Saturday, December 20, 2008

Off we go into the wild blue yonder

So I'm off today to face the great unknown. Oh, I'm only going back to North Dakota, to Harvey, a town I've been to 10,000 times before, but always when I went there, it was because we were "going to town." I've never lived in town before, at least not in North Dakota, and I'm not sure how I'm going to profitably spend two weeks. People always say that the country is more boring than the city, but I don't really think that's true. In the country, you can always go outside and talk to animals and play in snow and things like that. What am I going to do in town?

I've actually been making a list, and here are some of the things I've come up with:
  1. Go to the bakery, which I always thought was the most exotic and sophisticated place in town when I was younger. (OK, it was second to the Tastee Freez, but that's probably closed for the winter.)
  2. Go to the library, if I can manage to figure out which couple of hours a day it's open. You can sign up to use the internet for 15 whole minutes a day!
  3. Look at every item in every store in town-- 6 times.
  4. Go to the movies all by myself! My mother tells me that only teenage boys go to the theater there, so that should prove to be interesting.
  5. Catch up on all these books I keep dragging home from the library but never get around to reading.
  6. Parade up and down in front of the radio station. (I have a mild crush on one of the DJ's.)
  7. Watch some of my mother's new TV programs with her, most of which feature home improvement of one sort or another. (Blech!)
  8. Have myself a merry little Christmas and a happy new year.

In other words, I won't be back in the land of the living (meaning the internet) until about January 3rd. (If I don't get stranded in some airport again.) Happy holidays to any of you that might actually be reading this!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Poetry corner

I think this poem describes very well how I'm feeling at the moment: world-weary and uncertain. But I have no time to be maudlin; I have a holiday party to spearhead!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

I've got no strings on me

So I've come to a decision. I'm not going to renew my lease, and it's not because I'm planning on moving someplace else here in town. It's because I've realized there's nothing further holding me here, and I should start looking for a different place to spread my special brand of magic. It feels good just to have made the decision!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

The bliss of consumerism?

I'm in a very good mood, and I'm not sure how long it's going to last, but I'm going to relish it while it does! Last night I watched Murphy's Romance, and it made me so happy. I think it was as much the music as the actual plotline, and the fashions and everything took me back to 1985, which was a very pivotal year for me as a tween. (Of course I didn't know I was a tween at the time, because the concept hadn't been invented yet! I had to settle for being a much-less-hip-sounding "pre-teen.")

The funny thing about the movie is how chock-full of product placements it was! There were two-gallon jugs of KC Masterpiece everywhere. Has anybody not in a cafeteria or restaurant honestly ever bought a two-gallon jug of KC Masterpiece? I also noticed Ivory liquid (in the old bottle back when it was still white), Barq's root beer (which I'm pretty sure didn't exist in North Dakota yet back in 1985), extra-strength Tylenol (which Sally Field asked for in the drugstore by name), Purina Chows (which I remember fondly from too much time spent in Lautt's Feed and Supply as a girl) and a host of other products that have slipped my mind. But guess what? I didn't really mind them at all, because it made it more like a true depiction of life in 1985 in a small town just like the one I grew up in. Will today's product placements seem as quaint in 20 years?

Saturday, December 13, 2008

A belated obituary

So I've discovered what happens when you don't keep up with your email: you miss important things. In the last couple of days at work I went through an email reading frenzy, and I've gotten my number of unread messages down to zero, and my number of saved messages down to three digits again. I deleted a lot of old university announcements for things that had already happened, but something told me to open a particular day's Outlook, and it said "Ohio University mourns death of political science student." I always have to look at every article about somebody who died, and it always turns out I didn't know them, but I looked anyway, and staring back at me was a picture of a very familiar face. I assumed he must be a frequent library patron, but no one else professed to know him. Finally, 12 hours later, my brain finally processed the answer: he used to wait on me all the time at my neighborhood grocery store. He always seemed like a nice boy, and he always smiled at me. And now he's dead, and it took me a whole month to mourn him. Maybe I do always miss the most important things going on around me all the time.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Want and plenty

So I was introduced to this verse yesterday, which I had never seen before, at least not in this translation, and it helped. "I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need." (Phillipians 4:12) So maybe this is just a hungry period for me right now, and that word "abased" really speaks to me somehow.

Speaking of hunger, if you want to read an interesting story about pioneers over 200 years ago and the hardships they faced, try this on for size.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

I heard a fly buzz when I died

I see that I've had a slight uptick in visitors lately, so I feel I should be posting something fresh and exciting every day to keep you entertained. But this is all I've got for today: what's up with all these flies? I have had several in my apartment, which has been so thoroughly exterminated through the years that the only bugs I ever see are dead ones. (It kind of makes me wonder what all those chemicals are doing to me, but that's the subject for another post.) At my cousin's house in Beavercreek, I went on a fly killing bonanza, killing dozens of the things during my 3 days there. And we actually have set two fly traps in the staff lounge at the library because there are so many in there (attracted by the food, no doubt.) Since I don't remember a plethora of flies this summer, where are they coming from? Anyone with an idea, fanciful or serious, feel free to leave a comment below!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

A listing of my flaws

I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore! It seems that all around me are people who are trying to correct all my faults for my own good. What are these horrible faults that I possess?

  • Well, for one thing, I don't have nearly enough possessions. My lifestyle is a horrible affront to the American way of life, and I need to go out and start buying lava lamps and food processors at the earliest convenience. This is only for my own good, you realize, because she who dies with the most stuff wins.
  • Also, at times I prefer my own company rather than spending my time with a lot of people. This is a serious flaw! Being alone is dangerous, because it might lead to serious reflection, and we can't have that. It would be better to spend my time surrounded by a posse of people who continually chat about all their stuff. (See above.)
  • Speaking of serious reflection, I have also been accused of not filling my time properly. Taking time to think before doing something is passe. Much better to just start working quickly and mindlessly so that everyone can see you doing it and be amazed. If it doesn't turn out, you can always fix your mistakes later, just as fast.
  • Most seriously, rather than making a lot of plans for the future, I trust in the Lord to provide for me. But why should I trust in somebody I've never even seen? Much better to just start making plans and take the bull by the horns!

Here are my answers to these arguments, taken from the Sermon on the Mount:

  • "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
  • "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."
  • "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
  • "Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

So I guess I should thank all these critics! They have made me much more sure that what I'm doing is just fine and pleasing to the Lord.

Friday, November 21, 2008

November TV Roundup

A whole bunch of things have been cancelled in the last few days, and so I thought it was a good time to let you know my thoughts on how the season is stacking up so far.

  • Chuck: This was picked up for a full season a long time ago, and I'm glad. It really is wonderful this year, and I get happy every time I see the opening credits!
  • Heroes: It still doesn't make any sense, and I wish it would at least a little, but I keep watching. I don't know why, but I want Sylar to be redeemed. He's the most charismatic character on the show. I wished he had been killed after season one, but maybe I was wrong.
  • Fringe: I'm pretty sure this was picked up for a full season. I like it perfectly well, but I don't worry about it all week long. And I want more cow!
  • Privileged: This just got an order for more scripts, so that's a positive sign. I wish Megan hadn't told Laurel that she knew her secret. Everything got all weird when she did that, and not in a good way. And Megan's romantic life is a little confusing to me. Still, I love the girls, and that's why I keep watching.
  • Pushing Daisies: They say that after it's finished its run, it's done. I know I'm supposed to be really sad, but I'm not. To be perfectly honest, I think it's the kind of thing that's best in small doses. When people say it's literary, maybe they mean that it would be better if it came out on a schedule like a mystery series, with us eagerly waiting for each new installment. But every week, it's just kind of numbing with its too-much-ness.
  • Life: This got renewed for the full season, and all I can say is "Yes!" I didn't love this show so much at first, but it's really grown on me, and I think it really has gotten better this season. I've been going back and catching up with the first season episodes on Hulu, and they're still pretty good, but they aren't at the level of this season. I know some people are sad that we aren't spending so much time on the ongoing mystery this season, but I don't really care. The cases are the thing!
  • Dirty Sexy Money: They say it's cancelled, and to be honest, I'm glad they're putting it out of its misery. Nothing that has happened this season has been either significant or interesting, and I feel that they're just going through the motions.
  • Ugly Betty: It went through a rough patch earlier this year, but it seems like it's finally hit its stride again: less soapy and convoluted and more heartwarming and real.
  • Life on Mars: They say this will be moving into Dirty Sexy Money's slot in the new year, and I hope this is true. I really am liking this show, and I hope it continues for a while. Once again, though, the ongoing mystery isn't that interesting to me. It's just the cases I want to see.
  • Crusoe: I missed this last week and didn't really care. It's nice mindless television on Friday night when my brain is fried, but that's about all.
  • Lipstick Jungle: I'm so conflicted about this show. There are things I like (Nico and Kirby) and things I don't like (Victory and Joe wasting my time). So I guess whether it's cancelled or stays around, a part of me will be satisfied either way!
  • Brothers and Sisters: This is by far the highest rated show that I watch, so I don't have to worry about it going anywhere for a long, long time. I like that there's a good balance between ongoing storylines and things that wrap up in one episode. The dinner party scenes are always good for some kind of a laugh, but it can also be serious at the same time. This one is really a keeper, and I guess my fellow TV fans agree.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Snowie can find anything!

