Posted by barb on Nov 4, 2003 in
Random Thoughts I watched the first hour of the “America Rocks the Vote” forum tonight for the democratic candidates. My first impression was quite like that of King Arthur in Peter David’s Knight Life (a novel in which King Arthur comes back to modern day New York and runs for mayor) — for each question asked, the candidates didn’t so much as answer the question as go on a diatribe of their own choosing, book-ending it with a sentence peripherally related to the question asked.
The first hour had many questions, naturally, on America’s place in the Iraq conflict (war? occupation? travesty?) There seemed to be two lines of thought. Some of the candidates (e.g. Kucinich, Sharpton, Edwards) thought that the US should pull out and turn control over the the UN forces, or at a minimum turn the civilian ruling body over to UN control. Mosely seems to want the US to at least get Iraq back to the shape it was in before we attacked before pulling out. I’m not sure that their stands are mutually exclusive. I’m not sure where I stand. I’m absolutely against the way Bush has been handling the situation (and most other international situations), but, hopefully, the bulk of the damage has been done. On the other hand, we have troops dying every day over there, and that needs to stop. In theory, the worst of the combat is supposed to be over, and yet there are still troops dying daily. Would the UN do better? I have a sinking feeling that they couldn’t do any worse…
Paging through the transcript of the event a bit, it looks like I left before things got good. After I left, they talked about sex education, gay rights, and who used marijuana.
I don’t think I can pick one of the candidates, yet. I do know that the democratic party is going to need to get a strong frontrunner, though, to unseat Bush. There are too many candidates to keep straight right now, and that’s not good for the party. I hate to say it, but I don’t think I could vote for Sharpton, simply because he’s a reverend — I don’t know that I can trust a reverend to continue to support the separation of church and state (though it’s not like Bush is doing that either…). And as much as I’d like to get behind my gender, I’m not sure this is the year to put a woman in office — we need to unseat an incumbent, and I’m not sure the American people (particularly the crusty old white men) are ready to put a woman in office (though I wish they were). I’m also worried about gay rights becoming an issue this election. I’m all for gay rights, but if it becomes a strong issue, it’s likely that left-leaning Christians may lean a bit to the right come election day. The mission needs to be: get Bush out of office, so the strongest candidate to do that needs to come to the forefront. Unfortunately, I think that means a crusty old white male.
Check out all the candidates here on CNN’s page.
Posted by barb on Nov 2, 2003 in
Movies 3/5 stars
I think I already knew this, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t much like war movies. I think I used to; either that, or every time I think about watching one, I seem to remember liking them.
This was a movie about a pair of soldiers (Nicholas Cage and Christian Slater) who are assigned to protect two Navajo code-talkers (Adam Beach and Roger Willie) during WWII. The Navajo were used because their language was an un-crackable code, provided none of the Navajo speakers were captured and made to talk. So, more than protecting the so-called windtalkers, the soldiers’ job was to protect the code…at any cost.
The movie was well done, for what it was, but I’ve lost my stomach for watching men get blown up. Perhaps it’s because we currently have soldiers in Iraq who are facing this as I write this. Perhaps it’s just that the movies are starting to feel too real (though I’m certain men and women who have faced real combat would have something different to say). Perhaps it’s that I just finished reading The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (a collection of short stories on the Vietnam war), and I kept telling myself that it didn’t seem like a real war story (though, again, if it was a real war story, I don’t think I could have sat through the whole thing).
For what it was, it was a good movie….just not my taste anymore.
Posted by barb on Nov 1, 2003 in
Books by Lemony Snicket
This is the second of the Series of Unfortunate Events books. The Baudelaire orphans are shipped off to live with their “Uncle Monty”. Montgomery Montgomery (not a typo) is a herpetologist living in the country with a large reptile room where the orphans can read and study and invent all they want — in fact, they need to in order to help Uncle Monty prepare for their trip to Peru to study new species of snakes.
Of course, this is the Baudelaire orphans we’re talking about, so the happiness can’t last.
Posted by barb on Oct 31, 2003 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts Along with my pun’kins, a large spider web and some lighted bones, I left out some trick-or-treat books for the kids tonight. These books are all registered with Bookcrossing, so it will be fun to see if anyone journals the books in the coming weeks.
The books were actually a big hit with the kids. Most of the kids stopped to look at the books before ringing the doorbell (though the first two kids that came around didn’t know that I had candy as well…oops). The books were gone with the fourth or fifth group of kids to come around. Andrew and I are going to remember this for next year — there is a used bookstore nearby that has a bunch of the Goosebumps books for just 50 cents each, so we’ll probably stock up next year and leave a bigger selection).
