finished!

9 april 2005 - 4:45am

I finished reading Angels & Demons a short while ago. I'm about to re-pick up This Is Burning Man. A&D was a fun read, a good, exciting story which I found very engaging, and which taught me a lot, but I'm still not a huge fan of Brown's writing. There were some good twists, but also plenty that I saw coming from a mile away, and that got a bit frustrating. Not to mention that Dan Brown is decidedly better at digging up really good facts and thinking up an interesting plot than actually putting words down on paper. I wish he'd hire me as his ghostwriter. Oh, well. This book will definitely not earn a place on my shelves (I tend to hoard copies of books I really appreciate, and possibly want to read again); I'm going to release it into the wild.

Dan and I went to see The Take (2004) tonight (a documentary about Argentinian factory workers who reclaim an abandoned factory that they were fired from), which we both really liked. A very well-done film. We were both teary-eyed, and you really felt so good for those factory workers who were working collectively for better lives and a better Argentina...makes me wish you could see a lot more of that. I guess I'm too cynical, though - I just don't see how that could work on a large scale, unfortuantely. I think we do all need to get back to our local roots in so many ways, though...that's the community people are going to care about. *sigh* I don't know what to say...movies like that make me want to change the world. But I just see way too much corruption. =
We also stopped at Michael's (the craft store chain) and Barnes & Noble tonight (what a contrast, right?). After we got home, I wanted to knit a bit more of Sarah's purple felted bag, so I turned Jersey Girl on, on StarzTicket. Definitely (by far!) not Kevin Smith's best, but if I hadn't known it was by him, I would have appreciated it for a pretty cute movie. In fact, I did, when I ignored the fact that it was his. At least he kept Jay & Silent Bob out of it. It was endearing, but nothing to write home about.

Well, it's reeeeally late, but I felt like writing something even though technically it's "tomorrow" already, and I missed a day. Oh, well! I might add more later on today, if I do anything of note. Well, if I do anything - usually the things I do aren't of note, hehe.

I'm still wide awake, though. I think I'll go write a letter to my friend Jenny and then maybe try to hit the hay. Damn coffee.

p.s. Ohhhh I'm so glad I hit "copy" before I tried to submit this...almost lost the entire post, I HATE when stuff like that (emails, etc.) happens to me. Let that be a lesson to all of us! (Not that we haven't learned it before, ugh...I'm absolutely terrible about that, usually!)

Currently Reading:

TITLE: This Is Burning Man: The Rise of a New American Underground

AUTHOR: Brian Doherty

garh

You wanna know one thing I really hate? When movie posters (or sites; I found this one for you to see what I'm talking about) show pictures of, say, three of the stars from the movie...and list the names above in the complete wrong order! Well, wrong in my eyes - I'm sure it's order of importance or something, but then why don't they photograph the people in that order?? It makes no sense to me. I am not all that up-to-date on who actors are, so when I see a movie poster sometimes it'd help to be able to see who is who, but associating a name with the photo underneath it. But, no. Movie posters want to be annoying, it seems.

Heh. Anyway, yesterday was a frustrating day because around 5pm I got a phone call from a COLLECTION AGENCY!! Regarding a bill that I was told by my insurance A MONTH AGO would be covered "within a week or two" (yeah, I have taken to writing down exactly what everyone says to me, after the Big Referral Mess of 2004...) Now, as far as I know, I have pretty good credit - I pay all of my credit card bills off on time & in full, and the same with my car loan payments. So this is really going to bother me if I get shafted credit-wise because my insurance is taking a long time to pay a $170 bill! Now, I could afford to just pay it myself, but it's partly the principle of the thing, and partly that I shouldn't HAVE to pay that $170, which I really can't spare. So, I am going to have to start pestering my insurnace carriers for the next couple of weeks, because - funny thing - when I called last night to see what the deal was, they told me that the claim had had to go through an approval process, and that it would be paid in - what was that? - "one or two weeks". UGH! At least, like I said, I have started taking names. I'm on the warpath. As grateful as I am that my insurance covered something like $60,000 for my hip surgery and associated hospital visits (and really, I AM grateful that they did that!), this is still such a pain in my ass. I can't wait until it's over, ugh.

To let off some angry steam yesterday - and because we've been planning to do this for a while, now - Dan and I made meatloaf for dinner. We don't cook together very often, although Dan usually keeps me company in the kitchen while I prepare something out of a box, heh. But we have decided we should do that more often - it's a lot of fun! And it turned out to be a pretty good recipe, even despite the fact that we didn't have any of the correct pans for cooking. But everything turned out okay. And we watched another hour of Cleopatra while we ate dinner, heh. It seems to be a movie that needs to be watched in installments...especially since it's 4 hours long!