I didn't think Radigan Neuhalfen could really be anybody's real name, even if they are from North Dakota, and I was right.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Mongolia calling

So I've found someone who, on paper, is my perfect man. He's from North Dakota, now lives in Mongolia, and is a novelist and adventurer. I came across his website while looking for something else entirely, as I always do. I'm half-tempted to write to him and say, "I'm from North Dakota! I'm obsessed with Mongolia! I'm a writer!" But that seems just awfully dumb and naive. Besides, how do you start up a relationship with someone who lives in Ulaanbataar? And how do I know he's not really a geek sitting at a computer in Mahwah, New Jersey? But Radigan Neuhalfen, if you're real, drop me a line!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Huh?

So if Lipstick Jungle is going to treat me this way, I don't particularly care if it's cancelled! After all that lead-up, I can't believe Victory and Joe just broke up. Feh!

Friday, November 14, 2008

A dream of dreams come true

I had a dream last night that was so good, it was scary. First I was with XDPE having lunch, and we told each other how much we loved each other and held hands across the table. Then I was on the school bus, and all the high school boys were flirting with me! I asked people questions about the bus route, which made them think I was crazy, because hadn't I been with them all along? But they said that we had already gone through Manfred, and that I got on the bus every morning at 8:10 and got off every afternoon at 4:10. In other words, this was my classic elementary school bus route.

After I got off, I saw that my father was baling straw. Somehow the sight of that yellow baler going down the road is more "him" to me than anything else. I played for a while in the ditch, which was perfectly shaded even though there are no trees there! Then I went home and to my room, and Spicey was lying on my bed, and we played together. I was carrying her around like a baby, and her ears fanned out like they always did, and then I thought, "Isn't she supposed to be dead?" And then I thought, "Well, she isn't right now, anyway, and that's all that matters." Then I went to the kitchen and my mother was there, and I thought, "Is this real or a dream?" And she started talking about how her new pants accentuated her tummy bulge, and I noticed she was walking around on her own two feet, so I knew it was a dream. She was wearing that yellow sweater vest she always used to wear. I knew what I was supposed to do, and I went over and hugged her, and she was a little bit taller than I am, like she's supposed to be, and she felt solid under my arms, not frail. And I looked out the screen door, and Jillie was lying on the steps with her head in her dish, which was always her favorite position, and there were some cats there, too.

And then my mother went to the living room to talk to my daddy, and I saw that my grandma was cooking something in the kitchen. She was wearing her standard uniform, too, including those blue shoes with all the little holes in them that she used to wear. So I went over to her, but I had to kneel down so I was the same height I used to be when I was 5, and I hugged her too, and I asked her to make me a brown sugar sandwich, and she said she would. And then I went into the living room and they were talking about land bank papers and my sister was there, too, and then I woke up.

So this dream concerns me a little bit, because it was completely wish fulfillment from one end to the other, and it makes me worry that I'm going to die, or something really, really bad is going to happen to me. Why else would God allow me to have so much comfort all on one night? On the other hand, I've always loved that part of Our Town where Emily goes back in time to her 12th birthday, and I've always kind of wondered if I could do that. Maybe this was just proof that I could. (Although I didn't really go back to one particular time, as Grandma was dead long before we got Spicey and Jillie, for instance.) It also proves that XDPE was right. He always said that if I could learn to lucid dream it would be a tremendous comfort, but I didn't believe him. Well, boy, you were right.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Moment of Truth

People on various entertainment sites I read keep saying that this year's TV season is a dud, but I haven't wanted to believe them. I still find at least one thing to watch every night, and you can't call that a dud, right? However, I realized yesterday that it was time to update my Facebook profile with the names of my new favorite shows. I do that around this time every year to keep things fresh. So I got out my list of all the shows I watch (yes, I really am that nerdy!) and thought about whether each of them is special enough to go on my profile. To qualify for that, a show has to be not just something I watch, but something I think about all during the week. Using that criterion, the only show I was able to add was Life, and that's not even a new show, just something I'm more into than I was last year. In fact, I even wanted to remove some shows from my profile, because I don't feel so strongly about them anymore. (I'm looking at you, Ugly Betty!) However, I refrained from doing this because I didn't want to empty out the section entirely, and because breaking up is hard to do. But yes, maybe this TV season really is a dud after all. Sigh.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Edge of the Universe

Here's a nice Bee Gees rarity for you, and it nicely describes how I'm feeling right now: all alone and surveying a vast uncharted territory, exhilarated and terrified at the same time.


Sunday, November 2, 2008

Everything old is new again

I forgot to mention that because Fringe wasn't on this week, I tried watching The Mentalist instead. Everybody has been raving about how good this show is, but I was wondering how a standard procedural could really be so interesting. Well, it is just because it's so well-made. The episode I saw was like an uber-procedural, with everything perfectly in place. We tend to think that new forms are the most noteworthy, but sometimes to create a masterpiece, all you have to do is perfectly craft the ultimate example of an already well-known genre. (Which, come to think of it, is what the Bee Gees have done time and again over the course of their careers.)

Still here

So I hope my not appearing here yesterday didn't make any of you think I wasn't still alive. That would be a not-very-nice Halloween prank to play. No, I'm still alive and kicking, and I actually had a pretty good day yesterday. I bought a lot of groceries at two different stores, I worked on the take-home test I have in Linguistics, I made a really excellent hotdish*, and I watched The Shining. I'm not sure how I felt about that movie. It was another one of those cases where I felt like it didn't quite make sense and wanted to go out and read the book. It seems like the only books I actually read these days are the ones that movies are based on! (I'm halfway through Midnight Cowboy at the moment, and if you think the movie is disturbing.....)


*I have to disagree with Wikipedia on this one. There's absolutely nothing that says a hotdish has to include canned soup as a binder. Tomato sauce is also a very popular binding agent and should not be discounted. In fact, the one I made yesterday used almost a whole pint jar of Pace picante sauce. But then again, I am a NextGen hotdish maker!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Too much of a good thing

So I've already done 5 hours of instruction this week, I've got 4 more coming up today (!), and 2 more tomorrow, to make a grand total of 11. I know some people probably do that much instruction every week, but it's a brave new world for me, and it's made a lot more difficult by the fact that I've got 6 entirely different groups of people I'm talking to here, with very little that can be recycled between the various sessions. Come here again on Saturday and see if I'm still alive!

Monday, October 27, 2008

New life for Life?

So I'm very glad to hear that NBC has done their first schedule rearranging of the season, and two moves seem to work in my favor. Life will now be on Wednesdays after Pushing Daisies, which is an hour that I previously had open, and is hopefully a time when a lot of people who don't like Private Practice will find it. Lipstick Jungle will be moving to Life's old slot at 10 PM on Fridays. This is still a horrible slot, but I've been having to watch LJ online on Saturday morning anyway, and now I can watch it on tape on Saturday morning instead! Plus I'd rather have it be in "the death slot" than be cancelled, which is what most people were expecting. It really is a good show in the old school soap opera tradition, so I'll be glad to see it continue.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Something by way of explanation

So someone at work told me recently that I must have had someone put cayenne pepper in my oatmeal. (You know that can't possibly be true, because I hate oatmeal!) But at any rate, I know it's true I've been a little bit reckless lately, and I just remembered this song that nicely explains why.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Top of the world

I've just had very, very good news, enough to rouse me out of this mood I've been in for the last couple of weeks. Now this is all I can say:


Goodbye, Ex-List!

So I just discovered that Crusoe has been moved to 9 pm on Fridays, opposite the Ex-List. This makes my decision to jettison the latter show so much easier! I'd rather be looking at lush tropical landscapes than feeling ishy about my past any day.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Thank you, CJOB!

Here's another one of those "Canadian songs" from my youth.

