Musings on my clutter

Blogger's Blog of Note today is Ramblings of the Bearded One. In skimming through his posts, I came across one about how he makes notes in the margins of his Sudoku books. This sounds like my process for most of my notebooks and other scraps of paper [bold type is mine]:

Before I can throw an old Sudoku book away, it has to be meticulously gone through and any important information needs to be transferred to a different scrap of paper, to be put in a pile, lost, briefly refound and placed in another important pile, lost again, then rediscovered 2 years later when it is no longer relevant.

My piles of paper are legendary. But I am getting better. Really! Truly! I'm trying to implement GTD in my life, but like anything else, I can't just follow the directions, I have to add my own twist, so it doesn't quite work out the way it's supposed to.

Still, even partial GTD has helped me vastly. By simply asking myself "What's the next action?" I've gotten past the overwhelm of dealing with my clutter. I can now use my garage, family room, and home office all at the same time. Not one is full of the boxes and clutter from all the other rooms, which is how it used to be. I've spent years shuffling boxes from one of those areas to another, depending on which area needed to be used at the time.

I never remember to take "before" pictures,
but here's a "before before" picture ;)

The most improvement still needs to come in the garage, but I keep whittling away at the stuff out there. For now, I'm happy I can get my car in. Someday, we'll be able to get both vehicles in! (It's great to have lofty goals, isn't it?)

It's 9:00 on 9/9/09

Just thought you'd like to know.

Motivation

I came across this today in GTD Times. Great advice about a way to keep yourself focused on your goals: send yourself reminders of what your goal is. (I definitely will be implementing this.)

Send a letter to yourself! Mothercraft Tip (Life Coach Carley Knobloch) from Carley Knobloch on Vimeo.

Friday fun: Medieval tech support

Once upon a time, books were "new media" and this might be how some encountered them:

Wednesday Pic: Butterfly

DSC_0287, originally uploaded by mdesive.

September is Library Card Sign-up Month!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Now that school is in full swing, there's one more supply you need to get your kid (or yourself if you don't already have one): A Library Card! [Insert heavenly music and golden, glowing card here! Sorry, didn't have any, you'll have to supply your own]

I remember getting my card on a school trip to the library (our school was small enough that we didn't have a proper library, so every few weeks, we took a trip to the public library). I remember having that feeling I still get every time I go to the library:

OMG SO MANY BOOKS CAN I TAKE THEM ALL HOME????

If you aren't convinced you need a library card...

52 Ways to Use Your Library Card
by the American Library Association

1. Get to know your librarian, the ultimate search engine @ your library.
2. Update your MySpace Facebook page. [my strikethrough - MySpace = bleh]
3. Research new job opportunities.
4. Find a list of childcare centers in your area.
5. Learn about local candidates for office.
6. Pick up voter registration information.
7. Check out your favorite graphic novel.
8. Pick up a DVD.
9. Get wireless access.
10. Participate in a community forum.
11. Find out how to navigate the Internet.
12. Prepare your resume.
13. Get new ideas for redecorating your house.
14. Get a list of community organizations.
15. Attend a lecture or workshop.
16. Hear a local author reading his/her latest novel.
17. Join a book discussion group.
18. Attend preschool story hour with your child.
19. Get homework help.
20. Look up all kinds of health information.
21. Research the purchase of a new car.
22. Trek to another planet in a Sci-Fi novel.
23. Call the reference desk if you have a question.
24. Research your term paper.
25. Learn about the history or your city or town.
26. Decide which computer to buy using a consumer guide.
27. Check your stock portfolio.
28. Borrow or download an audiobook for your next road trip or commute.
29. Use the library’s resources to start a small business.
30. See a new art exhibit.
31. Volunteer as a literacy tutor.
32. Find a new recipe.
33. Ask for a recommended reading list for your kids.
34. Make photocopies.
35. Get a book from interlibrary loan.
36. Enroll your child in a summer reading program.
37. Take a computer class.
38. Hear a poetry reading.
39. Take out the latest fashion magazine.
40. Enjoy a concert.
41. Trace your family tree.
42. Check out a special collection of rare books.
43. Check out a legal question or issue.
44. Find out how to file a consumer complaint.
45. Learn about home improvement.
46. Borrow some sheet music.
47. Learn how to use a database or computerized catalog.
48. Find the latest romance paperback.
49. Pick up tax forms.
50. Connect with other people in the community.
51. Find a quiet spot, curl up with a book and enjoy.
52. Read a newspaper from another country.

