revolution review

Hello all. I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday weekend. If you're drinking tonight, stay where you are or take a cab. A hotel room or a cab is far cheaper than hospital bills and higher insurance premiums and lawyer fees.

I've been able to spend time with family and friends, had a lovely tea and gossip, watched a lot of movies, slept in, plowed through a few books. Great way to spend a four-day weekend.

I dug into my blog archives to see what I wanted to accomplish this year. I had one of those years that proves the adage, "if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans."

Here's what I set out to do this year (courtesy of January 07 blog post):

• knitting or crocheting a blanket


• taking cello lessons


• eating breakfast at home rather than at work


• scheduling (and keeping) more play dates


• making a large dent in reading list


• going to see Julia's kitchen at the Smithsonian


• completing alternative medicine certificate course


• writing at least one whitepaper on alternative medicine


• going for a three-peat during NaNoWriMo in November


• taking at least one day off every month


• visiting someplace interesting that has absotively nothing to do with a business trip

This year has been an alternative year, meaning that there were a lot of activities that were switched out with ones in the above list.


Here's how my year actually went:

• crocheted two scarves and a shawl and a blanket


• started master's degree instead of cello lessons - I set up cello lessons with two potential teachers, and things fell through in both instances, so maybe I'm not supposed to start cello lessons quite yet


• discovered that when I eat breakfast in the early morning, I end up nauseated for the rest of the morning, so a later breakfast seems to be better for me as I guess my stomach is slow to wake up


• play dates - did this off and on this year: tea parties, lunch with friends, outings with sister


• I read quite a few books on my reading list, and of course, added more books to the list


• Julia's kitchen - haven't seen it yet


• alternative medicine certificate course - didn't start this, started master's degree instead


• whitepaper on alternative medicine - didn't do this either, wrote papers on pedagogy of creative writing and Jane Austen's sister fixation instead


• NaNoWriMo - didn't do this, wrote a screenplay instead, 2 in fact (one in June, one in October/November)


• take a day off every month - did this in the first half of the year, and then all hell broke loose and I lost my job, which led to a month-and-a-half unexpected (but mostly welcome) vacation, which more or less makes up for not being able to take any time off for the rest of the year due to having to start over earning vacation time at new job


• visit someplace interesting unrelated to work - San Francisco in April: Ghiradelli aromatherapy, communing with the redwoods

Other things that happened this year: lost Louise a year ago, lost Hunny five and a half months ago, gained Lyra, gained brother-in-law, lost job, got new job, got new car, started panicking again. Sigh, just once, I would like a calm, yet still productive year.

I'm still deciding what to do for 2008, so pop in again in a day or two.

martyrs

So I'm standing in line at the bank today (and I must say that the new Bank of America over at the mall is the cheeriest, sunniest, roomiest bank I've ever been in), and I look up at the TV screens above the teller stations, and the news is plastered with Benazir Bhutto's assassination.

I was horrified and unsurprised at the same time. I had seen a number of interviews with her over the past few months, and while I liked what she stood for and what she was trying to do, I thought that perhaps Pakistan's troubles were too far gone and she'd be in for far more than she realized at the time. And given all the violence and opposition to her and her party, not to mention the previous assassination attempts, how many close calls could she get away with?

Still, I sensed a certain hardness in her that she might be able to pull it off. It may have come from losing her father and her brother to similar assassinations, or growing up in a political dynasty and having to live up to expectations, or all the criticism she faced (although little of it seemed to be about the fact that she was a female politician, so there's some progress), or maybe she expected to die. I wonder if her son will take up her cause the way she took it up from her father after he was killed. He seems to be following a similar path at least - he's at Oxford right now, like she was at his age.

I don't know how much truth there is to the corruption charges against her. It's hard to tell how much of that was political propaganda designed and spun to discredit her and how much was actually true.

So yet another martyr in the dynasty, which doesn't do anything for either side, and makes everything worse, and I half-expect the country to implode from all the tension and rage created as a result of the assassination.

There's a particular image of Bhutto that a lot of news stations and Internet articles are using that's very striking. She's looking directly at the camera, and her head is covered with a cream-colored veil, which makes her dark hair and eyes look even darker. She's wearing some make-up, but not much, and she's amazingly beautiful and young-looking for someone in her mid-50s who's faced a lot of strain and tragedy. Her expression is calm and determined at the same time. It reminded me of a painting I've seen of Christ, the most famous martyr, in a similar pose, leaning to the left slightly, head covered in a light-colored veil, looking directly at the viewer. Martyrdom got him an entire religion, controversial though it is. I wonder what it will get her?

stewie pants

Yep, that's what I'm wearing (sorry to disappoint the guys who read this), courtesy of my sister. Comfy, roomy, Christmas-y pajamas covered with the only character worth watching on Family Guy. There's even an image of him mooning whoever is looking.

