Is the corrupter to blame if someone is corruptible? Who is at fault? Should the blame fall to the weak minded individual who allowed themselves to be corrupted, or to the villain who took full advantage of the situation? Is there even such a thing as a victim, or should weakness be categorized as a crime?
Of course as with all things, this can most certainly not be the truth in all situations. For to be absolute is to be extreme, to be zealous. And a zealot, weather noble or otherwise, is a force that can rarely be contained.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
A Post?
Let's see. I'm sitting at work, which should mean that I'm working. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately?, this is not the case. I'm really only here because I've pissed away all of my vacation time by sleeping and being utterly useless. But I don't regret my decision to be a waste of space, it was delightful, and I plan on continuing the pattern into the new year.
What else. I'm waiting on two movies to come from amazon, Mansfield Park, and The Happiest Millionaire. I'm quite excited about both of them, although perhaps more excited about the Austen film. It has inspired me to re-read the novel, and I find myself thinking and speaking a bit Austenian, not intentionally of course, but so it goes.
Mom's coming to visit (almost typed mum, strange) New Year's Eve through the weekend. Not sure what to expect. I'm sure it'll be fine. I've been trying to come up with cheap and entertaining things to do. The Newly opened American History Museum is on the list, and perhaps the Native American Museum and the Air and Space Museum. Mom hasn't done the Smithsonian thing, and I haven't seen much more for that matter, so it should be somewhat entertaining. Also planning a visit to Arlington Cemetery, and maybe a trip into Arlington, VA. I've never been, but I've heard it's quaint.
I feel like there was something else I was going to say. Something maybe important, but probably not. This is a rather pathetic post. I was hoping for something better, something deeper. But once again it's seems to be about movies and books. The story of my life, or rather the stories of what my life should be? Depressing, and I'll go no further for fear of disheartening my many readers.
Ok, that's all I suppose. I hope you had a happy merry christmas and all that jazz.
What else. I'm waiting on two movies to come from amazon, Mansfield Park, and The Happiest Millionaire. I'm quite excited about both of them, although perhaps more excited about the Austen film. It has inspired me to re-read the novel, and I find myself thinking and speaking a bit Austenian, not intentionally of course, but so it goes.
Mom's coming to visit (almost typed mum, strange) New Year's Eve through the weekend. Not sure what to expect. I'm sure it'll be fine. I've been trying to come up with cheap and entertaining things to do. The Newly opened American History Museum is on the list, and perhaps the Native American Museum and the Air and Space Museum. Mom hasn't done the Smithsonian thing, and I haven't seen much more for that matter, so it should be somewhat entertaining. Also planning a visit to Arlington Cemetery, and maybe a trip into Arlington, VA. I've never been, but I've heard it's quaint.
I feel like there was something else I was going to say. Something maybe important, but probably not. This is a rather pathetic post. I was hoping for something better, something deeper. But once again it's seems to be about movies and books. The story of my life, or rather the stories of what my life should be? Depressing, and I'll go no further for fear of disheartening my many readers.
Ok, that's all I suppose. I hope you had a happy merry christmas and all that jazz.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Things of Coraline, and books, of course
i saw a trailer for Coraline on tv the other night. I was so excited I squealed and made everyone in the room be quite. The 11 year old I was babysitting was the only one in the room, or house. So he sat there quitely staring at me wondering if I'd gone mad. Perhaps I have. But I think I'm just mad for Coraline.
What else, let's see. I've read a lot of books recently, only one worth mentioning: SLAM, by Nick Hornby. I've been a Hornby fan for years, and SLAM was no exception. It's the story of Sam, the 16 year old narrator who gets his girlfriend pregnant and learns to deal with the consequences. It reminded me of Catcher in the Rye. That is of course if Holden Caulfield knocked up his girlfriend, and was obsessed with Tony Hawk. It is a terrific read, and I highly recommend it for teens, and adults, and anyone who is of the human persuasion.
Also in book news, my friend Danica just gave me my Christmas present. A Lion Among Men, Volume Three in the Wicked Years. I'm so freakin' excited. I've been wanting to read this since it came out in October, but I didn't want to pay for it. And now I don't have too! Hooray! Thanks Danica!