My Cascade 220 yarn (in yellows and purples) arrived in the mail today, whee! I can't wait to start knitting those felted bags for my sisters.

Last night I also wrote a card, in what's left of my French, to my middle-school French teacher who is sick with cancer. It's so sad to hear that...I hate growing up, because that means everyone you know & love ages. =\ But I hope she will at least appreciate the sentiment. I wrote to her that she was my favorite French teacher and that her passion kept me studying French, which in turn allowed me to meet and speak with my great-uncle who lives outside of Nancy, where my grandmother grew up. And who doesn't speak a word of English. That was a very important thing for me, and I wanted her to know how much I appreciated her help in all of that. ...I just hope she can understand what I was trying to say! The longer I go without speaking French the less & less fluent I become...well, at least this weekend I have a French Language Meetup that I think I'm going to attend, to try to choke out a few passable phrases in conversation! Ack.

Okay, gotta get back to work for now. <3

Currently Reading:

TITLE: Angels & Demons

AUTHOR: Dan Brown

good quotes i've been meaning to post

From Fast Food Nation:

"The market is a tool, and a useful one. But the worship of this tool is a hollow faith. Far more important than any tool is what you make with it."

-Eric Schlosser

"I do not believe that the great object of life is to make everything cheap."

-Henry M. Teller, R-CO, during the Sherman Antitrust Act debate

Went to see the Wailers last night - great show! They (and their openers) are a lot of fun. I'd advise anyone on the East Coast in the next few days to check them out if they head your way.

For now, back to work!

i think i love the library again

Oh, I was so very happy when I went to the library yesterday evening...my creative writing class was cancelled (of course they didn't bother notifying anyone, but I guess the flooding at the main campus in Dryden over the weekend was enough to shut the entire place down!), so when I got home (I wasn't too bothered by it; I live about a 5-minute walk from the satellite building here in Ithaca, and I was in SUCH a good mood yesterday because of the longer days that nothing could bother me!) I convinced Dan to come along with me for a walk to the library to return a book & a DVD I had borrowed from there.

The reason I was making sure to return the stuff in person is rather a long story, but I'll try to keep it short:

A couple months back, I checked out Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, right? Good movie, all went well with it...until I decided to return it using the drop box on a Saturday night at around midnight-ish. As always, I anally checked the case to make sure the DVD was in there before I dropped it off, and then of course checked the drop box to make sure it had gone in, right? Okay, very good, end of story...I thought. That following Monday, we had our normal mid-class break, and I had run over to the library to grab a book that I had wanted to check out. Since I was in a hurry, I went to the self-check-out area (which I tend to use even when I'm not in a hurry, hehe, it's a ton of fun and a lot easier), and lo and behold, what is sitting right there on the table near the machines? So I picked it up, wondering why it was there because I knew it hasn't yet been checked back in according to my account, and on my way to bring it back to the front desk to notify them of the mistake, I opened the box and saw that there was no DVD in there! Mystified and rather upset, I told the awesome front-desk guy what had happened, SURE that he wouldn't believe my odd story, and then headed back to class in a rush, trying not to think about it.

A few months later, I'm being charged $30 for the missing DVD! The case had been returned, but DVD-less. I guess this happens pretty often, because people leave the DVD in their DVD players or something, but I definitely did NOT do that - my room is small, and there aren't many places it could be that I wouldn't come across it regularly! So I went to the library to explain my situation, and the woman working the desk said they'd do an extra-thorough check of the dropbox to see if they couldn't come across the missing DVD. Pleased with this news, I went home. A couple of weeks later, it still hadn't been found. While poking around online once, I happened to check the library's website to see what the DVD's status was listed as...and noticed that the DVD was one of a 4-series set...and that the first two had also been "lost by patron"!! REALLY odd, I figured, so yesterday when I went to the library's front desk to make sure that the Steal This Movie DVD made it back to a librarian's hands and was checked in so I knew I couldn't get in trouble for it, I mentioned that to the guy...and he said it WAS rather suspicious, and that they are actually already kind of looking into it. YAY! That man is awesome - he totally understood my concerns, and when I told him how upset I was whenever I went to the library these days, he said he hoped that we could clear this up and that I wouldn't have to feel that way anymore. He rocks.

Anyway, so no news yet, but we'll see! Cross your fingers...!

Hmmm in other news...nothing much happened yesterday. Worked during the day, tried to go to class but found the school deserted, went to the library (and besides being pleasantly surprised, also checked out Reefer Madness by the author of Fast Food Nation and Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say by Douglass Rushkoff), then came home and watched Dumb and Dumberer with Dan on StarzTicket on my computer (it's actually a kind of funny movie! haha!), put some laundry in, finished knitting Dan's hat, and started watching the classic movie Cleopatra (started because it's 4 hours long! whew), folded the laundry, and then, exhausted, went to bed.

