story, well written, with enough details to paint a vivid picture of that world but enough story to round out the characters. The story and character of the Empress is fascinating, and I always love to see portrays of the Western world by those from the East. Her opinion of Queen Victoria, in particular, struck me as rather amusing.
The second novel I read right at the beginning of where Forbidden City starts. This novel, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See, is gorgeous. Unlike the other novel, this one deals with the lifestyle of those from poor to middle class Chinese households. Lisa See talks about the research that went into the novel, and all the details that are given from foot binding to the intriguing secret women's writing nu shu are obviously pretty accurate (in the case of the foot binding, disturbingly accurate) and paint an detailed picture of the women's culture of that time period for China.
However, one of the things I really enjoyed about this novel was that even though it is historical fiction, a major part of the story-line is one that most women will relate to, and that is the difficult ins and outs of female relationships. I'm not sure if its because the author, although she is Chinese by heritage, grew up in the USA, and so has, however consciously or unconsciously, merged bits and pieces of her western world with this eastern story, but I enjoyed some of the character portrayals that connected women from any culture and any time to one another. After all, most women have at least one friend they consider extremely close, and most women have to deal with good and bad times in such relationships.
This particular novel was so good, I want to read some novels more by Lisa See and find out if I enjoy her writing in those as well.
So if you're looking for some good historical, ficiton with a nice Chinese-slant to it, pick up both or either of these novels. Well worth the time, I think.
The first one that I read was Forbidden City by Muriel Molland Jernigan. Set in the late 19th/early 20th century, this particular novel deals with the fate of a young woman raised in a prestigious household in China and how she becomes the famous Empress Dowager Cixi. While it's obviously historical fiction, the lady who wrote it was a missionary kid who actually lived in China during the Boxer Rebellion and who is very familiar with details of that time, culture, and people.
I found it to be an intriguing story, well written, with enough details to paint a vivid picture of that world but enough story to round out the characters. The story and character of the Empress is fascinating, and I always love to see portrays of the Western world by those from the East. Her opinion of Queen Victoria, in particular, struck me as rather amusing.
The second novel I read right at the beginning of where Forbidden City starts. This novel, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See, is gorgeous. Unlike the other novel, this one deals with the lifestyle of those from poor to middle class Chinese households. Lisa See talks about the research that went into the novel, and all the details that are given from foot binding to the intriguing secret women's writing nu shu are obviously pretty accurate (in the case of the foot binding, disturbingly accurate) and paint an detailed picture of the women's culture of that time period for China.
However, one of the things I really enjoyed about this novel was that even though it is historical fiction, a major part of the story-line is one that most women will relate to, and that is the difficult ins and outs of female relationships. I'm not sure if its because the author, although she is Chinese by heritage, grew up in the USA, and so has, however consciously or unconsciously, merged bits and pieces of her western world with this eastern story, but I enjoyed some of the character portrayals that connected women from any culture and any time to one another. After all, most women have at least one friend they consider extremely close, and most women have to deal with good and bad times in such relationships.
This particular novel was so good, I want to read some novels more by Lisa See and find out if I enjoy her writing in those as well.
So if you're looking for some good historical, ficiton with a nice Chinese-slant to it, pick up both or either of these novels. Well worth the time, I think.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Thoroughly Modern Millie
I had a bad day yesterday. One of those days when you come home and are just crabby and annoyed with the world and every little thing in it.
Fortunately, our latest Netflix movie had arrived, and since it wasn't one my husband was really dying to see, and he was busy with other things, I curled up on the couch to try to de-stress and not take out my crabbiness on anyone. I had seen Thoroughly Modern Millie before as a child, other than some scattered images, I really had no memory of the musical. Which is somewhat surprisingly as I grew up watching a lot of musicals.
Two plus hours later, my bad mood was all cured as I finished watching what has to be the absolute worst musical of all time. It was so awful that it became ludicrously hilarious. I was sitting on the edge of my seat just waiting to see how much worse the movie could possibly get. I wonder if they've ever MST3Ked this movie? It would be great!
The end conclusions it that I cannot recommend this movie to anyone who has a serious love of musicals or who has ever liked Julie Andrews (as this will seriously mar your perception of her). However, if you're in a crabby, slightly cynical, primarily disgruntled sort of mood...this just might be the cure!
Fortunately, our latest Netflix movie had arrived, and since it wasn't one my husband was really dying to see, and he was busy with other things, I curled up on the couch to try to de-stress and not take out my crabbiness on anyone. I had seen Thoroughly Modern Millie before as a child, other than some scattered images, I really had no memory of the musical. Which is somewhat surprisingly as I grew up watching a lot of musicals.
Two plus hours later, my bad mood was all cured as I finished watching what has to be the absolute worst musical of all time. It was so awful that it became ludicrously hilarious. I was sitting on the edge of my seat just waiting to see how much worse the movie could possibly get. I wonder if they've ever MST3Ked this movie? It would be great!
The end conclusions it that I cannot recommend this movie to anyone who has a serious love of musicals or who has ever liked Julie Andrews (as this will seriously mar your perception of her). However, if you're in a crabby, slightly cynical, primarily disgruntled sort of mood...this just might be the cure!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Turning Point
I just finished watching the movie, The Turning Point. While I think I may have seen it once before, years ago, I really didn't rememember much about it. I'm glad I watched it tonight though.
For those who have never seen the movie, it was made in the '70s (and is a definite product of that age - in terms of looks!). Beautiful dancing (Michael Baryshnikov is in it--a very young Baryshnikov, I might add!) However, the essential story is a struggle between two women in their late-30's, early-40's. Both women danced together in the ABC (American Ballet Company), and both were highly talented. One, however, gave up dancing so that she could raise a family. The other went on to be a prima ballerina. In the movie, they have met back up again as the prima's career is dying and the women who gave up her dancing is struggling with coming to terms with self-doubt over whether or not she made the right decision to give up her chance as a prima over having a family.
Some of the themes strongly resonated with me as they are issues with which I've struggling the last ten years, and especially ever since last fall when I had to make the decision about taking the position at the ballet studio in town. On the one hand is the recognition of the prima ballerina that the dance world is an all-consuming one. And unless you're willing to sacrifice much for it, you will never get very far. On the other hand is a woman with talent who never felt like that talent was given the recognition it deserved--instead she has had a "normal" life, and part of her resents that fact. And part of her just misses dancing.
All of these are things I have dealt with at some time or another in the last 10 years.
The truth of the matter is, I miss dancing. I miss ballet. I need to dance; part of me feels as if it's been lost when I haven't been dancing as I used to. But then there's another part of me that has me shying away from that world. And I haven't been able to determine why or what's wrong.
This movie kind of helped me see something more clearly than I've been able to up until now.
As much as I loved performing when I was younger, the truth of the matter is that performing is not what I want. Not really. I want to dance for the love of it. There is an indescribable passion that I feel as I dance that I get rarely from anything else in life. But it's not the stage that draws me. When I was in college, I started out as a drama major. And I realized, after a year, that while I enjoy performing, I didn't be a drama major. It was the love of the language and emotion that drew me to drama, not performing.