Mid-October TV report

It's been a while since I gave you a TV update. In truth, there was a week there where I didn't watch anything live at all, and then last weekend I had to catch up by watching a lot of things that my VCR had taped. And then I had to watch online the things that my VCR didn't tape. But I think I'm mostly caught up now, and all the new shows have finally aired, so here's an update on my thoughts.

First, the shows that have been on for a few weeks. I'm only commenting on them when my thoughts have changed since my last TV post.
  • Gossip Girl-- I'm sure this will surprise you, and it even surprises me, but I've stopped watching it! The reason is that I'm not home on Monday nights, and if my VCR is going to be taping something, it makes most sense to have it tape the two-hour block of Chuck and Heroes on NBC. So I thought I would watch Gossip Girl online, but the CW posts the episodes only sporadically, and when they do, it's such a pain to watch, with a tiny window even in "full screen" and banner ads over part of the picture, so I've just given up on this show. Surprisingly, I don't miss it much, and I figure they'll probably repeat it over the summer or something, right?
  • Pushing Daisies-- I liked this week's episode more than the first two. The ratings aren't looking good, though, so I'm not getting too attached.
  • Ugly Betty-- It also seems a little bit better than it did in the beginning of the season. I was really surprised that Gio came back this week. I thought he was off the show for good. Who knows?
  • The Ex-List-- I'm still on the fence about this one. A show that makes its target audience want to dig their eyes out with a spoon isn't a good thing! And by the end of each episode, I feel really ishy inside. Someone has suggested that the target audience really isn't single 33-year-olds like Bella and me, but women my age who have been married for 15 years and want to be reassured that their life would be even worse if they were still single. At any rate, the only reason I'm still watching is the promise of a different cute male guest star each week. But I'm not sure how long that promise is going to hold me.

Now on to the new shows.

  • My Own Worst Enemy-- Well, I didn't hate this one, but I just don't see what's going to happen every week, and why I should care. It kind of seems like Chuck without the funny, and what's the point of that? Ultimately, I guess whether or not I watch it will be determined by how wired I am when I get home from work on Monday night. If I feel like I could just crawl right into bed, I won't watch it, but if I feel like I need to unwind, I will. It's that simple!
  • Life on Mars-- I liked the second episode better than the first, which I already thought was just fine. It does seem like it works best when you just ignore the "mystery" of why Sam is stuck in the past and just treat it like an old-school police show. There sure is a lot of punching going on, and that takes me back to my childhood! :)
  • Crusoe-- This got pretty bad reviews, but it made me suspend my disbelief, and that's really all that I require on a Friday night. Plus, the scenery is gorgeous. I'm not exactly sure how they can sustain the show every week with just two main characters, but I guess we will find out. Oh, and I like the dog!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Got to be bold

Because I grew up in the country, I never got to see MTV until I got to college. By then they were already starting to show fewer and fewer music videos, and it was a rare occasion when it occurred to me to turn to that channel and they actually had some on. Yet it did happen on occasion, and this is one that I remember the best.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Another dream

I guess this is a sign I was watching too much Grey's Anatomy yesterday, but I had a dream that I was a doctor and could cure people by writing them a poem! It's been a long time since I thought of my writing as having a positive affect on people, but maybe this is a sign.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Weather forecast

So I've heard the weather forecast for North Dakota this weekend, and this is all I have to say.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

They said it really loud on the radio

So this song has multiple meanings for me right now (see how many you can guess!), but all of them have to do with the broadcasting of various secrets and whether that is ultimately a good or bad thing. I guess we know what Donna thinks on the subject, and I must agree with her or I wouldn't be posting this.

Welcome, international friends!

This blog now gets way more traffic from the outside world than from in the U.S. I'm still not exactly sure why that is, but I always wanted to have pen-pals all over the world, and now I guess I sort of half do. Just in the past month, I've had visitors from Jamaica, England, Denmark, Australia, Peru, Poland, and Spain. So welcome to all of you, and I hope that what you've found is to your liking, and didn't make your hair curl too much!

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The aftermath

So I keep getting better and better at rejection, which is kind of like getting better and better at job interviews: a skill you should never have had to develop in the first place. But what is there for me to do but keep on trucking?

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Take it easy on me

And here's the song that my previous post is reminding me of:



"Yes, it's all up to you, but whatever you do, take it easy on me."

Three little words

So today is a kind of a milestone for me! 8 years ago, someone I love very much who was about to move away sat on a chair in my living room and asked me, "Is there something I need to know?" And I wanted so badly to cross the gap and say that I loved him, but I just couldn't. I thought it would be responsible and "nice" and easier to just stay silent, so I did. And a couple of months later, I regretted it mightily when he invited a different girl to move there with him, and I was left thinking, "That could have been me."

Today, someone I love very much asked me the same exact question in the same exact words, and this time, even though it was very, very hard and I'm still half-convinced that I did the wrong thing, I told him the truth, that I love him. And I have no idea what will happen, and maybe things won't turn out any differently in the end, but what I do know is that he'll always know that I love him now. And that makes all the difference.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Clouds in my coffee

A sad and wistful song for a gloomy morning. There's a promise of sunshine for this afternoon, but I'll believe it when I see it!

Television roundup

What a week I've had! Somehow I wasn't as busy as I have been other weeks with work, but I felt busier. Maybe that's because the TV season is finally in full swing and I'm still in sampling mode. So I guess I'll tell you a little bit about what I've been watching and what I think. I'm going to do something I haven't done before and try bullet points this time!

  • I loved the return of Brothers and Sisters! Who didn't know that whale was going to break? (Actually, I thought the whole window was going to break, so I was actually relieved that it was just the shelf that fell.) It seems like they've got plenty of stuff going on this year, and I will be tuning in to find out!
  • Chuck was great fun. The only thing is that I expected something to change in the status quo after that episode, but somehow it all went back to normal in the end. I would have liked to see Chuck become assistant manager, especially.
  • Heroes is great! What else can I say?
  • I've always liked Life, and I still do. It's not like it's a groundbreaking show or anything, but it's very well-executed. And apparently I have a thing for redheads.
  • Fringe really stepped it up this week. I love Walter so much, but we all know I have a thing for eccentric college professors. And I'm glad we got to see the cow again.
  • I really like Privileged much more than I ever intended to, so it figures that the ratings are in the basement. But seriously, if you haven't watched it, watch it, and you'll be surprised!
  • I feel quite blasphemous saying this, but the premiere of Pushing Daisies didn't do anything for me. It felt like they were trying too hard, and there were some pacing problems. But of course I'm going to watch it again next week and see if it returns to form.
  • I wasn't quite as put off by Dirty Sexy Money, but it seems like they're trying to change the show a lot, and I'm not exactly sure where it's going to end up.
  • Lipstick Jungle, on the other hand, thoroughly pleased me. Who would have thought it would be beating DSM for my affections in that timeslot?
  • Ugly Betty is another show that seems to be floundering a little bit. It seems like they're setting a lot of dominoes up, but right now I'm not quite sure what's going on.
  • The Ex-List is a real wild card for me. I totally identify with Bella, especially when she said she's 33. (That's exactly my age!) But it kind of seems that going through all her romantic failures week by week will be exactly like going through all of my own. And what's fun about that? The premiere left me wanting to fall on my sword by the end, but I'll watch it again next week and see how I feel then.

Notice something missing? The one show I haven't gotten around to watching online is Gossip Girl. I can't really account for that, and I'm sure if I ever do watch it I'll get back into it, but I wonder what that says about it and/or me.

Ok, now I guess I know why I'm feeling so frazzled. That's 11 hours of TV I've managed to watch this week. And yet, back in the olden days I could probably manage to watch that much on one lazy weekend day. Being an adult isn't all it's cracked up to be!

Friday, September 26, 2008

Baffling reference question of the day

"Do you know what 84% is?"

I was tempted to say, "It means that if you had 100 things, 84 of them would be one way." But instead I asked her what she really meant, and found out she wanted to know what it is on the grading scale. Of course, there's way more than one possible answer to that question as well, but I told her it was a B, and she was satisfied.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Week 3 season report

Ok, so I skipped a week because there was nothing new on last week. But this week has a multitude of riches. I've been away from home a lot because of work, but I'll tell you how far I've gotten with my tapes.

I thought the season premiere of Heroes was awesome. I'm not one of the people who completely hated season 2, but I'd forgotten how much I loved the pace of season 1 until we returned to it. Stuff actually happened, and it wasn't all fully explained, but who cares? Heroes isn't about making sense; it's about unexpected things happening! Except for the presence of Maya and Elle, we could almost pretend that the events of season 2 never even happened, and I guess that's fine by me.