And I'm still tired this morning, yucky. =\ Well, anyway...off to work, now! Ciao.

my most recent knitting projects

• sparkly black bag (a la Stitch N Bitch, but altered) - DONE
  
• blue Tooth Fairy pillow - DONE
  
• pink felted bag - DONE
  
• Sean's scarf - DONE
  
• Louise's cream spring handbag - DONE
  
• Dan's hat - IN PROGRESS
  
• Christine's sweater (m)
• Dan's sweater
• Tanya's star wristcuff - DONE
  
• heart wristcuff
• yellow felted bag for Bethany
• purple felted bag for Sarah
  

Hmm. I think I may have a serious addiction problem here...but, then again, I kind of have right from the start, almost ten years ago ny now. Thanks, Chandra, for making me a knitting freak at the ripe young age of 15! *sigh* Hehe. I'll live.

I think I need to take some pictures for posterity, and post 'em up here. This page is seriously lacking in enough photos - I think it's getting pretty boring being all text, all the time.

I'll see what I can do.

egg drop

Went to bed really late (early?) last night, which wasn't a fantastic idea seeing as we lost an hour of nighttime (but YAY for Daylight Savings, whoo! - I'm so so so glad that long days are here again!), and then got up early because I had to shower before the Egg Drop and didn't want to go with wet hair. (I'm definitely not much of a blowdrying kind of girl.) Shower went fine, and then I hung out for a bit reading - finished Fast Food Nation, yay! (An excellent book - it made me cry, at the end, thinking about how corrupt it all has gotten, and how daunting a task it is to face the fast food conglomerates...but I at least have taken the first step, by not eating at fast food joints for several years now...at first because I had no interest, and now also for political reasons.)

I've start to read This Is Burning Man next, which looks good so far...Dan & I (and others) really want to go to that this summer (have been wanting to for several years now, both of us, though separately), so when I came across that book (completely by chance) in the library a while back, I thought I'd check it out. In some ways it's making me want to go more, and in some ways less. We'll see how the book pans out....


Now, I also started reading Angels & Demons by Dan Brown, but before you all go jumping down my throat for being all trendy, let me just say that while I only did read The Da Vinci Code a few months ago, I have had it on my reading list since before it was released (having read an article that interested me way back when, in what 2003 sometime?). I put off reading it & put off reading it forever once it got so popular because I hate jumping on the bandwagon, doing what everyone's doing, but I finally managed to borrow a copy and read it discreetly in a couple of nights, and I will guiltily admit that I did enjoy it. Dan Brown is probably one of the worst writers I have ever read, but I do really enjoy learning about all those neat historical thingamajigs, which is why when someone handed me a free copy of Angels & Demons, I figured what the hell. I am already convulsing while reading it, though - Brown really feels the need to hit the reader over the head with his prose and his story, for some reason - maybe because he's writing for a less intelligent audience, he thinks. Who knows - in any case, it's frustrating that I'm only 20 pages in and already twice I've "realized" important plot points that Brown feels the need to reiterate & reiterate for the reader, to make sure his point has come across. Ugh.


But, the story itself looks like it could be fun. So I'll give it a shot.


Anyway, enough about books. Today I had to work at the Center Ithaca Egg Drop at around 1pm, so I walked over there (in the pouring rain, mind you) to help register the participants and to drop the egg packages! It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be - the woman who ran it was so nice. And everyone was so enthusiastic! There were some wonderful entries. I even got to drop one by this girl named Ariana! Neat. And, I might get my picture in the Cornell Daily Sun tomorrow - there were college reporters there, who got a shot of me dropping a big purple creature creation. I think it might have been a hydra.

And I met Bill Nye (the Science Guy)! I have never even seen his shows, but he was fantastic as the emcee, and he seems like a very nice guy. They say he's a Cornell graduate (and maybe a local? I'm not sure), so they asked him to come announce the entrants as they were dropped. He was hilarious. Anyway, a good time was had by all. :)

Dan and I watched Steal This Movie tonight, which we have been meaning to watch forever...actually, I think he's already seen it, but I hadn't, and I really enjoyed it. Even though, as Dan pointed out, it talks more about his personal life and his time underground than it does about his politics and beliefs, but it was still a well-done film, and good to see. It's nice to see Hollywood putting something like that out - and, judging by how hard it's been to get at the library, it sounds like it might have been getting Abbie Hoffman's name out there a bit more, which would be great.

