Don’t get around much.
Posted on September 17, 2008
Filed Under life stories, travels | Leave a Comment
The people who saw me in Boston and Newport recently will find that post title hilarious, but for the most part my travels take me to work from home and back, with occasional side trips to school and Trader Joe’s (I have a very deep and profound love of Trader Joe’s). And because I live close enough to work to take public transportation, most of my travel stories involve Taking The Bus.
Now, I don’t pretend to use a REALLY entertaining public transport system — I live near college students, so the buses are clean and in pretty good shape and the scariest situation you’re likely to get into is having to stand near someone especially stinky or getting puked on by a very drunk undergrad if you take the bus in the evening.
But we still have our characters, like this one guy who rides his bike to the bus stop and then takes the bus (we have those buses with bike racks so you can bring your bike along). Before I started New Job (YAY) we would often be on the same bus in the morning, and he would always be trying to chat up some very young, female college student who almost always looked incredibly uncomfortable but was too polite to just ignore him. You know, THAT guy. An iPod doesn’t work to ignore THAT guy — you need a book, or another conversation, or a large dog. THAT guy is immune to iPods.
Anyway, I’d also seen THAT guy try this trick while riding his bike — he’d ride up to a (young, college) woman as she walked along one of the campus paths and start talking to her as if he knew her. No, I wasn’t stalking him — he’d just get off at my stop so I saw this a number of times. I was kind of fascinated, because I was trying to figure out if he was just a creepy THAT guy or if he was a poor social skills/invisibly disabled THAT guy. The jury’s still out.
Me, I’m generally immune to being approached by THAT guy because, particulary when compared to a college student, I am old and fat and look like I will be mean to you. I’m immune, at least, except when I’m the only woman in sight on THAT guy’s way home: recently I decided to walk home instead of waiting for the next bus (missed it by thatmuch!) and suddenly I looked up and a guy on a bike was turning around up ahead to circle back towards me. I thought for a second that it was a friend of mine who bikes a lot in the area or someone from New Job (YAY) that I hadn’t recognized right away, and then I realized that it was THAT guy.
Since I was coming from the direction of Acme University he tried to chat me up about how busy the campus was and to warn me about keeping away if I wanted to avoid the crowds. Having a) just come from work where my job is to deal with the crowds of people associated with Acme U and 2) not just moved to the area yesterday, I kind of laughed and said, “Yeah, I work there”.
You know how the Road Runner leaves that cloud of dust when he takes off at top speed? Yeah, there was one of those trailing his bike as he rode away. And I was being POLITE, too, and giving him the benefit of the doubt! Polite-ish, anyway. Somewhere in the neighborhood of polite. Well, you should have seen me before I learned some manners. (Oh, some of you have!)
Burned! Underdone! Crude!*
Posted on August 31, 2008
Filed Under food, me me meme | 3 Comments
I’m working on a couple of posts (and by “working” I mean “thinking about them periodically when I’m not being run off my feet at my New Job (YAY))”. (New Job (YAY) involves stuff what is very important to Acme University students at the beginning of the academic year, hence the feet runningoffedness.) So in the meantime I offer you this meme ganked from Pam, Karen, Glittr, and probably half a dozen other people I know whose blogs I haven’t caught up on yet, and apologies in advance to the vegetarians among us who might cringe at many of the items on the list and/or my comments (you knew there would be a “my comments” element):
Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food - but a good omnivore should really try it all. Don’t worry if you haven’t, mind you; neither have I, though I’ll be sure to work on it. Don’t worry if you don’t recognise everything in the hundred, either; Wikipedia has the answers.
Here’s what I want you to do:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred (glittrgirl):
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare (does raw ground beef count? because when I was a kid I was in charge of hamburger and meatball making and it involved mixing things into the ground beef. and sometimes it got tasted (this was not my idea). just wondering.)
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush (there are very few eggplant-related dishes I won’t eat.)
11. Calamari (nom nom nom.)
12. Pho (there’s a newish Pho place in my neck of the woods that I’ve been meaning to try, though.)
13. PB&J sandwich (there’s no Fluffernutter on this list? philistines!!)
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream (are there people who have never tried pistachio ice cream? how is that possible???)
