Christmas
Dec. 25th, 2009 | 02:54 pm
posted by: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
unselko
A blessed and happy Christmas to all of you, and may you have a cornucopia of good things happening in the New Year!
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And now caught up!
Dec. 25th, 2009 | 02:02 am
posted by: kymmz
So yesterday I got up after 3 1/2 hours of sleep, and why? Because I was getting my hair cut and I had to dye my hair first! Don't ask. Mom insisted.
Got the hair cut, saw Penny, who has been cutting my hair since I was about twelve, and who still looks about 30, but since I'm 45, it's kind of unlikely.
Then we had lunch and went to Century City and visited all of the usual suspects, Victoria's Secret, Crabtree and Evelyn, the place where I buy caramel apples, etc. I love Century City, though I hate every single change that they have made since the day of my birth and take them all as personal insults.
Then we were going to get a tree, but it ended up being too late, and we went way too tired. We were going to cook when we got home, but walked through the door and mutually decided on cheese toast instead.
***
This morning I got up early, but that was because I went to sleep at 10.30p, then happily sat around for some hours downloading Christmas music, as is my wont. Once Mom was up and dressed, we went to get a tree, since last year was The Year Without a Christmas Tree (tm), I didn't want us to fuck it up again this year!
At first we went to the church's tree lot, but they had taken all of the trees away and mulched them. Really? Before 2.30p on Christmas Eve day? Is this not anticipating the birth of Christ the weensiest bit? So we went to Holt, which is mostly where we have been buying trees for about 30 years, and Mom negotiated a nice big tree for $25. So a second Year Without a Christmas Tree (tm) was thwarted, hooray!
We drove the tree to McDonald's, then to Trader Joe's. The tree got quite a tour of Toluca Lake! We were gonna go to Costco's but they were closing too early and we weren't going to make it.
Then we spent a huge amount of time clearing a pathway from the door that we never open in order to bring the tree in though the door that we never open, and I just started decorating it when we realized that time was getting on, and if we were going to go to midnight mass we had better get a wiggle on.
I have been boycotting midnight mass for the past several years when they started having it at 10p. Which defeats the point of midnight mass, so far as I'm concerned, but clearly they are never changing it back. I love Father Gallagher, but he gets some stupid-ass ideas sometimes.
Mass was fine, came home, finished the tree, wrapped presents, am in bed! See you tomorrow!
Posted via LiveJournal.app.
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Daily Tweets
Dec. 25th, 2009 | 12:01 am
posted by: sillywoppat
What I blabbed about on Twitter today:
- 01:34 @EtherealAndrea If you send @firewalk cookies, I get some, too. :P #
- 01:38 I loved this - well worth the read: Should We Be More Church-Going? - shar.es/aOy8q #fb #
- 01:40 Alright. No Egg Knock for me. No cookies for me. (Just the nasty poisoned ones which I won't touch.) Guess that means bedtime for realz. #
- 07:28 @krisleeb I'm so glad, MISS Kris! #
- 07:29 @stevejb68 hmm... I can clear my schedule. I'll have to find my dice. #
- 10:29 @Danjal73 if the note is attatched to a 3 carat diamond, I'll take it. #
- 10:39 M'aimer pour qui je suis. #
- 10:40 All I want for Christmas is a monkey with sharp scissors to come edit my life into some semblance of beauty and joy. #
- 10:41 @cubmasterchris scary guy? I'm IN. #
- 10:42 @sfillion - Shannon - I'm talking to you, monkey woman. #
- 11:41 My dad is in the hospital again and it doesn't look good. Merry Christmas. #
- 14:01 My dad just died. #fb #
- 15:07 Thank you, friends. Specially, the PTC Media family. #
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Wishing you light, laughter, love
Dec. 24th, 2009 | 10:27 pm
posted by: athenais
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Merry Christmas!