I was going to write about other things. But now I'm so excited about my new book that I just can't! Well that and I'm at work and should probably do some of that too!
What else, let's see. I've read a lot of books recently, only one worth mentioning: SLAM, by Nick Hornby. I've been a Hornby fan for years, and SLAM was no exception. It's the story of Sam, the 16 year old narrator who gets his girlfriend pregnant and learns to deal with the consequences. It reminded me of Catcher in the Rye. That is of course if Holden Caulfield knocked up his girlfriend, and was obsessed with Tony Hawk. It is a terrific read, and I highly recommend it for teens, and adults, and anyone who is of the human persuasion.
Also in book news, my friend Danica just gave me my Christmas present. A Lion Among Men, Volume Three in the Wicked Years. I'm so freakin' excited. I've been wanting to read this since it came out in October, but I didn't want to pay for it. And now I don't have too! Hooray! Thanks Danica!
I was going to write about other things. But now I'm so excited about my new book that I just can't! Well that and I'm at work and should probably do some of that too!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
If, by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
Ten points if you can tell me what else he wrote...without looking it up!
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
Ten points if you can tell me what else he wrote...without looking it up!
Monday, November 10, 2008
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Seeker of Truth
I've sort of been thinking about getting a tattoo. I'm thinking about this one on the top of my foot with the dandelion seed wrapping around my ankle.
The phrase comes from an ee cummings poem, Seeker of Truth
seeker of truth
follow no path
all paths lead where
truth is here
what do you think?
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
A random assortment of thoughts
Well, it is November 5. The day after the election, as I'm sure you are well aware. Obama has been elected president...and there was much rejoicing...yay. Well much rejoicing from my little corner of cyberspace, but perhaps, not from the entire country. A little traipse through facebook status' proves this point. Although I have refrained from any political talk, so far, I will say a little about my disappointment with most of the religious right. Perhaps most eludes to more than is really the problem; some of the religious right. In particular those who are so fearful of an Obama lead country that they forget that God is well aware of our tiny little country and our tiny little politics. He's prepared for Obama. Trust that his will is better than ours. Stop acting like you have giant a gherkin thrust up your backside. The more you segregate yourself from the leadership of our country, the more you divide our country. Don't blame the president if we can't be united. Blame yourself for not looking past differences and working together as a body. Moving on...
My story for NaNo WriMo is coming along...slowly. Perhaps way too slowly. At this point I'm approximately 6000 words behind schedule. I don't have anything to do tonight, so I'm hoping to catch up. Although I'm not really sure what's going to happen so Susan, so I'm finding it difficult to write.
In honor of NaNo WriMo, and in an effort to keep myself from being too distracted, I've decided not to read any books this month. This is a big step for me. I generally average 2-6 books a month. For the past two years. Going cold turkey might be a bit extreme, but so far it seems to be OK. I guess I'll have to see what kind of state I'm in at the end of the month. Maybe I can break my addiction to books, and return it to the hobby state. That would probably be a good thing.
I think I'm going to make it home for Thanksgiving this year. It would be the first time I've been home in almost a year. And the first thanksgiving with my family in two years...three years? I'm not sure. But it's been awhile. It would be good. Hopefully plane tickets will keep dropping, or at least stay the same until I get paid on Friday.
In other news, according to my mom, gas prices have dropped to an astonishing $1.98 in Northwest Ohio. How amazing!
California voters turned down a constitutional amendment to allow gay marriage. I'm not sure I should type how this makes me feel, but I hope someday we'll all be allowed to make our own choices, and our own mistakes. Gays and pregnant women included.
Ok, I said I wasn't going to talk politics, I guess I haven't done so well adhering to that claim. Maybe in the next post.
I just wrote 518 words in like 5 minutes. Why can't I do that with my NaNo? I'd be caught up in like an hour.
Ok, last piece of random information. I've discovered another new musician. Meaghan Smith. She sounds a lot like Nora Jones, except she has this amazing music video. Watch. Listen. Enjoy.
My story for NaNo WriMo is coming along...slowly. Perhaps way too slowly. At this point I'm approximately 6000 words behind schedule. I don't have anything to do tonight, so I'm hoping to catch up. Although I'm not really sure what's going to happen so Susan, so I'm finding it difficult to write.