Fringe was perfectly fine this week. I agree with someone who said that the show looks great visually but isn't really as interesting as they expected. It's a solid workhorse of a show, like a CBS procedural, and I expect it will stay on the air for a long time, but it's just not as addictive as people were expecting. I do think the main character is beautiful, though, and I love that they don't glop the make-up on her. She has freckles and you can see them! But I need more cow to make my happiness complete.

I watched Knight Rider last night because somebody I admire said that it was so bad we all had to watch it to mark this moment for posterity. I didn't actually think it was that bad, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense, and not in a "who the hell cares" way like with Heroes. It was more like, "I have no idea who these people are or why they're doing these things. Did I fall asleep for a moment and miss the exposition?" The background music was wonderfully 80's cheesy, though, I have to admit. And it really did look slick and glossy and impossibly high-budget. But there's no question that next week I'll be watching Pushing Daisies instead. (And you had better do so, too, if you know what's good for you!)

I tried to tape the season premiere of Lipstick Jungle, but the president's speech screwed up the timing and I didn't get the whole thing. I might watch it on Hulu sometime, or I might not. The fact is, I'm pretty sure I'll choose to tape Dirty Sexy Money in that timeslot instead, so why bother to get reunited with the ladies of Lipstick Jungle?

Tonight is the premiere of Ugly Betty, and you guessed it, I won't be home. But I'll tape it and get to watch it this weekend with the rest of my backlog.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Blues in a blue jacket

So I discovered this video this summer, but I've been saving it for a rainy day, and this seems like one!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Finally finished

So after only 10 months, I finally finished Cryptonomicon! I seriously had begun to think it was beyond my reach to ever finish, but my happy and relaxed state this weekend allowed me to plow through it like a hot knife through butter. I'm glad I'm done, and now I can finally start on all these other books I have piled up here!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

I will, I will, I will, I will

Ok, I've been a good girl and have given you some actual words in the last few weeks. Now can I post a video, pretty please?

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Privileged

So I watched Privileged, and I liked it very much. It seems to me a lot like Dirty Sexy Money in some ways. I'm definitely intrigued enough to tape it next week while I watch Fringe.

Week 2 season report

So I've watched two of the new shows this week (I taped Privileged and am going to watch it tonight), and I have to say that I loved, loved, loved Fringe. It reminded me so much of the pilot of Threshold. On the other hand, I'm afraid that it will also suffer the same fate as Threshold. The first episode of that show was so great, but we came back the next week to a watered-down version of the same concept with cheap sets and costumes, no dog, and a vastly diminished premise. (We were going to save the world from imminent catastrophe, and now we're tracking down infectees at the rate of one per week?) So I realize Fringe can't have a super budget every week, but I hope they keep the things I like about the show and don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. And I hear they're keeping the cow, which is very, very important!

Do Not Disturb, on the other hand.... Well, I guess I should say that Jerry O'Connell is a better actor than I realized, because he actually can play a smarmy bastard convincingly. But why do I want to watch him play a smarmy bastard? It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, but I don't think I'll feel like hanging around for it after Pushing Daisies.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Alone again (naturally)

About 98.5% of the time, I really don't mind living alone. I do like my solitude, and it's wonderful that I can eat what I want to and watch whatever I like on TV. But sometimes it seems really unfortunate, and I'm running up against two of those reasons right now. First, last night I got really sick. The last time I was in so much abdominal pain, I ended up in the hospital. I guess this is a lesson not to eat a nectarine and a piece of coffee cake and then go immediately to bed. But at any rate, there I was with nobody to comfort me or call 911, so all I could do was pray, and it did thankfully go away in about 10 minutes. And then there was no one to go to the kitchen and get me a glass of 7-up except, you guessed it, me.

The other reason is that I'm supposed to get a crown from my dentist tomorrow, way out on Columbus Road. I would really love it if I had somebody to take me there and bring me home, but who's going to do that on the second day of school? I guess Athens Transit is just going to have to suffice, but it would be nice if I had someone like a husband that I could force to take me!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Week 1 season report

So everything new I wanted to watch on TV this week has been on, and here's my report. I loved the season premiere of Gossip Girl. Everything about it was beautiful-- the clothes, the settings, the music, the dialogue. I can't wait to see what they have in store for me this year. But it's still going to be the thing I tape after Chuck starts in a few weeks.

I was less impressed with 90210, and I won't be tuning in again. It was always kind of a longshot for me, because I've never been that into teen shows, and I never saw the original, but I figured it was worth a try. I didn't think it was horrible, and if you like that kind of thing it was probably exactly what you expected, but there was nothing to make me want to come back. I'd rather have another hour of free time in my week. (I figure that in this slot I can watch Gossip Girl that I've taped from the night before.)

In other news, I have a cold, which is probably really an allergy. I say this because I've been sick on my birthday every single year since I moved here, and that can't possibly be a coincidence. But I'm traveling through the stages of this thing at warp speed, so it's possible that I'll be all better by tomorrow, and finally get to cut my birthday cake at work. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

What I did on my summer vacation

So the new TV season starts tomorrow night, and that means that I'll soon have new things to talk about. Before that happens, I guess I should get you up to date on what I've been watching this summer.

The only new TV show I've been watching is Swingtown, and I love it! I really hope it does come back again in some form. They can put it on HGTV for all I care; just bring it back! It's a much gentler show than people were expecting, and I've come to really care about the characters. Plus I love the hair and clothes and furniture and music. And the swimming pool!

In reruns, I've been continuing with Grey's Anatomy, and am now almost at the end of Season 3. I also watched Season 4 of Angel, which was a chore to slog through. I'll try to catch up with Season 5 next time it comes around; I hear it promises to be a lot more fun.

I already told you about how I tried to watch The Prisoner and gave up halfway through. Other DVD treats I've enjoyed this summer have been the first two seasons of Northern Exposure, which were even better than I remembered from my teenage years, part of season 2 of Bullwinkle, and some classic Doctor Who. Now I've started working on Beauty and the Beast. (The series, not the Disney movie, for those of you who are too young to remember.) I love it so much! I would marry it if I could! Actually, I guess I'd marry Vincent, but that would make Catherine sad, and we couldn't have that.

So that's the story of my summer, screenwise at least. It seems like I didn't accomplish all I set out to, but Lady Love makes fools of us all, I guess.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

I apologize for the lull in actual text

My traffic stats show that my readership has gone way down, and I guess it doesn't take a marketing analyst to know why that is. I've been awfully introspective lately in a way that's not very entertaining. Well, hopefully that will change on September 1 when the new TV season begins and I get something external to talk about again. On the other hand, I'm usually so busy during fall quarter that I might not get a chance to write much here at all. So I guess we'll all just have to wait and see what happens.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Saturday night at the disco

Here's a little something to brighten your Saturday night, but as for me, I'm going to go to bed and sleep well for a change.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Here in the dark with you

I won't try to tell you that Darling Lili is my favorite movie of all time, but this song is the highlight of it.


Thursday, August 21, 2008

Card games

You might not guess it, but I've played the "temperamental genius" card a lot of times in my life, especially with my family. When something was going on that I didn't like, I would just flash that card out of my deck and walk away scot-free. Now I'm finding out how annoying it is to have that card played at me, but I can't really say anything when it's a trick I've used to good advantage so many times myself. Self-awareness is a terrible thing, isn't it? Oh, to be a sea cucumber!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Mary Richards and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

As if it wasn't bad enough with the YouTube videos, now I've discovered I can embed a whole Hulu video in my blog! Don't worry, I don't plan on doing it all the time, but I thought I should try it once. This is my favorite episode of Mary Tyler Moore, and the way my life is going right now seems a lot like Mary's in this episode.

An advice column

Because my love life is in such a state of flux these days, I've been reading a lot of relationship articles. And so I finally decided to just write one of my own.

The Top 10 Things that Men Should Know about Women

1. Women are like old-fashioned TV sets with dials. We stay on whatever channel we were on when you were last watching. So if the last thing that happened between us was awkward and weird, our brains will stay in that state forever unless you replace it with a better memory. On the other hand, if the last thing you said was something incredibly wonderful, that memory can carry us for months or years of no contact at all. Seriously.

2. From your point of view, we cry all the time. But that doesn’t mean we’re leaking. And telling us to stop will only make it worse. It’s just something you’re going to have to deal with. And half of the time when we’re crying, it’s because we’re happy anyway.

3. When we’re alone with you and laugh for no apparent reason, it’s not because we think you’re a dork. If we did think you were a dork, our response certainly wouldn’t be laughter, but more like a cold shoulder. We laugh when we’re nervous and excited, so if we’re laughing for no apparent reason, it probably means that we’re nervous and excited to be with you. This is a good thing.

