Posted by barb on Sep 20, 2003 in
Random Thoughts Andrew said that it took several tries, but the power is now back on. He’d woken up around 4:30 AM and the power was on, but flicked off a few minutes later. About 5 AM he said it came on again, but then he heard a big BOOM in the distance — a transformer breaking — and the power went out again. When I woke up at 5:30 AM, the power was on again. This time for good.
I’d like to say that I won’t take electricity for granted again, but we all know that’s not true.
Posted by barb on Sep 20, 2003 in
Books This week is designated as Banned Books Week by the American Library Association. Every year our right to read numerous books, from classics to new releases, is challenged by various groups for various reasons. Perhaps the most prominent recent example are the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling. Many ultra-conservative religious groups have deemed that the Harry Potter books promote witchcraft and devil worship in our children. Some groups have gone so far as to burn Harry Potter books .
However, we have a little thing called the First Amendment in this country — we are guaranteed the right to free speech, which includes the right to read books that some people might find offensive. My advice to these groups who would stifle my right to read a Harry Potter book: don’t read the book. That way you aren’t offended, and I retain my right to read the book. Nazis burned books — I would hope that we were more civilized than that.
In honor of Banned Books Week, I collected several books on the 100 most challenged books list (from 1990-2000) that I have read, and will be making Bookcrossing releases of them all week. In addition, I am putting bookmarks in these books acknowledging banned books week and explaining that the book was one of the most frequently challenged books in the 1990s. Feel free to grab the bookmarks and print your own.
Posted by barb on Sep 20, 2003 in
Books by Robert Cormier
While the annual fundraising chocolate sale at Trinity prep school is voluntary, no boy has ever refused to sell the chocolates. Until this year. Jerry is a freshman whose mother died the previous spring. He has gotten a spot on the football team, but his school spirit does not extend to the annual chocolate sale.
Behind the scenes at Trinity, the secret school society, the Vigils, are at work. They give assignments to various boys throughout the year as a stepping stone into the society. This year, they have been pressured into assuring that the chocolate sale is a success. However, with Jerry’s refusal to sell, other boys see that they, too, don’t have to participate. Chocolate sales fall.
As Jerry continues to defy the Vigils, he finds that his life starts to spiral down into hell. He gets pummeled at football practice. The phone at his apartment rings at all hours, with only a chuckle on the other end of the receiver. Still he refuses.
While the book is a bit dated in places (it was written in the 1970s), the themes hold up well over time. The ending is also much more realistic than the novels that end with all the villains getting their due. Of course, this also makes the ending quite unsettling.
Posted by barb on Sep 19, 2003 in
Random Thoughts Our power went out again yesterday evening. It was off all day today (I’m writing this entry on Saturday, when our power was restored). In all the commotion I forgot about Talk Like a Pirate Day ! <whine>
It was one of those non-days in my estimation. We went down to Arlington for lunch (our stove top is gas, so we could have cooked something, but we also wanted to waste time). We also went to Orpheus where I picked up Train’s Drops of Jupiter and Vertical Horizon’s Everything You Want. I couldn’t actually remember what Vertical Horizon played, but did remember hearing them on the radio and thinking I might like to get a CD. I’m listening to it right now, and am quite enjoying it. I also bought a copy of Starry Night at the Mac store (yay!).
When we got back to the house, we hung around for a while, trying to read by the waning daylight (it’s difficult to read by flickering candlelight). Then we realized that Andrew’s work had power, so there also had to be some restaurants open in that area. We drove up to Herndon, where we both checked our e-mail and a few web pages, finding out that the WABA bike ride on Saturday was cancelled <frown>. We went to a lazy dinner, and finally back home. I called my parents (Andrew still had his pre-cordless phone, so we could use the phone without power) to let them know that we were fine. Then off to bed.
Posted by barb on Sep 18, 2003 in
Random Thoughts I didn’t even attempt to go in to work today. Goddard was open (despite the federal government, the surrounding school districts, the surrounding county governments, and even DC’s Metro transit system all being closed, Goddard had to stay open for the morning). About 11:30 this morning an e-mail was sent around that the center was closing, though, and will remain closed tomorrow.