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras (I’m not a vegetarian any more but I just don’t think I could do it.)
24. Rice and beans (nom nom nom.)
25. Brawn, or head cheese (my grandmother liked it. my grandmother may have been a bit odd.)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas (ick. hate wasabi.)
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut (more ick. am not a big fan of cabbage at the best of times and I don’t find that fermenting it is an improvement.)
35. Root beer float (good. orange float? better. egg cream? best (egg cream must be purchased at a NYC diner for authenticity). a shirley temple will do in a pinch.)
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat (does barbecued goat count? because I’ve had that.)
42. Whole insects (only unintentionally. getting one in your ear is actually worse, but that’s a story for another time.)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk (no, but now I want some chevre)
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel (feast of the seven fishes once a year for my entire life. of course I’ve had eel.)
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer (palak paneer! nom nom nom.)
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (I haven’t actually had a mcdonald’s hamburger in about 20 years, but I probably had of these at some point in high school.)
56. Spaetzle (this is only a no because I’ve never had the authentic german version. also, why come there is no Kugel on this list?)
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads (amazingly, no, given some of the other things I’ve eaten.)
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (yes, yes, yes, yes. also, pizza fritta.)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette (only as sausage casings. you asked.)
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare (rabbit, yes, hare, no (sorry, rabbit people. never a pet rabbit, if that helps.))
87. Goulash
88. Flowers (again, never intentionally.)
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox (bagel and cream cheese, bagel and fried egg….)
97. Lobster Thermidor (I know it’s supposed to be all fancy and stuff but it honestly doesn’t sound that appetizing. give me a nice new england lobster roll any time.)
98. Polenta (I’ve been eating polenta all my life, which means long before it was trendy to eat polenta. it started out as a peasant food, and my family started out as…well…peasants. When I was a kid it was my job to stir the big pot of cornmeal as it thickened (what, you think it always came in an instant version?) polenta is really good with lobster tomato sauce, by the way. maybe even better than lobster thermidor.)
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake (yes, i’ve eaten eel but I don’t want to eat snake. I don’t get me, either.)
There’s an astounding lack of poultry on this list. Where is the squab? Where are the gizzards and other giblets? Where’s the ortolan? (Okay, I will admit to having eaten squab (known in my extended family as “one of the young pigeons we raise for this purpose”) and giblets, but ortolan is wrong (sorry, France).)
*I can’t stop with the show tunes. It’s a sickness.
Me Again
Posted on August 18, 2008
Filed Under current events, hee, me me me | 2 Comments
Things are starting to get better. Maybe. Slightly. The last couple of months have been damn hard months on top of a damn hard year, and I thought maybe it was better to be quiet than to be Debbie Downer. If I knew what I needed I’d try to try to ask for it, but right now the best I can do is try to change the things I can (where have I heard that one). Yes, I’m being all vague and mysterious, but one of the changes hasn’t happened yet and I’m trying not to 1) Jinx it or 2) Get myself in trouble. It’s not a wedding, a baby, or a house purchase (all of which have happened recently to people I know), so you’ll have to narrow it down from there if you haven’t heard about it ad nauseum directly from me already.
Meanwhile, I leave you with things to watch.
First, a video that cracks me the hell up no matter how many times I watch it, and one of the strongest endorsements I can give anything or anyone is that I laugh every time:
Are you laughing? You are, aren’t you.
And now in honor of all my wicked great friends who’ve been there for me lately, I give you Joe Cocker at Woodstock…helpfully subtitled (if you watch to the end, I don’t know who April is, but she has some wicked great friends, too, obviously).
Hoggify!
I Am Not Resigned.
Posted on July 4, 2008
Filed Under family | 3 Comments
The last month has been kind of rough. One of these days I promise to finish snarking on that book list and come up with some other things to write, but today is not that day.
Dirge Without Music
Edna St. Vincent MillayI am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains, — but the best is lost.The answers quick & keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,
They are gone. They have gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
My dad died last week after a long struggle with Parkinson’s Disease. One of these days I’ll tell you about him, but today is not that day. Right now I’m still getting used to the idea. And I am not resigned.