While I've had so many opportunities in my life to perform both in secular and in Christian circles, and I don't regret a single one of those, I don't want that world. Don't interpret that as not missing that world. In some ways I truly do. But there is a part of existence in that world that I don't want. Never wanted. Never liked. You can't have the world of performance without the grimy, political, competitive portion that goes hand in hand with the beautiful aspects. And for me, the grit and dirt often outweighed the beauty.
And the truth of the matter is that every time I've existed in that world, be it in a "Christian" form or non-christian, the gritty side has always been there. I guess it's part and parcel of being human. I knew when I was about 18 or 19 that while performing in a regular company would be amazing, if I was going to perform, I wanted to perform for Christ and as a witness. The opportunities I got during those years were wonderful. And I was able to do just that. But even then there was always that black side that it seems is so impossible to escape in the world of dance. The competition. The ugliness. Even amongst so-called Christian people, it was there. And what they did was beautiful. But I didn't like the hidden part of it. The side that no one sees outside of the backstage and dressing rooms.
I hope that I'm not entirely done with dance; I will always have to dance for myself. But I think God has needed me come to this place of (a) longing to dance again and (b) clear recognition of what I don't want. Even if I had stepped into the position that came open last fall, it would have been stepping into a consuming whirlpool in which it is difficult to keep one's head above the water if you don't really know what it is you want. And the truth is, I don't know what I want right now (and I say that not just in terms of dance but in relation to a number of aspects of my life). I do, however, know what I do not want. And at least that is a step in the right direction.
For those who have never seen the movie, it was made in the '70s (and is a definite product of that age - in terms of looks!). Beautiful dancing (Michael Baryshnikov is in it--a very young Baryshnikov, I might add!) However, the essential story is a struggle between two women in their late-30's, early-40's. Both women danced together in the ABC (American Ballet Company), and both were highly talented. One, however, gave up dancing so that she could raise a family. The other went on to be a prima ballerina. In the movie, they have met back up again as the prima's career is dying and the women who gave up her dancing is struggling with coming to terms with self-doubt over whether or not she made the right decision to give up her chance as a prima over having a family.
Some of the themes strongly resonated with me as they are issues with which I've struggling the last ten years, and especially ever since last fall when I had to make the decision about taking the position at the ballet studio in town. On the one hand is the recognition of the prima ballerina that the dance world is an all-consuming one. And unless you're willing to sacrifice much for it, you will never get very far. On the other hand is a woman with talent who never felt like that talent was given the recognition it deserved--instead she has had a "normal" life, and part of her resents that fact. And part of her just misses dancing.
All of these are things I have dealt with at some time or another in the last 10 years.
The truth of the matter is, I miss dancing. I miss ballet. I need to dance; part of me feels as if it's been lost when I haven't been dancing as I used to. But then there's another part of me that has me shying away from that world. And I haven't been able to determine why or what's wrong.
This movie kind of helped me see something more clearly than I've been able to up until now.
As much as I loved performing when I was younger, the truth of the matter is that performing is not what I want. Not really. I want to dance for the love of it. There is an indescribable passion that I feel as I dance that I get rarely from anything else in life. But it's not the stage that draws me. When I was in college, I started out as a drama major. And I realized, after a year, that while I enjoy performing, I didn't be a drama major. It was the love of the language and emotion that drew me to drama, not performing.
While I've had so many opportunities in my life to perform both in secular and in Christian circles, and I don't regret a single one of those, I don't want that world. Don't interpret that as not missing that world. In some ways I truly do. But there is a part of existence in that world that I don't want. Never wanted. Never liked. You can't have the world of performance without the grimy, political, competitive portion that goes hand in hand with the beautiful aspects. And for me, the grit and dirt often outweighed the beauty.
And the truth of the matter is that every time I've existed in that world, be it in a "Christian" form or non-christian, the gritty side has always been there. I guess it's part and parcel of being human. I knew when I was about 18 or 19 that while performing in a regular company would be amazing, if I was going to perform, I wanted to perform for Christ and as a witness. The opportunities I got during those years were wonderful. And I was able to do just that. But even then there was always that black side that it seems is so impossible to escape in the world of dance. The competition. The ugliness. Even amongst so-called Christian people, it was there. And what they did was beautiful. But I didn't like the hidden part of it. The side that no one sees outside of the backstage and dressing rooms.
I hope that I'm not entirely done with dance; I will always have to dance for myself. But I think God has needed me come to this place of (a) longing to dance again and (b) clear recognition of what I don't want. Even if I had stepped into the position that came open last fall, it would have been stepping into a consuming whirlpool in which it is difficult to keep one's head above the water if you don't really know what it is you want. And the truth is, I don't know what I want right now (and I say that not just in terms of dance but in relation to a number of aspects of my life). I do, however, know what I do not want. And at least that is a step in the right direction.
Friday, March 20, 2009
7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 5)
#1 - I learned about something new this week that I thought was pretty cool! As I have delved into the world of gluten free living, I believe I've mentioned in the past that I've found a lot of the best prices on goods (particularly pastas and flours) to be on Amazon (especially if I buy in bulk). Well, as I was stocking up on some supplies this past weekend, I ran across a brand new program through Amazon that I had never heard of before, and it made me pretty happy! Perhaps you know about it, but I thought I'd share in case you'd never heard of it either. It's called: Subscribe and Save.Basically, Amazon has certain items available under this program that, if you know you're going to order them regularly, Amazon will give you an even lower price on, always give you free shipping for, and which they will then regularly deliver to you every few months (you specify the time) without you having to do anything more. And you can cancel the subscription whenever without any fees or anything. For someone like me, this is a brilliant program because there are things that I know I'm going to be ordering semi-regularly, and this gives me an even lower cost and saves me some hassle! I love it!
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#2 - As I pulled out my bike a few days ago, I was startled by a bunny zooming by me at top speed to hide in the bushes at the edge of our yard. There is a family of bunnies that live under our neighbours shed. I've decided they are slight dare-devils as they seem to revel in playing in our backyard, always risking being caught by the dogs!
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#3 - On the subject of bunnies, it's turning into Springtime, and the ants have begun marching two by two through our house. And while they are annoying, what is even more annoying (for me) is that the spiders have begun appearing again one by one in our mail box. Now, as I've had several discussions on this topic, you no doubt know that I love getting mail. Checking my mail box every day is something I love to do.
I do NOT, however, enjoy the dreaded experience of opening up the mail box and finding a big, fat, ugly spider sitting inside or crawling frantically away from me. BLEAGH! Takes away some of my mail box pleasure. And that, my friends, is just not right. They need to go find somewhere else to live and quit pestering me.
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#4 - Our Netflix movie last week was "The Red Violin." Now, first things first, this is an "R" movie, so please do not let your kids watch this movie. It's "R" primarily for one series of scenes with some sex in it. Just had to give the warnings!