So, we’ve had a quiet day at home. We cleaned a bit, since Mushi is planning on coming up this weekend. And then settled in front of the TV. At about 4:30 the power flicked off. Then flickered a couple more times before staying off for a couple hours. Andrew made dinner by candle light (we have a gas stove, but electric oven), and then we played a game of Scrabble (I won! Yay! Only my second win against Andrew). During Scrabble the power came back up, but it flickered a couple times before staying on. We aren’t bothering to reset our bedside clocks just yet…
Posted by barb on Sep 17, 2003 in
Saxophone I pointed out three pieces that I’d been working on this week to Fred at the beginning of the lesson: a chromatic etude, On the Wings of a Song, and Gavorette. I also said that I hated Gavorette, and just couldn’t quite get the feel of it. It has a bunch of grace notes, which are played as sixteenth notes leading into the “real note” (that’s not a great explanation, but the best I can do right now). The object is to land on the real note on the right beat. I actually had to play one when I worked on a short piece from the Nutcracker Suite, but that one was easier (perhaps because I was familiar with the piece).
Anyway, that meant that we spent the whole lesson working on Gavorette, of course. But, we eliminated the grace notes, and I’m currently just working on playing it without them (which is going much, much better).
I still need to work on getting a bigger sound. Fred suggested placing a sock in the bell of my horn when I practice, but still trying to get the same sound I get now. The idea is that when I remove the sock, I’ll be so used to playing with more air that I’ll get a bigger sound.
Posted by barb on Sep 14, 2003 in
Books by Merill Markoe
This novel is told as letters written by a woman to herself on her birthday for seven consecutive years. She struggles into her forties while trying to determine ways to not repeat mistakes made with her parents and in her love life. While Markoe interjects many humorous anecdotes, I found the book to be a bit depressing overall. Though the back of the book asserts that the woman ultimately succeeds in finding happiness, I could only see that she ended up in much the same place as she began.
Fun but forgettable.
Posted by barb on Sep 10, 2003 in
Saxophone Fred took the month of August off, so I was a lazy bum, and didn’t practice much until the end of August. Today was my first lesson back, and it went surprisingly well (though I hadn’t advanced as far in the book as I would like 🙂
I played a minor etude (the first in my book, since they just introduced minor scales), and actually did a fair job, though I forgot to keep playing the couple times I messed up. I have to get it into my head that it’s like juggling with a partner — you just keep going when someone drops, no matter what, and when someone can pick up the dropped club, they fit it back into the pattern. Except here, I just need to let the bad notes go, and get on with the tune. I suppose since I’m not playing with anyone, I feel like I can just back up instead of forging ahead.
We also talked about transposing cello music to play with the alto sax. Andrew plays cello, so it would be fun to try playing a duet with him (or it may cause a breakup….hmmmm). Anyway, Fred had discovered early that alto sax music can be relatively easily transposed by taking the cello music, which is in concert key, and is written in the bass clef. Pretend that it’s in treble clef (i.e. don’t change where the notes are, but change the bass clef symbol to a treble clef symbol). Finally, actually change the key by either changing the key signature or adding accidentals. Andrew and I are going to try to find a beginning cello duet book that has a few pieces in the right key. The problem with taking music he already has is that I only know four major scales: C, G, F, and D; these translate to concert scales as E-flat, A-flat, B-flat and F major. much of Andrew’s current “easy” music is in sharp scales.
Posted by barb on Sep 8, 2003 in
Random Thoughts I followed a link from Salon’s news feeds on a frumpy librarian action figure. The librarians were complaining that the action figure puts librarians back 20 years. The of frumpy clothes and “amazing shushing action” are what seems to have put them over the edge.
A quick web search turned up Archie McPhee’s page featuring the librarian action figure. I think it’s hilarious!
What’s even cooler, though, are some of McPhee’s other action figures. I want Einstein and Shakespeare!
Posted by barb on Sep 7, 2003 in
Movies 3.5/5 stars
The Ring is another horror movie, but one that succeeds more than others have for me. The premise is that once someone watches a certain video tape, that person dies seven days later. When a journalist’s (Rachel Keller, played by Naomi Watts) niece dies, her sister asks her to investigate. Naturally, Keller sees the video, and receives a call within a few minutes telling her she has seven days. Keller must frantically search for the origin of the tape, and a way out of death, before her seven days are up.
I think that in a dark theater with a big screen, I might have been drawn in completely to this film. However, I’m not generally drawn in to horror films, though I enjoy watching the more intelligent ones (read: not the Freddy or Jason films). Overall a good, enjoyable movie.