Friday Fun: Talking Animals

You get a twofer today because I couldn't decide which was funnier :)

Think social media is just a fad?

via The Travelin' Librarian

Wednesday Pic: A peek at Faerie

I took this on our latest visit to the zoo, and played with it in Picasa.

Musicals I like (a very short list)

I'm not a big fan of musicals. This seems strange to me. Something tells me I should like them, but I don't. In fact, I think I'd usually rather clean toilets than see a muscial.

Oddly, I often enjoy the music from musicals, just not in the musicals. I used to own albums of Andrew Lloyd Webber's music and I still know the lyrics by heart, but I have trouble actually sitting through a performace of Cats or Phantom of the Opera (even with Gerard Butler in it), no matter how much I love the songs.

Here is the short list of musicals I actually enjoy watching (and will even watch over and over)

• The Sound of Music - This has always been and will always be one of my favorite movies. Period. I used to drop everything to watch this when it came on about once a year. Mary Poppins was always "that movie with Maria Von Trapp in it." :)
• Moulin Rouge - I didn't really expect to like this, but I did. It's made up of all those songs everybody belts out in the car when they're driving alone.
• Mamma Mia - I like this one for pretty much the same reasons I like Moulin Rouge. Plus it's just a fun movie - one that you can turn on while you're cleaning the house or something and it'll keep you moving.
• Labyrinth - It never occurred to me that this is a musical until recently when someone else referred to it that way, and I still don't really think of it as one. It's a movie. There's singing. There's dancing. Nope, not a musical. ;)
  

Okay, you can start throwing the tomatoes...and if you have any suggestions of musicals I might like if I just tried them, tell me in the comments - I promise to give them a shot. And if any happen to make the list, I'll let you know.

Friday Fun: Have you tried turning it off and on again?

Here's a clip from my new favorite show, The IT Crowd, which is set in (you guessed it!) an IT department:



There are more clips here, or if you have Netflix, you can rent or stream the first two seasons.

Yesterday's timesinks

This is what I was doing yesterday, instead of things I should have been doing, like writing blog posts, working on my WIP, cleaning the house, scanning slides/negatives/old photos/family history stuff, reading from the TBR pile...

I watched the Crazy Horse blast. I love that they tweet imminent blasts with a link to their webcam (and then post it on YouTube)...

...And I kept One & Other open in one of my tabs most of the day (It's addicting!)



You can find out more about the One & Other project here. Too bad Kate M didn't explain in her bio why she was knitting with giant needles in a tiara and ballgown, but you can re-watch her hour - maybe she talked about in a moment I missed (after all, I don't watch it constantly, I do try to have a life...sort of).

Wednesday Pic: Balloon

DSC_0014, originally uploaded by mdesive.

From last year's Nebraska Wine and Balloon Festival. The night we went to this year's, it was too windy for them to put the balloons up :(

Do you still shake the thermometer?

Beloit College has released its annual Mindset List, which for some reason didn't make me feel as old as it usually does (except for the knowledge that most college freshmen this year were born when I was a junior in high school). One entry in the list really caught my eye, though:

#17. They have never had to “shake down” an oral thermometer.

Now, tell me. How many of you shake the digital thermometer, simply out of habit? I used to catch myself doing it almost every time.

Back-to-school memories

It's back-to-school week in our household, and that got me thinking about my own school days. They were very different from my daughter's. She goes to a pretty typical suburban school, where her grade is split into several classes. Several hundred students attend her school. It's just small enough that she can usually put a name with each face, but not always.

From Kindergarten through 8th grade, I attended a one-room rural school. My daughter has more people in her classroom than I had in my entire school.

It was a very different experience. We all went to recess at the same time, ate lunch at the same time (brought from home, there was no hot lunch program), did most of the same extracurricular activities, and we all went on the same field trips at the same time. While the teacher gave lessons to one grade, the others worked on their own assignments or did group projects. Some grades had a single person (one of my brothers was his entire class through most of grade school), other grades simply didn't have anyone. I had two classmates most years. My daughter has a hard time imagining this. So do a lot of adults I meet. Little House on the Prairie only goes so far as a frame of reference. Here's some visual help:

This was my school house:

And this was the entire student body when I was in Kindergarten, plus the teacher and teacher's aide.