Having said that, this is a very interesting movie. This fictional story follows the life of a violin - a Red Violin (based off of the Red Mendelssohn currently being played by Elizabeth Pitcairn). It's fascinating because at the beginning of the movie, a woman has her fortune read to her, and you think that what you're seeing is how that fortune plays out for her. Except it's actually the fortune of the violin. The entire movie follows the path the violin takes for about 200 years of history. It travels to a number of countries, and, because it's supposed to be a nearly perfect instrument, the violin gets picked up by all sorts of interesting characters from monks in Austria to virtuosos in England, to Western music lovers in Communist China.
And the sound track is really beautiful (if slightly haunting sounding).
This is actually the second time I've seen this movie. The first time was about 9 years ago, and I remembered liking it but wanted to see it again (you know how your tastes change or what struck you as good initially you can watch again and despise!). Still like it, want the sound track, but please keep in mind the R rating!
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#5 - Green Smoothies: I make smoothies a lot of mornings for breakfast for both Christopher and I. Last week I tried something new. The resulting email conversation last week went something like this:
Me: So how was your smoothie?
Husband: Not as good as usual. It had a slightly odd aftertaste and there was weird green bits floating in it.
Me: Oh darn. I was hoping you wouldn't notice! I wanted to try a Green Smoothie and get some extra vegetables in and so threw in some spinach. I liked it.
Husband: Cheeky!
Well, cheeky or not, I kind of liked my Green Smoothie and fully intend to keep throwing the spinach in on my half of the smoothie at least. If you like smoothies and are trying to figure out ways to get those extra servings of vegetables into your life, try it. If you're not anti-green bits like some people are, you might really enjoy it! (I love you husband of mine).
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#6 - I am intrigued by a new concept (my husband is groaning as he reads this). This past week, I can't remember originating from where, I came across the concept of Square Foot Gardening. I'm not a good gardener. I like gardens, I really do. But green things seem to die when I'm around them. But I would like to have a garden. I wonder if this is something I could manage? I've also thought of maybe starting with something like the ideas found on the Better Homes and Gardens website for "Simple Salad Gardens".
From those who can actually garden without killing things - thoughts?
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#7 - This makes me laugh (has for years now) and is a picture that I regularly rotate in as the background for my computer. Right now, it feels like my job in a nutshell. And it goes along with the Spring theme of late. So I thought I would share.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Keeping our Brains Healthy
Go play this fun game called The Color Test that's supposed to be good exercise for your brain and is the kind of thing you're supposed to do to help avoid Alzheimers. I don't know if that part's true or not, but the game is kind of fun! I got 38% the first time and 100% every time after that.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Lent 2009
A few months ago, as I was going about my usual day, the sudden and very random thought popped into my mind that I should give up fiction for Lent this year.
Now, for those of you who know me or have read this blog even a tiny little bit, you'll know that I'm what can be accurately described as a bookworm. A voracious reader would be a slightly more sophisticated way to describe my reading habits. Namely, it is not uncommon (of course depending on the size of books and my amount of free time) for me to get through four or five books in a week. On an exceptionally high reading week...seven or eight. I am, admittedly, a speed reader. However, my retention skills are very high, so I get along quite well with all my reading. And, fortunately, I really do enjoy re-reading many books because otherwise my reading habits would cost me a fortune.
While I do read non-fiction, I generally do gravitate more naturally to fiction of all sorts. And thus, the non-fiction books I both want to and sometimes need to read get neglected at times. While I love to challenge my mind and I enjoy reading non-fiction, I find it harder to lose myself when reading non-fiction, and thus, as reading is not just a hobby but is also a way for me to escape from stress, etc, the non-fiction gets left behind.
Any ways, I kind of laughed at the idea--me, give up reading fiction for 40 days? the absurdity of the idea!--but then I began to pray about it because I felt like this idea was more than just a stray thought that had wandered across my somewhat tired and stressed brain but perhaps was a little nudge by the Holy Spirit about something I really did need to do.
After several weeks of contemplating and praying about the idea, I decided that it was something that I both could and perhaps should follow through on for Lent. Like I said earlier, I often times choose fiction over the non-fiction that I need to read. And some of these nonfiction books are ones that really could be challenging to me spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and might be bringing some very needed concepts to light that I would otherwise not be considering.
And so, starting today, I will not be reading any fiction--a decision I do not make lightly and without some trepidation. I will not, however, as my crazy husband suggested randomly upon finding out my resolution, be giving up reading completely. I have at least ten books that are currently calling my name and that I hope to make good headway on delving into.
And we will see where the Holy Spirit will take me through this.
Now, for those of you who know me or have read this blog even a tiny little bit, you'll know that I'm what can be accurately described as a bookworm. A voracious reader would be a slightly more sophisticated way to describe my reading habits. Namely, it is not uncommon (of course depending on the size of books and my amount of free time) for me to get through four or five books in a week. On an exceptionally high reading week...seven or eight. I am, admittedly, a speed reader. However, my retention skills are very high, so I get along quite well with all my reading. And, fortunately, I really do enjoy re-reading many books because otherwise my reading habits would cost me a fortune.
While I do read non-fiction, I generally do gravitate more naturally to fiction of all sorts. And thus, the non-fiction books I both want to and sometimes need to read get neglected at times. While I love to challenge my mind and I enjoy reading non-fiction, I find it harder to lose myself when reading non-fiction, and thus, as reading is not just a hobby but is also a way for me to escape from stress, etc, the non-fiction gets left behind.
Any ways, I kind of laughed at the idea--me, give up reading fiction for 40 days? the absurdity of the idea!--but then I began to pray about it because I felt like this idea was more than just a stray thought that had wandered across my somewhat tired and stressed brain but perhaps was a little nudge by the Holy Spirit about something I really did need to do.
After several weeks of contemplating and praying about the idea, I decided that it was something that I both could and perhaps should follow through on for Lent. Like I said earlier, I often times choose fiction over the non-fiction that I need to read. And some of these nonfiction books are ones that really could be challenging to me spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and might be bringing some very needed concepts to light that I would otherwise not be considering.
And so, starting today, I will not be reading any fiction--a decision I do not make lightly and without some trepidation. I will not, however, as my crazy husband suggested randomly upon finding out my resolution, be giving up reading completely. I have at least ten books that are currently calling my name and that I hope to make good headway on delving into.
And we will see where the Holy Spirit will take me through this.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Movie Review: The Women
I just finished watching The Women. And truthfully, I didn’t like that movie. I can’t necessarily put exact wording to why it just left me feeling disgruntled, sad for the state of mankind, and with this general negative bad taste in my mouth. Then I watched the director/writer explain why she directed and wrote the movie the way she did, and I just had to shake my head in disbelief.
First of all, you hit the climax moment of the movie, the point at which the lead has to make her ultimate decision, and what line do they give? “The question you have to ask yourself is, ‘What do I want.’” And yes, it is the defining line for the entire movie – but not in the positive way the line was intended. No, that line was literally what the whole movie was about. “What do I want?” I want to do what I want, say what I want, act how I want, never mind who I throw away, hurt, or ignore in the process.
