canary creams and foolish wand waving

Are you a moderator or an abstainer?

2012-01-06T13:56:00.000-08:00

I was looking around Shine a few minutes ago and found this article:

Trying to Eat Better? Ask Yourself This Important Question by Gretchen Rubin

Quiz: Are you a moderator or an abstainer?

In honor of many people's New Year's resolutions-"Eat more healthfully," "Cut out sweets," "Lose weight," and the like-I'm re-posting this quiz, to help you determine whether you're a moderator or an abstainer. When I figured out that I'm an "abstainer," it helped me tremendously in terms of eating better.

Often, we know we'd have more long-term happiness if we gave up something that gives us a rush of satisfaction in the short-term. That morning doughnut, that late-night ice cream.

A piece of advice I often see is, "Be moderate. Don't have dessert every night, but if you try to deny yourself altogether, you'll fall off the wagon. Allow yourself to have the occasional treat, it will help you stick to your plan."

I've come to believe that this is good advice for some people: the moderators. They do better when they try to make moderate changes, when they avoid absolutes and bright lines.

For a long time, I kept trying this strategy of moderation-and failing. Then I read a line from Samuel Johnson, about drinking wine: "Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult." Like Dr. Johnson, I'm an abstainer.

I find it far easier to give something up altogether than to indulge moderately. When I admitted to myself that I was eating my favorite frozen "fake food" treat, Tasti D-Lite, two and even three times a day, I gave it up cold turkey. That was far easier for me to do than to eat Tasti D-Lite twice a week. If I try to be moderate, I exhaust myself debating, "Today, tomorrow?" "Does this time 'count?'" etc. If I never do something, it requires no self-control for me; if I do something sometimes, it requires enormous self-control.

For instance, we keep a bag of cookies in our cupboard. If I ever ate one of those cookies, they'd prey on my mind constantly. I'd constantly struggle not to eat them. But because I've never once eaten one of those cookies, I never think about them. I don't have to use any will-power not to reach into that bag. It might as well be a bag of flour.

When I told a moderator friend about this, she shook her head pityingly and said, "That's just sad. Really. Life is too short not to have a cookie."

"No," I answered, "for me, life is too short to use up my precious mental energy on a few cookies. I'm happier if I don't eat them."

There's no right way or wrong way-it's just a matter of knowing which strategy works better for you. Once again, back to the Fifth Splendid Truth: you can build a happy life only on the foundation of your own nature. If moderators try to abstain, they feel trapped and rebellious. If abstainers try to be moderate, they spend a lot of mental energy battling their temptations.

You're a moderator if you…
-- find that occasional indulgence heightens your pleasure-and strengthens your resolve
-- get panicky at the thought of "never" getting or doing something

You're an abstainer if you…
-- have trouble stopping something once you've started
-- aren't tempted by things that you've decided are off-limits

People can be surprisingly judgmental about which approach you take. As an abstainer, I often get disapproving comments like, "It's not healthy to take such a severe approach" or "It would be better to learn how to manage yourself" or "Can't you let yourself have a little fun?" On the other hand, I hear fellow abstainer-types saying to moderators, "You can't keep cheating and expect to make progress" or "Why don't you just go cold turkey?" But different approaches work for different people. (Exception: with an actual addiction, like alcohol or cigarettes, people generally accept that abstaining is the only solution.)

Does this ring true for you? Do you identify as a moderator or abstainer?

This is actually brilliant, IMO. As a woman who has been battling her weight most of her life, almost every bit of dieting advice I've seen has said somewhere that it's important to eat junk food in moderation; if you give it up completely, you risk binging when the opportunity arises.

My problem is that, when it comes to food, I don't know the meaning of the word "moderation." Moderation, to me, is eating eight golden oreos instead of half the package. You might laugh, but I'm one of those people who can knock back that half package of oreos in one setting without a second thought. I feel like crap after it's over, but I've been known to do it time and again. I've thought many times that I'm much better off if I don't even have junk food in the house, because then I have to go without, or I have to make a trip to the store to get what I want.

I don't know why I never made the connection that I'm not a moderator (because when it comes to junk food, I'm clearly not), but an abstainer; after all, I have a few foods that I knocked off my list years ago and never looked back.

Way back in 1999 I gave up caffeine. Ok, I know this in itself isn't a food, but it's in some foods and drinks. Why did I give it up? It makes me nauseated (side note from the English major: it's nauseated, not nauseous. Nauseated is when you have a feeling of nausea in your stomach. Nauseous is when you make someone else feels nausea. Anyway, I digress...). It's horrible. So I gave up caffeinated coffee, tea, and sodas.

I noticed a few months later, while working in a mall kiosk candy store and eating a LOT of chocolate, that on the days I ate the most chocolate I felt the worst. Duh. An eight ounce chocolate bar has as much caffeine as a cup of regular coffee.

So in 2000 (maybe it was 2001, I can't remember) I said good-bye to chocolate. Twice. After I gave it up the first time, I got the Girl Scout Thin Mints I ordered a few weeks before. Yeah, I wasn't gonna NOT eat the thin mints. So I gave it up again.

The point is, once I made up my mind, and felt the results I was looking for (reduced nausea, YAY), I didn't regret my decision and I didn't look back. Even when I was pregnant with our son and CRAVING brownies, I didn't eat any chocolate.

I've done the abstaining thing before in an effort to lose weight, and it worked. When I've tried the "everything in moderation" approach, I crash and burn about three days into it.

And yet I've never made the connection.

I decided right before Christmas that after Christmas I would be changing my eating patterns. My goal, starting at the beginning of this weak, was to eat as clean as possible, which meant lots of whole foods, very little processed food, with an emphasis on fruits, veggies, and fish (I eat little to no land-dwelling animal proteins). The main objective was to see how I felt eating like this compared to how I've been eating for the past few years, which has been pretty carb heavy and too many processed foods. I've been complaining of feeling tired and sluggish for years now, and I know that how I eat might factor into that. So I'm experimenting on myself to see if I feel any better this week eating cleanly.

Anyway, I wanted to post the article for you to see. If you are a moderator, great! I wish I could be, because I've wanted the last three or four golden oreos in the package a few times this week (I let Jeff eat them instead), but knew that if I ate one, I'd eat them all. If you are a fellow abstainer, what have you given up successfully in the past, and how do you feel for having done so?

Books of 2011

2012-01-04T08:16:00.000-08:00

I was inspired by a friend's post on FaceBook last night to list the books I read in 2011. Here they are:

The Vampire Chronicles (Interview with a Vampire; The Vampire Lestat; and Queen of the Damned - so three books in one) by Anne Rice. As a general rule, I will read just about any work of fiction in the vampire genre (with the exception of Twilight), and I thought it was time for me to read Rice's take on vampires. I almost stopped reading after Interview, since I thought Louis was a whiny prat and didn't care for Lestat, but since I'd just spent money on this huge book, I felt obligated to keep going. Honestly, the story got better, and while I kind of enjoyed Lestat and Queen, I won't read this series again. I would like to read more of Rice's work though to see if I enjoy it more. It could be that I just didn't like this particular story (which I find amusing, since I've enjoyed all but the last book in the Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries (and I haven't read that one yet)).

Wicked by Gregory Maguire. Full disclosure here: I despise The Wizard of Oz. The movie, I mean. I haven't read the book, and probably should do, but anyway. So I picked this up in the spirit of wanting to see the story from the side of the "bad" guy, aka, the Wicked Witch of the West. When I told people I was reading this, many of the mentioned that you either love or hate Wicked, and the story meandered - a lot - but to keep with it. Well, the story meandered as much as I was told it did, but I enjoyed this. And while I don't know how much of the main character's (Elphaba) character is based off that of Baum's Wicked Witch of the West, I really liked Elphaba and sympathize with the WWotW now. Screw Dorothy and the Great Oz. :P

An Acceptable Time by Madeline L'Engle. This book is part of the A Wrinkle in Time series, and as usual, Ms. L'Engle tells a wonderful story. If you've read any of the other books in the series, this is one you'll enjoy just as much as the others.

Food, Inc. edited by Karl Weber. Food, Inc. is a series of articles written by different authors for various sources. All the articles have to do with some aspect of the food industry, whether it be environmental issues, ethics, human and/or animal rights, and/or safety and health. If you are at all interested in learning how the food industry functions, this is a great book. I enjoyed it.

The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan. I haven't read a lot of literature by Chinese-American authors, but I've like what I have read. Tan has a style of writing that one doesn't usually see with an American or European author, and it's a nice change of pace. While this story is somewhat sad, it does have a happy ending. If you are looking for something different, something that will make you think, then I think you'll enjoy this one.

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman. As I mentioned before, I'll read almost anything from the Vampire genre, but when Jeff presented this to me as a Valentine's Day present, I was right in the middle of Interview With a Vampire. I was understandably a little hesitant to start this one. However, I was wrong to be hesitant. It took several pages to get into the story, but Newman was quickly throwing in references to Stoker's Dracula, Jack the Ripper, and other historical and fictional references - enough to keep me on my toes and researching things I knew nothing about when I started the book. While I don't think that Newman is as good a writer as JK Rowling, Rowling's references to past works of literature are what made the Harry Potter series so much fun, and I feel the same way about Anno Dracula.

The Omen Machine by Terry Goodkind. Omen Machine is a continuation of the story of Richard and Kahlan from The Sword of Truth series. If you haven't read the first series, you probably won't understand about half of what's going on in this book. This is another book I was hesitant to read. I enjoyed most of the Goodkind's previous books. However, once he got to the last two or three, they got preachy and repetitive. Blech. And while there were two or three spots in Omen Machine that I thought were repetitive, I'll give Goodkind the benefit of the doubt here - some of his audience could be reading it as a stand-alone, and not as a continuation of the story, in which case they would really need that information. While I could have waited for the paperback, I found that I enjoyed this one a lot more than I thought I would.

The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis. Yes, I read all seven books in the Chronicles (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; A Horse and His Boy; The Silver Chair; The Magician's Nephew; and The Last Battle) since it has been several years since I had done so. I am a huge fan of CS Lewis, both his works of fiction and apologetics, enough so that he's the dead author I'd want to meet if given a chance. If you've never read any Lewis, and you like children's fiction, give these a try.