Em was entirely too generous this year. Everyone was, actually. She did my hair yesterday - semi-permanent color (a bit darker brown with a dash of violet for kicks and giggles and richness), trim, AND style, and she also got me a slow cooker, and a starter organic chicken to christen it with (only a sister thinks of things like that), which is now cooking, of course. And that's in addition to all the books, CDs, and DVDs, which will last me until my birthday at the earliest. I got a ton of holiday cards too, which are all hanging up, despite Lyra's best attempts to swipe them down and chew on them.

My cold is still festering, probably because now that my big work project and my research paper are done, I can afford to get sick, which is what always happened in high school and college after exams. However, it's a lovely, sunny day, and I need a walk, and then some visits, and then nothing bloody whatever except reading and movies for the rest of the day. And it's only a three-day work week this week. Yay!

Happy holidays, everybody!

'tis finished

And so the Jane Austen seminar ends with a 10-page paper on sisters in her novels - and there are a hell of a lot of sisters in those books, I can tell you. Final exam essays have been turned in as well, so now I can chill for a few days until the next class starts.

I'm already feeling the effects of the stress of the past month. I had a monstrous project to do at work, which took me three weeks. I worked on nothing else by order of the CEO and VP and my boss. And now that the project is done, I never want to see the bloody thing again. This was compounded by reading 4 books, participating in 4 books discussions, completing 8 research assignments, 4 essays, and a final paper. Also, Louise died a year ago this week. No wonder I don't feel well.

I'm hanging out with my sister tomorrow, and will be otherwise completely lazy for the next two days. So don't trouble me with anything, because I will be completely useless to deal with it.

just a quick note...

I have a paper and an essay to finish this weekend, so this is just to assure you all that I'm still breathing.

A few other things:

I shall put up a few pictures soon of the blanket and shawls that I made. I'm now working on two baby blankets for co-workers who are expecting.

Another co-worker had a great recipe for potato leek soup, so I'm making a non-dairy version. It requires 18 red potatoes, so says the recipe.

Don't let your heart chi get depleted. If you do, make sure you get enough sleep and eat lots of protein. Sushi is good for this, apparently.

Crowded House recorded a concert for Austin City Limits in September, and it's going to be broadcast January 8.

There's a snippet of the Coraline movie available. I kind of like her with blue hair.

Right. Back to homework. I've put the Colin Firth version of P&P in the DVD player to keep me company and give me a little inspiration. It's six hours long, so that ought to keep me going through all this homework.

"In a 2006 interview with French magazine, Madame Figaro, Colin Firth was asked "Quelles sont les femmes de votre vie?" (Who are the women in your life?). Firth replied: 'Ma mère, ma femme et Jane Austen' (My mother, my wife and Jane Austen)."

Sunday writing

It's Jane Austen's birthday today. Go Jane! I've just discovered some Darcy and Wentworth diary spinoffs. I'm hoping they're as good as they sound.

I'm upset and unnerved that Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's disease. For someone who writes what he writes, which is just packed with imagination, it must be scary to find that the brain fueling all that is turning against you. I'd be miffed if it were me. He's being cheerful, and sensibly reminding people that he's not dead yet and has at least a few more books in him.

There was a great piece on Sunday Morning about writers who paint. They show a clip of Kurt Vonnegut, a writer who painted, and he said, "I'm not an artist, but I recommend that people practice art, no matter how badly, because it's known to make a soul grow." Susan Minot said that she wanted to paint but needed to write, which is a great way to put it. Even Einstein did things other than math and physics. I don't feel so weird doing both now, and I feel a little less guilty about also doing the needlework thing and possibly starting a dollhouse - I was inspired by my friend Jane's dollhouse and a piece Sunday Morning did last week, and I think I've found one to get going with. Em and I didn't have a dollhouse when we were kids. We improvised by turning the fridge of our kitchen playset into an apartment building.

And for something entirely unrelated, I can't quite decide what I think of glow-in-the-dark cats.

“…her soul walks beside her”

I don’t know what the movie critics’ problem is. I thought The Golden Compass was awesome. The acting was great, the scenery was gorgeous, the daemons were well done in CGI, the set-up for the next film worked, and what was changed from novel to film was reasonable. There is some violence, the worst of which is one polar knocking off the lower jaw of another polar bear, but no blood is shown. Whenever a person was killed, his or her daemon evaporated in a glittery cloud. The scariest part was watching Lyra almost being cut away from her daemon by means of a claustrophobic black machine. The saddest scene was seeing the result of intercision (cutting a child from its daemon) – the child is something like a drugged-out ghost with no sense of anything.

I can see why people are upset about the anti-religious tone, and some of the negative audience reviews about this are eye-opening. However, the author has a right to express his opinion as well (I think some of the angry audience members forget this), which I think he’s done beautifully in these three books. And there’s no denying that under the label of “religion,” people have done some horrible things to other people, supposedly to "help" them and “save” them.