4. We don’t need every encounter with you to be Oscar-worthy. Don’t feel like you have to say something profound or witty or profoundly witty every time that we’re together. All that we really need to know is that we’re still important to you, and you demonstrate that best just by being yourself, not by putting on some show.

5. As a corollary to #4, we don’t need you to keep showing your plumage forever. In the wild, males often do put on a display to attract a female’s attention, but once they’ve got it, they put those pretty tail feathers back into storage for another year. Time you spend preening in front of a girl you’ve already got sitting beside you is time that could be spent on actually building the nest together. And that’s what you really want, right?

6. If a woman isn’t talking to you as much as usual, it means that something is wrong, not that she decided to give you a vacation! What’s wrong may or may not have anything to do with you, but she probably wants you to ask about it in a non-confrontational way. This will win you major brownie points, and you’ll get more if you just let her talk about it and don’t immediately start trying to find a solution.

7. When something is bothering you, it’s nice if you can give us a clue about it. We don’t expect to have a major therapy session with Kleenexes and hugs, but if you can just find some way of filling us in on the broad outlines of it, it would be really helpful and let us know that you’re not mad at us (which is, heaven help us, what we always assume first.) If you can just say something like, “My boss is being a jerk” or “The starter on my pickup is acting up,” you’ll save yourself a whole lot of nagging and wheedling to find out what’s wrong.

8. About nagging and wheedling: it really wouldn’t happen so much if you’d just deal with the issue in the first place. If you think you can wear us down, it’s not going to work, unless we decide to give up on you totally, which you probably don’t really want. So if your answer is “no,” just say it the first time and get it over with. And “I need time to think” is also a response that’s better than stony silence.

9. Your silences always do seem stony to us, unless they occur right after something marvelously wonderful you’ve just said. (See #1.) Remember that women need feedback at all times, and we also need something to look forward to. So if you can say something like, “I’m busy studying for a test on Friday, but I can talk to you a lot that night,” or “I’ll be done with this busy time at work after April 15th,” it lets us know the reason for your silence and will let you actually get a lot more accomplished.

10. What we need to know more than anything, and that covers a multitude of sins, is how you really feel about us. And if you can manage to say it once, afterwards you won’t need to spell it out so completely again. If the words “I love you” scare you, find some other way to say it. Just say it somehow, and I promise we won’t laugh at you.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Come, come, elucidate your thoughts

I think that this song should be required listening for all males over 16. I'm just saying.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Yet another video

The water is wide

A few weeks ago, one of the points of our sermon at church was "God challenges you in areas where you need the most work." I knew immediately what the preacher was talking about. My big sticking points have always been separation, uncertainty, and risk. And guess what? When I look ahead to this coming year, it seems that its prevailing features are going to be separation, uncertainty, and risk. I don't like this one bit! But if I want to the carrot dangling for me on the other side, I have to cross this chasm. But do I have to like it?

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Magic

Usually when I'm trolling for Andy Gibb stuff on YouTube, I just look for his original songs, but I came across this video today, and all I have to say is, "Wow!" I think I like it better than the original.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Never mind

So guess who I just saw?

The change is made

So our topic today is transformative power. Those of us who study literature use this term to describe a character who comes along and changes everything in the story. A good example is the character of Randle Patrick McMurphy in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." He comes to the mental hospital and changes everything for everybody. You know that even after he's gone, nothing will ever go back to the way it was.

This year I've met a lot of people with transformative power. The first of those was Aethelred Eldridge. He came, he did what he needed to do, and he left again, and I'm the better for it. Although I wish I could see him once in a while, I know that I don't need to, and that he's already given me everything that I needed from him. From what I've read, that's the way most people feel about Aethelred.

But on July 9th, a different person with transformative power walked into my library, and not for the first time. In one short month he changed everything, and now that he's out of sight, I can't just sit back and say, "Oh well, that's the way the cookie crumbles." Sometimes the point of somebody with transformative power is that they're supposed to stay.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

I go for you

This one is certainly not as polished as the album version of this song, which is smooth as silk. However, Andy gets at the raw emotion of the song here in a way that the album version just doesn't. Proving that maybe you have to be willing to make a fool of yourself in order for people to know how you really feel.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Early Bee Gees hit

On the other hand...

But after talking to some other people about what happened last night, maybe I shouldn't get too discouraged. They are telling me that my glass is half full, not half empty.

The after-Christmas letdown

So I had my long-awaited dinner party last night, and I was hoping for this, but instead I got this, or slightly more optimistically, this. Now I'm not exactly sure where to go next.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Not a very good day

So what do you say when you've lost your best friend? This is the 5th time in my life I've done this, so you'd think it would get easier, right?

Monday, August 4, 2008

Once Upon a Time

I thought that IMDB knew about every show that had ever existed, but I was wrong. They didn't have any information on a show I loved to watch when I was home from school, Once Upon a Time. Fortunately, that website I've linked to has picked up the slack and even has three full videos to watch. I'll have to check one out when I get home tonight. And yes, part of the reason why I became a librarian is because of Marian. (Although they still don't let me operate the book machine around here!)

Long time coming

80's music videos can be so strange, and they often (intentionally or unintentionally) obfuscate the meaning of the song. Take this one, for example.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Regeneration is everywhere!

I've been thinking a lot about the Doctor and his regenerations, and I've also been thinking a lot about Betty Crocker, because of this 60's dinner party I'm throwing next weekend. This morning as I was waking up, it suddenly occurred to me that people shouldn't be so surprised that the Doctor can regenerate, because Betty Crocker has regenerated many times. (The 1972 version is the "real" Betty Crocker to me, just like the 5th Doctor is the "real" one as well.) So has the Morton Salt Girl, the Downy baby, and many other advertising slogans. If those fictional characters can totally change their appearance and we don't bat an eye, why shouldn't the Doctor?

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

More dreams

So in my dream last night, I was going to fly to Heathrow on British Airways, but I lost the carry-on with my shoes inside. And I couldn't admit to anyone that I may have allowed someone to "tamper with my packages," so I just wandered the airport in my bare feet, increasingly convinced that I was going to miss my flight. It was quite a depressing feeling of loss, and even after I woke up, I still kept thinking that I needed to go back into the dream so I could find my shoes! All this is very ironic, of course, because in real life I hate to wear shoes. But somehow I think they're important on a vacation in England!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Hello, young lovers

You guys are going to be real surprised when you see the timestamp on this one! I've just woken up from a dream and have to impart all my new found wisdom to you before I go back to sleep. But this post is really more for me than it is for you.

I know that when it comes to romance, I'm the girl who cried wolf. My last few years have given my spectators whiplash as I frantically bounced from possibility to possibility. And I always insist that each person is different and really special and I've never felt this way before. But the truth is, whether you believe it or not, I do have a love of my life, and I haven't seen him for 15 years. I've named a lot of names in this blog, but I still don't feel I can mention his. There's still too much power there even after all this time; the dream I had just told me that.

Ever since I lost him when his family moved away right before senior year, I've had two kinds of dreams about him. In the first kind, I am reunited with him, and I remember that it's all because of one letter that one of us wrote. One letter that confessed everything, and after that there could be no doubt that we were meant to be together for eternity. And now we are together and everything is perfect. That kind of dream always makes me so sad, because the truth is that even though we supposedly had a love to span the ages (and the fact that it hasn't faded after 15 years tells me more and more that that was really true), neither of us lifted one finger to put ourselves back together after we were separated. Although our senior year separation was inevitable, we could have made plans to go to the same college, or even just kept in contact with each other enough so that a future reunion remained possible. But instead we let each other slip away for no good reason, except that we were too young to know a really good thing when we saw it. I know that on my end, everyone was sure that I was too young for it to really be a real thing, and they told me that I would soon forget him. I hoped that they were wrong but was afraid that they were right, and so I acted accordingly, trying (and continually failing) to put him out of my mind and move on with my life.

The other kind of dream always made me very happy. I haven't had one for about 5 years now, and it's looking increasingly unlikely that I ever will again. In this kind of dream, he and I find ourselves alone together in a deserted space. At first it was usually a college dining hall; later it became a corporate boardroom. In any case, amidst the empty tables and chairs, we simply sit and talk for hours, telling each other all the details of our lives since we last met. When I wake up, I can remember none of the details at all, but it gives me a good feeling that lasts all day. What happened 5 years ago is that I suddenly had the thought, which had never occurred to me before, that the dreams were really real, and that he and I needed each other so much that we were granted this ability to periodically commune together as long as we remembered no details in the morning. Of course, once I came to that realization the spell was broken and the dreams stopped.