Dec. 24th, 2009 | 09:46 pm
mood: 
christmas
posted by: atara
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Robert J. Lurtsema, Father Christmas, and Fra Giovanni
Dec. 24th, 2009 | 07:23 pm
posted by: orbitalmechanic
When I was a child my parents woke up every morning at 7am to the sound of birds on WGBH, and then the news and the weather, announced by Robert J. Lurtsema. He had the richest, deepest voice, and he made everything sound comforting. He spoke slowly and deliberately with long, thoughtful pauses. One morning he got partway through the news and then said, richly: "There is...no good news...today. We will proceed...to the weather." Another time, during a fundraiser, he announced that he would play some of his best pauses and turned off the mike. On April 1st one year he opened the program by saying, in that Father Christmas voice: "Twitter. Chirp. Tweet. Twitter. Whee-oo. Chick-a-dee-dee."
But I think my favorite of his recordings is this excerpt from a 15th century letter, so it is said, from Fra Giovanni to a friend. I can hear his voice still, and the words are as fresh and sharp and comforting and pointed today as when I first heard it, decades ago. Merry Christmas, y'all.
I salute you!
There is nothing I can give you that you have not. But there is much that, while I cannot give, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant. Take peace!
The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy.
And so at this Christmas time I greet you, with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.
But I think my favorite of his recordings is this excerpt from a 15th century letter, so it is said, from Fra Giovanni to a friend. I can hear his voice still, and the words are as fresh and sharp and comforting and pointed today as when I first heard it, decades ago. Merry Christmas, y'all.
I salute you!
There is nothing I can give you that you have not. But there is much that, while I cannot give, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant. Take peace!
The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy.
And so at this Christmas time I greet you, with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.
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Happy Soggymas
Dec. 24th, 2009 | 10:20 am
mood: 
annoyed
posted by: atara
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Happy holidays, everyone.
Dec. 24th, 2009 | 09:24 am
mood: Christmas Eve
posted by: atara
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Tired but happy
Dec. 24th, 2009 | 12:30 am
posted by: athenais
One of my favorite things about being a pet sitter is going all over the peninsula and discovering great views, beautiful homes, unexpected micro-neighborhoods. I am delighted to get to know new areas of the peninsula and equally delighted to feel so completely at home driving around San Francisco that I didn't bother taking a map with me today. I was full of contentment all day. Except when I couldn't find parking on Brannan but we'll skip over that for now.
I stood on the side of a hill in South San Francisco at sunset overlooking the valley that runs between the flatlands and the mountains to the west. Everything glittered and twinkled in the clear air and a faint tangerine line lingered along the crest of the hills long after the rest of the sky had cooled to dark blue. It smelled of pine because there is a forest on the top of the hill. There is also an enormous sign painted on the hillside that says South San Francisco The Industrial City, but I wasn't near that. I could see the gigantic Christmas tree, though, and the airplanes at SFO taking off (oh happy travelers, actually in flight!) and the constantly flowing red and white lights of the freeways converging and separating, rivers of light.
And then I went and contributed my own red and white lights by driving home. I have to be up in seven hours for a long day exploring more of the peninsula and finding new ways to circumvent the No Left Turn signs in San Francisco. I wish you a good night.
I stood on the side of a hill in South San Francisco at sunset overlooking the valley that runs between the flatlands and the mountains to the west. Everything glittered and twinkled in the clear air and a faint tangerine line lingered along the crest of the hills long after the rest of the sky had cooled to dark blue. It smelled of pine because there is a forest on the top of the hill. There is also an enormous sign painted on the hillside that says South San Francisco The Industrial City, but I wasn't near that. I could see the gigantic Christmas tree, though, and the airplanes at SFO taking off (oh happy travelers, actually in flight!) and the constantly flowing red and white lights of the freeways converging and separating, rivers of light.
And then I went and contributed my own red and white lights by driving home. I have to be up in seven hours for a long day exploring more of the peninsula and finding new ways to circumvent the No Left Turn signs in San Francisco. I wish you a good night.