These are the books I released (with their Bookcrossing journal link):
Here they are all laid out:
Posted by barb on Oct 31, 2003 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts I always have carved pumpkins for Halloween. I don’t remember when I started, but I remember each year, we would go out an pick out a pumpkin for each of us kids. Then, when my brothers were too old/and or had moved out of the house, Dad and I would go and pick out a couple for me to do. When I moved out on my own, I continued the tradition, only missing the year that I was trapped…er, living in the dorm (but I did decorate the door for Halloween — it was a way cool sarcophagus made from tag board that actually opened to reveal a mummy inside).
Andrew and I went out a couple weeks ago to Cox Farms, just up the road, and picked out two pun’kins for me to carve. Here’s the results of my handiwork (thanks in part to Pumpkin Masters):
(They’re fuzzy because I took them without a flash, and my hand jiggled a bit when I took them.)
I dressed up in costume, as a vampiress:
But, I put the costume on before dinner, complete with fake nails, so I had a bit of trouble eating the wonderful pizza Andrew made.
I estimated that we had just about 70 kids this year, which is about the same as last year. The cutest costume was a little kid, about 4, who was in a full-body lion costume. There were a couple Hulks, many witches, a couple fairy princesses, a football player (I think he was just wearing his uniform from school, though), a ninja, a clown, and so many more that I just can’t remember.
A very fun night!
Posted by barb on Oct 30, 2003 in
Writing I had signed up for a short stories class through Fairfax community education because I wanted to get back into creative writing. It’s been many, many years since I’ve come up with an original piece of fiction, and I miss that part of myself.
Tonight I made it to the second class, and the first thing we did was a warm-up writing assignment. I wrote and wrote and wrote. It seemed so easy to just start writing again. And yet it still seemed foreign.
The class is quite big. There are fourteen people including the instructor. This means that each week we can’t workshop everyone’s work. In fact, we can only get through about four people’s work each week. That’s too bad, but the interaction in class during the work shop seemed quite lively. I look forward to work shopping my work, hopefully next week.
Posted by barb on Oct 29, 2003 in
Saxophone Fred and I returned to the duet we tried last Saturday, and I felt much more comfortable with it, so we’ve crossed it off my list. We then tried a couple others by site reading. Hee hee hee. Hee hee hee. Hee hee hee. Actually, it wasn’t that bad. Fred picked one of the “syncopation” pieces, which required me to play on the up beat while Fred played on the down beats. I’m not all that great with syncopation, but managed to muddle through (though the second time through, I had the rhythm down pretty well, but played almost all of the wrong notes).
Oh, and when we started playing the first duet, he stopped and told me to stop riding the horse. “Huh?” I eloquently replied. Then he explained that I was bouncing my whole body along with the notes that I was articulating. Not as bad as some kids he teaches, but enough that it was going to mess me up. (I believe I snorted when he explained what I was doing. So much for my facade of quiet sophistication.)
Fred picked out a few more duets for me to work on for next week. Though I also need to keep working on a few pieces in B-flat major — I hate that key.
Posted by barb on Oct 28, 2003 in
Science Musings According to SpaceWeather.com, the sun has just experiences the most powerful flare in years, tossing a coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth. This might cause bright auroras October 29th or 30th. The director of the UMD observatory has set up a page to monitor the activity: UM Observatory: Aurora over College Park. If the meter gets into the yellow or if the activity on the map grows and covers the upper states, we might just be able to see the aurora here.
I’ve only see the aurora once. Once it came down as far as the Twin Cities — it was white, rather than colorful, but still magical. My brother had gotten home late, and woke me up to see it. At first I was mad that he’d interrupted a good night’s sleep, but I found myself going back outside after he’d gone to bed. I don’t know how to describe how it made me feel — it was like being in a dream world, or a world where magic is real.
Posted by barb on Oct 28, 2003 in
Random Thoughts Andrew sent me this link to ExtremePumpkins.com
At what point did the carving of pumpkins turn into a “cute” event? When did boys stop carving pumpkins and moms start? Where did we lose touch with one of the years coolest events?
Today we will seize back this ritual. Today is the day we throw away those safe, cute carving tools.
My favorites:
Posted by barb on Oct 27, 2003 in
Books by Lemony Snicket
While playing at the beach one gray day, the Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, get the bad news that their house has burned down and their parents died. This is not a good beginning for a story. Unfortunately things don’t get much better as the book continues. You see, the Baudelaire’s were very rich, so the orphans will inherit quite a fortune when they come of age. The first relative they are placed with, Count Olaf, has only this fortune in mind when he agrees to take the children in.
While the book does not start out or end happily, I found that I was drawn to the Baudelaire children, and I want to hope that eventually something good will happen for them. I look forward to see what happens in the next book.
I’ll admit that I got tired of the endless explanations of some of the words, but I can understand that most of the readers of these books are much, much younger than me, and probably need the extra help. I learned to just skim over those parts by the end of the book.