In honor of NaNo WriMo, and in an effort to keep myself from being too distracted, I've decided not to read any books this month. This is a big step for me. I generally average 2-6 books a month. For the past two years. Going cold turkey might be a bit extreme, but so far it seems to be OK. I guess I'll have to see what kind of state I'm in at the end of the month. Maybe I can break my addiction to books, and return it to the hobby state. That would probably be a good thing.
I think I'm going to make it home for Thanksgiving this year. It would be the first time I've been home in almost a year. And the first thanksgiving with my family in two years...three years? I'm not sure. But it's been awhile. It would be good. Hopefully plane tickets will keep dropping, or at least stay the same until I get paid on Friday.
In other news, according to my mom, gas prices have dropped to an astonishing $1.98 in Northwest Ohio. How amazing!
California voters turned down a constitutional amendment to allow gay marriage. I'm not sure I should type how this makes me feel, but I hope someday we'll all be allowed to make our own choices, and our own mistakes. Gays and pregnant women included.
Ok, I said I wasn't going to talk politics, I guess I haven't done so well adhering to that claim. Maybe in the next post.
I just wrote 518 words in like 5 minutes. Why can't I do that with my NaNo? I'd be caught up in like an hour.
Ok, last piece of random information. I've discovered another new musician. Meaghan Smith. She sounds a lot like Nora Jones, except she has this amazing music video. Watch. Listen. Enjoy.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Untitled
Susan looked down into a puddle that was quickly forming in the steady rain. She saw a reflection of herself. Her nut brown hair; her nut brown eyes; her nut brown freckles sprayed across her button nose. Everything seemed so, ordinary, So boring. She thought. Something’s just stay the same, but why do I have to be one of them?
She sniffed, and wiped her nose on the back of her sleeve and looked in the puddle one more time. There she sat. Sad, and lonely, looking sour as a lemon. But then, quick as a flash she winked. Or rather her reflection winked. Susan froze unable to tear her eyes from the doppelganger staring up at her from the watery mirror. There it was again! Definitely a wink! But that couldn’t be possible, Susan hadn’t winked. And then the most extra-ordinary thing happened, her reflection grinned, tilted her head and beckoned Susan to follow her.
“What? Do you want me to follow you?” she asked the puddle, her voice cracking with uncertainty. Her reflection grinned from ear to ear and nodded her head. “But…how?” The reflection smiled at Susan, and then lifted her hand and pointed one slender finger at her. Susan stretched out a finger gingerly touching its tip to the surface of the puddle.
If Susan had been paying close attention, perhaps she would have seen the reflections eyes twitch, just slightly, barely noticeable. If her mother had been there she would have noticed the twitch, she always noticed when Susan twitched; and the twitch always meant the same thing. It meant that Susan was up to no good. But her mother wasn’t in the alley, and Susan wasn’t paying attention the reflections eyes.
Her finger grazed the surface of the silvery water, just for a moment. Just long enough to tell that the water wasn’t water at all. It was something much thicker, much colder, and much more frightening. And with a whoosh, and a splash, Susan was gone.
She sniffed, and wiped her nose on the back of her sleeve and looked in the puddle one more time. There she sat. Sad, and lonely, looking sour as a lemon. But then, quick as a flash she winked. Or rather her reflection winked. Susan froze unable to tear her eyes from the doppelganger staring up at her from the watery mirror. There it was again! Definitely a wink! But that couldn’t be possible, Susan hadn’t winked. And then the most extra-ordinary thing happened, her reflection grinned, tilted her head and beckoned Susan to follow her.
“What? Do you want me to follow you?” she asked the puddle, her voice cracking with uncertainty. Her reflection grinned from ear to ear and nodded her head. “But…how?” The reflection smiled at Susan, and then lifted her hand and pointed one slender finger at her. Susan stretched out a finger gingerly touching its tip to the surface of the puddle.
If Susan had been paying close attention, perhaps she would have seen the reflections eyes twitch, just slightly, barely noticeable. If her mother had been there she would have noticed the twitch, she always noticed when Susan twitched; and the twitch always meant the same thing. It meant that Susan was up to no good. But her mother wasn’t in the alley, and Susan wasn’t paying attention the reflections eyes.