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Daily Tweets
Dec. 24th, 2009 | 12:01 am
posted by: sillywoppat
What I blabbed about on Twitter today:
- 03:44 "Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape them. And yet what subtle magic in them." #
- 08:08 The MISSes need some Itunes love. Spare a minute to leave us an Itunes review? trunc.it/4b3qr #
- 08:36 Yays and woots all around. :) Itunes lurves PTCMedia.net yfrog.com/auyaywootj #
- 09:16 @emskuban Doing what Boss Lady says *shrug* #
- 09:19 @krisleeb Why? #
- 10:07 @ChrisRam ;) #
- 14:38 Gonna make some Christmas magic. #
- 15:06 Yep… yfrog.com/1esk4sj #
- 15:08 Today is all about the tongue… yfrog.com/4ey3vaj #
- 15:20 IBS FTL #
- 16:00 @sfillion monkey lovin' 4 u yfrog.com/1e8dbj #
- 16:09 @krisleeb mmm grrrl, you gotta get yer Christmas groove on and shove yer bad mood to the side! #
- 16:39 @stevejb68 Where's my D&D invite? :( #
- 16:58 @beckerbuns Bring me some egg knock! Pretty please!!! xoxo :) Nah, don't do that, I'd just ruin it by putting grown-up-drink in it. ;) #
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Catching up at last!
Dec. 23rd, 2009 | 11:07 pm
posted by: kymmz
I am exhausted and want to die even more than I want to sleep, but since the last million entries in a row are about how I am tired and have no time to write and will catch up soon, I really don't think I can get away with a million and one.
***
So Sunday night I stayed up all night packing and washing dishes and doing laundry and so on, then left the house at 5a in order to get to JFK for my 8.22a flight. Not too long waiting in the snow ensued, got into the city, saw people waiting for the airport bus, but had to go to the bank to deposit my check, then went back and those people were gone. Then the Laguardia bus came, and the Newark bus, and I was afraid that the Zuckert Traveling Curse was on again, but the bus came and I got to the airport in time, and though I actually asked at least four times, I did not get to give up my flight and was forced to actually go on my trip as planned.
I slept some on the plane, attempted to use the free wireless but there isn't actually enough room for the computer and my tummy back in steerage, so I gave up quickly.
I got to SFO at around noon and my flight to Burbank was due to leave at about 3.45p, but actually left at 8.15p after being delayed about ten times and the gate changed thrice. I am currently a big fan of the TripCase app, since I was getting notifications of time and gate changes actually before they were announced to us.
Finally got home, went to sleep at 10.30p, exhausted.
***
Yesterday I got up at 7.45a, beating my alarm, to record a Quirky Quiz with Sage, Tim and Melissa, which had been postponed once before recording and once actually while we were on the phone together trying to record it (my fault!), but we finally got through it, though I was kind of loopy from sleep deprivation, that's the way I record most of my Quizzes, frankly, and I think it turned out well.
By the way, speaking of QN, one I improvised is up, and I'm pretty proud of it, listen to it here. The dog story I told happened to me, the birthday party story happened to someone I read online and I cannot AT ALL remember who it is, and the last one I just made up. Hope you like it!
After the recording, I bathed, then napped for four hours. I was so tired that I just had to, which turned out to be a blessing unknown at the time.
Mom and I went out and had dinner at Sizzler, then shopped at Target, then went to Vons, and while we were walking to the car, Mom was about ten feet away from me, and she just went face down on the asphalt and lay there very very still. I ran over to her and was calling her over and over until finally she groaned so I knew that she was actually alive and slowly she sat up and I saw the blood on her face, and these nice women offered us the use of their first aid kit and offered to call 911, but Mom said she just wanted to go home. But when we got into the car, she decided to go to the hospital. "What about the ice cream?" was my actual response, God only knows why!
So we went to St. Joseph's, and were in and out in two hours, which is unheard of in NY emergency rooms. They cleaned her off, x-rayed her and stitched up two cuts on her lip, one with five stitches and the other three. And she is fine, thank God, if she doesn't look as though she has been beaten and probably by me.
Then home and 3 1/2 hours of sleep. No more, I'll catch up properly tomorrow. If I'm not dead.