Kate Bush’s song at the end is beautiful. I hope that’s released on a CD at some point.

I next want to see Sweeney Todd and possibly Atonement (more for James McAvoy than Keira Knightley, and because the book was good).

Jane at 232

I had a fun day today. I went to a regional meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America in Baltimore with a friend, aptly named Jane. Jane Austen’s 232nd birthday is on December 16th.

We had lunch first, and you sit where you like (no assigned seating). The instant icebreaker when chatting with fellow Janeites you’ve just met is naturally, “which book is your favorite?” (My favorite is Persuasion.) One of our table companions is curator of a museum in Annapolis. Two others were restoring a farmhouse in southern Maryland. My friend Jane told everyone at our table that I had tagged along because I was taking a grad course in Jane Austen and was about to start my research paper. They all liked my representation of sisters idea, so I think that’s a go.

The lecture was on "Five Things a Jane Austen Heroine or Hero Needs to Know." They are: how to run a household, how to dress, how to travel, how to dance, and how to marry. The speaker is also the “editrix” of austenblog.com and has also written a book, The Jane Austen Handbook.

There were a handful of men there, all enthusiasts of Austen’s books. I was probably one of three people under 40. Interestingly, no one seemed to feel awkward about this, and were actually relieved that younger generations still appreciate the only female writer among the top three writers in the English language (the other two being Dickens and Shakespeare).

I also got to see my friend Jane’s house and her cats and her bird. She lives in a rancher built in the 60s that still has some of the original interiors – Formica et al. She has an outdoor tan-and-white cat named Blinky, a tuxedo cat named Elvis, a Siamese cat named Buffy, who has amazing ice-blue eyes and is rather shy, and a colorful bird named Ichabod, who can whistle the theme song from The Andy Griffin Show. I also got to see Jane’s dollhouse. Her father built it for her, as well as some of the furniture for it, and her mom made some of the blankets and rugs for it. It has a boy’s room, a girl’s room, a kitchen, a den, a living room, a library, and a garden. She mentioned that she needs a blanket for one of the beds, so I offered to crochet one for her.

Jane apologized that her garden didn’t look nice in the winter weather. It looked fine to me – “put to bed,” in her words. Just seeing all the countryside and space out where she lives in Eldersburg was scenic enough. She has a patio area away from the house and under trees, a greenhouse, a few sheds, and bird feeders everywhere. She refers to the place as “the Ponderosa,” because of the ranch-style house and the land around it.

Still plugging away on the mid-term essays, this week’s research assignment (roles and rights of women in the 18th century), and the final paper. I can’t complain, though. Austen had to hand-write everything in between near-constant interruptions in the sitting room. I just have to deal with a cat who wants occasional chin scratches.

more stuff I've found

Interesting how lately, this blog has become a gathering place for the various and sundry that I come across in my skimmings during the day. I don't know if that's good or bad.

I can give you one original thought, though - I think my research paper will be on the portrayal of sisters (blood-related, or marriage-related or almost-marriage-related) as opposites in Austen's novels. The four books we're reading in this Austen course all have this element: Catherine and Isabella/Catherine and Eleanor in Northanger Abbey, Elinor and Marianne in Sense and Sensibility, Jane and Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice (I could add in the other three sisters, but the Jane/Elizabeth relationship is the most prominent), Anne and Elizabeth/Anne and Mary in Persuasion. Austen had a close relationship with her sister, Cassandra, so I might add that in too, just for kicks and giggles.

Right. On to the various and sundry:

Griffin and Sabine fans may recognize this.

Winesburg, Ohio is one of those books everyone should read.

So is Dandelion Wine.

And I like the new Iron and Wine CD.

I'm getting thirsty.

I loved today's Garfield comic.

Elizabeth Hardwick has died. She was Robert Lowell's wife and a writer in her own right.

Robert Lowell and Amy Lowell and James Russell Lowell are all related.

Speaking of poetry, if there was ever a case in which Stephen Fry's The Ode Less Travelled ought to be put to good use, this is it.

Since several of you have asked, truly and honestly, this is not me, although I like her writing immensely.

"stasis in darkness..."

I'm about to start my mid-term essay, but I feel like procrastinating just for a little bit - I think it's the snowy weather...and having to edit 1000+ messages in a week (but hey, that's only 200-ish a day)

Here are some things I've come across this week:

A piece about the man who invented the Internet.

Have a Jane Austen film fest at home.

I couldn't come up with a better title than this: The Window Dresser Who Was Inspired by Proust.

"Restoring" the classics - I have to admit, I was intrigued by the original order of Sylvia Plath's Ariel poems as compared to the order that Ted Hughes put them in. And speaking of Ted Hughes, his letters have just been published.

And speaking of letters, Noel Coward's letters have just been published as well.

New poem by Wordsworth has just been published.

More about Philip Pullman.