Her finger grazed the surface of the silvery water, just for a moment. Just long enough to tell that the water wasn’t water at all. It was something much thicker, much colder, and much more frightening. And with a whoosh, and a splash, Susan was gone.
Friday, October 31, 2008
NaNo WriMo
"Art for art's sake does wonderful things to you. It makes you laugh. It makes you cry. It makes you want to take naps and go places wearing funny pants. Doing something just for the hell of it is a wonderful antidote to all the chores and "must-dos" of daily life. Writing a novel in a month is both exhilarating and stupid, and we would all do well to invite a little more spontaneous stupidity into our lives."
Well, I'm going to do it. I'm participating in NaNo Wrimo for the very first time. Wish me luck!
Well, I'm going to do it. I'm participating in NaNo Wrimo for the very first time. Wish me luck!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Music of Chance
"Nashe understood that he was no longer behaving like himself. he could hear the words coming out of his mouth, but even as he spoke them, he felt they were expressing someone else's thoughs, as if he were no more than an actor performing on the stage of some imaginary theater, repeating lines that had been written for him in advance." ~Paul Auster
Thursday, October 16, 2008
The Thomas Baker Band
I've had this song, Moonshine, stuck in my head for two days. I randomly discoverd The Thomas Baker Band while looking for a Brett Dennen song on You Tube. TBB seems to be an indie band from South Carolina, perhaps struggling to take off, perhaps not expecting to do this professionally, or will perhaps be the next Jack Johnson. I suppose only time will tell.
The video cuts off just before the end of the song, but you get the idea...
The video cuts off just before the end of the song, but you get the idea...
Monday, October 13, 2008
The Big Read
top 100 books
I found this on a friend's blog.
Something called "The Big Read" compiles a list of the top 100 books (i don't know what that means though...biggest sellers? classics? most popular of the classics? books someone randomly decided everyone "should" read? There's a few on there I question, and some that seem to be missing).
Ok, so I stole the entire previous paragraph as well. Why reinvent the wheel? So they say that the average adult has read 6 of the top 100 books. I've read 42. Yea for not having an active social life. And for being a giant nerd.
The bolded books I've read.
The italicized one's I intend to read.
The underlined ones, I love.
1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible (i've never read the WHOLE thing though. maybe someday....)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (most of them)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen (the last of her novels that I have yet to read. there are a few lesser known novellas, and letters, but they're hard to find. so i'll probably never actually read them)
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (one i've passe over for years, but the movie was glorious and i now have high hopes for the novel)
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (it has been sitting on my book shelf for years. i've even started it a few times. one of these days...)
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (i'm pretty sure i actually finished this...at least i own it. but that's not saying much)
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (i just bought this a few weeks ago, which means i'll read it in a year or so...)
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (i'm pretty sure that's sitting on a shelf somewhere too)
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73.The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (i've seen a few versions of the movie, and a sequal at some point too. does that count? no?...)
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce (a lot of it anyway...)
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (or some of them at least)
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
I found this on a friend's blog.
Something called "The Big Read" compiles a list of the top 100 books (i don't know what that means though...biggest sellers? classics? most popular of the classics? books someone randomly decided everyone "should" read? There's a few on there I question, and some that seem to be missing).
Ok, so I stole the entire previous paragraph as well. Why reinvent the wheel? So they say that the average adult has read 6 of the top 100 books. I've read 42. Yea for not having an active social life. And for being a giant nerd.
The bolded books I've read.
The italicized one's I intend to read.
The underlined ones, I love.
1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible (i've never read the WHOLE thing though. maybe someday....)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (most of them)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen (the last of her novels that I have yet to read. there are a few lesser known novellas, and letters, but they're hard to find. so i'll probably never actually read them)
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (one i've passe over for years, but the movie was glorious and i now have high hopes for the novel)
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (it has been sitting on my book shelf for years. i've even started it a few times. one of these days...)
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (i'm pretty sure i actually finished this...at least i own it. but that's not saying much)
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (i just bought this a few weeks ago, which means i'll read it in a year or so...)
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (i'm pretty sure that's sitting on a shelf somewhere too)
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73.The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (i've seen a few versions of the movie, and a sequal at some point too. does that count? no?...)