***
Here she is, yesterday and today, one in the waiting room of the hospital, and the other was today, waiting to pick up her prescription, after saying in a loud voice, "Please don't hit me anymore!" and then just bursting into laughter as I thought gee, I hope nobody calls the police and I have to say, "She fell down! Really she did!"
***
So Sunday night I stayed up all night packing and washing dishes and doing laundry and so on, then left the house at 5a in order to get to JFK for my 8.22a flight. Not too long waiting in the snow ensued, got into the city, saw people waiting for the airport bus, but had to go to the bank to deposit my check, then went back and those people were gone. Then the Laguardia bus came, and the Newark bus, and I was afraid that the Zuckert Traveling Curse was on again, but the bus came and I got to the airport in time, and though I actually asked at least four times, I did not get to give up my flight and was forced to actually go on my trip as planned.
I slept some on the plane, attempted to use the free wireless but there isn't actually enough room for the computer and my tummy back in steerage, so I gave up quickly.
I got to SFO at around noon and my flight to Burbank was due to leave at about 3.45p, but actually left at 8.15p after being delayed about ten times and the gate changed thrice. I am currently a big fan of the TripCase app, since I was getting notifications of time and gate changes actually before they were announced to us.
Finally got home, went to sleep at 10.30p, exhausted.
***
Yesterday I got up at 7.45a, beating my alarm, to record a Quirky Quiz with Sage, Tim and Melissa, which had been postponed once before recording and once actually while we were on the phone together trying to record it (my fault!), but we finally got through it, though I was kind of loopy from sleep deprivation, that's the way I record most of my Quizzes, frankly, and I think it turned out well.
By the way, speaking of QN, one I improvised is up, and I'm pretty proud of it, listen to it here. The dog story I told happened to me, the birthday party story happened to someone I read online and I cannot AT ALL remember who it is, and the last one I just made up. Hope you like it!
After the recording, I bathed, then napped for four hours. I was so tired that I just had to, which turned out to be a blessing unknown at the time.
Mom and I went out and had dinner at Sizzler, then shopped at Target, then went to Vons, and while we were walking to the car, Mom was about ten feet away from me, and she just went face down on the asphalt and lay there very very still. I ran over to her and was calling her over and over until finally she groaned so I knew that she was actually alive and slowly she sat up and I saw the blood on her face, and these nice women offered us the use of their first aid kit and offered to call 911, but Mom said she just wanted to go home. But when we got into the car, she decided to go to the hospital. "What about the ice cream?" was my actual response, God only knows why!
So we went to St. Joseph's, and were in and out in two hours, which is unheard of in NY emergency rooms. They cleaned her off, x-rayed her and stitched up two cuts on her lip, one with five stitches and the other three. And she is fine, thank God, if she doesn't look as though she has been beaten and probably by me.
Then home and 3 1/2 hours of sleep. No more, I'll catch up properly tomorrow. If I'm not dead.
***
Here she is, yesterday and today, one in the waiting room of the hospital, and the other was today, waiting to pick up her prescription, after saying in a loud voice, "Please don't hit me anymore!" and then just bursting into laughter as I thought gee, I hope nobody calls the police and I have to say, "She fell down! Really she did!"
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Computer Stuff
Dec. 24th, 2009 | 01:45 am
posted by: elevengirl
In the past week, I've had two different-but-related computer problems. Details of them are here and here.
Short version: I am a very lucky woman to have Chris and Bradley in my life. And I'm smart enough to know that.
Short version: I am a very lucky woman to have Chris and Bradley in my life. And I'm smart enough to know that.