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. I started reading The Sookie Stackhouse series because I watched TrueBlood on HBO. Unfortunately, reading those books mostly ruined the last two seasons of TrueBlood for me. Jeff and I watched the first episode of Game of Thrones when it came out on HBO last spring, but neither of us were terribly interested in the story, so we quit watching. Well, several people in one of my online hangouts recommended the books, so I thought I'd give this one a try. I had to slog through the first 250 to 300 pages, but once I got past that point, the story picked up quite a bit, and I found myself enjoying this. Which is good. I needed a new author to read.

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin. This is the sequel to A Game of Thrones and picks up right where Thrones left off. By the time I was about twenty pages into this one, I knew I wasn't going to have to slog through any of it, and I was right. About half way through it, I had picked three characters as my favorites and looked forward to chapters about them. I'm learning that Martin kills off characters without shame, so I'm hoping I've chosen three that are around for the long haul. Also, there are some funny parts, so if you like your fantasy with a good dash of humor, please start this series.

I think that's all. So that's what, eighteen books in all? Yeah. It doesn't sound like a lot, but I also read a lot of short stories (fanfiction. Yes, I'm one of those) online, so I read QUITE a bit more than just these eighteen books.

First up for this year: Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett. I'm having a hard time getting into this story, but I've been told this isn't the best book to start with either. After that, the next two Martin books, A Feast of Crows and A Storm of Swords, then Good Omens by Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

Happy reading, and Happy New Year!

Snape is voted favourite Harry Potter character

2011-08-30T10:27:00.000-07:00

Did you see this article from The Guardian? I'm pretty excited, because Snape is my favorite character (followed closely by Fred and George). I think it's funny that the main character comes in fourth on the list.

Snape is voted favourite Harry Potter character

Severus Snape, potions master, Head of Slytherin and Death Eater, beats Harry Potter himself to be named favourite character in JK Rowling's bestselling series

Do you agree? Email us at childrens.books@guardian.co.uk to tell us whom your favourite Harry Potter is – and why. We'll print your choices below

Alan Rickman as Severus Snape, Harry Potter fans' favourite character. Also in the picture are Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter and Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonagall, who all made it into the top 20.

Severus Snape is the surprise winner of a poll to find the public's favourite Harry Potter character. With 13,000 votes, the character, who is played by Alan Rickman in the film versions, took 20% of the 70,000 votes cast in the survey from the books' publisher, Bloomsbury. He was the clear winner, beating loyal swot Hermione Granger into second place.

Harry Potter, the multi-million selling series's eponymous hero, only just makes it into the top five, taking fourth place behind Sirius Black but ahead of his chum Ron Weasley, who comes in at a measly number five.

Harry is JK Rowling's own favourite, although she has admitted that she may be unusual in her preferences. "Ron is generally more popular (I love him too, though). Now that I have finished writing the books, the character I would most like to meet for dinner is Dumbledore. We would have a lot to discuss, and I would love his advice; I think that everyone would like a Dumbledore in their lives," she said, before the poll opened.

But not necessarily very visible in their lives – Albus Dumbledore is ranked number eight in the poll, behind the delightfully eccentric Luna Lovegood and Ron's smart sister, Ginny Weasley. Trailing at the end of the top 10 are the house elf Dobby and Harry's rival, the bully Draco Malfoy.

The poll launched in May with a list of 40 characters to choose from. The favourite characters outside the top 40 suggested by readers was Oliver Wood. Fang, Hagrid's dog, and the Fat Lady in the portrait at the entrance to Gryffindor gained the least votes with only one each.

The full top 40

1. Severus Snape
2. Hermione Granger
3. Sirius Black
4. Harry Potter
5. Ron Weasley
6. Luna Lovegood
7. Ginny Weasley
8. Albus Dumbledore
9. Dobby
10. Draco Malfoy
11. Remus Lupin
12. Neville Longbottom
13. Fred Weasley
14. Bellatrix Lestrange
15. Minerva McGonagall
16. Rubeus Hagrid
17. Lord Voldemort
18. Nymphadora Tonks
19. Gilderoy Lockhart
20. George Weasley
21. James Potter
22. Hedwig
23. Lily Potter
24. Lucius Malfoy
25. Molly Weasley
26. Cedric Diggory
27. Alastor Moody
28. Arthur Weasley
29. Kreacher
30. Dementors
31. Dolores Umbridge
32. Moaning Myrtle
33. Sybill Trelawney
34. Rita Skeeter
35. Filius Flitwick
36. Argus Filch
37. Dudley Dursley
38. Vincent Crabbe
39. Gregory Goyle
40. Cornelius Fudge

Your favourite Harry Potter characters

Luisa:
Severus Snape is my personal favorite (followed by Hermione Granger) because of his very real mix of goodness, badness, weakness and courage (and, like Hermione, enormous smarts!). Despite the greasy locks, curling lip and biting remarks, Snape's actions over the entire series demonstrated (only confirmed at the denouement, although many of us simply felt it much earlier) that he was a genuine romantic. And who can resist the tragedy of a romantic who muffed it up -- then spent his life (and gave it) atoning?
Long live Severus!

John:
1. Neville Longbottom - he shows the most character development over the seven books.
2. Snape - by far he has the most intricate and complex role to play in the story, even though we don't learn until the end how well he manages the pressures on him.
3. Dumbledore - same as JK, really, his wisdom and insights are a model for an honest and effective life.

Andrew:
I think that it is wonderful that Snape is top of the list. The character teaches not to judge by appearances. This is an important lesson for children to learn.

Hannah:
My favourite character is Luna Lovegood. I like her because she is always very enthusiastic about everything. I don't think she is crazy, I think she just has a wider imagination and thinks differently than other wizards. I like it when in the 5th film she helps Harry after Draco leaves him on the train covered by the invisibility cloak so no one will spot him. I like this part because she spots Harry whilst wearing these fun glasses, that in a way they suit her, to spot Harry.

Tom Felton and Rupert Grint

2011-07-29T07:56:00.000-07:00

I think this picture is from Tom Felton's personal yfrog account - just giving credit where credit is due:

yfrog Photo : http://yfrog.com/hs4ensfpj Shared by TomFelton

T -12:00 and counting

2011-07-14T09:52:00.001-07:00

This is it, ladies and gentlemen: the twelve hour countdown for the final installment of the Harry Potter movie legacy has officially begun. The tickets are purchased, my friends and I are all ready, and now all we have to do is wait.

I'm not dressing up this time around. Starting with Goblet of Fire, I've always done something to alter my appearance. For Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, Jeff and I both died our hair red to be part of the Weasley clan. For Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows Part 1, I've done full dress Severus Snape. This time, I jut want to relax, so I'm going as me.

Alan Rickman on Harry Potter

2011-07-14T09:49:00.001-07:00

"When I’m 80 years old, I’ll be reading Harry Potter. My family will say, ‘After all this time?’ and I will say ‘Always.’” – Alan Rickman

Fred's dead -- or maybe not.

2011-07-14T09:42:00.000-07:00

My friend Amy over at Backseat Writer denies Fred Weasley's death, and I think she's on to something:

I like my happy endings tied up with a bow, and that didn’t happy for Fred Weasley (and I only found out about George’s through some random JKR interview). This is fiction, which means anything that is written can be re-written, particularly in the world of fantasy! My mind can simply substitute “Fred” and put in “Percy”—looks like Percy’s dead and Fred’s alive. Or I can conjure up a way for George to bring Fred back using a Time Turner (or maybe read a fan fiction where someone did just that). There are a bazillion reasons why Fred doesn’t have to be dead—the only limit is one’ own imagination.

If you're a Gred and Forge fan like me (did the title of this blog give it away again?), please head over to Backseat Writer and read the whole post. I know you'll enjoy it tremendously.

A Maize Maze of Harry Potter

2011-07-13T11:59:00.000-07:00

Thanks go to my friend Anna for posting this on my FaceBook wall. This is amazing:

It’s Harry Potter and The Amazing Maize Maze - Main Section - Yorkshire Post

Two days!

2011-07-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

There are a little over two days until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 comes out. Is everyone as excited as I am? If you're going to a midnight showing where you live, I hope you've bought your tickets already. Otherwise, you might not be going to the midnight show.

MTV has "American Talk Part 2" up now, featuring Tom Felton, Matt Lewis, and Rupert Grint. If you saw the American Talk before the last film release, you know it was Tom, Rupert, Daniel Radcliff, and Emma Watson. The whole premise of the clip is to try and get the actors to use a Midwestern-American accent, instead of the English accents they all have.

Rupert Grint really sucks at talking with an American accent. But hey, I suck at talking with an English accent, so no big deal. Tom Felton, OTOH, does a great job. And Matt Lewis is even better, IMO.

Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

Also, I am horrified that 1) Robert Pattinson was included in pictures of Americans, 2) Tom Felton didn't recognize Robert Pattinson, and 3) called Pattinson a beautiful American since FELTON WORKED WITH PATTINSON IN GOBLET OF FIRE. Horrified. I am HORRIFIED.

Enjoy!

Two weeks!

2011-07-01T13:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, as of today, there are two weeks until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 starts. I have our tickets, and we'll be going with a small group of friends to the 12:05 am showing.

YAY!

The Trio in the LeStrange Vault at Gringott's

2011-07-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

Oh, the Internet is just spoilering us, HP fans. Have you seen this yet?

J.K. Rowling Announces Pottermore

2011-06-23T08:41:00.000-07:00

So have you seen the announcement about Pottermore yet? If not, here it is:

To be honest, I'm just waiting to see it. I think having Rowling give more information about what's in the books will be great, but I don't know about the rest of it yet.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2" Trailer 2

2011-06-16T17:57:00.000-07:00

I'm definitely going to need to take tissues.

How to Care for Introverts

2011-06-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

This is brilliant, and as an introvert, I agree wholeheartedly.

Deathly Hallows Part 2: Snape poster

2011-05-31T10:08:00.001-07:00

This is a test.