(That's me in front, in the green sweater vest)

By 8th grade, there weren't even this many students. Sadly, the school is now closed.

A strange thing I just noticed (I don't know why I never did before): I'm the only student who isn't related to any other student in this picture. Everyone else has at least one sibling, and some have cousins. In fact, half the students all had the same last name.

One of my most vivid memories is from the beginning of the day when everyone stood up to say the Pledge of Allegiance and I had no idea what they were doing. I don't even remember there being a reassuring "We're going to do this now, but don't worry, we'll teach it to you later today." It just happened. I didn't know where to look, or anything. I think the rest of the day must have gone pretty well: My only other memory was not being ready to go home at noon, since Kindergartners only went half a day.

I still get a bit awed at the different experiences my daughter is having in school. Every child in her classroom is at roughly the same level. They're all getting the same instruction at the same time. They don't overhear the older kids' lessons, don't necessarily see the older kids' books (which seem magical when you're little and there's a little disappointment when you reach that grade and find they're just regular schoolbooks like the ones you've had before). They don't get the passive review of the younger kids' lessons, either, and maybe don't have the same little chances for mentoring.

At the same time, she has resources at her fingertips that I could only have dreamed of, and I'm not just referring to computers - she has an entire library complete with a librarian, a school counselor, and actual gym equipment (I remember our "home base" was always a round piece of metal, roughly the size of a Frisbee, which had long ago come off some piece of farm equipment). I didn't feel deprived at the time, and still don't think I was, but sometimes I wonder if my daughter will ever understand just how good she's got it.

Friday Fun: Kiss a wookie, kick a droid...

The Star Wars saga, set to the music of John Williams...wait, wasn't it already??



Just don't blame me if you watch this five times and are humming it the rest of the day. (Or am I the only one who does that?)

A writer's friends

A good friend will visit Mount Moriah Cemetery with you...

...A really good friend will lean out over the edge of a cliff to to take pictures so you know how to describe it when your heroine falls off.

Wednesday Pic: Sunrise

Virginia Beach, Virginia

I am heartily ashamed

...of our city leaders.
No real post today. I'm in mourning for the Florence Library.

Florence library closing for '09

Is that Zac Efron, or...???

I was flipping through a magazine the other day and came across a picture from the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet. I was shocked, shocked, I tell you! "Zac Efron was in that movie? I KNEW he looked familiar!"

Okay, so it wasn't really Zac Efron, but you can't deny that he looks uncannily like Leonard Whiting. In fact, when I Googled Whiting, several of the top hits were for sites comparing him to Efron, so I guess I'm not the only one who has noticed.

Here's a video I found which compares the two. I think it's a little scary.



Just for the record, LilGirl, who is firmly in the High School Musical age demographic, doesn't think they look all that much alike.

Friday Fun: Facebook Electronic Friendship Generator

Tyler is Trending Topic on Twitter

Some of these are funny! Others are where I expect your thoughts would go, given recent events. RecW Mary: "Did you see where Steven Tyler fell off the stage?" Jim: "Did he land on his lips?"5 minutes ago from web

melarimo I think it's entirely possible that Steven Tyler was feeling no pain. And if he was,there were prob women lined up to offer comfort...4 minutes ago from web
steven421 Almost fainted when i saw "Steven Tyler" as a TT, thought he died, he only fell on stage, i hope he's ok :(3 minutes ago from web
tropicalthought The Tour of Pain continues: Aerosmith's Steven Tyler falls off the stage. This give new meaning to The Tour of Pain.2 minutes ago from web
MisterWhitie Saw "Steven Tyler" as a trend and thought he was the next celebrity to die and I was like "Nooooooooooooo!"3 minutes ago from web
pitawindstar Steven Tyler fell off stage last night apparently....man I wish I was one of the fans he fell on!! XDhttp://tinyurl.com/mqayb72 minutes ago from web
MLCrom can't help but check everytime a celebrity is a TT on twitter, because she thinks they might have died. Not Steven Tyler!1 minute ago from web
More here

STURGIS!!!! Well, virtually...

Okay, so I'm not in Sturgis, but I'm having a much easier time attending "virtually" this year than ever before. And no, I don't ride, but I wish I did (note to self: learn!). Technically I don't even qualify to participate in the ride/trailer debate.