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(no subject)
Dec. 23rd, 2009 | 01:45 pm
posted by: kymmz
Ganked from avidreader7:
avidreader7: Dear Santa...Dear Santa, This year I've been busy! Last Sunday I put money in casey98's expired parking meter (14 points). Last Saturday I saved a busload of nuns in Angola (326 points). In October I didn't flush (-1 points). Last Wednesday I gave yankeegirl46 a kidney (1000 points). Last Tuesday I gave quest a Dutch Oven (-10 points). Overall, I've been nice (1329 points). For Christmas I deserve a red Radio-Flyer wagon! Sincerely, |
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Great good Lord
Dec. 23rd, 2009 | 03:20 am
posted by: kymmz
Well, it's three o'clock ayem in the morning, to mis-quote Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth, which means that it is six o'clock ayem in the morning as far as my body clock is concerned, I have long travel stories to tell, but have neither the time nor the energy in which to do so. I have to get up in less than five hours, and why am I up so late? Because when we were in the parking lot of Vons, Mom tripped over a parking block and crashed flat on her face, so we had to go to the emergency room. She is fine, she got five stitches in one cut on her lips and three in another, we were in and out of there in two hours, which may be a world's record as far as emergency room visits.
I'll catch up tomorrow, but now, it's bed time!
I'll catch up tomorrow, but now, it's bed time!
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Daily Tweets
Dec. 23rd, 2009 | 12:00 am
posted by: sillywoppat
What I blabbed about on Twitter today:
- 11:53 @emskuban @sfillion it's already uploaded. I can post link. #
- 11:55 Ever cry so much your eyes feel made of dust? #
- 12:09 My head hurts. #
- 15:31 Crafty ppl pls help. Jen wants to make gifts for her brothers. I am so tapped out I can't hold my head up. Easy suggestions? #
- 15:41 @emskuban tyvm em. I'm around. Will hop on skype in a bit and hang there til you're free. #
- 16:34 @emskuban pics? #
- 17:41 Gotta find my place in displacement #
- 18:11 Hey, MISS fans - Show #2 is LIVE! www.ptcmedia.net/2009/12/miss-show-02/ - Listen online or via Itunes. #fb #
- 18:30 @ChrisRam www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smi
lies/puke.gif # - 19:33 yfrog.com/1dprtj #
- 20:58 FOOD PORN foodporndaily.com/ #
- 21:03 @stevejb68 @krisleeb Santa came and brought candy canes with his parade of fire and rescue trucks. :) #
- 21:10 foodporndaily.com/pictures/view/spicy-po
rk-garlic-and-gouda-sausage-baked-in-a-s emolina Mmm... loves me mah sausage. Creamy sauce. # - 21:10 BRING IT BOB NEUHARDT. You can't touch this. #
- 21:32 @firewalk yes #
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Narratives
Dec. 23rd, 2009 | 01:24 am
posted by: mellificent
"We tell ourselves stories in order to live."
Who said that? Joan Didion, maybe? (Googling says yes.) I really loved both Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album - meaning Didion's book, not the Beatles album, although I like that too - back in the day, so it's probably from one of those two books. More likely the latter, I would guess - if you've never read Didion's long essay about her intersection with the Manson case, it's well worth seeking out, and I suspect it's the source of that quote.
In any case, that phrase has stuck with me, even though I don't believe that I thought it was as profoundly true when I first read it as I do now. I've come to think that that is one of the few things I've found in my life that really explains the crazy ways that people behave. We define and redefine our lives by telling ourselves stories. The stories may be essentially true or not so much, they may be helpful or harmful, but it's just something that humans do. We cast our lives and other people's lives as narratives.
I didn't intend to make this political, but I think politics is one of the ways this gets used on a regular basis. The religious right in particular is really good at using it; it's a lot of the reason they were so successful for so long, I think. If you have relatives like I do who are dumb enough to forward you the stuff they get from various right-wing mailing lists - and if you're masochistic enough to read them sometimes, like I am - you see the narratives they construct really clearly, about Obama and Acorn and all that kind of stuff. It depresses me just to think about it. No wonder they're all crazy.