Required Reading?
Posted on May 26, 2008
Filed Under Books, current events, teh interweb | 2 Comments
Hello! Yes, I’m still here. The last couple of months have been…let’s call it “challenging”, shall we? (A much nicer word than “sucky”.) School and work and health issues have been harshing my mellow, dudes, as some of the kids may have said about a decade ago, and right now I’m supposed to be working on a paper for a class that ended a couple of weeks ago (so that’s how my semester went, in case you were wondering). So I’m blogging. Of course.
Of course, it was a year ago this week that I got veryveryvery sick and ended up in the hospital for several days, so I suppose things are fabulous, relatively speaking. (Give blood. It’s almost summer and there are shortages during the summer. Thus ends your PSA of the day.)
There have been a number of things lately that I’ve considered blogging about, but in the interest of not having to think too hard I’m going with books. Books are good.
Recently the Art of Manliness blog created a list of 100 books in “The Essential Man’s Library”. After it was mentioned on several of the blogs in my blogroll (an incomplete version of which is in the sidebar — I need to grab time for some more blog design futzing, I know), including a couple of library and librarian blogs that suggested using the list as a way to inspire people of the male persuasion to read, I decided to check it out.
First I did a count, and I’ve read about 35 of the books on the list — “about” because some of them are books I started and never finished and also because there are a couple that I’m pretty sure I read but can’t say for certain. Also, there are some…well, you’ll find out soon, because here’s the first installment of my list of books I’ve read that are part of “The Essential Man’s Library”:
- The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald — I read this for a class in high school (as many people did, I presume), and it set me off on a binge of reading everything by Fitzgerald that I could get my hands on. I remember loving it at the time but haven’t read it (or any Fitzgerald) in years.
- Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut — Read this one in high school, too, also for a class (I had a teacher who was obsessed with Vonnegut, and she led me along the path). I quickly made my way through everything else he’d published by then and have continued to be a fan.
- 1984, by George Orwell — This is one of the ones that I started and don’t think I ever finished. We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin, was written in the 1920’s and is a much better dystopian novel even if it didn’t give us the concept of Big Brother. (Giving credit where it’s due, I’m pretty sure my friend Buffy introduced me to We when we were at Hippie College, using exactly that selling point.)
- The Republic, by Plato — I’ve never read the entire thing, but I’ve read excerpts, mostly for school requirements, I think. I particularly remember an exercise based on the Allegory of the Cave.
- The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger — You knew this book would end up on this list, didn’t you? Catcher in the Rye is the literary equivalent of Casablanca for certain men; they’re obsessed with it and it’s the Best Thing Ever and if you don’t get it you’re The Wrong Girl. Or maybe that’s just me. (I’ve always thought that Casablanca would have been a much better movie if they’d given Ilsa a gun and let her shoot her way out — it worked for Princess Leia.) Anyway, good book, but not the greatest literature in the history of literature. Sorry.
- For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway — I hate Hemingway. H-A-T-E. I have never been so bored as when I read Hemingway. And I feel justified in saying that because I have read ENTIRELY TOO MUCH of him — it was some kind of disease with my high school teachers. So while there are many things which I gleefully hate with no justification, the works of Ernest Hemingway ain’t one of them.
- The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck — Okay, I lied. There are parts of The Grapes of Wrath that are more boring than Hemingway. But there are also parts that are fabulously well-written and deeply affecting. Let’s just say that despite the boring parts reading this book (for a class, naturally) set me on the path of reading lots of Steinbeck for fun, so it won in the end.
- Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley — I read this for a class, too (I took almost every English elective available at my high school. And a class in American Studies that combined literature and history. So there was a lot of reading of Books You’re Supposed To Read for me back then.), and I have to admit I don’t remember it much. I don’t feel too horrible about that.
- The Call of the Wild, by Jack London — My brother was more into this one than I was, I think, but I do remember reading it (I probably snagged his copy, actually — he hated it when I read his paperbacks so I’d steal them when he was off Boy Scouting and read them carefully so there were no signs of wear on the spines.) I also read London’s story To Build A Fire about eleventy times for various classes and came to loathe it (it’s depressing, in case you’re unfamiliar with the story).
