grimy bathroom floors
further insulted by cats
need tile grout coating

I just found out that a kid from my high school died last year. Our school only had 300 students spread from 5th to 12th grade, and it was easy to know everyone who went there. John David was a freshman when I was a senior, and we had known each other for a couple of years before I graduated. Although I did everything I could when I left high ( Read more... )

After a long absence exacerbated by a heavy work load and potentially troublesome internet connections in Xinjiang,
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It's a bit of a relief to hear some funny news about the morass in Iraq - featuring badgers even!

On a similar note, I could have sworn that the announcer on NPR this morning was talking about "rocksteady group" over and over again...only to find out that she was saying "Iraq study group". How disappointing. But that's regional variation for you ( ( Read more... )

My mom has found a new media darling for her celebrity boyfriend -- None other than Mr. Werner Herzog, himself (ca. 1980)


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yes, yes, I live. After considerable prodding by the fawning masses, I have returned. This entry will be brief, but I will provide a quick overview of the intervening months. Since the dismal february entry last posted here, I have moved back to birmingham, lost the beautiful cat that graces this page, caught up on many movies and books, and ( Read more... )

There are many things from my many intersections with popular culture that I only half-remember. I annoy my friends with drunken rants about Kissyfur, I rave about the cartoon introduction to Watership Down, I catch myself saying "You can do it duffy moon!", and I insist that Vanilla Ice had another album before "Cold as Ice". Well, today, loyal ( Read more... )

So the weather here in the cultural capital of Indiana is so unfortunate that my services as a local friendly (if sassy) bookseller are not needed. I have tomorrow off as well. At the risk of being ungrateful, I'm not quite sure what to do with myself today. Sans car and with freezing, wet slushiness outside, I'm afraid that my day will be spent ( Read more... )

So I've allowed my job to swallow up my life for the past few months...It's not the best job, but it keeps the cats fed and I get to work with really nice folks (for the most part).

I may miss a few but I've read the following books since my last post:
Look at Me - Jennifer Egan
Absurdistan - Gary Shteyngart
Wicked - Gregory Maguire
Under the ( Read more... )

The Guardian, has brought the happy news that Turkish novelist, Elif Shafak, has been acquitted.

"Shafak faced up to three years in jail over remarks made by a fictional character in her latest novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, which referred to the massacre of Armenians in the first world war as genocide. Article 301 of the Turkish penal code ( Read more... )