Most people are recasting the narrative in their heads about Tiger Woods these days, although I think they were just being unrealistic about him in the first place. Nevertheless, this is about narratives, and the narrative about Tiger was that he was some sort of saint or paragon, which he clearly wasn't, so much. Is it fair that he's getting compared to that other famous philanderer, Bill Clinton? Probably not, to be quite honest. The narrative in MY head about Clinton is that he's a serial adulterer to a degree Tiger never dreamed of, although I might be lying to myself there. Although to be honest, who Tiger Woods sleeps with is not something I care too much, about, either.
(How about this for a narrative: rich, powerful men cheat. I know there are exceptions, but honestly, if you're that kind of person you get women throwing themselves at you all the time, and it seems to me that you really do have to be some kind of a saint to resist straying at least occasionally. But maybe I'm just overly cynical there.)
I know the first two examples I came up with are black men, or men of mixed race, anyway, and there's all sorts of things I could say about the racism inherent in the narratives people come up with about both of them. It's not really my intention to go there, but definitely there's racism inherent in these narratives, let's just say that. Racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, all that stuff. Whatever's going on in the back of your head is naturally going to affect the stories you tell yourself. (I started to say "color your stories" but I think would be a really unfortunate word choice here.)
Well, heck, let's talk about another black man who was much in the news this year: Michael Jackson. I know that the story in my head about him changed dramatically after he died. When he was alive, I pretty much thought of him as this weirdo child molester, and his death and all the subsequent publicity caused me to pretty much completely recast that story; I came to really think he may have been innocent of those charges, which I never believed before. Which makes that a really tragic story, if true.
I meant to talk about the way we recast our own lives, when I started writing this, but as usual my brain went haring off in a completely different direction. Oh well - I think you get my drift. Anyway, I'm no sociologist but that's my two cents.
Come to think of it, I think I need to get over being defensive about my choice of examples. Between those three men and Sarah Palin, that covers about 95% of the news this year. Now that I consider it, I'm sort of surprised no pundit or magazine has called 2009 the Year of the Black Man yet. (Or have they and I just missed it?)
And boy, I could write a whole 'nother entry on Sarah Palin and her narratives.
Note: I wrote this this morning, and this afternoon I happened to have to wait in the accountant's office for a little while, and what should be sitting on the table but the new issue of Newsweek - with Tiger Woods on the cover and article about celebrity culture which talks about celebrities and their narratives. So hey, I wrote this before I knew that existed, okay?
Who said that? Joan Didion, maybe? (Googling says yes.) I really loved both Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album - meaning Didion's book, not the Beatles album, although I like that too - back in the day, so it's probably from one of those two books. More likely the latter, I would guess - if you've never read Didion's long essay about her intersection with the Manson case, it's well worth seeking out, and I suspect it's the source of that quote.
In any case, that phrase has stuck with me, even though I don't believe that I thought it was as profoundly true when I first read it as I do now. I've come to think that that is one of the few things I've found in my life that really explains the crazy ways that people behave. We define and redefine our lives by telling ourselves stories. The stories may be essentially true or not so much, they may be helpful or harmful, but it's just something that humans do. We cast our lives and other people's lives as narratives.
I didn't intend to make this political, but I think politics is one of the ways this gets used on a regular basis. The religious right in particular is really good at using it; it's a lot of the reason they were so successful for so long, I think. If you have relatives like I do who are dumb enough to forward you the stuff they get from various right-wing mailing lists - and if you're masochistic enough to read them sometimes, like I am - you see the narratives they construct really clearly, about Obama and Acorn and all that kind of stuff. It depresses me just to think about it. No wonder they're all crazy.
Most people are recasting the narrative in their heads about Tiger Woods these days, although I think they were just being unrealistic about him in the first place. Nevertheless, this is about narratives, and the narrative about Tiger was that he was some sort of saint or paragon, which he clearly wasn't, so much. Is it fair that he's getting compared to that other famous philanderer, Bill Clinton? Probably not, to be quite honest. The narrative in MY head about Clinton is that he's a serial adulterer to a degree Tiger never dreamed of, although I might be lying to myself there. Although to be honest, who Tiger Woods sleeps with is not something I care too much, about, either.