Either way, Sturgis is a people-watcher's paradise. You can just sit still and watch humanity go by, from the bikers who live the lifestyle to those who are doctors or lawyers in "real life." They're all interesting. For a taste, you can check out my best find for a virtual Sturgis people-watching fix so far: The Sturgis Sidewalk Cam.

I've also been following mentions of Sturgis on Twitter, and there are lots of photos on Flickr (but a bit of warning there, many are NSFW)

We spent an afternoon at the Sturgis rally in 2005 - I took lots of photos and even met Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. from Orange County Choppers. Here are a few pics:

Of course, last night, I missed out on all the big excitement when Steven Tyler fell off the stage during Aerosmith's concert at the Buffalo Chip. I woke up to a text message from my brother and a ton of tweets. Geez, just when you give up for the night because you think sleep might be an important thing...

Wednesday Pic: Double Hippo

I shot this at the Henry Doorly Zoo a few years ago.

Timewarp: My first venture onto the internet

I documented the beginning of my addiction in the Feb 15, 1996 edition of The Eagle, my college's student newspaper.

Discipline? What's that?


(click the article for a larger view)

And I'm still happily surfing! :)

Odd art, revealed

While reading this article on hidden art today, I was reminded of a painting I saw in the Norwich Castle Museum years ago. The paintings in the article were a second canvas meant to fit over another, while this one was actually partially painted over, but it still has an interesting story.

Frances Mathew Schutz in his bed, by William Hogarth, was apparently commissioned by Schutz's wife "to remind him not to party too hard" (as I wrote it on the back of the postcard I bought at the time). According to the Tate Britain website, "The canvas proved too indecorous in its imagery for Schutz’s Victorian descendants. They hired an artist to paint in a newspaper over the chamber-pot; only a recent programme of restoration returned the painting to its original state."

Friday Fun: Sticky Notes!

Sticky Note Experiment by EepyBird from Eepybird on Vimeo.

For more fantastic experiments go to www.eepybird.com

Thanks to The Happiness Project for the link

Friday Fun: Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock

I'll let Sheldon explain how it works:

My baby bro is 30 today!

Wasn't he adorable...way back when?

I've been scanning old negatives Mom brought me, and these were a bunch I think my aunt shot. I think they were for a photo contest (apparently sponsored by Cheerios) if I remember right.

He's just lucky I haven't gotten to the really embarrassing pictures yet. (Yes, you know the ones I'm talking about, Baby Bro. Bwahahaha!!)

Happy Birthday!!!
(We won't talk about how old this makes me)

Rambly old favorite: A Room With a View

Some of you may have known me to mention A Room With A View as the gold standard of "Mary Movies." The funny thing about A Room With A View (and don't tell anybody this) is...

I hated it the first time I saw it.

(Okay, don't tell!)

In my defense, I was only 12 or so. I just couldn't figure out why Lucy suddenly claimed she loved George when she'd spent the whole movie insisting that she didn't. What did I know?

I saw it again in my mid-teens and was hooked. At that age I decided George Emerson was just the swooniest guy evar (or for the next five minutes, anyway). I can't remember why I gave it another chance, but I'm glad I did. It led to a love of Merchant Ivory films and E.M. Forster's books.

Though I always enjoy a re-read of ARWAV, it's not my Forster favorite. That distinction goes to Maurice. Unfortunately, the movie version of Maurice did not turn out to be as good as the book, or even as good as the ARWAV movie. But if you're interested in seeing a young Hugh Grant, you might want to check it out.

The other night, I was thrilled to find ARWAV in the Instant Watch section of Netflix. So, as that implies, I instantly started watching.

Of course hubby had to walk in during the pond scene (if you've seen the movie, you know the one I mean). I remember being incredibly embarrassed by that scene when I was 12 - after all, I was watching the movie with my parents (gasp! The horror!). Hubby simply gave me the "What are you watching?" look, shook his head, and went on his way. After all, I wasn't making him watch, so he was probably breathing a sigh of relief.

Miss Lavish's opinions on travel and tourism have seeped into my bones ("No, Miss Bartlett, you shall NOT look into your Baedeker...we shall simply drift...Now, this is what I call an adventure.") and the Emerson's ideas of the world intrigued me even when I hated the movie in that first viewing.

