An Email to Dad

Hi, Da. I cleaned the house today a bit more thoroughly than I have lately. It's not a great priority, but I hauled out my cleaning toolkit and went to work. That little yellow Fuller brush with its locking green dustpan? I use it every day, probably as much as you use the back scrubber cloth. I love that thing. I probably would not have owned that thing if you didn't think it good enough to spread onto your kids. Therefore: Thanks, Da. I've a little less disgusting grit in my life, thanks to you. - Mme.

Thursday Thought Dump/

Random thoughts:

• A word I often think in Berkeley, but would never/ever say: Hag!
• The Magnum Double Caramel Bar is waaaaaay too sweet.
• Too sweet to the point of being inedible: McDonalds' Sweet Tea. Before my first mouthful I had never spat out anything in the street, in public. Oh, awful.
• I love my new bed. Love, love, love.
  

Links to look into later.

• Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos.
• Ray Bradbury short autobiographical story.

The Steven rented Source Code last week. Jake Gyllenhaal, Jeffrey Wright, the lovely Vera Farmiga. I did not even remember it hitting the theaters or hearing anything about it.

We ditched the cable outside of basic about eight months ago when money started getting tight and have been Netflixing/Amazon Download/Hulu-ing our media lately. Other than my one click of Jon Stewart Fix, I'm not missing it much. (Call me when The Kardashians/Hiltons and Housewives fall out of programming.)

I'd actually add this to the growing list of Zen movies. For those who have their suspicions about self, time and being

• Groundhog Day
• Being There
• Fight Club

Some say the first two Matrix movies, but I fail to see it. I actually rather eat glass than watch Keaneau Reeves "act".

At no time does Jake flash his amazing six-pack abs. Which is fine. I was busy oggling Vera.

My beautiful landlords have adopted two small black kittens. Both gents are frequent Facebookers so I reckon we'll have kitten TV soon as well.

Speaking of Kittens:
Finoula is massive now, completely at odds with our expectations. Otis is a sleek wire of electricity. He begs.

• Lipstick: MAC - 'Till Tomorrow (This is the workday default.) I have been wearing another MAC red I like.
• Perfume: CB I Hate Perfume Russian Caravan Tea
• Polish: None. Still got some weekend garden gunge worked into cracks in my palms. This does not convey sophistication.

Damn, Allan Rickman is sexy.

Nom!

Oh, plums!
Not one but TWO co-workers presented me with plums from their garden. One set was huge and round and black and tasty. The other were red and fragrant and with tart skin.
Nom!

It's been a while.

Ma's just turned 70 and has -surprise!- just come down with Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Oh, lucky, lucky us. I think everyone has been told. We are now taking a moment to adjust to our new reality.

Work is not going well. "Histrionic" has been used to describe one of my new management and any moment now, the movers will be here to ship my stuff (2 file boxes) and all the project stuff I work on (30+ boxes) out to a remote location where 30 minutes will be added to my commute everyday.

I will be out of contact with some very civilized people I've become very fond of in this building. The new place will have very few places to escape to and a whole lot more fluorescent lighting which can be downright soul-sucking.

So what do I do?
- Stay with this position, (becoming poorer by the month) because it may allow me enough flexibility to help Ma out when she needs it?
- Go find some other gig that will pay better, but may object to my other commitments?

Notes for me to read later: MDS .

Fitzbo Appreciation Society

I'm putting this here so I can watch it again and again.



Wicked, wicked silly.

Another Beautiful Animation Not to be Missed.

Jim Carrey is The Black Swan

Horsemeat

There, apparently, is a huge debate going on the use of horsemeat in the human food chain. I’ve eaten horse meat and it’s rather tasty.

I always loved Jeffrey Steingartens’ response a few years ago to some angry flack he received from Vogue readers when he mentioned the use of horse fat in cooking France. I’m going to quote it directly as I found it an astonishing response.:

From Jeffrey Steingarten’s The Man Who Ate Everything.
‘When this article appeared, an avid horsewoman organized a campaign against Vogue for verbal cruelty to horses. Vogue mollified her by publishing, unedited, a letter abusing the author.

I replied “ The United States is the largest horse-meat exporter in the world (as many as 400,000 animals a year are sent to slaughter) because it has the largest recreational horse population. These animals become ‘surplus’ when horse lovers unnecessarily breed their pets, owners sell their racehorse after only a few years, and recreational riders trade up. Slaughter and export become inevitable when this surplus drives down the resale prices below about $600 an animal. The object of Ms. __’s rage should be the inhumane practices of a good part of the horse-slaughtering industry. And the unwillingness of most horse owners to care for their discarded pets until they die a natural death.”’

Damn Good Voice

Felicia Day is totally the Pajamas

...as I wave my little Whedon geek flag.

Read Aloud to Me...

...and enslave me forever. There is nothing nicer.

A short bounce from the luminous and delicious Heather Ordover's wonderful podcast CraftLit I found a selection of Glen Hallstom's Librivox recordings on Librivox.org.

His Dickens' Christmas Carol (v. 2.) is not to be missed. It is amazing and one of the best reading I've heard yet. A deep, expressive British voice.

And Librivox.org?" Free recorded public domain books. Free. Is the Internet a lovely place?

They even have the Memoirs of Giacomo Casanova, which I did not know they had translated yet! Amazing.