Now, granted, I’ve never seen the original movie, but it felt to me – in watching this movie – that this remake epitomized the feminist movement of today: It is all about me. And even though the end result is good, it is this attitude from the very beginning that is the ultimate problem.
I’ll admit here and now, I am becoming increasingly weary of the feminist movement as it exists today. This movement in which women are so determined that they can do it all themselves is destroying not only the beauty of being a woman but is destroying the entire structure of being a man. But I won’t go further into that rant now.
The director talked about how her intent was to show how women need to bond together, work together, to get through difficult times. And I don’t disagree with that portion of the story. I’ll admit, there were parts that were incredibly clever and moving just because they really do show snippets of how many female relationships are – both in the good and the bad ways. However, what they also did through the remake of this movie (and which was emphasized by the director) is that women no longer need men. The director talked about the necessity for balancing the movie as, in her description of the original, it was all about women if not acquiescing to their men then at least needing them in order to have a worthwhile existence. However, this version didn’t feel balanced. Instead, it felt like (again, I’m saying this without having seen the original movie) she swung the pendulum to the complete opposite side and turned it into this whole women don’t need men at all.
There was one other major thing that I really could not believe about the director’s comments. Apparently the original movie was actually a play written by a woman in the 1930s who had recently come into the New York social life and who despised the way these upper class women acted and treated each other. It was her way of poking fun at their way of life. And so while this director is discussing this, she’s also talking about how she was able to make this movie by hobnobbing with the right people, having the right relationships, and talking about how she managed to make the right connections because she has a house on Martha’s Vineyard and a lady she really needed to back her happened to have a “little cottage” there as well. i.e. She is so desirous to have her rewrite of this play produced – and she did so by using the very people and methods that the original play was written as a mockery of!
All in all, I was not impressed with the movie. Now, to be fair, I do have to say it had good moments. There was at least one woman in the movie who did emphasize how she and her husband stuck together through the messiness of an affair because they felt not only that it was what they wanted but because they loved their children and that was vital…and ultimately you get the impression that the main woman will work out her relationship with her husband. The primary woman does give a good speech about how building trust back is hard and there are a lot of issues they will have to really work out to make it work but that it can be done. And the movie did present the idea that a good marriage is worth fighting for, but even with a somewhat decent end, I felt like there was so much anti-man/woman commitment sentiment dumped into the movie, it slightly sickened me.
And yet again, a seemingly common theme in my life the last few months, I am faced with the question: What is happening to the concept of marriage? Or is just that I’ve been blind to the systematic deconstruction of marriage, and it’s been occurring for a very, very long time?
First of all, you hit the climax moment of the movie, the point at which the lead has to make her ultimate decision, and what line do they give? “The question you have to ask yourself is, ‘What do I want.’” And yes, it is the defining line for the entire movie – but not in the positive way the line was intended. No, that line was literally what the whole movie was about. “What do I want?” I want to do what I want, say what I want, act how I want, never mind who I throw away, hurt, or ignore in the process.
Now, granted, I’ve never seen the original movie, but it felt to me – in watching this movie – that this remake epitomized the feminist movement of today: It is all about me. And even though the end result is good, it is this attitude from the very beginning that is the ultimate problem.
I’ll admit here and now, I am becoming increasingly weary of the feminist movement as it exists today. This movement in which women are so determined that they can do it all themselves is destroying not only the beauty of being a woman but is destroying the entire structure of being a man. But I won’t go further into that rant now.
The director talked about how her intent was to show how women need to bond together, work together, to get through difficult times. And I don’t disagree with that portion of the story. I’ll admit, there were parts that were incredibly clever and moving just because they really do show snippets of how many female relationships are – both in the good and the bad ways. However, what they also did through the remake of this movie (and which was emphasized by the director) is that women no longer need men. The director talked about the necessity for balancing the movie as, in her description of the original, it was all about women if not acquiescing to their men then at least needing them in order to have a worthwhile existence. However, this version didn’t feel balanced. Instead, it felt like (again, I’m saying this without having seen the original movie) she swung the pendulum to the complete opposite side and turned it into this whole women don’t need men at all.
There was one other major thing that I really could not believe about the director’s comments. Apparently the original movie was actually a play written by a woman in the 1930s who had recently come into the New York social life and who despised the way these upper class women acted and treated each other. It was her way of poking fun at their way of life. And so while this director is discussing this, she’s also talking about how she was able to make this movie by hobnobbing with the right people, having the right relationships, and talking about how she managed to make the right connections because she has a house on Martha’s Vineyard and a lady she really needed to back her happened to have a “little cottage” there as well. i.e. She is so desirous to have her rewrite of this play produced – and she did so by using the very people and methods that the original play was written as a mockery of!
All in all, I was not impressed with the movie. Now, to be fair, I do have to say it had good moments. There was at least one woman in the movie who did emphasize how she and her husband stuck together through the messiness of an affair because they felt not only that it was what they wanted but because they loved their children and that was vital…and ultimately you get the impression that the main woman will work out her relationship with her husband. The primary woman does give a good speech about how building trust back is hard and there are a lot of issues they will have to really work out to make it work but that it can be done. And the movie did present the idea that a good marriage is worth fighting for, but even with a somewhat decent end, I felt like there was so much anti-man/woman commitment sentiment dumped into the movie, it slightly sickened me.
And yet again, a seemingly common theme in my life the last few months, I am faced with the question: What is happening to the concept of marriage? Or is just that I’ve been blind to the systematic deconstruction of marriage, and it’s been occurring for a very, very long time?
Friday, January 30, 2009
7 Quick Takes Friday (vol.1)
#1 - For awhile now I've (in my spare moments - ha!) contemplated the best way to put into my blog the random thoughts, happenings, and such that I run into on a regular basis. Things that I don't necessarily want to devote a whole post to but things that, regardless, would nice to throw in here. And so, I'm going to try linking to Jennifer at Conversion Diary's weekly "7 Quick Takes Friday". And so here you go. My first attempt!
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#2 - A Snowy Wintry Walk with Two Silly Puppies
Playing catch with snow
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#3 - The downfall of days off and such things as snow days is that the work is always there when you come back. And somehow deadlines always seem to feel frighteningly closer after two days off than they did the day before you took that time off!
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#4 - Chris and I watched Amelie on Wednesday while we were off. That was an interesting movie--definitely very French! I first heard about the movie because it has some piano pieces in it that I've been learning. As Chris put it, one shouldn't stereotype an entire culture because of a movie, and yet sometimes it's very easy to do.
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#6 - I had a phone call from a telemarketer the other day who was apparently offended by the fact that we don't watch enough TV to justify buying a satellite subscription and that our converter box and antenna alone do the job just fine. As he put it (in a very snotty voice), "Well, I guess that's your problem then." and hung up on me. To which I would have liked to have responded, "Yes, Yes it is."