George has one of the best quotes in the film. Reverend Beebe tells him it is not coincidence or fate that has brought the Emersons to Summer Street, but being "naturally drawn to things Italian, as are we and all our friends."

George replies "It is fate. But call it Italy if pleases you, Vicar."

Some Dr. Who/Shakespeare fun

Haven't had a Shakespeare-related post in awhile.

Here's a clip from Red Nose Day featuring Dr. Who (David Tennant), Catherine Tate and Shakespeare. Love it!

Friday Fun: NCBI ROFL

My boss came across this hilarious blog the other day. Two Molecular and Cell Biology graduate students at UC Berkeley gather articles on funny things in PubMed, a database for biomedical research articles, and post them. I generally spend 90% of my work day poking around in PubMed, but I don't think I've ever come across any of these:

• Procrastination by pigeons: preference for larger, more delayed work requirements. - see, it's not just me, the pigeons do it too!
• The nature of navel fluff - Ever wonder how that stuff gets there?
• The spermicidal potency of Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola - Ummm...okay. Don't think I'll be trying this
• Feet rolled over by cars: radiological and histological considerations from experiments. - I should probably read this one - been there, done that.

Great scientific minds at work, I tell ya! And think about this: somebody funded each of those studies. Can you imagine the grant applications?

Bring your inner 12-year-old's sense of humor when you read this blog: they tend toward the juvenile - bodily functions, fun with animals, super powers. They do have a "Rated G" label if you want to avoid any of the...um...naughtier-sounding research.

And I hope this stuff isn't only funny to medical professionals (and their librarians). If not, sorry, I'll do better next Friday. :)

Photo by Frankenstoen / CC BY 2.0

Today is the reason 6 is afraid of 7

Because....

wait for it!...

Seven Ate Nine!

Okay, go ahead and groan.

One last note: Later today we'll see 12:34:56 7/8/09 the only time in our lives.

You may now return to your regularly-scheduled activities :)

Goodbye, Mrs. Slocombe

On top of everyone else the world has lost lately, Mollie Sugden passed away yesterday. "Are You Being Served" has always been one of my favorite Britcoms. Here's a tribute by nednickerson2009:



A few weeks ago, a friend loaned me the Are You Being Served movie (along with Fawlty Towers, which I was working my way through first). I think tonight would be a good one to sit down with a glass of something, and watch this and remember.

One year later...

A year ago today we made it through a tremendous storm. Luckily we had no damage to our house. In fact, I think our ultimate loss was a couple pepper plants. I was sure my hostas and peoney were toast, but both came roaring back to life this spring. Our neighbors just half a block away weren't so lucky - they ended up with a trailer on the back deck. One of the more seriously damaged houses just a couple blocks away is still being rebuilt. Here's a slideshow of some of the pictures I took that day:

Friday Fun: Magical Trevor

An oldie but a goodie, from the people who brought you Badgers!

I located my mystery castle!

I am bouncing up and down right now - and kicking myself at the same time. This is no easy feat, but somehow I'm managing it.

In July 1991, I spent three weeks in Germany. One of the days we were out sightseeing, we stopped at a castle ruin where only a single tower remained. We climbed to the top where there was a spectacular view, and where I discovered to my horror that I had one shot left on my last roll of film! I took a deep breath and tried to make it count:

Unfortunately, I didn't make note of the name of the castle or the town in my diary (why? I don't know). Later on (but still in pre-Google days) when I wanted to figure it out, I didn't have an easy way to find out what route we'd taken or any information about this particular ruin, though from time to time I would give it another shot, to no avail.

Years passed, the diary was put away (scanned first, of course, and eventually I saved a copy in my GMail and elsewhere, where it was essentially buried and forgotten). Today the light bulb clicked and it finally dawned on me that these days I have everything at hand to at least narrow the search for my mystery castle.

I pulled up the diary in Gmail and skimmed through the pages until I found the entry I wanted:

July 11, 1991: Today we went to Ravensburg, Weingarten and Wangen. We went to several churches in each place. On the way home, we visited an old tower near a small town. The tower is all that is left of a large castle that used to be there. We climbed all the way to the top of it on some rickety old stairs that seemed ready to fall at any moment. The view from the top was breathtaking, but the climb down the stairs isn't something I'd like to go through again.

Then I went to Google Maps and put in the last place I knew we stopped before the castle: Wangen. I made Lindau (where I was staying) the destination and told Google Maps I wanted directions.

