July 2007

I was reminded that I could password-protect entries here. Shoot me an email if you want the sekret code. They’ll all be the same.

I don’t know Harry Potter or his friends, but I do know that Bryan has been playing this video non-stop for several days now, and I can’t decide which character I love more. Currently I lean toward Voldemort… Rachel, this is especially for you!

What do I like right now? Mad Men. Check it out, because it’s worth every minute.

I love my friends. Really, I do.

But I went to ride my bike today, and had to deal with the fact that they’d let the air out of both my tires last week when they were over. I checked out my shifting (just in case) and got everything all set up to go. I went out for a ride, headed out to my aunt’s place to drop something off at her house. I got about a block away from home and noticed at my left bar plug was sticking out a little bit. I hit it a few times to try and force it back in, to no avail. I figured I’d keep riding because it’s not critical to have that bar plug seated, but I’d noticed that when I hit the plug to try and force it back in, there was a noticible “plink” when I made contact. I waggled the bars a bit (that was fun!) and got more “plink”ing. I pulled over completely and pulled the plug out to re-seat it and try again. Oh look, what’s inside my handlebars?

A FUCKING PENNY.

Oh you two are hi-larious. And my bike now auto-shifts in half the gears in the small ring. Feh.

bbq with friends at our house with hotdogs and hamburgers and wine and cake with music and poker and friends and laughter with a tinge of sadness and a wresting match I say goodbye for the first time and the last time and sit here having had enough to drink that typing this has taken an extraordinarily long time and has, for the first time in a long time, involved spell check

(The subject is my tribute to Kristen, who departs for the east coast too soon, and whose twinkletoes will be missed.)

xkcd is funny because it’s true. I’ve blogged about my reading quirks before, but have been compelled by Harry Potter mania and The New York Times to write more on the subject.

NYT has written up a dandy little article on the fact that Harry Potter seems to have very little effect on the reading habits of youth in the long term. (I’d like to point out at this point that no, I still have not read word one of the HP series and I still don’t intend to until I have run out of other things to read. This is not a HP bashing entry, just an interesting leap into a subject that interests me.) The crux of the article is this:

…federal statistics show that the percentage of youngsters who read for fun continues to drop significantly as children get older, at almost exactly the same rate as before Harry Potter came along.

A few things are interesting to me here. It’s a shame that the idea of reading for pleasure doesn’t seem to “stick” after these kids are done reading about Harry Potter and his friends. I’d much rather have an obese youth who are well-read than an obese youth who can dominate their virtual opponents playing World of Warcraft. Not that I have kids, but I imagine that I’d want to continue to encourage reading in my hypothetical child beyond the initial foray into fiction. There are all kinds of fiction out there and I can still get excited talking about my childhood book companions: Nancy Drew, Encyclopedia Brown, the Hardy Boys, the characters of Roald Dahl and Madeleine L’Engle, and about thirty of the Oz books. I can’t blame Harry Potter for not getting kids to read. If parents would continue to encourage reading beyond the Potter series, I think kids would take to reading.

As a kid, I had to “earn” television watching time. I measured and recorded the time I spent reading or doing homework, and that time translated into allowed television time. I probably ended up spending more time reading. Because I’m a huge, gigantic, happy nerd.

My reading list right now is a stack of books sitting next to my bed:

• Falling Angel, William Hjortsberg
• A Thread of Grace, Mary Doria Russell
• A Changed Man, Francine Prose
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
• Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language, Seth Lerer
• Thunderstruck, Erik Larson
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan
• 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West, Roger Crowley
• James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon, Julie Phillips

The last four titles are first editions, covered in plastic and treated better than some children, I’m sure. I managed to bring a first edition copy of Tim Powers’s Three Days to Never home from Seattle in pristine condition. That was a good book. I’m currently reading about the plague. Between those two I read a book about salt. I’m sure that when I next go to the bookstore, I’ll lose my shirt over the next round of books I choose.

So parents of the world who choose to let their children learn to be indifferent about reading: WTF? I don’t think it’s at all that youth these days are not interested in reading. I think their parents are not interested in reading, and are therefore not giving their kids a passion for the written word (beyond Potter). LET THEM READ BOOKS!

Check out the new promo for the Battlestar: Galactica mid-hiatus movie, “Razor,” airing on SciFi in November. I can’t wait!

I’m currently watching A Life Less Ordinary on TV, which always makes me smile. One day I’m sure I’ll own it on DVD, but I always neglect to buy it. Holly Hunter makes me laugh with just about every line she says.

Bryan and I went and saw Ratatouille on Thursday. Two thumbs up from both of us! It has moved up in my ranks of favorite Pixar movies. It currently sits third after Toy Story and Toy Story 2. I loved the story, the themes, and let me just say that the animation was nothing short of spectacular. If you haven’t already seen it, make sure you get there in time to see the animated short before the feature. Lifted is truly a gem and made me laugh out loud several times. Plus it features a cameo by sosumi, which is a fun little nod for those of us who knew what was up.

Next on the list is, of course, Transformers.

Keithe Olbermann hits one out of the park.

I wrote an artice for iPodObserver today. Not too many flamey responses, though people are awfully concerned about me driving and talking on the phone at the same time, which also apparently has something to do with my gender. Don’t know what to make of that.

But of course Bryan already has his iPhone, so I live semi-vicariously through him.

I’d also like to point out that President George W. Bush is a fucking imbecile who has no concept of either justice or the American judicial system. “Scooter” Libby needs a commuted sentence like I need to be shot in the face while hunting. Dear Mr. President: FOAD. TIA.

ETA: Happy Fourth of July, indeed.

Seven Things I Love Right Now

1. Elizabeth: The Golden Age looks faaaaabulous. Cate Blanchett is awesome. Clive Owen is awesome. Awesomeness!
2. HBO’s Flight of the Conchords is absolutely hysterical! Best 30 minutes on tv right now.
3. Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC hates Paris Hilton as much as I do.
4. Keith Frank & The Soileau Zydeco Band
5. The soon-to-be-pulled-again video of Jennifer Holliday and Jennifer Hudson doing a duet of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” because Holliday rules.
6. The 7-11 near my work has been transformed into a Kwik-e-Mart to promote The Simpsons Movie.
7. Bryan and my friends, who have propped me up during an annoying June. My friends rule.

Life has mostly been going in a direction that I can’t blog about. You know, I could tell you but I’d have to kill myself. Or something.

I spent a week in Seattle for a work-related thing. Which was fine, but it was actually a good trip because I got to see my friend Larry for the first time in over a year. I also spent a few days with Jess, Tom, and Henry. I went and partied with my pal Charlene in Santa Cruz the other night, which was a blast. Lots of non-work things going on, including my sweet tan. :D

I’m going to come back to blogging eventually…maybe.