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#7 - As I failed to plan a menu for this week (I know, I know...hey, habits develop over time, all right. Besides, I knew we had enough in the way of leftovers that I wasn't really going to need to do a lot of cooking this week), I have no idea what I need to focus on baking this weekend. I have now a whole slew of recipes to try, but only so much time to actually create the items found on those recipes. I suppose it's a good problem to have but sometimes making those decisions can very stressful! I'll let you know what I come up with. And, ultimately, I'm glad that if I'm struggling with food it's a struggle of having to many options as compared to the struggle I was going through several months ago of feeling that I had way too few options.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
My Points - online money maker
Since June, I've been playing with a new way to earn some easy money online. It's called MyPoints. What you can do through MyPoints is earn points that eventually earn you gift cards to places. No money out of your pocket (unless you so choose) and yet you get money back! How?
Well, there's basically three ways to get points:
1. MyPoints sends you emails daily (about 5 or so a day), you open them, read the ad, and click through at the bottom (for the paranoid - as in myself - I checked this out before signing up and couldn't find any reports of virus problems or anything like that). You don't have to sign up for anything and it automatically credits you 5 points per email. Now, if you should decide to follow through on the offered ad, then you can earn more points. There's been a couple of free offers that I signed up for out of curiosity, but nothing else.
NOTE: I would highly recommend you open up a junk mail account if you decide to try this - particularly if you actually take up some of the offers. I've heard that if you don't ever sign up for anything, the junk mail isn't too bad...but I wouldn't trust it!
2. You can shop online at tons of stores through MyPoints. And every dollar you spend at the store, you get points for. For example, I bought a book the other day through MyPoints. The book cost me $8.00 and I earned 16 MyPoints. Not an amazing amount, but hey, every bit counts!
There are other sites that I'm also looking into that do a similar thing; however, I went with MyPoints first as it really is one of the least complicated (at least thus far - more reports on other sites to come).
3. I believe there is a credit card you can sign up for with MyPoints and earn points for all your purchases through the credit card. Please note, I have not signed up for this card (I'm very loyal to my American Express!) and really can't attest to anything about this angle of MyPoints.
[Also (just have to say this!), I highly recommend that you do not sign up for any kind of credit card unless you know you can handle a credit card. While Chris and I do put just about everything on our cards, our bill also gets completely paid off every month (we use the card to build up frequent flyer miles - very important in my world!). I know of too many people who cannot handle the freedom of a credit card and wind up getting into debt by its existance (and yes, I do speak of personal - if minorish - experience in this matter). OK, off my soap box!]
So, since June, I've earned 2649 points. This was with no work on my part other than clicking through emails. I've received a $10 Borders gift card back for 1400 of those points and am close to being able to get another gift card (there are tons of options and price ranges for what is available - just depends on how patient you are in letting the points build up!).
I went ahead and got the Borders card just to check out if this works, and it seems to be just fine! Next time I'm going to try to save up points for longer and get a higher gift card. I've considered using this as a resource for buying gifts for people or buying household stuff that we need/want but don't necessarily always have extra money for (like new sheets or towels or pillows...you get the idea!). Or just on whatever. It's still up in the research phase.
Any ways, if you're looking for a money idea, I highly recommend this one.
Oh, and do me a favor (pretty, pretty, please)...if you're thinking of signing up, leave me a message (don't worry I won't post it) here with your name and email address. I can then refer you through my MyPoints account. For every person I refer who signs up with MyPoints I earn 250 points! So help me out folks! Share the MyPoints!
Well, there's basically three ways to get points:
1. MyPoints sends you emails daily (about 5 or so a day), you open them, read the ad, and click through at the bottom (for the paranoid - as in myself - I checked this out before signing up and couldn't find any reports of virus problems or anything like that). You don't have to sign up for anything and it automatically credits you 5 points per email. Now, if you should decide to follow through on the offered ad, then you can earn more points. There's been a couple of free offers that I signed up for out of curiosity, but nothing else.
NOTE: I would highly recommend you open up a junk mail account if you decide to try this - particularly if you actually take up some of the offers. I've heard that if you don't ever sign up for anything, the junk mail isn't too bad...but I wouldn't trust it!
2. You can shop online at tons of stores through MyPoints. And every dollar you spend at the store, you get points for. For example, I bought a book the other day through MyPoints. The book cost me $8.00 and I earned 16 MyPoints. Not an amazing amount, but hey, every bit counts!
There are other sites that I'm also looking into that do a similar thing; however, I went with MyPoints first as it really is one of the least complicated (at least thus far - more reports on other sites to come).
3. I believe there is a credit card you can sign up for with MyPoints and earn points for all your purchases through the credit card. Please note, I have not signed up for this card (I'm very loyal to my American Express!) and really can't attest to anything about this angle of MyPoints.
[Also (just have to say this!), I highly recommend that you do not sign up for any kind of credit card unless you know you can handle a credit card. While Chris and I do put just about everything on our cards, our bill also gets completely paid off every month (we use the card to build up frequent flyer miles - very important in my world!). I know of too many people who cannot handle the freedom of a credit card and wind up getting into debt by its existance (and yes, I do speak of personal - if minorish - experience in this matter). OK, off my soap box!]
So, since June, I've earned 2649 points. This was with no work on my part other than clicking through emails. I've received a $10 Borders gift card back for 1400 of those points and am close to being able to get another gift card (there are tons of options and price ranges for what is available - just depends on how patient you are in letting the points build up!).
I went ahead and got the Borders card just to check out if this works, and it seems to be just fine! Next time I'm going to try to save up points for longer and get a higher gift card. I've considered using this as a resource for buying gifts for people or buying household stuff that we need/want but don't necessarily always have extra money for (like new sheets or towels or pillows...you get the idea!). Or just on whatever. It's still up in the research phase.
Any ways, if you're looking for a money idea, I highly recommend this one.
Oh, and do me a favor (pretty, pretty, please)...if you're thinking of signing up, leave me a message (don't worry I won't post it) here with your name and email address. I can then refer you through my MyPoints account. For every person I refer who signs up with MyPoints I earn 250 points! So help me out folks! Share the MyPoints!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Getting Mail
Getting mail has been and probably always will be one of my favorite things in the world. There is an unmatchable feeling of ancitipation when it comes to opening up a mail box, seeing pieces of mail laying there, wondering who they come from, what is in them...it's just fun!
I think some of this pleasure has been instilled in me by my parents. Opening the mail was always a sacred time in our house. Every afternoon (just about) my parents would settle down with a cup of a tea, a cookie, and open the mail together. My mum also has always written me. Growing up it was little notes in random places - the lunch box, my bag, when I went to Uzbekistan as a young teen for two months, she even wrote me enough letters that I could open up one every day I was there! And somehow she actually managed to actually send me a couple of letters while I was there (miracle of miracles). Since I moved out of the house, I've always received mail from her - random jokes, articles she thinks I might enjoy, cards, and of course letters.
End result, I love mail!
Sadly, however, the art of snail mail is dying. Slowly but surely it is becoming an obsolete concept of the past. Letters are all in the form of emails and it seems less and less do I find interesting things in the mailbox. And while I do enjoy receiving emails from people, they lack a certain level of charm that snail mail had.