The route shot me right past Neuravensburg, a small town on the edge of a small lake. I zoomed in and found what looked like a footpath going up a hill to a squarish gray blob. The footpath took the same general route I remembered, and on the same side of the road. I googled the name of the town and found the blob was indeed a tower! After a search for the town's name in Flickr, I came up with this shot (as well as pics of the tower from the outside).

At last, mystery solved! With under five minutes of research. Why I didn't think of this when Google Maps first surfaced I'll never know. *sigh*

How I'm doing on BIAW* so far

*Book In A Week

Friday Afternoon Fun

The power of a handwritten letter

I'm not a football fan, but I love this piece about Peyton Manning. I think it says a lot about him that he takes the time to send handwritten letters to former opponents when they retire. Writing letters is a habit I basically dropped altogether in the last few years. I don't even send cards anymore. On one hand, I think that's sad. On the other hand, it seems so counterproductive to go buy a card (spending money, killing a tree), write something in it, buy postage (I don't keep it around anymore) and take it somewhere to mail it. Gah! It sounds like so much work compared to e-mail.

But then I see these men and their appreciation for having received such a precious and unusual item. It almost seems to not matter what the letter says, even though the sentiments within *are* important. But if Manning had e-mailed those same words to these other players, no one would really take notice. The other men would have thought "Well, that's nice," and moved on with their day. Because Manning took the time to handwrite the letters and mail them, they have sticking power and carry a weight that no e-mail could.

This video originally aired on January 3 (according to my notes) and I wanted to post it a long time ago, but ESPN didn't put the video up on their site until February 6. *ahem* Are you listening, ESPN? Good thing I made a note to look for it again later. Unfortunately, "later" was now.

Look out, they're 21!!

They won't have to wear disguises at the bar anymore! 

Happy birthday, Josh & Jon!

Before Edward there was David

see more Lol Celebs

As I explained to a friend recently, this is why I have nothing left for Twilight. I spent it all on Lost Boys years ago, but that was before the intervention...

Aim high!

Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!

Today is my parents' 40th anniversary.

Gee, weren't they cute back then? (and I guess they still are)

Perhaps this is why I haven't been blogging?

...more likely it's a combination of yet another laptop cord going to pieces, rearranging the house, cleaning the house, having guests, cleaning the house, appliances deciding to go on vacation without notice, and the fact that it's all either too exhausting or depressing to even tweet, much less blog about. I'll be back with a vengeance this month, water heater or no water heater!

My favorite SciFi movie

Love it! Joseph Campbell would be nodding all through this. 

Watch My Favorite Movie (Star Trek vs. Star Wars) on CollegeHumor

Happy Mother's Day from Jeff Dunham

Worst Birthday Cake. Ever.

This is wrong on so many levels. 

Luckily it wasn't the cake, and she had a good sense of humor.

Rambling Review: The Totally Geeky Guide to the Princess Bride

You know how you're supposed to set your writing aside & let it ferment a bit before you go back & edit it? Well, this only works if you don't FORGET about it, like I did with this post I wrote a looong time ago.

WARNING! Contains spoilers. If you haven't seen the movie (Inconceivable!), go watch it before you read this. The rest of you, read on...

I LOVED this book. Let me 'splain. No, is too much. Let me sum up.

The Princess Bride has been one of my favorite movies since I was in junior high. I can still remember the first time we watched it, trying to puzzle out who the Man in Black was (I still can't believe I didn't know it was Westley. “I'd know it if I watched it for the first time today” my adult self tells my childhood self – yes, my adult self is a bit petulant and pouty, and mostly jealous that she can't watch it for the first time again) I then bought the book and the soundtrack as soon as I could. I still have both, although they are in dire need of replacing. I've already replaced the VHS version of the movie with a DVD after I discovered one day that the sound on the tape was like listening to the dialogue underwater – it had simply been watched too many times. For years, my brothers and I have often left each other at the end of visits, phone calls and e-mails with “Have fun storming the castle!”

So, when I was online one day and tripped across The Totally Geeky Guide to The Princess Bride by MaryAnn Johanson, my thoughts immediately flew to the bookstore giftcard my brother and sister-in-law had given me for Christmas. How perfect to spend it on THIS book, I thought! (It didn't take the whole gift card – I used the rest to start my Neil Gaiman glom. I think he might be my next new obsession.)