The dream I had last night was a variation on the first one. I dreamt that I got a Christmas card from his mother that was a sort of booklet with reminiscences of their family's life. It was amazing to see that several of the old family pictures included me. She also gave me his address and several pictures of his family today. So I guess even in the alternate dream world, too much water has gone under the bridge to pretend that we could get back together, but at least I can pretend that we still matter to each other and everyone knows it.

So why all this now? I think the message is clear: letting a good thing slip away can change your life forever, and not for the better. I've already learned that once, and this time I shouldn't let my momentary pride and stubbornness get in the way of my long-term happiness.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

The great escape

So last night I was listening to Elton John, and the song "Philadelphia Freedom" came up, which has never been on the top list of his songs for me, but as I was listening I was pondering the meaning of the song and why he wrote it. So it may come as no surprise to anyone that last night I had a dream about escaping to Omaha. For those of you not in the know, Omaha is the place within an afternoon's driving distance where people from Ames dream of escaping to. Some of you readers might also know of a more personal meaning that city holds for me. Draw your own conclusions.

At any rate, I think the locally equivalent place here is Pittsburgh. I do dream of going there, especially to visit the Mr. Rogers exhibit, which I still haven't seen after 10 years of good intentions, but right now it would be enough for me to escape to Parkersburg, 38 miles away. Draw your own conclusions about that, too.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Silly SciFi Channel

So I was very excited to watch the first part of the Doctor Who season finale last night. It ended on a real cliffhanger, looking like the Doctor is going to regenerate again. I know that in England, people were on pins and needles for the whole next week wondering if it was really true. I already know the answer because I couldn't help overhearing it on an Englishman's blog that I know. (Oh, all right, I peeked because I couldn't stand the suspense anymore). However, now everybody in America knows the answer, because the SciFi Channel ham-handedly gave it all away in their preview of next week's episode. Don't the people who make the previews pay the slightest bit of attention to the show at all? Watching the last five minutes of this week's episode would have told them that showing the Doctor in next week's preview was a Very Bad Idea. I'm curious to know what other people think about this.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Quotable quotes

Unintentionally funny quote of the day: One of our co-workers as she came into our office (the typical cubicle farm) from the library floor: "I don't see how those people out there can stand to sit in those same chairs at the same computers all day."

I guess I found my niche

So it's official. All I had to do yesterday was mention AE, and traffic shot through the roof, twice as much as for David Cassidy. That does it. I'm shutting down all the intellectual pretensions of this blog and becoming a celebrity gossipfest like TMZ!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Snowie tells all

So if it isn't David Cassidy, there's one other person that people come here in search of: Aethelred Eldridge. After my initial post, I've purposefully not mentioned him again, since I didn't want him to think I was exploiting our relationship in any way. But since I haven't seen him in almost two months, I guess there's nothing left to exploit!

If you're looking for weird stories of bizarre behavior, you've come to the wrong place. Aethelred has never been anything but a kindly gentleman to me. (People say it's because he's trying to impress me as a young, pretty girl, and I'll admit that's probably true.) It is true, though, that he does get overstimulated very easily, so I've had to learn not to introduce too many ideas to him at one time. But bearing that in mind, I've found him quite easy to work with. (Of course, I'm comparing him to my own wild-tempered daddy, so he has an advantage with me!)

At any rate, I'm very glad I've met him, and even if I never see him again, I'll be glad that we've learned from each other what we did. (I taught him about OhioLINK books, and he taught me to try to open up a little bit more and not worry so much about what people think of me. I think I got the better part of the bargain!)

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

I'm on a show tune kick!

It takes almost two minutes to get to the song on this one, but it's worth it.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Prisoner has beaten me

I've been trying to watch The Prisoner on DVD this summer. It's a short series with only 17 episodes, and so it seemed like a very attainable goal. Everyone is always saying what a groundbreaking series it was, and I really liked the Simpsons version of it. The only problem is that it failed to hold my attention. I got halfway through it and realized that all the episodes were starting to feel the same. So I gave up on it and am not sure if I'll ever finish it. Its replacement? Bullwinkle J. Moose. How's that for a 180?

Monday, July 21, 2008

The reluctant hero

My traffic here has really gone through the roof since I posted those David Cassidy videos, and I'm glad. I hope that you all enjoy them, and I hope that you take a look around here at our other selections and see if anything else interests you. But the librarian in me just can't rest until I point something out, even though it might be against my best interests fame-wise. Those videos come straight from YouTube, where they've already been for a long time. I certainly haven't added any value with my analysis, because I haven't given any, so I guess I'm not exactly sure why you would come here instead of just going there. But bienvenidos for as long as you care to stay!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

The luck of the Snowie

So last year at this time, I was happily engrossed in Smallville repeats airing on a local station on the weekends. Then they abruptly took them off, and I haven't watched any Smallville since. So this summer, I've been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on FX, and guess what? They've apparently taken her off the air too, and now people get two hours of The Practice every weekend morning instead of just one. Well, at least I know that Hulu will be be posting the 3rd season of Buffy soon, and I'm standing in line to watch it when they do!

Friday, July 18, 2008

Y. Readmore

I think that this column expresses very well the feelings I've been having about reading and why I' m not doing enough of it. In my case, it's all Netflix's fault. I pay them around $10 a month; meanwhile the library is free. Therefore, it seems like a good business strategy to maximize the amount of value I get from the paid resource at the expense of the free resource. Makes sense in one way, but not in another.

More David Cassidy

Ok, people really seem to have liked that David Cassidy video I posted recently, so I'm going to bump him off the page with another one.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Bad reputation

So a while ago I noticed that my blog is getting filtered out by filtering software, and now I see from my stats that I've had a little visit from the U.S. Department of Justice. Who knew what a dangerout person I could be? ;)

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Every time I see you falling

I just love the chorus of this song. I think it expresses so evocatively that everyone wants someone to fall in love with them, but no one wants to be the first to say the words.

Sophisticated lady

Those people who know me well know that for some reason being "sophisticated" is very important to me. Certainly I don't want to be sophisticated all the time; I'm a jeans and T-shirt girl at heart. But it's important to me that once in a while I get to dress up all fancy and go to some grand occasion, preferably with place cards and wine glasses. (Never mind that I don't actually drink wine. It's all about the glasses!) That might be why I'm soon planning a 60's dinner party. (More on that later.) That might be why I have a closet full of dresses that aren't actually suitable for wear to either work or church. And that might also be why I spent a wonderful three days at Mohonk Mountain House last summer pretending to be rich. (Gee, I hope I get to back again soon, and this time take someone else with me.)

I don't think there's anything wrong with pretending to be sophisticated that way, as long as it doesn't make you abandon your principles or go into debt. But there's another way I've been attempting to be sophisticated that isn't working out so well, and I'm realizing I might have to give it up. I've been trying to be sophisticated in my love life, which for me translates to being the kind of person who can have someone beloved breeze into town, show him a good time while he's here, and then have him ride out into the sunset with nary a passing thought.

I don't know where I got the idea that that kind of behavior is sophisticated. I think it's probably from TV, which always delights in giving our hero or heroine a love interest for an episode or two and then ripping them away again. How many different girls did Captain Kirk meet along the way, and he never shed a tear from them after they were gone? And then of course there are the shows that grant the main character a recurring love interest who shows up once or twice a season, but otherwise doesn't factor into things at all.

The reason I'm pondering all this is because I've hit upon this situation in my real life. Someone very dear to me has just blown into town and is scheduled to blow out again at the end of the summer. I've been trying really, really hard to be sophisticated about this, and it's slowly driving me insane. I can't just turn it on and off like that, and maybe it's time I stopped trying.

Of course, that begs the question: if I'm not going to be sophisticated, what am I going to be? That's something that I haven't figured out yet, but I certainly hope the answer doesn't become "melodramatic." I've heard I can be pretty good at that one too, but it takes a lot out of you!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Even the nights are better

So do I just have an overly slash-y brain, or does anyone else think the way this video is edited creates some unintentional homoerotic overtones?

Monday, July 14, 2008

Another great Stephenson quote

I know this is getting increasingly ridiculous, but I'm still working on Cryptonomicon. I'm now on page 590 of 910, so I'm at least over the hump, and things are starting to come together. But once again I've found a quote on a random subject that I just have to share with you. To put it into some kind of context, Randy has been forced to go back to his old neighborhood because of an earthquake, and because of past problems he's getting the cold shoulder from all of his neighbors except one Christian couple.

