For doppelganger week on facebook I went to myheritage.com to see who I looked like, and it kept telling me Rogue from the x-men movies. I don't believe it, but find it funny considering my twin dressed as her for Hallowe'en.
I also learned that I look like Shiri Appleby, Robin Wright Penn, Lindsey Lohan, and Steve Buscemi. The most interesting thing I learned today was the Shiri is Hebrew for "Sing." Now I don't think her mom was just some hippy trying to misspell Sherry.
31 January 2010
29 January 2010
Inside of the snowglobe
Stats so far for this winter storm of Jan2010:
Meals cooked: 3
Loads of Laundry washed and folded: 2
TV shows caught up on: 3
Pictures taken: 7 (Bella wouldn't sit still)
Hours spent on facebook: too many
Pages read: 210
Hours worked: 00000
Still have plans for more reading, more cooking, and a lot of family-time-spending!
Meals cooked: 3
Loads of Laundry washed and folded: 2
TV shows caught up on: 3
Pictures taken: 7 (Bella wouldn't sit still)
Hours spent on facebook: too many
Pages read: 210
Hours worked: 00000
Still have plans for more reading, more cooking, and a lot of family-time-spending!
25 January 2010
Anthem
[*DISCLAIMER*] I claim no authoritative interpretation, nor can I even boast that this is going to be at all smart. This is merely my first impression of this work of literature. [*DISCLAIMER*]
I just finished my first novel by Ayn Rand, a person who, I am ashamed to say, I had not even heard of until about a month or so ago. Although I had heard of Atlas Shrugged, but had never contemplated it with any kind of seriousness before. So anyway, about Anthem. This is an introduction to Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, but I'm not going to talk about that right now. Instead I'm going to talk about a character. The idea that struck me most was the role of Gaea (the girl). Throughout the novel, the main character, Prometheus, was in constant search of knowledge, and he knew the whole time that something was missing from his life (or rather, that something wasn't missing, and he needed to remove a lot of somethings to find that something). He wouldn't give up until he found the truth. That's what made him a perfect dystopian hero. However, I really admired Gaea, because even though she didn't completely understand at the beginning what Prometheus was all about, she realized that he was different, and that he had something that she wanted. Even needed. She didn't searh for knowledge or science or wisdom, but she recognized something good when she saw it. And because she wasn't afraid to break the rules for Prometheus, she was allowed to partake in his knowledge and join him in his quest of freedom, ad ultimately, find it herself. That makes me feel better. To know that even if I don't have all the answers, I can follow someone who does and learn from them until I am steady enough to stand on my own.
When I was young, my parents raised me to be a Christian, and taught me everything they could and showed me their pursuit of truth and knowledge. When I became older, I followed that path for myself, but I would never have found it if I hadn't been shown it by my parents. Okay, so I realize that the two aren't exactly parallel, since Prometheus fancied himself a god and my parents are more like prophets in that they speak on behalf of God, but you get the idea.
Or was Gaea being blind in her pursuit and had no idea what she was getting into? Throughout the novel she hardly says anything; did she really understand what Prometheus told her? Am I seeing her as a deep, thoughtful character, when in reality she's a shallow, over-trusting product of the "We" system? Should we shun her behaviour because she followed him even with no proof that his view was the truth
Did she follow him just because she was in love with him, or did she love him because she saw the truth in him? Tell me what you think. I want to know!
I just finished my first novel by Ayn Rand, a person who, I am ashamed to say, I had not even heard of until about a month or so ago. Although I had heard of Atlas Shrugged, but had never contemplated it with any kind of seriousness before. So anyway, about Anthem. This is an introduction to Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, but I'm not going to talk about that right now. Instead I'm going to talk about a character. The idea that struck me most was the role of Gaea (the girl). Throughout the novel, the main character, Prometheus, was in constant search of knowledge, and he knew the whole time that something was missing from his life (or rather, that something wasn't missing, and he needed to remove a lot of somethings to find that something). He wouldn't give up until he found the truth. That's what made him a perfect dystopian hero. However, I really admired Gaea, because even though she didn't completely understand at the beginning what Prometheus was all about, she realized that he was different, and that he had something that she wanted. Even needed. She didn't searh for knowledge or science or wisdom, but she recognized something good when she saw it. And because she wasn't afraid to break the rules for Prometheus, she was allowed to partake in his knowledge and join him in his quest of freedom, ad ultimately, find it herself. That makes me feel better. To know that even if I don't have all the answers, I can follow someone who does and learn from them until I am steady enough to stand on my own.