However, recently my love of getting mail has taken a whole new turn and has become very exciting again.
Since I started this whole frugal journey, I've discovered a whole new world of mail to be had. How? Because there is so much free stuff out there that you can sign up for, it results in an almost constant deluge of fascinating mail. Last week alone I got a cookie from Kashi, a whole pile of coupons from P&G for doing a survey for them, sample feminine products (I've gotten a ton of these the last few months - and of course the best stuff always comes with coupons as well), my mypoints reward (more about that in a later post) of a $10 Borders gift cards, several other random coupons for things, and a mini Betty Crocker chocolate dessert.
This week on Monday I got more feminine products plus coupons from another company, a trial face wash that smells amazing (grapefruit - yummy!), and two very cute, mini bottles of calcium pills from Nature Made.
Delightful!
Not quite as personal as a letter, but still fun to find and open.
I think some of this pleasure has been instilled in me by my parents. Opening the mail was always a sacred time in our house. Every afternoon (just about) my parents would settle down with a cup of a tea, a cookie, and open the mail together. My mum also has always written me. Growing up it was little notes in random places - the lunch box, my bag, when I went to Uzbekistan as a young teen for two months, she even wrote me enough letters that I could open up one every day I was there! And somehow she actually managed to actually send me a couple of letters while I was there (miracle of miracles). Since I moved out of the house, I've always received mail from her - random jokes, articles she thinks I might enjoy, cards, and of course letters.
End result, I love mail!
Sadly, however, the art of snail mail is dying. Slowly but surely it is becoming an obsolete concept of the past. Letters are all in the form of emails and it seems less and less do I find interesting things in the mailbox. And while I do enjoy receiving emails from people, they lack a certain level of charm that snail mail had.
However, recently my love of getting mail has taken a whole new turn and has become very exciting again.
Since I started this whole frugal journey, I've discovered a whole new world of mail to be had. How? Because there is so much free stuff out there that you can sign up for, it results in an almost constant deluge of fascinating mail. Last week alone I got a cookie from Kashi, a whole pile of coupons from P&G for doing a survey for them, sample feminine products (I've gotten a ton of these the last few months - and of course the best stuff always comes with coupons as well), my mypoints reward (more about that in a later post) of a $10 Borders gift cards, several other random coupons for things, and a mini Betty Crocker chocolate dessert.
This week on Monday I got more feminine products plus coupons from another company, a trial face wash that smells amazing (grapefruit - yummy!), and two very cute, mini bottles of calcium pills from Nature Made.
Delightful!
Not quite as personal as a letter, but still fun to find and open.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
A Confession
Yes, dear readers, you are going to find out a horrible, awful secret that I have been bearing the last few weeks. I would hide this from the world if I could, but a few other key people know about this already, and so it would come out someday. Someday when I'm running for president it would get spilled to the vile news-media and my deepest, darkest secret would be revealed to the world. And I would have to hide in shame. Flee the country. Change my name, my life, my citizenship. And so I decided it would be better to face up to it now, get it over with, bear my shame to the world.
What is this horrible secret?
Brace yourself.
I will confess.
I have officially become concerned about the security and safety of our country from zombies.
Think I've lost it? Perhaps I have. But it is true, nonetheless...to my everlasting shame.
Allow me to explain.
It all starts with a book. Well, two books. The first book is called The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks. This is a practical manual on how to protect yourself in time of zombie attack. A friend of ours got his hand on this and started telling us how to protect ourselves from the zombies. This of course generated all sorts of discussions among the boys of the best ways to kill a zombie, can zombies climb stairs, how fast can a zombie travel, etc.
Us girls shook our heads, laughed, mocked, and basically put up with it.
Perhaps the greatest illustration I can provide of the crazy obsession of these boys is to tell you of my husband's reaction to the fact that we woke up one morning and realized that our garage door had been open all night and anyone could have walked into the house very easily. Did he say something like, "We're lucky we didn't get ____ (fill in the blank: robbed, murdered in our sleep, etc)." No, no he did not. His immediate reaction was, "We're lucky the zombies didn't try and come in. There would have been no stopping them!" Seriously obsessed.
Then the next book appeared: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War also by Max Brooks (why this man's obsession with Zombie's, I have no idea).
Chris read this book incredibly fast, raved about it, and informed me that I absolutely needed to read this book. He assured me that I would really enjoy it, and it didn't read like a creepy zombie book but more like an oral history book.
After months of his commenting about how I should read this book, I finally caved. It's good for a wife to make her husband happy, right? And it was a little thing. With all the books I read, I might as well read this one book he was dying to share with me. And so one night, I began reading.
I will admit, I was immediately intrigued. The man writes this whole history of a Zombie war (humans against zombies - humans who have been infected by some type of disease which basically makes them undead) from the perspective of a reporter who is doing interviews with people. Which means that he has to tell all these different stories and connect all of these different sections of this make-believe war from a whole slew of different voices. While there are parts of the book that gave me chills to even consider what that would be like to live during, for the most part it was not a scary book. It was just intriguing. He lays out years worth of war through these interviews, provides commentary on politics, ethics, and other such difficult subjects while at the same time giving flashes of emotional, real life, humanity in his work. It's well written enough that I could almost believe this war had actually occured.
There was a night, however, when I knew things had gone too far. I had turned off my light and lay in bed listening to the breathing of my husband and wrestling of the dogs. And as I glanced at our window in our bedroom, I couldn't help but start thinking: You know, we have a problem. American windows have no burglar bars. They are just screen and then glass. If a zombie attacks, there's no way we could stop it from getting through the windows. And the rest of the house is just as bad. The front door really wouldn't stop anything that determined to get in and our book is a glass sliding door. A zombie could totally break in.
And it was at that point that I knew I had gone to the dark side. My self-respect shattered, memories of teasing the crazy boys for the zombie obsession haunting me, I groaned as I realized that I had been sucked into this crazy, zombie-obsessed world. And there was no turning back.
And so there you have it, dear reader. My confession of shame. I have gone to the dark side and am now obsessed with whether or not I could escape and protect my family in time of zombie attack.
What is this horrible secret?
Brace yourself.
I will confess.
I have officially become concerned about the security and safety of our country from zombies.
Think I've lost it? Perhaps I have. But it is true, nonetheless...to my everlasting shame.
Allow me to explain.
It all starts with a book. Well, two books. The first book is called The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks. This is a practical manual on how to protect yourself in time of zombie attack. A friend of ours got his hand on this and started telling us how to protect ourselves from the zombies. This of course generated all sorts of discussions among the boys of the best ways to kill a zombie, can zombies climb stairs, how fast can a zombie travel, etc.
Us girls shook our heads, laughed, mocked, and basically put up with it.
Perhaps the greatest illustration I can provide of the crazy obsession of these boys is to tell you of my husband's reaction to the fact that we woke up one morning and realized that our garage door had been open all night and anyone could have walked into the house very easily. Did he say something like, "We're lucky we didn't get ____ (fill in the blank: robbed, murdered in our sleep, etc)." No, no he did not. His immediate reaction was, "We're lucky the zombies didn't try and come in. There would have been no stopping them!" Seriously obsessed.