"Randy hadn't the faintest idea what these people thought of him and what he had done, but he could sense right away that, essentially that was not the issue because even if they thought he had done something evil, they at least had a framework, a sort of procedural manual, for dealing with transgressions. To translate it into UNIX system administration terms (Randy's fundamental metaphor for just about everything), the post-modern, politically correct atheists were like people who had suddenly found themselves in charge of a big and unfathomably complex computer system (viz. society) with no documentation or instructions of any kind, and so whose only way to keep the thing running was to invent and enforce certain rules with a kind of neo-Puritanical rigor, because they were at a loss to deal with any deviations from what they saw as the norm. Whereas people who were wired into a church were the UNIX system administrators who, while they might not understand everything, at least had some documentation, some FAQs and How-tos and README files, providing some guidance on what to do when things got out of whack. They were, in other words, capable of displaying adaptability. (585-86)

I don't know what Neal Stephenson's personal beliefs are, and in a way it doesn't matter, because he's one of those authors who's able to perfectly rationally describe the viewpoints of multiple characters with contradictory ideas without necessarily choosing sides or stacking the deck. What I do know is that he's put into words here one of the feelings I've had for a while about the role of Christianity in our post-modern society: if nothing else, it at least gives you a place to start when thinking about issues.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Fighting and sometimes striving

I'm sorry to inflict this on you, but I've had this song in my head ever since Sunday school this morning, when we spent a long time on the word "striving":

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Indecision'll kill ya

Here's a little David Cassidy to brighten your Saturday night:

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Incense and peppermints

I hope you don't take this the wrong way ("I swear I'm clean, officer!") but I've been in an altered state of consciousness the past few days, and I really don't know why. I've had a hard time sleeping, but when I do my perception of time has been greatly altered from normal. For instance, I can go to sleep, dream a long and complicated dream, wake up, and find that it's exactly 3 minutes later. This has made my nights seem approximately 18 years long. I'm not sure if it's cause or effect, then, that during the days I feel tired, dreamy, and not really here. I just wish I knew how to make it stop.

All you've got to do is smile that smile....

When I was about 5, I thought this was the most romantic song in the universe. And guess what? I still do.


Wednesday, July 9, 2008

WB.com news

I just got an email from The WB Online that tells what additional shows they'll be adding:

-Everwood
-Veronica Mars
-Roswell
-Angel
-In Living Color (clips)
-MadTV
-Firefly
-The Loop

They also say that they are launching on August 27th.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

My geographical conundrum

Arkansas and I have a problem: namely, that I don't know where it is. I'm actually quite good with geography, and in 4th grade when we had to label all the states on the map, I obviously knew where it really is, but at some point it moved in my mind. Now it's located somewhere in the void between South Carolina and Georgia. (What? There's no void there, you say? Just a bit of evidence that you're living in a parallel universe. Or maybe I am. It's hard to keep straight.)
For many years I was quite happy with my vision of Arkansas on the warm southern waters of the Atlantic. I'll admit I was always kind of confused when newspeople would talk about the Clintons and how far they had travelled from Little Rock to the White House. "Yeah, customs probably are quite different," I thought to myself, "but I wish they'd quit saying how far away it is. It's probably only a few hundred miles."
The spell was broken several years ago when I had the prospect of a job interview in Little Rock, and I decided to drag out the atlas and see where exactly I might be going. Under Missouri? Really? I still don't believe it. It's got to be the parallel universe thing instead.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig

I'm back from the out-of-town part of my vacation, and I'm very glad that I have four days to relax at home now before I have to go back to work!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Going Bye-Bye

I just wanted to let you know that I'll be gone for a while. I'll be back by the time fireworks bloom in the sky!

Friday, June 20, 2008

The WB Online: Field test

So I tried to watch the first episode of The Gilmore Girls, which is a show I've always wanted to get into, but I only made it as far as the first 15 minutes. The video was so herky-jerky in fullscreen that I was starting to feel seasick. Since school isn't in session this week, our network has been silky-smooth, so I know the problem wasn't on my end, but theirs. In 15 minutes, I also didn't encounter a commercial. I know they're going to have them eventually, because what else would their business model be, but maybe they haven't arranged for sponsors for the beta? Of course, no one wants to watch more commercials than they have to, but it seems like they would want to test out the commercial functionality by at least putting in some of their own promos. Hulu had ads during their beta, and since they found they had lots of problems getting them inserted in the right places, it was good that they did beta-test them.

I also tried the Facebook functionality, and I now have the first episode of Gilmore Girls embedded on my profile. The problem is that I didn't really want the whole episode there. Supposedly you can mark a clip that you want to embed, but no matter how many times I try it, the whole show keeps showing up. Maybe this is another problem that needs fixing?

All in all, I stand by my original position: the site is too beta-y to make a final judgment on yet.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

The WB Online: First thoughts

So I finally got into the beta of the The WB Online, and guess what? It's very beta-y! They have only the first 5 episodes of each show, but I guess it gives you a feel for what it will be like. I was unimpressed with the quality of the video in fullscreen, although it's passable, just not that great when compared to Hulu. It also shows a lot of annoying video promos, etc. when you're sitting on a page trying to decide what to watch, a feature that I hate. (You try to make up your mind when the Friends theme song is blasting at you!)

Anyway, I thought you'd like to know the list of shows they have at present, so here goes: All of Us, Blue Water High (?), Buffy, Dangerous (?), Friends (which we all know was on NBC, so obviously it must have been produced by Warner Brothers), Gilmore Girls, the OC, One Tree Hill, Smallville, and The Wayans Brothers.

I looked up the two shows that I hadn't heard of on that list. They are both from Australia, so I'm not exactly sure what's up with that.

At some point I'll try out more of the features. It's supposed to interact with Facebook in a way that could be cool or could just be annoying. I'll also try watching a full episode of something and tell you if the quality evened out and how many ads there were.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Code solver's paradise

If you like codes and things (and you know who you are), you've just got to read this article!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Reversal of fortune

So this morning when I walked into the library, our library accountant was waiting for me with a letter. She said she'd wanted to give it to me on Friday to make my weekend a happy one, but I wasn't here. Well, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I got a raise, and it was a substantial one. Now I guess I have to buy some furniture and give the cat a name.*

*I have been reminded that before I get around to that, first I have to buy a cat!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

New online TV watching options

It's been a while since I posted about anything new in online TV watching, but I noticed a post today on Tidal TV, a new service that has just gone online. Their gimmick is that they play shows from different cable channels in real time (although not in the same real time you'd get if you were actually watching the show on TV). I don't get this. Is this supposed to be online TV watching for channel surfers? Since I'm very much an appointment TV watcher, this doesn't appeal to me at all.

That reminds me, though. I also heard a few days ago that The WB Online has launched their beta. I signed up for it, but haven't gotten invited yet. I'll let you know more once I get in.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

I know who you are, sort of

Since I let the cat out of the bag a few days ago that I know who's reading this blog (in an anonymized sense, with locations and search terms, but not actual names or anything, unless it's so obvious to me who you are by the town you live in), I thought I might as well go all the way and talk about who is reading this blog. From what I can tell, there are three groups of people.

1. A whole mess of people who live in Athens. Or else one person who is very obsessed with me and looks at it 50 times a day, but I prefer to believe the former! Anyway, if you live in Athens, don't worry. You're hidden among a whole sea of people and I'll never know exactly who you are unless you tell me, which I sometimes wish some of you would. Especially if you're very cute and nice and single.

2. People that I knew in the past. Some of these, like I said, are obvious because of the city. I only know one person in Thief River Falls, and it's my ex-husband. (Hi!) Others I just know have to be someone I know, but I haven't figured it out yet. At any rate, if you are one of those people, you don't have to be shy about it. You could actually say something to me one of these days. I don't bite.

3. A whole bunch of really confused people that find me by searching Google and Technorati. Sometimes I can tell what they're looking for, and sometimes their search terms just baffle me. (Like "darkly stuffed animals," for instance.) The posts that actually get found by people on purpose are the ones where I talk about watching TV online. That series is very, very popular, and I'm glad to know I've done something worthwhile with my life, even if it was only helping people figure out how better to waste time.

Other people are looking for something and put the phrase in without quotes and so get a false hit on my site. I once called a post Return to Mayberry, for instance. I was being deeply ironic, but apparently a lot of people are looking for that movie available to watch online, and so they keep hitting on my site because it contains all those keywords. Sorry, but I don't know where you can find that online, but you're in a large group of people who are looking for it! I do, however, know where you can find Magnum, P.I., online, which is another thing people look for: Netflix Instant Watching. I don't know anyplace that has it for free as of this instant.