When I was young, my parents raised me to be a Christian, and taught me everything they could and showed me their pursuit of truth and knowledge. When I became older, I followed that path for myself, but I would never have found it if I hadn't been shown it by my parents. Okay, so I realize that the two aren't exactly parallel, since Prometheus fancied himself a god and my parents are more like prophets in that they speak on behalf of God, but you get the idea.
Or was Gaea being blind in her pursuit and had no idea what she was getting into? Throughout the novel she hardly says anything; did she really understand what Prometheus told her? Am I seeing her as a deep, thoughtful character, when in reality she's a shallow, over-trusting product of the "We" system? Should we shun her behaviour because she followed him even with no proof that his view was the truth
Did she follow him just because she was in love with him, or did she love him because she saw the truth in him? Tell me what you think. I want to know!
19 January 2010
Just open the document and start typing!
Today I learned that...
Even if I don't "feel" like writing, I still feel better when I write.
I've probably learned this before, but I'd forgotten.
Even if I don't "feel" like writing, I still feel better when I write.
I've probably learned this before, but I'd forgotten.
18 January 2010
16 January 2010
Six month evaluation
Now that I have lived in my new house for approximately six months, I think it's time to talk about its pros and cons. Before, I don't think I knew the house well enough. Later, and I would be more willing to overlook its flaws, and the things that excite me about it now will become commonplace and taken for granted. Now is just right for evaluating my new house. Let's start with the kitchen, shall we?
My favorite thing about the kitchen (other than the fact that it functions as a normal kitchen should) is the stainless steel sink. It doesn't stain, and it doesn't feel like it's going to chip or chip any of my plates in return. It's a lovely sink. I only wish I had another stopper for it, but that's not the sink's fault. In contrast, however, my least favorite thing about the kitchen is the stove. I hate electric coils. Especially after living with the gas stove at the condo, the smell of burning food on the coils is terrible. And they're so hard to clean! The burned food on the bottom things is impossible to remove. Also, I love my new pantry. Just the right size, a little too far away from the rest of the kitchen (across the dining area). But I forgive it. There's really no place to put the garbage can, not even enough space under the sink, so I put it in the cabinet under the coffee pot (maybe that's why there was no shelf there when I moved in??). It's the weirdest place to put a trash can that I've heard of yet, but it works, I guess.
The living room is a typical living room. It has nothing spectacular to offer me, but neither does it disappoint. I don't like the design on the front door and the windows take two people to open due to their rustiness, but both of these things are overlook-able.
The two back bedrooms are just as back bedrooms should be: goodly size, windows overlooking the back yard, and moderate closet space. I do like that they have plenty of electrical outlets so you can sit pretty much anywhere and still plug in your laptop. Or you humongous desktop, if you're Sean.
I could talk all day about the main bathroom. Let's start with its assets. The shower! It's not grout so there's no place for mold. It comes with two shelves, one on each end, at the perfect height for placing shampoo, and long enough to put like four bottle up there if your hair is really needy. The water pressure and temperature is divine compared to jet stream of cold water we got at the condo. Actually, compared to any other shower, it's still pretty awesome. And you can adjust the shower head without it falling off. It came with sliding doors, which aren't a bad thing, but I took them down because I like my shower curtain. They were really easy to remove, and if ever I change my mind, it takes like ten seconds to put back on again. Sadly, the good things end there. The sink area is too small, the cabinet is too small, there are no drawers, and there's only one towel rack (well, I guess that's not the house's fault, we've been meaning to put up another towel rack and just haven't gotten around to it yet.). The only cabinet is the wall cabinet, ad the shelves are too short to hold shampoo, so I have to put them in the other bathroom.
The Master bedroom and bathroom are much like the living room: they meet expectations. The closet is smaller than the condo's, but still big enough to hold all of our clothes. The sink is bigger and the cabinet is bigger in this bathroom. I just don't understand why they thought a bathroom without a bathtub needed a towel rack, and not a hand towel rack. This bumfuddles me. But whatever.
As for the yard, we have a lot of trees, which is nice, except that it means less grass because less sunlight. We also have this...this...THING in our backyard. It's called a storm cellar. I think it's for people who are afraid of tornadoes. Actually, I don't really notice it anymore, but I know in the summer when I want to play outside it will be annoying and in the way. Also, I hate not having a back fence, but that can be fixed. It just got too cold before we could put it up. Oh, and we have a tree growing into the foundation. Sean and his dad cut it off and put rock salt in the stump, but it still seems to be thriving. We're going to have to pay more attention to it this spring.