Then the next book appeared: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War also by Max Brooks (why this man's obsession with Zombie's, I have no idea).
Chris read this book incredibly fast, raved about it, and informed me that I absolutely needed to read this book. He assured me that I would really enjoy it, and it didn't read like a creepy zombie book but more like an oral history book.
After months of his commenting about how I should read this book, I finally caved. It's good for a wife to make her husband happy, right? And it was a little thing. With all the books I read, I might as well read this one book he was dying to share with me. And so one night, I began reading.
I will admit, I was immediately intrigued. The man writes this whole history of a Zombie war (humans against zombies - humans who have been infected by some type of disease which basically makes them undead) from the perspective of a reporter who is doing interviews with people. Which means that he has to tell all these different stories and connect all of these different sections of this make-believe war from a whole slew of different voices. While there are parts of the book that gave me chills to even consider what that would be like to live during, for the most part it was not a scary book. It was just intriguing. He lays out years worth of war through these interviews, provides commentary on politics, ethics, and other such difficult subjects while at the same time giving flashes of emotional, real life, humanity in his work. It's well written enough that I could almost believe this war had actually occured.
There was a night, however, when I knew things had gone too far. I had turned off my light and lay in bed listening to the breathing of my husband and wrestling of the dogs. And as I glanced at our window in our bedroom, I couldn't help but start thinking: You know, we have a problem. American windows have no burglar bars. They are just screen and then glass. If a zombie attacks, there's no way we could stop it from getting through the windows. And the rest of the house is just as bad. The front door really wouldn't stop anything that determined to get in and our book is a glass sliding door. A zombie could totally break in.
And it was at that point that I knew I had gone to the dark side. My self-respect shattered, memories of teasing the crazy boys for the zombie obsession haunting me, I groaned as I realized that I had been sucked into this crazy, zombie-obsessed world. And there was no turning back.
And so there you have it, dear reader. My confession of shame. I have gone to the dark side and am now obsessed with whether or not I could escape and protect my family in time of zombie attack.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Movie Review: Ballet Shoes
I watched a movie last night I just had to share. As you've probably deduced from the title of my blog, it's called Ballet Shoes. If any of you have had the delightful experience of reading Noel Streatfeild Shoes books - Ballet Shoes, Skating Shoes, Dancing Shoes, and Party Shoes - you will love this movie.
Actually, quick note on Streatfeild's works in general, I love them. Always have; always will. They just have that comfortable, charm about them that make them classics. And of course the fact that many of her books have to do with the performing world is an additional draw factor for me. She not only is a talented author but due to her own background in the performing arts, she can describe the emotions and experiences of those in that world with great accuracy. Love her!
Ballet Shoes is one of my favorite books of hers, and the movie actually held true to the plot! It's about three young girls who are all orphans and are brought up together by this woman who herself was an orphan as a child. Due to financial difficulties, they take an opportunity given to them to train for the stage. And the movie follows their paths in that training. As Chris said when the movie was done, it's just a wholesome movie. It deals with some hard issues of the performing world but does so in a delightful way.
Highly recommend it! Oh, and Emma Watson is in it. That's another good draw for the movie!
Actually, quick note on Streatfeild's works in general, I love them. Always have; always will. They just have that comfortable, charm about them that make them classics. And of course the fact that many of her books have to do with the performing world is an additional draw factor for me. She not only is a talented author but due to her own background in the performing arts, she can describe the emotions and experiences of those in that world with great accuracy. Love her!
Ballet Shoes is one of my favorite books of hers, and the movie actually held true to the plot! It's about three young girls who are all orphans and are brought up together by this woman who herself was an orphan as a child. Due to financial difficulties, they take an opportunity given to them to train for the stage. And the movie follows their paths in that training. As Chris said when the movie was done, it's just a wholesome movie. It deals with some hard issues of the performing world but does so in a delightful way.
Highly recommend it! Oh, and Emma Watson is in it. That's another good draw for the movie!
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Am I a true book worm?
I'm a book addict. So when I ran across this post from the blog Mommy's Got Green, of course I had to participate!
So here's the basic idea:
I'm happy to say that I did ten times better than the aerage person; however, I have to admit, I was thinking my score would be higher than that. Well, I guess this is a good list for me to work through reading! Other than the two that seemed repetitive (having both the Chronicles of Narnia and Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and Hamlet as well as the Complete Works of Shakespeare), I personally felt it was a pretty good list of books to have read. So, that's a good incentive for me to try the ones I haven't.
Maybe in a year I'll check back and see how I've done!
So here's the basic idea:
"The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA estimates that the average adult has only read six book from the following list of 100. So let's see how you stack up."
- Bold the books that you have read
- Italicize those books which you intend to read
- Underline the books you love
- Pass the list on to others
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Score: 60/100I'm happy to say that I did ten times better than the aerage person; however, I have to admit, I was thinking my score would be higher than that. Well, I guess this is a good list for me to work through reading! Other than the two that seemed repetitive (having both the Chronicles of Narnia and Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and Hamlet as well as the Complete Works of Shakespeare), I personally felt it was a pretty good list of books to have read. So, that's a good incentive for me to try the ones I haven't.
Maybe in a year I'll check back and see how I've done!
Friday, August 22, 2008
Dancing Decision
I made my decision several days ago, but I haven't posted about it because I wanted to let it sink in first. You know, settle into it, give my addled brain a chance to reject or approve of the idea.
The short of is that after prayer and planning and dreaming and scheduling, I could not get a peace about working at the studio. In some ways it felt like a dream come true, but in others, akin to opening myself up to a nightmare. (OK, maybe not quite that extreme but my literary side liked the imagery!)
Basically there were quite a few reasons against taking either or both positions (and after I made my decision and passed it along to the powers that be, I discovered it probably would have entailed taking BOTH positions as opposed to just one, at least initially). Some of them were as follows:
The short of is that after prayer and planning and dreaming and scheduling, I could not get a peace about working at the studio. In some ways it felt like a dream come true, but in others, akin to opening myself up to a nightmare. (OK, maybe not quite that extreme but my literary side liked the imagery!)
Basically there were quite a few reasons against taking either or both positions (and after I made my decision and passed it along to the powers that be, I discovered it probably would have entailed taking BOTH positions as opposed to just one, at least initially). Some of them were as follows:
- I'm not doing my masters this year because Chris is going back to school and I've really felt like the Lord has been leading me to be a support to him in the next few years not focused on my own school, etc. And although he (Chris) kept telling me not to factor him into my decision, I realized that I had already factored him into my decision by the simple fact that I'm not doing school; therefore, why would I take up that time with yet another activity? And an activity that would take me out of the house a lot.
- All the "Pros" of taking either position (other than the fact that I would be dancing again) were based on which of the positions would be better - not pros in terms of how getting into this would be an improvement in our lives.