- The Swiss Family Robinson, by Johann D. Wyss — I read this as a kid after seeing the Disney movie version and LOVED the book (big secret — I usually think the book is better than the movie). I go back and forth on whether I want to read it again now because I remember enjoying it so much and I don’t want to be disappointed.
- The Iliad and The Odyssey, by Homer — Dear Men’s Men Who Made Up This List: The Iliad and The Odyssey were two different books the last time I checked, but whatever. These were required reading at some point, but as a kid who was really into Greek and Roman mythology I’d read a number of related stories and other versions of the Trojan War and the adventures of Ulysses/Odysseus many times before I got to the Homeric version. Given the reactions of some of my classmates to having to read Homer, already having an interest was probably a good thing.
Okay, that’s it for part one (11 is partly because I’ve run out of steam for now and partly because it has to Go Up To Eleven.) Also, this is getting long and there are no pictures because I couldn’t think of any to use. (Book covers? Should I include pictures of the covers?) Anyway, now you know you’ll be seeing me around at least a couple more times before I disappear into the ether again.
But Where Does the Rabbit Get the Eggs????
Posted on March 21, 2008
Filed Under Bruno, family, holidaze | 3 Comments
You know how sometimes you want to talk to someone so you call everyone you know and none of them are home and then finally one calls you back and you have nothing to say but you still kind of want to talk to someone? This post is like that.
I’m going to visit my family this weekend because my mother is all “Easter is IMPORTANT and FAMILY and WHY DON’T YOU COME HERE MORE OFTEN SO I CAN TELL YOU HOW INADEQUATE YOU ARE?” And if I don’t go there will be heck to pay. And while the psychodollars it costs me to visit are pretty steep, heck is also quite expensive. Also, I get to hang out with my nephew, who thinks I’m hilarious (I’m a big hit with the under-five set).
This is said nephew. We shall call him “Bruno”, because it amuses me to have a nephew named Bruno.
Okay, he was moving that time.
Probably scared of that My Three Sons thing happening in the background. Let’s try again.
Hmmm…There’s got to be one in here where he’s standing still….
Ooooooor not.
Kid moves around a lot, in case you couldn’t tell. And I am a mediocre photographer at best. I think I have some kind of photography block — you can tell me over and over what I need to do to take better pictures and when picture-taking time comes I will forget all of it. Digital photography is FABULOUS for me because if I take eleventy pictures there’s a chance of one or two of them turning out okay, and that gets very expensive with film.
I suppose one solution would be to get better at some flavor of graphics editing software, but 1) I am too lazy and b) I get distracted and spend the whole time playing with the effects and turning my pictures in and out of oil paintings and never improve.
So, sorry I’m a crappy photographer, but you come here for the articles, anyway, right? *snicker*
The only way we could get him to hold still was to preserve him in carbonite.
Don’t worry, once the hibernation sickness wears off he’ll be fine.
(Come back soon and see what new heights of geekiness we may attain here at Story Value. I think I freaked myself out with this one, to be honest.)
In which I Present a Miscellany of Thoughts
Posted on March 16, 2008
Filed Under life stories, me me me, teh blog | 1 Comment
Note to self: Do not check blog stats after you post something that nobody reads (I suspect that either my blogstat software is lying to me or there was a problem with the last post, because I know Theresa is a diehard stalker even if nobody else is paying attention.)
Theresa and anyone else who may wander in may notice some slight changes to the blog template. The sqooshedness of the post text against the sidebar has been getting on my nerves for a while now and I suddenly found myself with a bit of time to hammer my way through some CSS editing. (I can read manuals all day but the only thing that really works is: change this variable, see what happens; change that variable, see what happens. Personal learning style or just plain stubborn?) (Don’t answer that.) Also, my eyes are getting old and the font was seeming smallish and while there are ways to change that in one’s browser I thought increasing the default might be nice. And then I came home from school today exhausted (because I am so hardcore I go to school on SATURDAYS, dammit) and fell asleep at, like 7:30. So midnight was wide-awake time for me!
Unfortunately, my favorite design consultant is off chasing giants in the sky so I am left to my own judgement, such as it is. I sense more tweaking in my future.