All in all, a goodly house. Huzzah!
My favorite thing about the kitchen (other than the fact that it functions as a normal kitchen should) is the stainless steel sink. It doesn't stain, and it doesn't feel like it's going to chip or chip any of my plates in return. It's a lovely sink. I only wish I had another stopper for it, but that's not the sink's fault. In contrast, however, my least favorite thing about the kitchen is the stove. I hate electric coils. Especially after living with the gas stove at the condo, the smell of burning food on the coils is terrible. And they're so hard to clean! The burned food on the bottom things is impossible to remove. Also, I love my new pantry. Just the right size, a little too far away from the rest of the kitchen (across the dining area). But I forgive it. There's really no place to put the garbage can, not even enough space under the sink, so I put it in the cabinet under the coffee pot (maybe that's why there was no shelf there when I moved in??). It's the weirdest place to put a trash can that I've heard of yet, but it works, I guess.
The living room is a typical living room. It has nothing spectacular to offer me, but neither does it disappoint. I don't like the design on the front door and the windows take two people to open due to their rustiness, but both of these things are overlook-able.
The two back bedrooms are just as back bedrooms should be: goodly size, windows overlooking the back yard, and moderate closet space. I do like that they have plenty of electrical outlets so you can sit pretty much anywhere and still plug in your laptop. Or you humongous desktop, if you're Sean.
I could talk all day about the main bathroom. Let's start with its assets. The shower! It's not grout so there's no place for mold. It comes with two shelves, one on each end, at the perfect height for placing shampoo, and long enough to put like four bottle up there if your hair is really needy. The water pressure and temperature is divine compared to jet stream of cold water we got at the condo. Actually, compared to any other shower, it's still pretty awesome. And you can adjust the shower head without it falling off. It came with sliding doors, which aren't a bad thing, but I took them down because I like my shower curtain. They were really easy to remove, and if ever I change my mind, it takes like ten seconds to put back on again. Sadly, the good things end there. The sink area is too small, the cabinet is too small, there are no drawers, and there's only one towel rack (well, I guess that's not the house's fault, we've been meaning to put up another towel rack and just haven't gotten around to it yet.). The only cabinet is the wall cabinet, ad the shelves are too short to hold shampoo, so I have to put them in the other bathroom.
The Master bedroom and bathroom are much like the living room: they meet expectations. The closet is smaller than the condo's, but still big enough to hold all of our clothes. The sink is bigger and the cabinet is bigger in this bathroom. I just don't understand why they thought a bathroom without a bathtub needed a towel rack, and not a hand towel rack. This bumfuddles me. But whatever.
As for the yard, we have a lot of trees, which is nice, except that it means less grass because less sunlight. We also have this...this...THING in our backyard. It's called a storm cellar. I think it's for people who are afraid of tornadoes. Actually, I don't really notice it anymore, but I know in the summer when I want to play outside it will be annoying and in the way. Also, I hate not having a back fence, but that can be fixed. It just got too cold before we could put it up. Oh, and we have a tree growing into the foundation. Sean and his dad cut it off and put rock salt in the stump, but it still seems to be thriving. We're going to have to pay more attention to it this spring.
All in all, a goodly house. Huzzah!
13 January 2010
11 January 2010
Facebook photos.
Something somebody else should learn today:
If around nintey percent of the pictures you upload to facebook are of you and/or your friends' faces really close together and smiling, it tells me that you have no life besides pretending to have friends.
What did I learn today? I learned that I can get up to a $1500 tax credit if I make my home more energy efficient (e.g. installing good windows, getting a new eco-friendly a/c, etc.).
If around nintey percent of the pictures you upload to facebook are of you and/or your friends' faces really close together and smiling, it tells me that you have no life besides pretending to have friends.
What did I learn today? I learned that I can get up to a $1500 tax credit if I make my home more energy efficient (e.g. installing good windows, getting a new eco-friendly a/c, etc.).
10 January 2010
American Girl
Today I watched the Kit Kittredge movie with Mara and then out of curiousity went to the American Girl website. So today I learned about all the new American Girls they have, namely Julie (1974) and Rebecca (1914). I also learned that they made a movie out of the 2009 Girl of Today: Chrissa.
And that's about all I learned today. Kind of made me want to play with my American Girl dolls, though.
And that's about all I learned today. Kind of made me want to play with my American Girl dolls, though.