- Dancing again - I wouldn't be dancing. I would be administrating or teaching. I miss dancing. I don't miss a lot of other parts of that world - Christian or non-Christian.
- I'm struggling keeping up with 40 hours of work a week (case in point, I was so excited this week that I thought I was going to be able to have two full weeks without taking any sick time - first time in months I think. And then Wednesday hit) - why would I add another 20 or so?
There were other reasons beyond this. But I think one of the key elements for me is the fact that since I've made this decision I have had peace. I haven't had one moment of doubt concerning my decision.
Maybe this was just one of those moments when God wasn't going to "yay" or "nay" the decision and would have given me strength to go with either one. Obviously I'll never really know. But as things stand right now, I am confident in the decision I have made.
Friday, August 15, 2008
To dance or not to dance
I started my first ballet lessons when I was three years old; although, I believe instinctively I danced from the time I could walk. Just so much easier than walking! 27 years later, I still love to dance. However, life has done it's usual morphing and many things have changed for me in this field.
When I was younger, I always wanted to become a professional dancer. As I got older, that dream became that of a professional working in a Christian company to bring the art of dance to a rather (at times) closed door Christian society.
When I was 18, I went off to college to get my degree in English education (bookworking - my second passion!), hoping and praying that dance would stay a part of my life somehow but not sure on the "how." That door did open and I worked all the way through the college as a ballet teacher at a Christian owned studio.
And then I started teaching high school. And within a month, I knew that something had to give. And even more, I felt like God was saying to me, "let go of this. It is no longer for you." And so reluctantly but with the realization that I literally could not both teach school and dance, I let go.
But I've missed dancing so much. I don't really miss performing; I just miss dancing. I miss the smell of the studio, the movement, even my pointe shoes (bloody feet, blisters, and all). While I've tried to keep up at home, it's not been the same at all. There's been a few times when we've had dancers in church, and just watching them has hurt so much because I wanted to be there.
This past spring, an opportunity arose to become a part of a new studio in town that had opened up just a few months before. It's a Christian studio, not just in terms of ownership but in terms of what it is for. The classes start with prayer; the entire focus is for worshiping the Lord through dance. Beautiful.
I was asked if I could get involved in some of the directing of the studio as they had plenty of teachers but there directors were having issues. I prayed about it, Chris prayed, and seperately we both felt that God was saying, "no." So, I turned it down. Since then, obviously some good reasons for why it wasn't right have come forward - namely being that physically I would not have been able to handle it.
However, this past week, I've been offered the position again. And while I've been praying about it, I don't feel like I'm getting a good answer on what to do. Maybe that is my answer, I don' t know. It would be a purely volunteer/ministry kind of thing.
Because I'm a "list" person, I've tried to analyze it as best as I can. But I just don't know. And I need to make a decision - yesterday!
Option 1: Be the Performing Director (choreographer, performance planner, etc) w/o the responsibility of the academic/Studio Director (administrative side - phone calls, bills, etc)
Pros:
When I was younger, I always wanted to become a professional dancer. As I got older, that dream became that of a professional working in a Christian company to bring the art of dance to a rather (at times) closed door Christian society.
When I was 18, I went off to college to get my degree in English education (bookworking - my second passion!), hoping and praying that dance would stay a part of my life somehow but not sure on the "how." That door did open and I worked all the way through the college as a ballet teacher at a Christian owned studio.
And then I started teaching high school. And within a month, I knew that something had to give. And even more, I felt like God was saying to me, "let go of this. It is no longer for you." And so reluctantly but with the realization that I literally could not both teach school and dance, I let go.
But I've missed dancing so much. I don't really miss performing; I just miss dancing. I miss the smell of the studio, the movement, even my pointe shoes (bloody feet, blisters, and all). While I've tried to keep up at home, it's not been the same at all. There's been a few times when we've had dancers in church, and just watching them has hurt so much because I wanted to be there.
This past spring, an opportunity arose to become a part of a new studio in town that had opened up just a few months before. It's a Christian studio, not just in terms of ownership but in terms of what it is for. The classes start with prayer; the entire focus is for worshiping the Lord through dance. Beautiful.
I was asked if I could get involved in some of the directing of the studio as they had plenty of teachers but there directors were having issues. I prayed about it, Chris prayed, and seperately we both felt that God was saying, "no." So, I turned it down. Since then, obviously some good reasons for why it wasn't right have come forward - namely being that physically I would not have been able to handle it.
However, this past week, I've been offered the position again. And while I've been praying about it, I don't feel like I'm getting a good answer on what to do. Maybe that is my answer, I don' t know. It would be a purely volunteer/ministry kind of thing.
Because I'm a "list" person, I've tried to analyze it as best as I can. But I just don't know. And I need to make a decision - yesterday!
Option 1: Be the Performing Director (choreographer, performance planner, etc) w/o the responsibility of the academic/Studio Director (administrative side - phone calls, bills, etc)
Pros:
- This would allow me to be involved with less of an initial time commitment (Saturdays 2-5 through October, November, and half of December, some planning time but I can set my own hours, performance days (19th of December I believe).
- This would be a good way fo rme to get to know students/parents closely
- I would be dancing again.
Cons:
- I haven't been dancing, other than what i can do at home, for the last few years. I feel out of practice and out of shape.
- I've not been able to really exercise the last few months because of my stomach and how much it's been hurting - totally out of shape in general not just in dance.
- I'm not familiar with the studio yet, and that can make it challenging in choreography (although this is an open audition, so people from all over could audition so I'm not really stuck with 1 style).
- Saturday commitment which means that I really won't have a day off during the week at all because Sunday's always wind up with various home things that need doing.
Random Thought - truthfully, doing this kind of scares me, and I don't know how much that is affecting my view of this option. At this point, although I know I'm qualified, I don't really feel very qualified because of how long I've been out of that world.
Option 2: Studio Director w/o Performing director responsibility
Pros:
- get to know students/parents quickly from all levels not just those performing in show
not physically demanding - allow me to get to know the studio/style etc without direct dance involvement
Cons:
- Big time commitment. (minimum Tuesday and Thursdays for 3-4 hours after work; probably need to be there another day as well, plus being able to answer questions, etc throughout the week nearly every day).
- Not actually involved in dancing again (although that could open up in the future).
Other Thoughts:
- I've been praying for the right ministry door to open; is this my door? What about some other thoughts Chris and I have had about ministry opportunities? There's no way I could do something else along with this.
- I'm concerned about how this will affect my health; I'm still not doing all that good - is this going to be beneficial or hurtful?
- I gave up doing my master's program at this time so that I can be more of a support to Chris while he's in school. This is something that's going to take me even more out of the house and out of Chris' life. Big time commitment - possibly very stressful - how will affect the home?
- Looking at the hours/need, I can't help but think they need to hire someone full time for this position. Trying to piece-meal it is only going to hurt the functionality/success of the business.
- Am I supposed to be a part of this world again? If I were just doing administrative type stuff and not actually dancing, would I be okay with that?
So that's it folks. I need to make a decision, and I don't know where to go with this.
HELP! :)
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