Hmm, not much else to say, I guess. I felt like I had something else to write about, but then again I always feel that way. I ought to get going for now, anyway. Have a good night!

so far, so good

So, this is my first "daily" post...let's see how long I can keep that going! Hehe. Well, I'm still reading Fast Food Nation these days; it's taking me a while because I'm having trouble finding time to read these days. *sigh* Anyway, I was (oddly, I know) rather quite amused by the chapter on diseases found in meat ("What's in the Meat" was the name, to be precise)...I know, sounds weird, but I was amused by myself because every time I came to the words E. coli or Salmonella I kept thinking that the italics were being used for emphasis, not because they are Latin words, and it was making the reading highly entertaining (well, as entertaining as a chapter on children being killed by large corporations can be, anyhow...).

Anyway, on to other things. Let's see...oh, Dan and I drove up to Syracuse today! I believe it was my first trip there - I could have been there when I was very young, but I don't recall. My parents took me a lot of places, but somehow I figure Syracuse was never on our agenda... It's a pretty little city, though, with some interesting buildings. We found the Bank of America building to be very intruiging - it looks almost like a castle! Anyway, we made the hour-long drive up there in the pouring rain (and I missed the exit because I was thinking I was looking for 34, because that was the number of miles we had to drive on 81N - didn't realize that it was exit 23 until we hit 30, oops!). We stopped briefly on the Onendaga reservation because we wanted a drink. The first place we stopped said it sold cigarettes - we didn't realize that was ALL they sold. We peered in the door and saw floor-to-ceiling walls of cartons of cigarettes. Crazy! I mean, I guess they do pretty good business because reservations can sell cartons for $20 a pop, but wow. We ended up finding a place to stop a little further down - Daniel's Auto Shop, in fact.

When we finally made it back to the mall, we stopped first at Banana Republic so I could return a beautiful white coat I had bought there (I decided I'd get it dirty way more than was worth it, grr), which was the reason I had really wanted to go to the mall in the first place - believe me, I'm not the kind of person that goes to malls hours away just on a whim! Then we wandered around a bit, and Dan ended up sitting down to a charity game of chess (playing against some chess master, who would walk around to all of the boards set up and make moves periodically), so I wandered around a bit on my own. We spent maybe an hour more there, then got back in the car - still in the pouring rain! - and headed back to Ithaca.

On the way home, when we got off of 81S, we were driving happily down some state route towards Ithaca when we faced a detour in the middle of the road - apparently the town (Cortland, I believe it was) was experiencing a ton of flooding! We kept looking down side streets that were blocked off; it looked like the entire town was made of lakes! Crazy. We ended up not really finding our way back to the same street (the detour didn't really direct us back, just away), but we found our way back on a route towards Ithaca, so we took it. Unfortunately, the A&W was closed for the night, so we'll have to go there another time. I looked so fun! Like those drive-ins of the old days. Neat.

We made it back in one piece, though, thankfully. Listened to Alice's Restaurant on the way home, even though it wasn't Thanksgiving. :) Arlo's a funny guy! We stopped at Tops on the way home so I could get meatloaf ingredients for tomorrow. I really dig self-checkout, even though I know that's kind of weird... Scanning things is fun, though. I've no idea why.

I just fired up Anarchy Online for a couple of minutes because I haven't played in so long, and for the first time I realized that there are Sprite ads where the Rubi-Ka billboards used to be! What! Intrigued, I decided to find out more...turns out that to fund this new free version of basic AO, they signed a deal with some advertising company to put real-world ads on their RK billboards! Makes sense, and it can't be that difficult...just have to replace the code for their billboards with new code to display ad pictures...but it just struck me as so odd to see billboards for stuff I can buy in on online world. And here I was thinking that they could offer the free version because they thought enough people would go "wow, Shadowlands and Alien Invasion look so neat! I think I'll buy a subscription to those!" But I guess they can't entirely bank on that, because I am an older AO player who paid for SL and didn't love it, so when I saw they were offering basic AO for free, I signed on. What can I say. I'm a sucker for freebies. :)

Meh, not much else to report right now...I think I'll go kill a few more mobs, and perhaps read a chapter or two. It's getting late, anyway. I also have to get some work done on prepping for this game I'm going to start coding...yay! I am so excited that this dream might actually become a reality soon...!

Have a good night - more tomorrow! Let's see if I can keep this up.

i'm sorry

I know I've been absolutely terrible about updating this. I'm going to try to be MUCH better. I saw someone who updated just a little bit every day; I might even try to do that!

...And no, this is no April Fools joke. I'm serious! I'm making no promises, but I do want to try. I guess I am just so frustrated with Blogger - the things I can't do; I feel so limited by a lot. I ought to just buy my own site and design it...but I'd rather spend my extracurricular coding time working on the game I'm supposed to make with Alex than on doing silly website design...

In any case, gotta get back to work for a bit, I took a long break this afternoon so I get to work late today! Whoo! Maybe I'll add more later. If you're lucky. ;)