(How about this for a narrative: rich, powerful men cheat. I know there are exceptions, but honestly, if you're that kind of person you get women throwing themselves at you all the time, and it seems to me that you really do have to be some kind of a saint to resist straying at least occasionally. But maybe I'm just overly cynical there.)
I know the first two examples I came up with are black men, or men of mixed race, anyway, and there's all sorts of things I could say about the racism inherent in the narratives people come up with about both of them. It's not really my intention to go there, but definitely there's racism inherent in these narratives, let's just say that. Racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, all that stuff. Whatever's going on in the back of your head is naturally going to affect the stories you tell yourself. (I started to say "color your stories" but I think would be a really unfortunate word choice here.)
Well, heck, let's talk about another black man who was much in the news this year: Michael Jackson. I know that the story in my head about him changed dramatically after he died. When he was alive, I pretty much thought of him as this weirdo child molester, and his death and all the subsequent publicity caused me to pretty much completely recast that story; I came to really think he may have been innocent of those charges, which I never believed before. Which makes that a really tragic story, if true.
I meant to talk about the way we recast our own lives, when I started writing this, but as usual my brain went haring off in a completely different direction. Oh well - I think you get my drift. Anyway, I'm no sociologist but that's my two cents.
Come to think of it, I think I need to get over being defensive about my choice of examples. Between those three men and Sarah Palin, that covers about 95% of the news this year. Now that I consider it, I'm sort of surprised no pundit or magazine has called 2009 the Year of the Black Man yet. (Or have they and I just missed it?)
And boy, I could write a whole 'nother entry on Sarah Palin and her narratives.
Note: I wrote this this morning, and this afternoon I happened to have to wait in the accountant's office for a little while, and what should be sitting on the table but the new issue of Newsweek - with Tiger Woods on the cover and article about celebrity culture which talks about celebrities and their narratives. So hey, I wrote this before I knew that existed, okay?
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Happy (belated) Solstice!
Dec. 22nd, 2009 | 02:02 am
posted by: mellificent
I have said before that I usually get asked to bring the rolls (store-bought) to Christmas dinner, or fruit for a fruit salad. My aunt has told me before that this is because we live out of town, but my mom lived out of town too, and that didn't get her out of being asked to bring her famous gumbo to everything. (Which meant if you rode with her, you got to smell it for two or three hours, and half the time some of it would end up on the floorboard of the car. Ew.) So clearly, the real reason is not that I live out of town, but that I am famously not much of a cook. Somebody on some blog I was reading said lately that everybody bakes something at Christmas. Um, no. Maybe every five years I will get on a roll and bake cookies or something - and there was that time my mother guilted me into making fudge. (Actually I think she guilted me into making fudge twice. But it's no-bake fudge, anyway - the recipe is in that entry, if you're interested - so that's still not baking, technically.)
All that said, I am sort of baking something - or rather taking something that will be baked - to the family Christmas. But it's lasagna, of all things, rather than anything sweet. It's not actually for the big Christmas dinner; it will be eaten either Thursday night or Friday night. And I'm taking it assembled but unbaked, and we will bake it later. I've done that before, a number of years ago, and it worked out well. It's not actually that I can't cook, but that I don't usually bother. Rob and I don't really eat the same food (he lives on spaghetti and fish, generally) and we each cook our own, but for me that usually ends up being something frozen. I just don't care much about cooking, but when I bother to cook, I do pretty well at it. (As long as I set timers. I can burn anything.)
Linkage:
Possibly the funniest LJ thread I've ever read. I can't say I ever thought a whole lot about the lyrics to "Do You Hear What I Hear?" but I will now.
I thought everybody knew about the GOP military-funding filibuster, but TPM is treating it as news and TPM knows everything (politically speaking), so I guess not. Politically speaking, here's the question I want answered: what made Lieberman change his mind on the healthcare bill? It's very clear what made Ben Nelson change his mind, but I haven't heard a word about Lieberman. If I find out the answer to this, I'll report back.