2011-05-13T14:02:00.001-07:00

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain :D

Homemade yogurt

2011-01-24T07:04:00.000-08:00

I love yogurt. I eat it almost every day, as it is my breakfast of choice. And I've become rather picky about it over the past year too. I used to really like every kind and brand of yogurt, but then I started eating Stonyfield Farms low fat vanilla yogurt (I get it in the large tub). That got a little bit expensive for me--ranging from $3 to $5 a tub--so I started eat Dannon All Natural Vanilla instead (at about $2 a tub, it's a little easier to fund my morning habit).

A few weeks ago, I got a tub of Yoplait Vanilla because it was on sale. It was horrible. Too sweet, not tart enough, way too smooth, and just not satisfying. So back to Dannon.

But for the past few months, I've been thinking about making my own yogurt. Yeah, I'd still have to buy the ingredients to make it, but it could still be made for less money than buying it, plus there would be less waste. Even though I reuse or recycle plastic containers, it's still better for the environment to reduce my packaging consumption, and I can simply store the homemade yogurt in a container I already have.

I tried to make coconut milk yogurt two weeks ago, but it ended up being a soupy mess. Yesterday, I made yogurt using 2% milk, and it was a complete success.

I had intended to use this method for making yogurt in my crockpot; in fact, that's how I tried to make the coconut milk yogurt. I'm still going to try using the crockpot method one of these times, making adjustments to the recipe or technique, because most of the people who have made yogurt in the crockpot have been wildly successful at it.

I used a combination of this recipe from Salon and this recipe from the Country Living Series (CLS).

I mostly followed the ingredients from the CLS recipe:

Recipe for plain yogurt

This recipe makes 4 to 5 cups. Yogurt can be stored in the refrigerator for about 10 days. This recipe can be doubled or tripled with no loss of quality, but make sure you can use that amount in 10 days or less. Adjust pan and container size accordingly.

*1 quart milk (whole, lowfat, skim or reconstituted nonfat dry milk) Note: If you use home-produced milk, either from a cow or goat, it must be pasteurized (see Table 2) before preparing yogurt or any other milk product.

*Nonfat dry milk powder — use 1/3 cup powder when using whole or lowfat milk, or use 2/3 cup powder when using skim or reconstituted nonfat dry milk

*1/4 cup commercial, unflavored, cultured yogurt*

* 2 to 4 tablespoons sugar or honey (optional)

* 1/2 package (1 teaspoon) unflavored gelatin (for thick, firm yogurt only)

* Special hint: To make yogurt at home, an active (living) yogurt culture is needed as a "starter." Commercial, unflavored cultured yogurt, from the supermarket is usually used as a starter. Yogurt starter cultures can also be purchased at health food stores, but are quite expensive compared to commercial cultured yogurt. Once you start making yogurt at home, save some of your homemade yogurt to "start" your next batch. For best results, however, purchase commercial cultured yogurt to replenish a homemade culture every four to five batches.

For thin yogurt:

*Place cold, pasteurized milk in top of a double boiler and stir in nonfat dry milk powder. Add sugar or honey if a sweeter, less tart yogurt is desired.

*Heat milk to 200 degrees F, stirring gently and hold for 10 minutes. Do not boil.

*Place top of double boiler in cold water to cool milk rapidly to 112 degrees F to 115 degrees F. Watch the temperature carefully as it falls rapidly once it reaches 125 degrees F. Remove pan from cold water.

*Remove one cup of the warm milk and blend it with the yogurt starter culture. Add this to the rest of the warm milk. Temperature should now be 110 degrees F to 112 degrees F.

*Pour immediately into the clean hot container(s), cover and place in prepared incubator. Close incubator.

*Incubate about 4 hours. Yogurt should be set. The longer the incubation time, the more tart or acidic the flavor.

*Refrigerate immediately. Rapid cooling stops the development of acid. Yogurt will keep for about 10 days if held at 40 degrees F or lower (normal refrigerator temperature).

For thick, firm yogurt:

*Place cold, pasteurized milk in the top of a double boiler and stir in nonfat dry milk powder. Stir in sugar or honey if sweeter, less tart yogurt is desired. Sprinkle gelatin over the milk. Let stand for 5 minutes to soften gelatin.

*Heat milk to 200 degrees F and hold for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring gently to dissolve gelatin. Continue from Step 3 under thin yogurt.

Here are the changes I made as far as the recipe itself is concerned:
I didn't use nonfat dry milk in the recipe, because I didn't think to buy it and knew from my research that it would be OK without it. I used agave nectar instead of sugar, and for the live, active culture, I went with the amount from the Salon article, which says,

Take one tablespoon of active-culture yogurt per pint of milk.

mainly because I was afraid I wouldn't have enough of the plain yogurt I had allotted as my culture.

I made a few method changes to the recipe too. I didn't let the gelatin soak for five minutes. I just poured it in the milk and let it dissolve as the milk heated up. I wanted to make thicker yogurt, but I didn't want to have to constantly watch and maintain 200 degrees F for half an hour, so once the milk reached 200, I started the cooling process.

I used a double boiler method for the whole process. If you don't have a true double boiler, this isn't a big deal--just use two larger sauce pans that are different enough in size that you can nest one inside the other. I think I used a 2 quart sauce pan and nested it in a 4 quart sauce pan.

As far as method goes, the salon article indicated that as long as you kept the yogurt incubating in a place that was at least 110 degrees F, you really couldn't mess up the yogurt. It might take longer than four hours to set up, but that's OK, and if it took longer than eight hours, well, you just heat the liquid up and start the incubation process over. No problem.

Once the milk reached 200 F, I poured the water out of the larger pan and replaced it with cold water, making a cold water bath to rest the smaller, hotter saucepan of milk in. This cools the milk faster than just letting the milk rest off the heat. You'll want to pour out this water and refill it with cold water several times (unless you use ice in it) so that the milk cools quickly.

Once the milk reached about 112 F, I turned the burner back on underneath the larger saucepan (still full of water) and got the water back to about 120 F. Once it reached this, I turned the burner off, checked the temp of the yogurt to make sure it was at about 112 F, then let it sit.

I let it incubate for four hours, checking every half hour or so to make sure the water and milk temps were staying at about 120 F and 108 to 112 F, respectively. When the water got too cool, I turned the burner back on to get the water back up to 120 F.

The yogurt really started to set up at the three hour mark. It had gotten thicker and was producing whey (the clearish liquid on top of yogurt, by-product of the incubation process). At four hours, I tasted the yogurt to see if it was tart enough. At this point, it had a very smooth and buttery taste, and it was sweet and had a good vanilla taste to it. I let it incubate another hour, and then it was tart enough for me. So into containers and into the fridge it went.

I know this seems complicated, but it wasn't. REALLY! It was time consuming in the sense that I was checking water and milk temperatures about every half hour or so, but I just set the timer on the oven to remind me, and went about my normal routine in between checks. The easier method for incubation would be to just buy a yogurt maker, which keeps the warmish milk at a constant temperature without the need for all the temperature checks, at least as I understand it.

This morning I ate my cold yogurt for breakfast with frozen cherries, as is my custom. It was very good! I noticed that the flavor is somewhere between store-bought plain yogurt, which is very tart and not at all sweet, and store-bought vanilla yogurt, which is tart and sweet with a definite vanilla taste. This has a good level of tartness, but I noticed that a lot of the sweet and vanilla I tasted last night was gone. I think the next time I make it, I'll add two tablespoons of vanilla and 6 tablespoons of agave nectar, and it should be darn perfect.

The texture this morning was not quite as thick as I usually like it. I think holding the milk at 200 F for the recommended 20 to 30 minutes would help steam off some of the liquid, which would help the thickness. The non-fat dry milk would also help the thickness of the yogurt. I think adding gelatin (pectin or agar, if you are looking for a truly vegetarian option) is a must, as it really helps thicken the yogurt.

Clear as mud, huh? Have fun, and enjoy your yogurt!

Deathly Hallows PArt 1 soundtrack

2010-11-17T12:02:00.000-08:00

Just as an FYI, you can listen to the whole DH I soundtrack here:

You know, if you're interested.

The Harry Potter cast speaks "American."

2010-11-17T11:52:00.000-08:00

This is great, and a lot of fun:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Tom Felton does a great American accent. I think I read somewhere that he's spent a significant amount of time in America though (I think he likes to fish), so that might be why he has a better American accent than the rest of them.

Watch this while you can!

2010-11-12T12:28:00.000-08:00

Xfinity has released this exclusive clip until 4 pm EST today, so I don't know that you'll be able to view it after that time. But until then, Potter fans...

One week away!

2010-11-12T06:42:00.001-08:00

We're now just one week away from the US Premier of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Since I was fortunate enough to be off yesterday, I was able to watch the London red carpet action for the world premier. Here are some of the highlights if you missed it:

The live deal was a LOT of fun. All the actors were very excited and so appreciative of the fans who joined them for the premier.

The two week countdown

2010-11-05T13:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's the two week countdown to the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1.

This was sent to me by my BFF. I don't know where she found it, but it's great.

Vampires Do Not Sparkle.

2010-06-29T06:49:00.000-07:00

I'm not a Twihard. I haven't read any of the Twilight books nor have I seen any of the movies. There are several reasons for this, but the most important is Stephenie Meyer's interpretation of vampire mythology in respect to sunlight.

Vampires don't sparkle, guys. They wither up and die like the corpses they are!

For my amusement, and I hope yours too, I've posted some youtube videos that show correct vampire lore at its finest. Enjoy!

And last, but certainly not least-and this is my favorite byfar!:

My baby boy is five today.

2009-09-30T04:01:00.000-07:00

9/30/2004

9/30/2005

9/30/2006

9/30/2007

9/30/2008

9/30/2009

Happy Birthday, Liam! I love you.

Rove Interviews Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint

2009-07-06T07:52:00.000-07:00

Alrighty, people, we're down to the final week before Half-Blood Prince comes out in theaters! This means there will probably be lots of HBP posts over the next few days.

This interview was posted on Mugglenet. It's quite funny:

One of these things is not like the other...

2009-06-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter Bad Guys

Love the poster of the bad guys. But really, one of them isn't bad, and one of them is just seriously misguided.

Funny Quotes

2009-05-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

I enjoy writing things down that have made me laugh. I recently found a list of quotes from HIGH SCHOOL that still make me laugh. Here are some of them for your pleasure (all will remain anonymous to protect my friends, but they really are pretty funny!)