Finally, because Theresa wanted to see the final version and why just email her something when I can use it here:
When I was in fourth grade, our class would have weekly visits to the school library. As an avid reader this was my favorite day of the week and the librarians and my teacher liked to advise me on what to read next. When I showed particular interest in a subject or genre they were very good at finding me something in a similar vein to read next.
One week the book they suggested I read was about an African-American girl around my age growing up during the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. For a child who had spent her entire nine years living in a lily-white suburb this story was eye-opening, to say the least. The title of the novel is lost to me, but I still remember my big “a-ha” moment, a scene where the main character was sitting in the dark with her father and couldn’t see either of their hands. That night at bedtime I closed the book and lay in bed looking at the dim outline of my own hand, trying to imagine what it would be like not to be able to see it when the lights were out.
I’ve read a lot of books since then and learned a lot of things from them. But that one story from my fourth grade year still stands out in my mind as the first time I really understood what I was learning, and to a degree why, and wanted to go back for more. My life and my relationship with books has never been the same.
My Funny Valentine(’s Day)
Posted on March 13, 2008
Filed Under holidaze, me me me | 1 Comment
Last month I had one of those birthday things (don’t worry, this isn’t to hit you up for gifts) and a funny thing happened: I had to confirm my birth date with someone and they didn’t comment on it. This is quite unusual — I’ve never done a formal count, but I’d say at least half of the time I’m asked for my date of birth for whatever reason (I go to the pharmacy and the doctor a lot) the person doing the asking makes some kind of remark about my birthday being on Valentine’s Day.
It seems to strike people as an unusual birthday, though I suppose that might just be because winter birthdays are less common in general (my friend Google gave me a couple of citations saying that February is the month with the least births but I’m too lazy to verify that with statistics or check to see if that’s just because it’s shorter). Maybe you’re supposed to conceive babies on February 14th and not have them? In truth, though, I’ve only ever met one or two people in person who were born on the same day as me (Happy Birthday, T., wherever you are).
The funny thing is that people don’t even know what to say when they remark on my birth date — they just seem to feel compelled to do something more than just recognize the date. “You must be…” usually falters, because there isn’t really any broadly recognized quality of people who were born on that date (unless you get into the astrology of it, which is a whole ‘nother thing). Some people tell me my parents should have named me Valentina. Yes, that would have helped me fit right in. (My parents gave me the ordinariest name they could except they were about a generation off, so it’s already odd.)
At the very least there’s the assumption that it must be fun to be born on Valentine’s Day, as if all the hearts and flowers and candy are for you, at the most there’s some presumption of my sweeter-than-other-people disposition. To which I reply “No” and “Bite me”, respectively. It’s a “holiday” where many people are either focused on their romantic relationships or depressed because they aren’t in one. Not to mention that it’s goddamn winter in New England so I’ve had more snowed out birthday plans than I care to count.
As to the sweetness, I did try. (My Hippie College friends who are reading this should please stop laughing.) I used to send valentines even when we were no longer required to bring them to school. I was all about sharing the love, spreading the joy, la la la la I’m Cupid’s assistant by some accident of birth timing (the 14th was not my mother’s due date; I can never remember if I was early or late). I liked being called “sweet”, especially by guys I was interested in.
It didn’t last.
And now…and now…. I don’t know. It’s taken me weeks to get this post up in part because I get to this paragraph and I don’t know what my point is. Hi, I’m a bitch and it’s because of my birthday? Birthdays suck? Made-up commercial “holidays” suck? Nothing seems appropriate. So I’m going to go with the old standby, stealing from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. I hate to be so trite, but you have to admit that breaking things down to five stages is handy. Plus, these work for so many damn things. So with apologies to EK-R, The Five Stages of a Valentine’s Day birthday:
Denial: Oh, another teddy bear with a heart-shaped pillow that reads “Be Mine”! Just what I wanted! I love having my birthday on Valentine’s Day! Here, have a Valentine from me! Because I’m so sweet!!!!! You think I’m sweet, right? YOU THINK I’M SWEET, RIGHT? TELL ME HOW SWEET I AM. TELL MEEEEEEEEEEE!