I did find out the answer to why Al Franken has been presiding so much - he's the low man on the totem pole, so he gets the duty at fun times like the all-night sessions. (I knew he was the low man, of course, I just hadn't made the connection.)
Wow. I'm suddenly much happier that I've never been much of a Prairie Home Companion fan.
All that said, I am sort of baking something - or rather taking something that will be baked - to the family Christmas. But it's lasagna, of all things, rather than anything sweet. It's not actually for the big Christmas dinner; it will be eaten either Thursday night or Friday night. And I'm taking it assembled but unbaked, and we will bake it later. I've done that before, a number of years ago, and it worked out well. It's not actually that I can't cook, but that I don't usually bother. Rob and I don't really eat the same food (he lives on spaghetti and fish, generally) and we each cook our own, but for me that usually ends up being something frozen. I just don't care much about cooking, but when I bother to cook, I do pretty well at it. (As long as I set timers. I can burn anything.)
Linkage:
Possibly the funniest LJ thread I've ever read. I can't say I ever thought a whole lot about the lyrics to "Do You Hear What I Hear?" but I will now.
I thought everybody knew about the GOP military-funding filibuster, but TPM is treating it as news and TPM knows everything (politically speaking), so I guess not. Politically speaking, here's the question I want answered: what made Lieberman change his mind on the healthcare bill? It's very clear what made Ben Nelson change his mind, but I haven't heard a word about Lieberman. If I find out the answer to this, I'll report back.
I did find out the answer to why Al Franken has been presiding so much - he's the low man on the totem pole, so he gets the duty at fun times like the all-night sessions. (I knew he was the low man, of course, I just hadn't made the connection.)
Wow. I'm suddenly much happier that I've never been much of a Prairie Home Companion fan.
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Daily Tweets
Dec. 22nd, 2009 | 12:01 am
posted by: sillywoppat
What I blabbed about on Twitter today:
- 02:29 @firewalk yay insomnia #
- 08:31 Moar swimz ftw. yfrog.com/37xmvtj #
- 09:03 @sfillion @krisleeb @emskuban guess whose podcast is in the new and noteable of iTunes kids&family podcasts? #
- 09:38 @cubmasterchris you up for doing cubmaster training that weekend? I still need to get trained. Heh. (I'm such a slacker...) #
- 09:50 @cubmasterchris hmmm... I may wait. Our district training is free. Meh then again, you do have more experience. Think it's worth the $5 fee? #
- 10:22 Views. yfrog.com/3g721cj #
- 10:45 maps.google.com/maps?q=Ratcheer@39.41925
3,-123.804370&z=12 yfrog.com/1yd0kj # - 11:42 Jen got tired of walking. yfrog.com/4fic8zj #
- 11:44 Qik - colors cant be captured by Liberty qik.ly/vpG1 #
- 11:52 Someone once asked how I prayed if I didn't go to church. THIS is my church. yfrog.com/4e3qvzj #
- 11:53 @emskuban lol posted the wrong link. :) #
- 14:13 @jonmoney yay for snow! Glad y'all are having fun! #
- 14:26 maps.google.com/maps?q=Ratcheer@38.84544
6,-122.721749&z=12 home again. I can haz napz now? # - 14:57 If you haven't listened to the PTC Media Christmas greeting, please do! www.ptcmedia.net/2009/12/ptc-christmas-s
how/ #fb # - 16:37 @firewalk But they're always with love....? #
- 22:35 "With Crisis Comes Opportunity" - SPAM fortune cookie. #
- 22:36 RT @sfillion: @sillywoppat @emskuban @krisleeb We hit 200+ listens on the first one! (In case anyone missed it!) #
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Exhausted
Dec. 21st, 2009 | 10:30 pm
posted by: kymmz
I'm home in LA, after being awake for 43 1/2 hours (minus about three hours of naps) and 20 hours of travel and eight hours of hanging around the airport in San Francisco!
And that sentence took the last of my strength, goodnight!
Posted via LiveJournal.app.
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Well.
Dec. 21st, 2009 | 05:43 pm
posted by: mellificent
No jewelry class tonight.