1. What is a fart, but the lonely cry of a captured turd?

2. I made the snow fart!

3. A fart is a gastrointestinal sigh.

4. My name's Bubba: you belong to me now.

5. Steph, go away! It's too hot in this room for both of us.

6. What about Jeff?
6.5 What about Jeff?

7. It's the Gospel according to Frito Lay.

8. I can't wear this, it smells worse than I do!

9. The Produce Section.

10. You're such a gomer!

11. Bart, don't lean on your sack. You'll smash your ding dongs!

12. So, Cindy, how does it feel to have Jeff hit on you?

13. Shit happens, and these are the days of our lives.

14. I wouldn't have a hemorrhage if you did, but you might feel a little foolish.

15. What if I touch higher? Oh wait, disregard that last statement.

16. Hey, baby, wanna go to heaven?

17. Score!

18. OK, you're the expert: please me.

19. Doing biology on me would be more interesting.

I know many of these don't make any sense out of context, but some of them are darn funny as stand alones.

It's Summer!!

2009-05-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

Well, not quite yet, but the semester is finished and all my stuff is turned in, so its summer break, baby!

Even though I work full time, the past two summers have been kind of boring. There have been highlights - two years ago I spent time with my best friend Holly and last year I got hired on permanently - but other than those events, I've not had much to do and found myself bored and tired of web-surfing in August.

I'm determined to NOT get bored this summer, so I've made a list of things I want to accomplish. If all goes as planned, I will have a cleaned out house and basement, several chapters of a book written, and a more streamlined candle shop by the end of the summer.

Torture

2009-04-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

Taking time out of my regularly scheduled stewardship musings again today to bring you another message from Andrew Sullivan.

This is about torture, folks. It's not for the squeamish, and it's not for those that want to ignore what the former Administration authorized in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo:

Torture

The one symbol as offensive as the Bush administration's decision to use Abu Ghraib prison for the deployment of cruel and inhuman punishment of prisoners was the use of former Soviet black sites for other "interrogations" of high value suspects. But I never felt this resonance as viscerally as I do after reading this. The parallels with the Gestapo "enhanced interrogation" program have been established. But Mark Danner shows the Soviet parallels - explains them physically and psychologically - in really helpful, if chilling, ways. Take this example of classic torture methods from the Soviet State Political Directorate (GPU):

They consisted usually of tying the victim in a strait-jacket to an iron bunk. The strait-jacket was his only clothing; he had no blanket, no food and was unable to go to the lavatory. With a gag in his mouth and a stopper in his rectum he would be given periodic beatings with rubber poles.

Now compare what Bush and Cheney authorized:

In the “black sites,” the same end was achieved by forced nudity and what the Red Cross terms, in its chapter of the same name, “prolonged use of handcuffs and shackles.” One of the fourteen detainees, for example, tells the Red Cross investigators that
he was kept for four and a half months continuously handcuffed and seven months with the ankles continuously shackled while detained in Kabul in 2003/4. On two occasions, his shackles had to be cut off his ankles as the locking mechanism had ceased to function, allegedly due to rust.

This technique, like other of the “alternative set of procedures” detailed by the Red Cross, seems to have been consistently applied to many of the fourteen “high-value” detainees. Walid bin Attash told the Red Cross investigators that

he was kept permanently handcuffed and shackled throughout his first six months of detention. During the four months he was held in his third place of detention, when not kept in the prolonged stress standing position [with his hands shackled to the ceiling], his ankle shackles were allegedly kept attached by a one meter long chain to a pin fixed in the corner of the room where he was held.

As with the GPU set of procedures, prisoners were kept naked, deprived of blankets, mattresses, and other necessities, and deprived of food. As for “the stopper in the rectum,” it was supplied by the GPU to deal with the practical if unpleasant problem of how to cope, in the case of a person who is naked and entirely under restraint and at the same time experiencing prolonged and extreme pain, with the inevitable consequences of his bodily functions. The Americans at the “black sites,” who had also to face this unpleasant necessity, particularly when holding detainees in “stress positions,” for example, forcing them for many days to stand naked with their hands shackled to a bolt in the ceiling and their ankles shackled to a bolt in the floor, developed their own equivalent:

While being held in this position some of the detainees were allowed to defecate in a bucket. A guard would come to release their hands from the bar or hook in the ceiling so that they could sit on the bucket. None of them, however, were allowed to clean themselves afterwards. Others were made to wear a garment that resembled a diaper. This was the case for Mr. Bin Attash in his fourth place of detention. However, he commented that on several occasions the diaper was not replaced so he had to urinate and defecate on himself while shackled in the prolonged stress standing position. Indeed, in addition to Mr. Bin Attash, three other detainees specified that they had to defecate and urinate on themselves and remain standing in their own bodily fluids.

One turns, finally, to those “periodic beatings with rubber poles” that the GPU administered. No rubber poles are to be found in the Red Cross report. Once again, Agabuse though, as with the stopper in the rectum and the diapers, the rubber poles simply represent the GPU’s practical solution to a problem shared by the CIA at the “black sites”: How can one beat a detainee repeatedly without causing debilitating or permanent injury that might make him unfit for further interrogation? How, that is, to get the pain and its effect while minimizing the physical consequences?

Where the GPU responded by developing rubber poles, the CIA created its plastic collar, “an improvised thick collar or neck roll,” as the Red Cross investigators describe it in Chapter 1.3.3 (“Beating by use of a collar”), that “was placed around their necks and used by their interrogators to slam them against the walls.” Though six of the fourteen detainees report the use of the “thick plastic collar,” which, according to Khaled Shaik Mohammed, would then be “held at the two ends by a guard who would use it to slam me repeatedly against the wall,” it is plain that this particular technique was perfected through experimentation. Indeed, the plastic collar seems to have begun as a rather simple mechanism: an everyday towel that was looped around the neck, the ends gathered in the guard’s fist. The collar appeared later and brought with it other innovations:

Mr. Abu Zubaydah commented that when the collar was first used on him in his third place of detention, he was slammed directly against a hard concrete wall. He was then placed in a tall box for several hours (see Section 1.3.5, Confinement in boxes). After he was taken out of the box he noticed that a sheet of plywood had been placed against the wall. The collar was then used to slam him against the plywood sheet. He thought that the plywood was in order to absorb some of the impact so as to avoid the risk of physical injury.

Let's ignore the political context completely and get right to the heart of the matter for me. No one is perfect. I am not. Former President Bush is not. President Obama is not. All three of us claim to follow Christ.

Somehow, I highly doubt Jesus would advocate torture. Yet former President Bush, former Vice President Cheney, and their administration allegedly authorized this kind of activity in these two prisons. Is this the kind of love we're supposed to show for our enemies? Or more to the point, is this the kind of love we're supposed to show for our neighbor? If you need a reminder about who our neighbor is, you can read this post from back in October 2008 over at my other blog, One Writer's World, or you can go directly to Luke 10:25-37 to see the Story of the Good Samaritan.

I cannot comment on President Bush's faith. If he says that he is a Christian, I have no choice but to believe him; to do otherwise gets too deeply into the "Judge not, lest ye be judged" territory. His faith is between him and God. But his actions, if he indeed did this (and the evidence is becoming more and more overwhelming), were wrong. Torturing human beings, even under the presumption of guilt, is wrong. It is one thing to punish a person for his or her crimes, but it is quite another to strip them of their dignity and their will to live, to humiliate them and hurt them, just to prove a point.

This was torture, plain and simple. It was wrong. Are we, as Christians, to be peacemakers or warmongers? Are we to love our enemies or hate them?

Half-Blood Prince Posters

2009-04-02T13:59:00.000-07:00

I guess it's appropriate that if Warner Brothers is going to have Half-Blood Prince posters for the movie (begins July 17, WOOHOO!) that they actually have one with the Half-Blood Prince himself.

Happy Birthday!

2009-01-09T04:04:00.000-08:00

A couple of birthday celebrations going on today:

Most important, happy birthday to my dad, born on this day in a year I shall not reveal... but he's not old by any stretch of the imagination.

For those of you in Harry Potter Fandom, you know today today is our favorite Potion Master's Birthday. Happy Birthday, Severus Snape!

And finally, for those of you who are history buffs, today is the late former President Richard Nixon's Birthday. Dad never appreciated being reminded that he shared a birthday with Nixon, but it's still fun to remind him.

2009-01-02T08:04:00.000-08:00

1) What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
- turned 34
- seriously studied stewardship
- watched my last cousin get married
- rode the Chicago subway and bus
- took a train to Chicago
- ate at a completely vegetarian restaurant (Chicago Diner, and man was it good!)

2) Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
i don’t make new year’s resolutions

3) Did anyone close to you give birth?
no

4) Did anyone close to you die?
no

5) What countries did you visit?
none. I don't think that's going to change this year either.

6) What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
- patience for more people
- better grip in the finances
- a better understanding of stewardship and how to teach that to others

7) What date(s) from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
none. I mean, there are events I will remember, but nothing really stands out.

8) What was your biggest achievement of the year?
keeping relatively sane while taking 3 classes this fall. becoming more patient with our son.

9) Did you suffer illness or injury?
yes. sinus infection, followed by walking pneumonia, followed by another sinus infection. oh, and let's not forget sinus infections 3 and 4 in the last half of the year, number 4 following a bout of the stomach flu. Here's to a healthier 2009!

10) What was the best thing you bought?
Honestly? pants and jeans. it sounds sad, but I don't have a lot of clothes.

11) Whose behavior merited celebration?
- Liam's - he's slowly teaching himself how to read.
- Jeff's - for putting up with crazy bosses for the sake of his family.

12) Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
- rod blagojevich. please don't make me expand on this. it would be laughable if he weren't our governor
- two of Jeff's former employers. one needs medication, the other needs to buy a clue.
- the church, for not getting it.
- my own, many times, in many, many ways.

13) Where did most of your money go?
bills, daycare, groceries, school tuition (mine!), and LUSH

14) What did you get really, really, really excited about?
- a permanent job from my internship.
- my best friend and her family visiting us from Boston
- cleaning out the basement
- liam learning to read
- jeff having a job that didn't stress him out as much as others.