Reading the first chapter was like finding a new friend who also loves The Princess Bride and really wants to talk about it. This has happened before, in real life, although those conversations never really turn into the philosophical breakdown of the movie that comes with this book. They're usually more of a goodhearted volley of quotes, almost as if we want to see who can bat quotes back and forth the longest, where no one really wants to win. The game is so fun, you'd hate for the other person to lose and cause the game to end.

This is what Johanson refers to as “The Princess Bride Test,” saying “drawing upon the movie for commentary on life, the universe, and everything is reflexive, almost unconscious on the part of any fan of the film. The movie's philosophy is as attuned to our own that quoting from it is totally natural; in fa

ct, we only ever realize we're testing a new acquaintance when he or she fails the Test...” (Did anybody notice the Douglas Adams reference? It tickled me. She's truly a kindred spirit, I think.)

FAILS THE TEST??? I don't think I've ever met one of those people. I don't think I want to. I mean, this is The. Princess. Bride. It's not Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, which is one of my other favorite movies, and in somewhat the same vein as The Princess Bride. I would say that Rosencrantz is to Shakespeare what Princess is to fairy tales. And yet, not a single person I've recommended Rosencrantz to has come back happy. “I didn't get it” is the most common, and most polite, response I've gotten. Maybe if we were all taught Shakespeare the way we're taught fairy tales, Rosencrantz would get a better reception. How I'd love to say to someone “I've often not been on boats,” and have them reply “Ah, but what you've been is not on boats!”

Johanson has a lot of fun with quotes from the film in two of my favorite parts of this book. The first is “Casablanca, or the Princess Refugee,” the story of Casablanca told entirely through quotes from The Princess Bride. The other is a scene where Westley, Johnny Cash, Agent Jay and Agent Kay have a conversation because they're all (say it with me) Men in Black! If you just snorted coffee all over the keyboard, get thee a copy of this book!

Have fun storming the castle!

Happy Jedi Day!

May the Fourth be with you! ;)

Photo by Hector Pierna Sanchez

Happy May Day!

Happy May Day!, originally uploaded by mdesive.

My first iris of the season bloomed today!

How well she doth look in bondage

In all my whining and moaning lately about how so many really horrible things happen in April (Titanic sinking, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Columbine shootings, the Oklahoma City bombing, tax day, yada yada...) I nearly forgot one of the great things that happened: Sometime in April 1564, William Shakespeare was born! His birthday is traditionally observed today, April 23, so I thought I'd share a couple bits from two of my favorite homages to the Bard.

The Taming of the Shrew episode of "Moonlighting" was my first (remembered) exposure to Shakespeare. I think I was extremely lucky in that. This show allowed my first impression of Shakespeare to be something fun, so that by the time I got to the "boring bits" in high school I was already immune to them. The first play I actually read was Julius Caesar in freshman English class, and I still think it is one of his more dull plays (granted, I haven't revisited it since then). I loathe Romeo and Juliet, after reading it in class after class through high school and college. My favorites are A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night, but Taming of the Shrew always has a special place in my heart. (I also can never, ever hear "Good Lovin'" without thinking of this scene)



In 2005, the BBC aired a mini-series called Shakespeare Re-Told, where they updated several of Shakespeare's plays. My favorite of those is The Taming of the Shrew, starring Shirley Henderson and Rufus Sewell (I have to say I never thought a man could be hot in drag, but Rufus pulls it off...*fans self*...oh, wait back to the blog). Here's a clip from that episode. I'm pretty sure the earlier Moonlighting episode was what influenced my cracked humor enough that I could appreciate this:



(Hint: If you've got Netflix, you can watch the entire mini-series online! Mmmmm, Rufus in heels...oh, sorry)

Happy National Library Week!

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Maybe we don't have it so bad...

Spring 09 Blizzards 005, originally uploaded by KSUE.

I've been grumbling because we're supposed to get some snow tonight and tomorrow, but I don't think it'll be anything to compare with what my parents have gotten in South Dakota over the last couple weeks. This picture was taken March 30. They got more today. 

I'll try to remember this when I'm digging out tomorrow.

Twitter founder talks to Colbert

So glad Comedy Central posts these. I got distracted by Brad Pitt in Troy (really, can anyone resist that?) on another channel and didn't get to The Colbert Report until after this, but here it is in all its hilarity.

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