There have also been a lot of people searching for "sweet vu" and finding my site because I once quoted a Bee Gees song with "sweet deja vu" in the lyrics. I finally Googled Sweet Vu and was disgusted to find that it's a porn site. Yuck! I hope you guys don't leave too much of a mess while you're here, but I can guarantee there's nothing you want to look at, no matter what the filtering software people might think.

Well, there you have it. That's my audience for what it's worth. Oh, one other thing I've figured out: there must be 6 of you who subscribe to the RSS feed for this site, because on days that I post something new here, I always have exactly 6 hits. I'm a pretty good logician, huh?

Monday, June 9, 2008

More cryptofun

Ok, I've got another one that may be even better.

TSYINO HNTWOE EOHOTA RTIUDS EANLOE INGDTY
OUIYFR UBNGTK RLDIE TEABR RDNBD OMDAA

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Cryptofun

Since I've been reading Cryptonomicon, I've been inspired to do a little cryptography of my own. Here is an encoded song lyric. See if you can get it!

ITUEEN THRCRD HAEISI ITAAOL NYSLNO KOPPAV
EOASIO BUNISG ORDDTE TIOEER HNUSRS YSTMR.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Live from Athens, it's Saturday Night

It's been a while since I gave you a Saturday night video, so here you go.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Free reference advice

I don't want to let on too much that I can see what goes on behind the scenes here, in case that has a chilling effect on people's browsing. However, I'm also a nice librarian who likes to give people what they want. I see from the search logs that someone came here looking for this, and since I'm probably one of the few people who actually knows where to find that page, I thought I'd just give it to you.

Avert your eyes

One thing I learned during my trip is that this blog doesn't get through filtering software, the apparent reason being that I mentioned The Silence of the Lambs in one of my posts. If the software was actually intelligent, it would know that I mentioned that film in a negative context, but of course it doesn't. At any rate, I guess being rejected by filtering software might add to the cachet of this site as a hip and happening place to be! Any publicity is good publicity, right?

Thursday, June 5, 2008

I have returned...

...from New Orleans, and I managed to find plenty to occupy myself even without recommendations from any of you! I'll update more later, if I feel like it.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Further further medical update

Why stop at 8 pills a day when you could have 9? The sales pitch was so persuasive that I just couldn't say no. Sigh.

The tortoise and the hare

Yes, yes, I know my last post about it was in December, but just in case you're wondering, I'm still reading Cryptonomicon. It's been sitting on my shelf looking at me for the past 5 months, wondering if I'd ever get back to it again. Well, I've finally been spurred into action when I found out that somebody I know had to get it from OhioLINK because I've been hogging our library's only copy. (Sure, I know dozens of people have probably gotten it from OhioLINK in that time, but I didn't know them, so it's different, ok?) So I actually made some progress with it yesterday afternoon*, and now I'm about 1/4 done with it. I plan on taking it to New Orleans with me, if it doesn't put my luggage over the weight limit!

*Full disclosure: I was really planning to watch a movie on Netflix Instant Watching yesterday, but our building's internet connection was being painfully slow, so the book was my backup plan.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Only yesterday

This song has been going through my head all night, and I think it sums up pretty well how I'm feeling at the moment.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Soon and very soon

I haven't mentioned it here before, because somehow it doesn't seem real to me yet, but I'll be attending a conference in New Orleans in about two weeks. If anybody would like to give me advice on what to see and do (besides perspire heavily), I'm open to suggestions.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Venus and Mars

I know I haven't been very cerebral here the last few weeks, but I've been so busy that I haven't had a chance to think about much of anything. But now I'm trying to avoid writing a paper, so the thoughts about everything else in the world are flowing! And there's something I've been piecing together in my mind for a while, but I hadn't really made the connections until just now.

Men and women fall in love differently. Obviously, their different physiologies and hormonal complements make this true, but I don't mean just that. I mean that if you ask a typical couple to describe how they knew that they were in love, you'll probably hear variations on these stories (which I have just fabricated in my head).

Woman: Well, people had been mentioning Joe Blow to me for a while, and everyone seemed to think very highly of him. And then I met him, and I didn't think very much of him at first, but over time I learned what a hard worker he is, and how much he loved his dog Smooshie, and then I saw the way he treated his mother like a queen, and I knew he was the man for me.

Man: There I was, minding my own business at the reference desk, when I looked up and beheld the most beautiful pair of blue eyes I'd ever seen. I was too stupid to realize it at the time, but from that moment everything changed for me and there was no going back. And believe me, I tried.

I've listened to stories like this all my life, and I've just now noticed the difference. Generally speaking, for a woman, falling in love is a decision she makes once she amasses enough positive evidence of a man's worthiness. On the other hand, falling in love is something that happens to a man, and he can never adequately explain why or how, only that it changed him forever. Which do you think is more romantic? And which would you rather do?

A trip down Memory Trail

As a matter of fact, Tumbleweeds do make me nostalgic. But probably not in the way you're thinking.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

My thoughts on the new fall shows

Without committing myself to anything permanently, since we all know how much the fall schedule tends to change between May and August, I thought I'd briefly tell you what my thoughts are on the new fall schedule. I'll go hour by hour through the week.

Monday

8:00-- This hour is trying to kill me! We've got Gossip Girl, Chuck, and The Sarah Connor Chronicles all at the same time. My suspicion is that someone will eventually move one of these shows to a different slot. If that doesn't happen, I'm going to watch Chuck, tape Gossip Girl, and let Sarah Connor fall by the wayside.

9:00-- Heroes all the way, baby!

10:00-- I'll try the new show following Heroes, called My Own Worst Enemy. I'm not sure if it's really my type of show (it's about a secret agent living a double life), but I'll give it a shot.

Tuesday

8:00-- I'm not promising anything, since I never watched the original, but I'll give the reboot of 90210 a whirl.

9:00-- Four new shows to choose from! At this point I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. Surviving the Filthy Rich, about a caretaker to two spoiled teenagers, could be good or it could be shallow and vapid. The Mentalist, about a fake psychic who solves crimes for the police, sounds like it's been done before. Fringe is about an FBI agent who has to work with an insane genius to solve crimes. (Can somebody say Silence of the Lambs?) My guess is that this one will be too dark for me. Kath and Kim is a sitcom about a mother and daughter who live together outrageously. Ho hum. I guess I'll just wait and see what buzz develops around each of these shows.

10:00-- Free hour. Go to bed and get a good night's sleep.

Wednesday

8:00-- Pushing Daisies by a mile!

9:00-- Do Not Disturb is a comedy about behind-the-scenes action at a ritzy hotel. I'll give it a shot because it stars the dreamy Jerry O'Connell, whom I've loved since Sliders.

10:00-- Dirty Sexy Money vs. Lipstick Jungle. If I have to pick one, I'm going with DSM. But if I can stay up late enough to watch that live, I'll tape LJ.

Thursday

8:00-- Ugly Betty without thinking twice!

9:00-- Free hour. Watch something that I've taped from up above.

10:00-- Two new shows to pick from. My gut tells me I'll go with Life on Mars, about a man who mysteriously time travels back to 1972. There's also The Eleventh Hour, about a man who solves crises for the government (Can anyone say Threshold?), but my gut tells me this one will also be too dark for me.

Friday

8:00-- Ghost Whisperer is nominally one of my shows, but it has failed to thoroughly captivate me, so I'll probably try Crusoe. Just try and guess what that one is about.

9:00-- Even though some people say they're boycotting this slot because of the Moonlight debacle, hope springs eternal and I'm going to try the new entrant in this time period, The Ex List. It's about a woman who finds out she's already met and discarded the love of her life, so she has to go back and revisit everyone she's ever met. (Can someone say My Name is Earl?)

10:00-- Life wasn't one of my regular shows this year, but I did catch it in repeats and liked it quite well. So I'm going to give this one another shot.

Saturday

Crickets chirp. Watch a movie or The Love Boat on DVD.

Sunday

I say that I watch The Simpsons at 8:00, but in actuality that happens about once every two months. So my only real show this night is Brothers and Sisters at 10:00.

So there you have it. I must say I'm not nearly as excited about this fall season as I was last year. On the plus side, I'll probably have more time to read, do homework, and watch things on DVD.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

More surprising news

Ok, so I'm pretty surprised now that Moonlight has been cancelled, especially since Reaper has been renewed. Don't get me wrong. I like Reaper just fine and I'm glad it's coming back for another year. But if you'd told me I could only pick one of the two to come back, it would have been no contest. Moonlight is a steak hot off the grill, while Reaper is a sweet and fluffy Moon Pie. Also, Moonlight got at least twice and possibly three times as many viewers as Reaper does. Still, I'm glad that at least one of them will be around to entertain me next year!