15) What song will always remind you of 2008?
I don't know, but it's probably an 80s song...

16) Compared to this time last year, are you:
Wiser? i hope so.
Healthier? even though the "have you been sick" question looks like a "no" for this, i think I am healthier. i'm still walking and doing pt every day, and i know that makes me healthier.
Richer? yup. money isn't the only thing that makes us rich.

17) What do you wish you’d done more of?
playing with liam

18) What do you wish you’d done less of?
being stressed

19) How did you spend Christmas?
- Christmas day with Jeff's family
- dec 27 with my family

20) Did you fall in love in 2008?
already there. it would be nice to see more of my husband, but it'll be ok.

21) What was your favorite blog post that you wrote?
i wrote a lot about stewardship this year, but the one that sticks out still is the one i wrote about injustice in the world, and how the process of justice, which is an important part of being a good steward, often takes more time than we have in our lives: http://smoulton74.blogspot.com/2008/10/rich-christians-in-age-of-hunger-part-5.html

22) What were your favorite TV programs?
bones, house, hell's kitchen, and kitchen nightmares.

23) Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
no. i don't think i hate anyone - but there are some people i really don't like

24) What was the best book you read?
easy. rich christians in an age of hunger by ronald sider.

25) What was your greatest musical discovery?
liam learning to sing more in key.

26) What did you want and get?
- a permanent job from my internship
- jeff to be happier in his job

27) What did you want and not get?
hmm...

28) What was your favorite film of this year?
harry potter and the half-blood prince. oh wait, that's right, stupid warner brothers moved that back to 2009! dummies.

29) What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
turned 34. was offered a permament position at my job. was greeted by a bloody brilliant singing card, poster of the Weasley twins, and a cup of decaf from my friend and office mate. took my son out for ice cream. it was a fan-freaking-tastic birthday!

30) Which celebrity/public figure did you like the most?
none of them.

31) How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
classic. jeans and t-shirts.

32) What kept you sane?
walking

33) Who did you miss?
since i only really see jeff two nights a week with his work schedule, i miss him a lot.

34) Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007.
patience is the only way to deal with a toddler.

35) What did you gain this year?
- a deeper love for my son and husband
- a better idea of where God wants me to be
- a better understanding of how we are screwing up the environment

36) What did you lose this year?
- i hope some selfishness and pride, though i know i have a lot of that left

37) Who was the best new person you met?
got me. not a clue. i don't think i really met anyone new this year.

38) Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
no

A Very Special Day!

2008-09-30T06:52:00.000-07:00

9/30/2004

9/30/2005

9/30/2006

9/30/2007

Happy Birthday to our son, Liam! He's 4 today.

"You're beautiful,
And I am weakened by the force of your eyes.
So shine bright...
I'm gonna show you love in any language,
I'm gonna speak the words that need no form,
I'm gonna give you what you've never had before.
I'm gonna show you love - love in any language."
Jars of Clay, Show You Love

September 25

2008-09-25T06:52:00.000-07:00

I thought you should know that this is your official 3 month countdown to Christmas.

Hear that? Three months.

That is all.

When you get a rejection letter

2008-09-16T07:16:00.000-07:00

I am so doing this sometime:

One of the very best: a rejection note sent by the writer Stefan Merken to an editor who had rejected one of his short stories. “Please forgive me for not accepting your rejection letter,” wrote Merken. “At this time I cannot accept a rejection of my short story. I accept more than 99 percent of the rejections I receive. Many I don’t agree with, but I realize that accepting a piece of fiction for publication is a very subjective judgment call. My acceptance of your rejection letter is also a subjective process and therefore I am returning your letter to you. I did read your letter. I read every letter I receive. Your letter was well-written, but due to time constraints from my own writing schedule, I am unable to make editorial comments. I do make mistakes. Don’t you, as an editor, be disheartened by this role reversal. The road of publishing is long and tedious. You need successful publications and I need for successful publications to print my stories. I will expect to see my story in your next publication. Good luck in the future.”

(HT to Andrew Sullivan)

The aftermath of Ike

2008-09-15T08:23:00.000-07:00

Over on One Writer's World I wrote about The Aftermath of Ike. Please check it out.

I'm sick

2008-08-28T16:22:00.000-07:00

No, it's nothing big. It's a sinus infection or allergies, quite possibly both.

The problem is, I shouldn't be sick from either thing. I'm on maintenance for allergy shots (and I'm on two allergy medicines right now), and I just finished a 6 month round of antibiotics to get rid of the chronic sinusitis.

And yet, I'm sick. I hate my body sometimes. It's so dumb.

Would someone please explain...

2008-08-21T14:48:00.000-07:00

... why I have O how a rose e're blooming stuck in my head?

(it's a little early for Christmas songs, even for me)

Half-Blood Prince Rescheduled for July 17, 2008

2008-08-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

By now, you've probably heard the news that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was moved from a November 21 start date to July 17, 2009. And if you didn't know it and think I'm pulling a really late April Fool's joke on you, check out the counter at the top of the blog.

It's just a movie, I know. But I, and several other, oh, MILLIONS of Harry Potter fans have been waiting for this movie to come out since the ending credits of Order of the Phoenix last July. It's upsetting that Warner Brothers made this decision, especially after everything that's been released on the movie has a release date of November, and the reasons they give for it are just ridiculous.

If you feel as strongly about this as I do, please leave Warner Brothers feedback. Honestly, I don't think that it will change their decision, but they need to know that they've seriously pissed some fans off.

I really think that New Line Cinema (the people who did The Lord of the Rings) should have done the Harry Potter films.

Three Dog Night

2008-08-12T07:11:00.000-07:00

Dog 1:
Last night, my parents had to put their beagle, Floyd, to sleep. Floyd was roughly 16 years old, he was in pain, and he was starting to attack my parents. So last night, they said goodbye to him, and now they are grieving. Even though Floyd wasn't my dog (mom and dad got him after I'd already left home), in his better days, Floyd was a wonderful dog, and so I'm grieving too.

I'm not one of these people who has read the Rainbow Bridge. I'm more of an All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all type person. I know Floyd is in a better place. "Consider the birds of the air," Jesus said, "because they don't worry about their lives, and yet the Father cares for them and provides for their needs." This same God created Floyd, and I know Floyd is with Him once again.

Dog 2:
In the midst of thinking about Floyd last night, I heard a young girl screaming outside, then saw a dog running down the length of the street perpendicular to ours. I rushed outside to see what the hell was going on, and this dog is circling a car, which the girl has climbed on top of, and the dog's owner, and the owner's other dog, are rushing to the car. I know these dogs. The family lives down the street from us and we see the owner walking them most nights, and always without a leash.

I seriously hope that the owner has learned to leash those dogs when she walks them.

Dog 3:
We have a lot of dogs in our neighborhood, and quite a few on our street. At the corner is a young couple with a lab mix named Noah (he's an inside dog with a bark worse than his bite, and when he's outside, he's either in the fenced back yard or on a leash being walked). Next to them is a rental house with two apartments, and one of the families has a rottweiler that's kept outside on a chain. Jeff has fed the Rott treats before, and she seemed perfectly nice. On the other side of us, the family has a little terrier named Ellie who barks her head off but runs away from Liam. She's mostly an inside dog, though they let her run free in the yard about once a day. At the other end of the street, the family has a froufy dog - a poodle or pekinese or something dumb like that. Then there's our two, the jack russel terrorist/sheltie mix (Jenny) and the heinz 57 that we think is part lab/part St. Bernard/part something really drooly (Grace). Ours are outside dogs, though we have a fenced in yard that mostly keeps Jenny in and provides a jumping challenge for Grace every few days. We're working on that. Fortunately, Grace is a really friendly dog who runs and runs, but she comes home after about 10 minutes.

Ok, now that you know the dog population of our street, here's the story for dog 3. Jenny and Grace are barkers. Jenny barks because she thinks she's a ferocious lion, and Grace barks because she can. Usually when Jenny barks, her hackles go up - she seems to perceive everything outside the fence as a threat. Grace barks because she likes the sound of her own voice. And they bark every night.

So last night, they started up barking right as I was almost asleep. I ignored them. It's what I do when they bark like that. Then I hear this woman start screaming. That I couldn't ignore.

To make a really long story short, the rott two doors down broke its chain and attacked this woman. As far as I could tell, there wasn't any kind of provocation, especially because this woman had her five month old daughter with her in a stroller. She jumped in front of the stroller to protect her daughter, and the dog bit the woman in the butt. I got outside to see the rott run back into the alley and rush at her again, at which point I went back inside to get my phone to call 911. I guess she screamed for the police, who, thank God, were pretty close by and pulled into the alley not but two minutes later. I was trying to get the woman into my house and calmed down, and we watched the dog rush the policeman, who shot the rott. Who yelped and took off.

The policeman called an ambulance, the woman's dad and friend pulled up, and I let the woman use my phone to call her boyfriend, who came running up about three minutes later. So at 10:45 last night, I had 6 complete strangers in front of my house, then 2 more when the EMTs arrived.

They caught the dog. I don't know if the rott is dead or alive. Part of me is heartbroken that it happened at all. I'm really glad it wasn't me or my child, and I'm sorry that this woman is injured.

Here's what disturbs me quite a bit. I watched 2 dog attacks yesterday, and I wonder where the hell all the people were when they happened. When the dog chased that little girl earlier in the evening, I was concerned, but not overly so. The owner was right there, and the dog got corrected. I was actually more concerned that the girl ran from the dog (Never run from a dog!!! Stand still and back away slowly. And don't make eye contact! Of course, in the case of last night's rott attack, that advice didn't work at all.).

But last night when this woman was screaming that she and her daughter has been attacked by a dog, and could someone, anyone, please help, where was everyone? I'm not saying I'm a hero for helping, because I didn't do that much. But I was there and did what I could. When I was on my front porch with all those strangers, where were all my neighbors? I knew they'd heard what was going on, because several of them were standing on the sidewalk a few doors down in both directions. I know the rott's owners were home because the police went up to their door and got them outside for a statement.