08 January 2010
Dreams -->Stories
This isn't something I learned today, because I've already tried to do it before, but I will reiterate here because it is so frustrating. Sometimes I have dreams that give me such intense emotions that I when I wake up I want to recreate those feelings for others. But when I look back on my dream, what seemed so cool and sane in my sleep is just a jumbled bunch of nonsense, I know that there is no way anybody can ever make sense out of it. That's when I get stuck in this place where I'm trying to take the themes of my dream and meld them into a story that the waking world can understand, while still trying to retain the essence of what I felt while I was asleep. It's a delicate process, and one I am nowhere near perfecting.
Pocatello was created to make sense of a dream I had one time. But the main characters and plot from the dream have, through the years, been put on the back burner, and other characters from this world have arisen through the daylight and taken center stage. Someday I will go back to that dream with the real cool spaceship and the three troubled teenagers, and work it into something believable.
Crazy, huh?
Just another day (or night) in the life of a writer.
Yesterday I learned that...
I can spend a whole day without getting on facebook and not feel any less of a person because of it.
Pocatello was created to make sense of a dream I had one time. But the main characters and plot from the dream have, through the years, been put on the back burner, and other characters from this world have arisen through the daylight and taken center stage. Someday I will go back to that dream with the real cool spaceship and the three troubled teenagers, and work it into something believable.
Crazy, huh?
Just another day (or night) in the life of a writer.
Yesterday I learned that...
I can spend a whole day without getting on facebook and not feel any less of a person because of it.
06 January 2010
You learn something new every day...
That being said, I'm going to try to post on here each day with something I have learned. Most of the time it's going to be stupid stuff, but hey, maybe I will come across something important along the way. No harm in trying, right? Eesh, two cliches in one post. Must move on.
Today I learned that...
The water pressure from my shower nozzle, while sufficient for a human, is not hard enough to rinse all the soap out of a dog's coat without ample manual assistance.
Today I learned that...
The water pressure from my shower nozzle, while sufficient for a human, is not hard enough to rinse all the soap out of a dog's coat without ample manual assistance.
05 January 2010
Waiting for my muse
Thoughts of the Day:
A dirty Bella is better than a muddy Bella.
Nachos are a great way to end a cold, long day.
It's already the fifth and I've only read 1 1/2 books!
Somebody do something to inspire me to write. Without creative writing class or NaNoWriMo to spur me on, I've found my writing dwindling. And I don't like that. I just can't force myself to open a document and start typing. Apparently that goal of learning to write "with or without the muse" set for us in Dr. Gipson's class didn't work for me. Anyway, I'd really appreciate some encouragement in that area.
Song of the Day:
Soft kitty, warm kitty,
little ball of fur.
Happy kitty, sleepy kitty
purr, purr, purr.
A dirty Bella is better than a muddy Bella.
Nachos are a great way to end a cold, long day.
It's already the fifth and I've only read 1 1/2 books!
Somebody do something to inspire me to write. Without creative writing class or NaNoWriMo to spur me on, I've found my writing dwindling. And I don't like that. I just can't force myself to open a document and start typing. Apparently that goal of learning to write "with or without the muse" set for us in Dr. Gipson's class didn't work for me. Anyway, I'd really appreciate some encouragement in that area.
Song of the Day:
Soft kitty, warm kitty,
little ball of fur.
Happy kitty, sleepy kitty
purr, purr, purr.
03 January 2010
I still don't understand why the year starts in winter instead of fall.
So here's the burning question for the new year: will I be able to stick with writing on just one book long enough to see it to the end?
There are so many characters in my head, just waiting for their stories to be told. How can I hold the others back and pick one in particular to finish? Grr...I feel like Alpha from Dollhouse. Or like that one episode of SG-1. And now I just feel like a nerd.
new year's resolutions:
finish writing on one novel.
read more books this year than I did last year. (count for 2009: 28)
get my house more organized. a place for everything, and everything in its place.
clean the house more often.
read more Greek!
I'll keep you posted on the results as the year goes by.
Hello, 2010! Nice to meet you!
There are so many characters in my head, just waiting for their stories to be told. How can I hold the others back and pick one in particular to finish? Grr...I feel like Alpha from Dollhouse. Or like that one episode of SG-1. And now I just feel like a nerd.
new year's resolutions:
finish writing on one novel.
read more books this year than I did last year. (count for 2009: 28)
get my house more organized. a place for everything, and everything in its place.
clean the house more often.
read more Greek!
I'll keep you posted on the results as the year goes by.
Hello, 2010! Nice to meet you!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