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce (a lot of it anyway...)
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (or some of them at least)
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Ohio, Damien Juardo
Out from my window across from the city
I have what's considered a good view
Two blocks from the subway, three from the fountain
Where I walk to break in new shoes
She stands on the sidewalk just waving at taxis
Like horses in parades in passing
I ask where she's headed she tells me,
"Ohio, I've not seen my mother in ages
It's been a long time, a real long time."
Out from my window "How far is Ohio?"
She laughed and pointed out east
She said, "I grew up there with my dear mother
And I haven't seen her since thirteen.
You see, I was taken while she lay sleeping
By my father's hired man
We moved to city so far from my family
I haven't been back there since.
It's been a long time, a real long time."
Out from my window please hear me Ohio
Your daughter wants to come home
She longs to be with you to hug you to kiss you
To never leave her alone
And I've gotten know her to live with to love her
It's hard to see her leave
She belongs to her mother and the state of Ohio
I wish she belonged to me
See you sometime, see you sometime
I have what's considered a good view
Two blocks from the subway, three from the fountain
Where I walk to break in new shoes
She stands on the sidewalk just waving at taxis
Like horses in parades in passing
I ask where she's headed she tells me,
"Ohio, I've not seen my mother in ages
It's been a long time, a real long time."
Out from my window "How far is Ohio?"
She laughed and pointed out east
She said, "I grew up there with my dear mother
And I haven't seen her since thirteen.
You see, I was taken while she lay sleeping
By my father's hired man
We moved to city so far from my family
I haven't been back there since.
It's been a long time, a real long time."
Out from my window please hear me Ohio
Your daughter wants to come home
She longs to be with you to hug you to kiss you
To never leave her alone
And I've gotten know her to live with to love her
It's hard to see her leave
She belongs to her mother and the state of Ohio
I wish she belonged to me
See you sometime, see you sometime
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Nobody Knows Me At All
i'm digging the weepies right now.
digging. do people still say that? apparently, since i just did. but perhaps it's not meant to be used any more, in which case, i should stop singing it. singing it? saying it. i wonder if there is a way to embed just one song. like a youtube video. hmmm. perhaps on last.fm. i'm going to look into it, and if so i'll share some weepies with you.
ok, so i couldn't find just the song, so i've decided to settle for youtube. and the video i could find for the song i'm actually listening to, Citywide Rodeo, is set to a montage of baseball moments. dumb. actually all of the videos are fan-based, and they all suck. so instead of putting up a video based on song merit, i'm putting it up based on visual content. and this one sucks the least. actually i kind of like it. anyway, these are the weepies, and i like them.
so that's that.
i can't sleep again. that's not actually true. i did sleep. i just woke up. at the ungodly hour of 6 am. bollocks. i was hoping to sleep until i had to wake up. instead i slept until i woke up. that's annoying.
no major plans for the weekend. i'm going to watch some friends play football, and read in the park, and then ditch both to go to a flea market. sounds kind of fun. i haven't been to a flea market in, well probably years. but i'm not expecting to find much. this is silver spring we're talking about. probably just over priced crap that the richies didn't want lying around anymore. but maybe not. maybe there will be good finds. or good reads. i love finding books at flea markets. it's like a treasure hunt. a treasure hunt that you have to pay for. but none the less.
this is an incredibly disconnected, rambling post. i guess that's what you get from me at 6 in the morning. or rather 7:41. damn this morning has gone quickly. and yet nothing of real consequence has passed by my lips, or fingers for that matter.
i suppose i could talk about politics. but honestly i don't really give a damn. that's a lie. i do. just not right now.
or a book. but i talk about those all the time, and no one really cares anyway.
lately i've been wishing that i had conversations with people that could pick up on the book and movie references that i drop all the time. it would be rather uplifting to share thoughts on those sorts of things. instead when i do, i typically get a "what are you talking about?" or "what's that from". most recently that was followed up with "it's from that video i've been obsessed with for like the past month. i've told you about it. haven't i? i talk about it all the time." always reassuring and uplifting to know that the thoughts and passions that i share with others are actually given some amount of credence. it's a little depressing to think about it. i need new friends. or friends in general. friends that actually give a fuck about you and aren't so absorbed in their own god damn lives that they can't see you crumbling to bits right before their eyes.