I'm disturbed that a young woman was yelling for help this loudly and I'm the only one who went to even see what was happening, let alone tried to help. I've never really felt unsafe in my neighborhood - but now I'm rethinking that. What if it had been me and my son? Would anyone have helped us?

New office!

2008-08-06T09:12:00.000-07:00

OK, so maybe this isn't blogworthy, but I've moved offices! I have a big kid office now! And a big kid computer, and big kid furniture.
And now I have to do big kid work, hahaha. Cheers!

Senator Obama's Western Wall Prayer

2008-07-31T06:09:00.000-07:00

First, I want to say that I have mixed feelings about this being posted all over the internet. On the one hand, a man's prayer should be between him and God, and not spread all over the place like dirt. This prayer was placed in the Western Wall (you might know it as the Wailing Wall) in Jerusalem; my understanding is that prayers are written down on paper, folded, then placed in the crevices of the wall. Someone would have had to physically dig this out of the crevices, and frankly, that thought makes me sad.

On the other hand, I'm sure he's not the first public figure to have his prayer dug out of the Wall and shown to other people. And it's good to see a public figure, especially one with an election coming up, not pray to be a winner, but pray to do God's will.

If every single one of us on this earth prayed that kind of prayer every day, I think the world would be a better place.

Happy Birthday!

2008-07-31T06:05:00.000-07:00

Since a blog with this name wouldn't be complete without wishing Harry Potter a Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday Harry!

And a HUGE Happy Birthday to Harry's creator, JK Rowling. Ms. Rowling, thank you for creating the magical world and helping to make even the most jaded adult believe again. May you and your family have many more happy years together.

A couple of Harry Potter notes

2008-07-29T06:30:00.001-07:00

First, I just saw on Mugglenet that the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince trailer premiers tonight on AOL. Mugglenet will be posting the link as soon as it goes live, so check there at about 9 pm (I think it's EST).

Second, new pic from the movie. I haven't posted any so far, because they've been the standard Harry/Ron/Hermione/ et al pics. I'm posting these because they're just that good.

This picture is in the scene from HBP where Dumbledore goes to the orphanage to meet Tom Riddle for the first time.

Is it me, or does this little boy look a little bit like Damien from the original Omen?

This is Dumbledore creating a firestorm to ward off the Inferi.

OK, so the last picture made me tear up because I know what's coming. I've already planned on taking a huge pack of tissues with me to see this one. When Jeff and I bought the book, Jeff read it first and I got online and read some of the spoilers. Big mistake, as it ruined the Big Part of it for me. I had time to prepare for it.

I didn't have time to prepare for Dumbledore's portrait showing up in the Headmaster's office though. Ouch.

I have to go see this one in IMAX like I did OotP. I'm sure the whole scene at the top of the astronomy tower will be in 3D, and I don't want to miss it.

Alrighty then. Watch the trailer tonight!

Jeff...

2008-07-10T07:32:00.001-07:00

...Happy Birthday!!!

YOU'RE LOST BETWEEN "BABY BOOMER" AND "GENERATION X" IF...

2008-07-08T06:37:00.000-07:00

1. You remember when Jordache jeans with a flat-handle comb in the back pocket was cool.

2. Any photograph of you shows you wearing an Izod shirt with the collar turned up.
I was never that cool

3. You know any "Weird Al" Yankovic songs by heart.
"Well don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan, just Eat it! Just Eat it!"

4. You've ever rung someone's doorbell and said "Landshark!"
Candygram.

5. You were once bowled over by the technological excellence of such products as Atari, IntelliVision, TelStar and Coleco.
Atari! Pac-Man! Frogger! Haunted House! (anyone remember THAT one?)

6. You remember the premier of MTV--or worse yet, you remember its predecessor, "Friday Night Videos."
Ah, Friday Night Videos...

7. You and your friends ever discussed having a reunion at the end of the century and playing Prince's "1999."

8. A predominant color in your childhood photos is plaid.
I think Jeff is more guilty of this than I am...

9. You remember when music that was labeled "alternative" really was alternative, and when "alternative comedy" was really funny.

10. You took family trips BEFORE the invention of the minivan.
Never very far, thank God.

11. (Related to #10) You rode in the back of the station wagon facing the cars behind you.
Yup. My older cousin always refused, telling us it made her car sick. Yeah, right, Kathy.

12. You've recently horrified yourself by using any one of the following
phrases: "You know, back when...," "When I was your age...," or "When I was younger..."
I use one of these phrases with my friend Kristin a lot. But she's only a young whippersnapper (OK, she's 24).

13. Schoolhouse Rock played a HUGE part in how you learned things like grammar, math and history. (A big hint here is if the only way you can recite the Preamble to the Constitution is by singing it.)

14. You ever dressed to look like someone in a Madonna, Cyndi Lauper or Duran Duran video.

15. You remember your first kiss with someone having happened while either "Leather and Lace" or "Crazy for You" was playing.
Haha, no, I'm not that old.

16. You remember with pain the day the Green Machine hit the streets (or the sidewalks), instantly making your Big Wheel obsolete.

17. The age-old question "Where's the beef?" still makes you laugh.
:::Roars with laughter:::: That's better than "I've fallen and I can't get up!"

18. You remember when film critics raved that no movie could ever possibly have more advanced special effects than "TRON."

19. You had a crush on Ted the photographer on "Love Boat," Gage from "Emergency," or Ponch from "CHIPS."

20. Your hair at some point in time in the '80s could only be described by saying, "I was experimenting."
Um, then everyone in the 80s was "experimenting"...

21. You've ever shopped at Benetton.
Once. To buy that horrid Colors perfume. Hack.

22. You're starting to believe that having the kids in school year-round wouldn't be such a bad idea after all.
I think it's a great idea, but probably not for the same reasons they wrote this one for.

23. You're currently employed doing something that has absolutely nothing to do with your college major.

24. U2 is too popular and mainstream for you now.

25. You remember trying to guess which episode of "The Brady Bunch" it was by the first scene.

26. You had a front-row seat (i.e., blew off one or more classes) for Luke and Laura's wedding on "GH."

27. Your parents wanted you to attend medical school, but you decided it was pointless since Quincy got all the babes anyway.

28. You know who shot J.R.

29. You recall when Love's Baby Soft was in every girl's Christmas stocking.
:::Laughs::: This smelled atrocious on me, so I only wore it the one time.

30. This rings a bell: "My name is Charlie, and they work for me."
OK, who else doesn't get this one? Jeff didn't. It's Charlie's Angels, duh!

31. You were unsure if Diet Coke would ever catch on. (Related item: you were sure that "New Coke" would NEVER catch on.)
No one was sure New Coke would catch on.

32. You know all the words to the double-album set of the "Grease" soundtrack.
From "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" to "We Go Together," babe.

33. You've ever had a Dorothy Hamill haircut.

34. You sat with your friends on any given Friday night circa 1982 and dialed 867-5309 to see if Jenny was actually there.

35. "All skate, change directions" means something to you.
:::laughs::::

36. You've ever owned a pair of rainbow suspenders like the ones Mork used to wear.
Uh, no. I had dorky fashion sense, but even I knew that was bad.

37. You bought a pair of Vanns and wanted to order a pizza in history class so you could be just like Jeff Spicoli. (Related item: if you've ever smacked yourself in the head with a shoe and exclaimed, "I'm so wasted!")

38. You owned a Preppy Handbook.

39. You were too young to see "Blue Lagoon," so you just had to settle for the second-hand reports.
::snicker::: This is the great thing about slumber parties. I saw this twice before I was nine.

40. You remember when movies were only PG and R.
And I remember the first PG-13 movie too... Johnny Dangerously. BTW, don't ever watch that with your grandparents.

41. You learned to swim at about the same time "Jaws" came out....and still carry the emotional scars to prove it.

42. You remember when your cable TV box had a sliding selector switch...
and your "cable remote" was connected to the TV by CORD!

43. Your jaw would ache by the time you finished one of those brick-sized packages of Bazooka.

44. You remember Bo and Luke Duke, Daisy, Boss Hogg, or--worst of all--what Sheriff Roscoe's full name was.
Roscoe P. Coltrane!

45. Your parents paid $2,000 for a top-loading VCR that was almost the size of a coffee table.

46. You found nothing strange about Bert and Ernie living together.
Honestly. People shouldn't find anything strange about Bert and Ernie living together NOW. It's a children's program, morons.

47. You remember having a rotary phone.

48. You actually believed that Mikey--famed kid on the Life cereal commercials--died after eating Pop Rocks and drinking a Coke.
Ok, I admit, I'm guilty of this.

49. "Members Only" jackets...say no more.

50. And lastly, I'll make a song stick in your head for the rest of the day:...you actually remember the words to the the theme song of "The Greatest American Hero."
"Believe it or not, I'm walking on air..."

Holy crap, this was fun!

Harry Potter's perpetually messy hair

2008-06-27T06:50:00.000-07:00

I was reading Andrew Sullivan today, and saw his post about a Bad Hair Day. I had to laugh, because one of the first things the reader of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone learns is that Harry Potter has perpetually messy hair. It won't lay down flat, and at one point, Harry's Aunt Petunia gets his hair cut very short, and the next morning (from a fit of uncontrolled magic), Harry's hair has grown back and is as messy as ever. Sounds like Uncombable Hair Syndrome to me!

I wonder if Ms. Rowling knew about this when she wrote the book?

You say it's your birthday?

2008-06-25T19:34:00.001-07:00

It's my birthday too!

And a very happy birthday to me today, celebrating 34 ::koffhackwheezeImean27::: years of life on this very day.

My day started off with a great walk and PT, Liam getting in the bath without a fuss, and then Jeff telling Liam to say, "Happy Birthday, Princess Mommy!"

So, Jeff calls this the anti-Christmas. He has ever since he found out when my birthday was, I think when I was 18 (that's the first of our birthdays we celebrated together). Christmas is December 25, my birthday is June 25, the anti-Christmas, get it? Good. I didn't want to have to draw a picture - I'm bloody bad with a pencil and sketchbook.