Anger: Don’t even think about giving me that gorram valentine, and if you come near me with that box of candy I’m going to shove it down your throat. AND YOU CAN TAKE THAT $^%*# TEDDY BEAR WITH THE PILLOW THAT SAYS @#$%$& “Wuv from me” AND [redacted, because the sweet isn't quite gone yet].
Bargaining: No, it’s fine that you can’t do anything on my birthday; I totally understand that your boyfriend is more important. Everybody else’s boyfriend is more important, too. We’ll do something the Saturday after, unless the 14th falls on a Saturday, in which case we’ll do something the Saturday after that. Oh, sure, that gives you a chance to get me a teddy bear with a heart-shaped pillow that reads “I Luv You” for half price. Yay! (Alternatively: Please don’t let my party be snowed out…please don’t let my party be snowed out…please don’t let my party be…rats .)
Depression: Waaaaaaaaah I HATE this day! Waaaaaaaah I HATE my so-called friends! Waaaaaaaah no *hic* bod *hic* dy *hic* looooooooooooooves me! *sobs all over assorted teddy bears holding hearts with slogans on them* Waaaaaaaaah! (Lather, rinse, repeat.)
Acceptance: Yes, I guess it’s sort of an unusual birthday. No, I’m not doing anything special — it’s the middle of February; the main thing I’m doing is trying not to freeze any important body parts off. I’ll probably celebrate some time in May or something [with my friend Blondie, who also suffers from Winter Birthday Syndrome]. Yes, you can give me something with hearts on it and I promise not to burn it. You still can’t call me “sweet”, though.
0 Hit Points
Posted on March 10, 2008
Filed Under current events, life stories, me me me | 2 Comments
Before TEH CHRISTIANS started trying to ban Harry Potter books, they spent their time trying to ban other things. Things like Pokemon, and Rock & Roll, and OMG THE HOMOSEXXXXULS. And Dungeons & Dragons.
(N.B.: Some of my best friends are Christians. It’s TEH CHRISTIANS who scare the bejeebers out of me.)
I learned to play Dungeons & Dragons when I was in fifth grade. I was in my school’s (at that time very small) gifted program, and while I imagine my classmates thought I was being taken out of the classroom to read big dusty books and take tests and stuff, the five or six of us in the group were playing with one of the school’s two Apple ][ Plusses (I kicked ass at Lemonade Stand) and making our way through The Chronicles of Prydain and The HarperHall of Pern Trilogy and playing D&D. (It was a perfect geek incubator, which honestly never occurred to me until I started writing this. Heh.) (And yes, we also learned to program in BASIC and did projects on local history and toured the Beinecke Rare Book Library at Yale (*swoon*) (read the stuff about the building itself — marble and granite and does amazing things to the light), so the community’s tax dollars were not used solely to keep us entertained. Though I suppose that was kind of the point.)
ANYway, D&D was a treat for when we’d gotten through all the academicy stuff we were working on that day, and I’m sure it was educational somehow. If nothing else, it got this serious and shy girl involved and relaxing and owning the boys’ butts at least part of the time (did I mention I was the only girl in this outfit besides the teacher?). I know it’s meant a lot to a lot of people (and I don’t even mean those for whom RPGs (that’s Role-Playing Games to the non-geeks in the audience) have become a way of life). D&D has helped many people find kindred spirits — sometimes even to do stuff with that doesn’t involve 20-sided dice.
Gary Gygax, one of the creators of Dungeons & Dragons, died last week, so if your local geeks are a bit sadder than usual this week (if all you have are emo geeks you won’t be able to tell, sorry), that might be why.
We’ll miss you, Gary.
(and speaking of geeks, start reading XKCD if you aren’t already — make with the clicky on the (resized cuz it woudn’t fit good) comic above to get there)
Bitch Is The New Black
Posted on February 24, 2008
Filed Under hee, politicking | 2 Comments
I know I promised real posting but I had to share this. And I did promise politics, too.
[youtube]uzJjvWA0Vuc[/youtube]
I’m mostly suffering from election fatigue but I do love me some Tina Fey. It’s true: Bitches Get Things Done.