oh well, so it goes.
digging. do people still say that? apparently, since i just did. but perhaps it's not meant to be used any more, in which case, i should stop singing it. singing it? saying it. i wonder if there is a way to embed just one song. like a youtube video. hmmm. perhaps on last.fm. i'm going to look into it, and if so i'll share some weepies with you.
ok, so i couldn't find just the song, so i've decided to settle for youtube. and the video i could find for the song i'm actually listening to, Citywide Rodeo, is set to a montage of baseball moments. dumb. actually all of the videos are fan-based, and they all suck. so instead of putting up a video based on song merit, i'm putting it up based on visual content. and this one sucks the least. actually i kind of like it. anyway, these are the weepies, and i like them.
so that's that.
i can't sleep again. that's not actually true. i did sleep. i just woke up. at the ungodly hour of 6 am. bollocks. i was hoping to sleep until i had to wake up. instead i slept until i woke up. that's annoying.
no major plans for the weekend. i'm going to watch some friends play football, and read in the park, and then ditch both to go to a flea market. sounds kind of fun. i haven't been to a flea market in, well probably years. but i'm not expecting to find much. this is silver spring we're talking about. probably just over priced crap that the richies didn't want lying around anymore. but maybe not. maybe there will be good finds. or good reads. i love finding books at flea markets. it's like a treasure hunt. a treasure hunt that you have to pay for. but none the less.
this is an incredibly disconnected, rambling post. i guess that's what you get from me at 6 in the morning. or rather 7:41. damn this morning has gone quickly. and yet nothing of real consequence has passed by my lips, or fingers for that matter.
i suppose i could talk about politics. but honestly i don't really give a damn. that's a lie. i do. just not right now.
or a book. but i talk about those all the time, and no one really cares anyway.
lately i've been wishing that i had conversations with people that could pick up on the book and movie references that i drop all the time. it would be rather uplifting to share thoughts on those sorts of things. instead when i do, i typically get a "what are you talking about?" or "what's that from". most recently that was followed up with "it's from that video i've been obsessed with for like the past month. i've told you about it. haven't i? i talk about it all the time." always reassuring and uplifting to know that the thoughts and passions that i share with others are actually given some amount of credence. it's a little depressing to think about it. i need new friends. or friends in general. friends that actually give a fuck about you and aren't so absorbed in their own god damn lives that they can't see you crumbling to bits right before their eyes.
oh well, so it goes.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
From the mind of Terry Gilliam, (the man who brought us: Twelve Monkeys, The Brothers Grim, Monty Python hilarity including, but not limited to, Monty Python and the Holy Grial, The Life of Brian, Monty Python's Flying Circus.) Comes yet another glorius frolick into Fantasy. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Can I just say, this makes me want to piddle...but only a little.
Monday, October 06, 2008
A Short Love Story in Stop Motion
I haven't been able to sleep lately. Sometimes when I'm trying to fall asleep, sometimes late at night, sometimes early in the morning. Generally this results in me, dragging my blankets and pillows into the living room to watch a movie. Like when I was a kid, and I'd wait for the easter bunny. One year I actually saw the easter bunny. I swear to God. Actually I didn't see the easter bunny, but rather his shadow. I saw the Shadow of the easter bunny. I swear to God. I saw the shadow of his ears and his head on the wall behind the tv. On further reflection, and about twenty years to think about it, I think that there is a chance, a small chance but a chance none the less, that it may not have been the easter bunny, but the bunny ears perched atop our 1980's Emerson TV. But to a 6 year old it was the easter bunny. I swear to God, I saw the easter bunny.
So when i can't sleep, I generally drag my blankets into the living room with the hope of exhausting myself. Well this morning, when I woke up at 5 am, I decided to switch things up a bit. So I drug my computer out of the living room, and into my bedroom, and surfed the internet.
And what did I discover? This little gem.
A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.
So when i can't sleep, I generally drag my blankets into the living room with the hope of exhausting myself. Well this morning, when I woke up at 5 am, I decided to switch things up a bit. So I drug my computer out of the living room, and into my bedroom, and surfed the internet.
And what did I discover? This little gem.
A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.
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