So we have this tradition at work that the birthday person brings treats in. No problem: if it means I get treats on my birthday, I'll bring them in! So one of the people I work with brought in these fanbloodytastic frosted sugar cookies earlier in the year, and we've had them a few times since then. I decided I'd order these cookies and also make a batch of lemon bars to take in. The cookies were cut in Christmas cookie shapes - Christmas trees, snowflakes, and red bells. And I sent this email to everyone explaining the whole anti-Christmas thing, and then said I left the milk and Santa hat at home, but there were treats in the kitchen, and if they really wanted a hat to wear, there's a Viking hat in my office - though if one wears that, one risks breaking out into a rousing chorus of "lovely spam, wonderful spam!"

So let me back up a little to last week. I'd been telling Kristin, my friend and office mate, about this whole cookie thing for a few days, and last Friday, she slips me a post it note while I'm on the phone, saying that I could have a free night of babysitting (she watches Liam a lot - it's great to have a great sitter!) sometime this week for my birthday. And I'm thinking, "Wow! What a great gift!"

I get into the office this morning, and there's a cup of coffee sitting on my desk, a decaf cappucino from our favorite place downtown, Cafe Moxo. We've been walking in the morning around downtown, and the past few mornings have ended up here for an iced coffee (me) or a smoothie (Kristin). Kristin bought me coffee on her way to work. And not only that, she gave me a musical card that plays "Tequila" when you open it, and a $10 gift card to Cafe Moxo! Talk about generous!!! And she's watching Liam for free tomorrow night while Jeff and I go to dinner to celebrate my birthday. Then I notice the poster on the wall, a picture of the Weasley twins with a birthday greeting from them. After laughing myself silly, I thanked Kristin for everything, and got a smile all day from looking at my two favorite red heads. I'll have to see if I can take a good picture of it and post it here on canary creams.

The morning passed with several email birthday greetings, and at 12:05, I get an email from my boss to go to his office to see him. This is either a really good thing or a really bad thing, and I'm not sure which, I thought. Long story short: I've been hired for one of the permanent positions. Happy Freaking Birthday to ME!!!!

I renewed my driver's license today. I look stoned in my picture. Well, here's to four years of people asking me what I was smoking that day, ha. I can laugh at it. I don't show my ID very often anyway.

Jeff is working tonight, so I picked Liam up at daycare, then took him to Coldstone Creamery for ice cream. Yes, before dinner. Mostly in place of dinner. Eat dessert first, life's uncertain, I say! While he ate cotton candy ice cream, I talked to my parents, then checked email to find birthday greetings from old friends Kirk and Erin. I opened birthday cards from my parents and mother-in-law (with generous donations towards my new clothing obsession - what am I, 15 again?). I put Liam to bed, ate my own dinner consisting of veggies and ice cream, then watched the latest episode of Hell's Kitchen, where the person I wanted eliminated was eliminated (more on that tomorrow).

Now, my birthday is nearly over, and I'm heading to bed. There are very few days in my life that I would say, without a doubt, that I would live over again as many times as you ask me to, but this is definitely one of them, and I'm so grateful and thankful for all the many things that went right today. Thank you God, for this great day!

Harry Potter prequel

2008-06-11T07:21:00.000-07:00

JK Rowling wrote a flash fiction prequel to Harry Potter not long ago, and Waterstone's has it up on their website. It's too bad she's not working on a full prequel, because the short little story is great! The link should take you to an "authors" page - just click on "read out author", then on "JK Rowling" to read.

Discouraged, frustrated, and grieving

2008-06-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

This is not going to be a an encouraging or even a fun post; mostly, it's going to be some venting and self-pity mixed with ranting and sadness.

Has this been a bad day? As far as the standard on bad days goes, not really. But it's been one of those days where a series of small things happens that makes you just want to go back to bed and start all over again.

I like my job. I really do. But I'm an intern and the contract is almost up, and I don't know if I'll be asked to stay or not. If there hadn't been any mention of staying, I'd be looking for another job right now; however, about 8 weeks ago, we were told that we (the other interns and I) might be able to extend our contract for another 6 weeks. Great! But none of us have heard anything conclusive about that. Part 2: there are 2 openings here for the same exact job I'm already doing. Yes, I did what I was supposed to do to apply for the job. We were told that it would be a while before we heard anything about that, but so far, nada. So I'm starting to get a little stressed about my job situation. And I know, I should look for another job, but if it were that easy, I would have quit my job at the bank when I graduated two years ago. As it was, it took me a year to find this job. I'm looking though, I really am. And that's discouragement number one - there ain't nothin' out there for me, folks.

I'm frustrated by a couple of people right now and have let that discourage me as well. Again, not big things for the most part, it's just that it's stuff that has happened time after time. Some of it is just simply constructive for me, so I need to learn from it, but I don't do well with criticism, no matter how constructive. The other case is just something I need to get used to, because it's been happening for a very long time.

And then there's grief. I found out today that someone I'm very close to lost a loved one, and since she's several hundred miles away, I can't even give her a hug and grieve with her.

"Hold me, Jesus, 'cuz I'm shaking like a leaf. you have been King of my glory, won't you be my Prince of Peace?"
-Rich Mullins

I thought for sure he was going to send them both home

2008-05-29T06:54:00.000-07:00

Those of you who keep up with this blog and also keep up with Hell's Kitchen know I'm a week behind watching HK because I watch it on Fox on demand on Wednesday nights (husband at work, after child is asleep). So you've known who I watched get kicked off last night for a week.

I wasn't surprised that Louross was dismissed. I liked Louross, and I thought given some more training (and a much more patient mentor than Gordon Ramsay), he could probably make a great executive chef. But the kid's 24 and doesn't have that much kitchen experience, so I think Patrozza made the right call in nominating him and then telling Ramsay that Louross should be the one to go home.

I don't know what to make of this season. I'm not really rooting for anyone yet, and there are only six chefs left. A few weeks ago, I said that my favorite, Vanessa, left on her own. It was the first or second episode I'd watched in the season (I didn't start at the beginning - if Fox still has the first four episodes up, I might watch them tomorrow night), and I liked her a lot. Too bad she burnt her hand. And I don't think she's a quitter at all: she couldn't hold a pan, and she would have slowed her team down. so instead of thinking only of herself and wanting to win, she thought of her team, what was best for them, and went home.

But that leaves me without anyone to root for. I think Bobby will win. He's not my pick, but he has ten years of chef experience, he knows how to run a kitchen, and he knows what people like to eat. He can also pick up others' slack (and my gosh, there's a lot of slack in the blue kitchen). I would love for Patrozza to win, and while I think he's a good chef, I don't think he's executive chef material. Chef Ramsay's worst criticism of Patrozza is that the man is a complete slob in the kitchen, and let's face it - he really is. While that probably mirrors real life more than restaurant life, it's still part of his job to keep the kitchen orderly while he's cooking, and he just can't seem to do that.

Corey is manipulative. She's a good chef, but I'd hate to work in her kitchen. I really don't like her. Christina - also a decent chef, when she doesn't get flustered, but I don't think she yet has the experience to run her own kitchen.

Jen and Matt - holy cow. It's been sort of nice to see Matt shine a little these past few weeks. The girls listened to him, but they've also allowed him to hang himself, unlike Bobby who was always rushing in to save his butt. Matt's a competent cook, but he's not executive chef material. Neither is Jen. She's bossy and rude, a troublemaker, and she throws a tantrum if she doesn't get her own way. She won't own up to her mistakes, and the few times she does, she won't apologize for them. She expects her team to give her ten times as much leeway as she gives the rest of them, and honestly, while she might have more cooking experience and be a better chef than Louross, I really wanted to see her go last night.

So that brings me to the title of the post. I whooped with Joy when Ramsay told Matt and Jen to take off their jackets last night, because I thought he was going to send them both home. From the looks on their faces, I think Corey and Christina thought so too. But they're just switching teams! Darn it!!!

Next week will be great. The chefs will finally compete a challenge as individuals instead of teams, and the winner goes to see Roc (last season's winner) in Vegas at his restaurant. If Chef Ramsay picks the challenge winner, I think Corey or Christina will win. Let's be honest here - Chef Ramsay has a thing for pretty girls, and these two know how to cook well enough and do a good enough presentation with their food that I think one of them is certain bet for winner.

Beyond Annoyed

2008-05-28T14:06:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had one of those days where you're just annoyed, where everyone simply breathing just makes you want to spit?

Yeah - I'm having one of those days myself. It's nothing big, just a series of small things that have just kept me on edge all day long.

And I'm hungry, which really doesn't help matters at all. Because not only am I hungry, I'm a stress eater, and I'd really just like a cake. No, not a piece of cake. A cake.

:::sigh:::

Is it bedtime yet?

Weight Loss Week 1

2008-05-19T07:12:00.000-07:00

In my Accountability post last Monday, I said I did a stupid thing by signing up for Round Two of "are you a bigger loser than marko?"

I guess it wasn't stupid and was the boost I needed to restart this weight loss process, because I lost 2.4 pounds this week. That might not seem like a lot, but I want to emphasize again that this whole process, for me, isn't simply about losing weight. Instead, it's about changing my eating habits and patterns so that I can eat healthily the rest of my life, keep the weight I lose off, and avoid type 2 diabetes. I gave up a LONG time ago on being pretty, but I'd like to be healthy and feel comfortable in my skin. That's why I haven't really posted a weight loss goal: it's not that I don't have one, it's just that it's especially important that I learn from the journey and don't aim just for the destination.

I've been praying about my eating habits and weight loss for a few months now, and nothing has really motivated me. I think this was the answer to that prayer, and this past week I've been working at it. Seeing that my effort is producing results will give me motivation for this week.

Buh-bye, Ben...

2008-05-14T19:40:00.000-07:00

I adore Hell's Kitchen. Chef Gordon Ramsay just cracks me up as he's yelling at the wanna-be's for putting out raw fish, mushy risotto, and undercooked Wellington. Sometimes I feel bad for laughing at the competitors, but they wanted to be on the show, and they knew what they were getting into when they signed up. So haha.

I've been watching this on Fox on Demand online. It started several weeks ago on Tuesdays, and up until last night, I had classes on Tuesday nights. Last night I had an actual date with my husband, so I missed it then too.

I just got done with last night's episode, and I am SO happy to see Ben go. Chef Ramsay kicked his sorry butt off, and I CHEERED! Cheered, I tell ya! Ben was an arrogant prat who tried to blame the blue team's troubles on everyone but himself. For example: he NEVER listened to Matt, so last week, Ramsay moved Matt to the red team, at Matt's request. This week, Matt did the best in the kitchen - including putting out, and I quote Chef Ramsay, "The best risotto to come out of Hell's Kitchen." High praise, indeed.

In the end, Ramsay asked all the guys of the blue team to nominate someone. In a fit of "strategy," Ben decided to nominate himself, then he and Bobby called Petrozza in to the room to see of they could get him to nominate Louross (who also got complimented tonight). When Petrozza said he couldn't do that, they said that he should nominate Bobby, so that all the guys got nominated. Petrozza, ever gracious and not one to backstab, nominated himself, for which Ramsay called him a true gentleman, and then kicked Ben off anyway. HA!

The two people that I thought would be the best executive chefs have all been kicked off. I haven't decided if I want to root for someone else (right now, I would say Petrozza is my favorite) or if I want to just watch them all go down in flames.

Flames, baby! It is Hell's Kitchen, after all!

Earthquake in China

2008-05-13T06:44:00.000-07:00

GUIXI TOWNSHIP, China (CNN) -- More than 18,000 people are reported buried under rubble in just one earthquake-hit city of China as rescue teams battle through power cuts, mudslides and heavy storms in desperate efforts to reach them. The official death toll has now exceeded 12,000, according to official state media.
An injured man stands outside his destroyed home in the town of Hanwang in Sichuan Province Tuesday.

Chinese state media, Xinhua News Agency, reported Tuesday that 18,645 people are under rubble in the city of Mianyang, which neighbors the epicenter of the earthquake.

It also reports that 3,629 people have died in the city.

The government had earlier Tuesday announced a death toll of 11,921 for Sichuan, the surrounding provinces and the city of Chongqing.

A string of nearly 30 seismic jolts hit the province in the first 24 hours following Monday's quake and slowed the progress of 1,300-strong rescue teams. All of those quakes were magnitude 4.0 and above.

A Chinese Civil Affairs Ministry official said his country welcomes foreign donations of money and materials, but it is not ready for outside teams of rescue and relief workers because its transportation system could not handle the additional traffic.

Roads blocked by rocks and mudslides had hampered the effort to reach the epicenter in Wenchuan County, forcing military doctors and soldiers to walk to reach the area almost 24 hours after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake shook central China, Xinhua said.

Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao ordered the military to make it a priority to open the roads into Wenchuan County, home to about 100,000 people, by mid-day Tuesday. The premier arrived in the earthquake zone Monday to personally direct the relief efforts.

Several thousand additional soldiers should reach the area later Tuesday afternoon, Xinhua said.

Heavy rains forced the military to cancel plans to drop Chinese People's Liberation Army paratroopers into the Wenchuan area, Xinhua said. Bad weather also has grounded all helicopter relief efforts, the military said.

CNN's John Vause saw block after block of devastation in the town of Jiang You, about 60 miles (100 km) from the epicenter, arriving there about a day after the quake hit.Video Watch a report on misery inflicted by the quake »

"These people who live in the city are now hunkering down under tarpaulins and under tents," Vause said, as a steady drizzle added to the misery. "Many are afraid to go back indoors because their buildings are no longer safe."

Communications with survivors near the epicenter has been difficult because of broken telecommunication lines and poor weather. An official using a satellite phone did give an initial report that about a third of all buildings had collapsed and another third were seriously damaged, Xinhua said. Video Watch quake victim pulled out of rubble »

In Guixi Township --35 km (22 miles) from the epicenter -- thousands of residents huddled under makeshift tents and tarps, their only shelter from a steady rain Tuesday. Impact Your World

Row after row of houses collapsed during the earthquake, leaving people with no place to go. Many injured and hungry people wondered the streets, creating a scene of human misery. The roads to the town are open, but still no relief workers were around.

An expert told CNN the earthquake, which struck at 2:28 p.m. (2:28 a.m. ET) Monday, was the largest the region has seen "for over a generation."

The area is also the refuge for much of China's panda population. The fate of the 130 pandas housed at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center was unknown, Xinhua reported.

President Bush said the United States is prepared to help China "in any way possible" in the quake's aftermath.

A top U.S. aid official said Beijing had not yet requested assistance.

The United States has search-and-rescue teams standing by in Virginia and California, said Ky Luu, the director of foreign disaster assistance for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Luu said Beijing has good disaster-response mechanisms of its own.

"The Chinese have a strong capability of responding," he said, adding that the United States doesn't want to displace the internal expertise. "There is a 72-hour window of opportunity and it may be best to support regional teams on the ground."

Some 20,000 Chinese troops have been deployed to the region, while another 24,000 are scheduled to be airlifted to affected areas, Xinhua reported. Another 3,000 police officers have been activated.

"It looks like they've mounted a pretty monumental effort to do the best that they can there," said Kate Janie, director of Mercy Corps, a humanitarian group channeling disaster aid to the region through a partner agency. "I think the Chinese government will make very active, proactive, transparent steps in dealing with this."

Zhenyao said 60,000 tents and 50,000 quilts have been dispatched to the disaster zone.

Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport reopened Tuesday after authorities inspected its runways for damage following the quake, Xinhua reported. The resumption of air service gives the province additional links for funneling supplies into the badly battered region.

A 40-car freight train, carrying 13 tankers full of gasoline, derailed and caught fire Monday in Gansu province, officials said, according to state-run media, cutting the Baoji-Chengdu railway.
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Monday's quake shook the ground in Beijing, 950 miles (1,528 km) away. Residents of the capital, which hosts this year's Olympic Games in August, said they felt a rolling sensation that lasted about a minute. It resulted in the evacuation of thousands of people from Beijing buildings.

A spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Committee said no Olympic venues were affected.

Several weeks ago, and just a few posts below this, I told you how Jeff and I woke at 4:30 am because of an earthquake that happened about four hours from us in Southeastern IL. It was a novelty because it was my first earthquake, and I laughed later because I didn't feel the aftershocks.

Right now, I'm sorry I ever laughed about it. The death toll for the earthquake that happened in China yesterday is over 10,000. The pictures show horrid devastation, and in some cases, death.

It seems to me that there has been something of an anti-China climate in the US for the past two or three years for various reasons: food loaded with chemicals, children's toys that have chemicals, human rights abuses. There's even talk by some people here that we should boycott the 2008 Olympics because China hasn't improved its human rights record as it said it would.

Right now, I want to ask you to put all of that aside and pray for the people of China. Pray that they are able to recover the living and the dead from the rubble in a timely fashion. Pray that they are able to get the help they need. And pray that God will comfort the families of the victims - and the families of those who haven't been heard from since yesterday.

Asia has been hit hard the past few days. Between the cyclone in Myanmar and this earthquake in China, we need to pray for the people of Asia.

Accountability

2008-05-12T07:15:00.000-07:00

So, I did a stupid thing a few days ago.

No, nothing tragic or dramatic, and it's something that won't affect anyone but me: I signed up for a youth ministry Biggest Loser contest.

Yes, as in the TV show The Biggest Loser. Youth Specialties ran the "Are you a Bigger Loser than Marko?" contest for twelve weeks starting at the beginning of February, and it was such a hit they're doing it again.

Me losing weight would be a good thing, so why was this stupid? I hate accountability for things like this. I've been in Weight Watchers twice when I didn't really want to be, and I feel like if I gain or don't lose enough that people are staring at me disapprovingly.

I guess the difference now is that I'm willing to work for it (mostly). Over the past two years, I've made some pretty significant changes in my life: started walking every day 2 years ago, became a pescetarian (mostly vegetarian) almost two years ago, and I'm doing physical therapy at home every day to strengthen my back. I had lost some weight, but since I started this job last August, I've put some back on. So it's not like I'm starting at square one and don't have a clue as to what to change.

I just don't want to be accountable to anyone but me, and for me to do this, it has to be a major shift in my attitude. When I was pregnant with our son, I found out about five weeks before he was born that I had gestational diabetes. Quite frankly, this shouldn't have been unexpected (like I said, family history of type II diabetes on both sides of the family), but it was. At that point, I had only gained about 20 pounds - I wasn't taking advantage of being pregnant to eat, eat, eat, and what I ate was mostly really healthy (ie, even though I had MAD brownie cravings, I ignored them. but I didn't pass up the huge bags of reeses pieces at the movies). And this pissed me off something fierce. The first week I was on the diabetic diet, I lost about 3 lbs, and then only gained about a half pound a week until Liam was born, so I ended up having a 19 lb pregnancy, which I lost (plus some) less than ten days after Liam was born.

Anyway, I say all this because I was thinking of doing a diabetic diet this first week to really get things kicked off, because I know it works. Then, the person I was accountable to wasn't a dr. - it was my unborn son. I wanted to be healthy, but more than that, I wanted HIM to be healthy, so I was able to stick with this plan for the remaining time pretty easily.

'So why can't I do this but be accountable to me and me alone? Aren't I worth as much as my son was then (and is now)? I want to be healthy for Liam and Jeff, but I want to be healthy for me, too.' These were my thoughts this morning after my walk, and I think it led to a little bit of an attitude shift, which is what I so desperately needed.

I still don't want to compete against my husband in weight loss; after all, he's got a huge head start, men lose weight faster and easier than women, and he's got more time to work out than I do. But if I can just be true to myself and do this for the right reasons, I think I'll be OK. And in this, maybe that's all the accountability I need.

School's Out for the Summer!

2008-05-07T12:03:00.000-07:00

Although it's really not. While I'm done with this semester, I'm (theoretically) doing an independent study this summer. So I've got about three weeks to get that taken care of and get some things done before summer semester starts. At least it's not a real class, in the sense that I have to go out to school and sit through a lecture; I'll be doing a lot of reading and probably posting to the other blog for a journal. I adore online classes!

Yes, the semester ended last night at 8:30 when I handed in my environmental economics final. As much as I didn't want to take that class, I'm SO glad I did. The professor is great, the class was small, and apparently, I was just one of the guys (I was the only girl in a class of five guys).

So what are my plans until the beginning of June? Spend Tuesday nights with my family! I'll be able to do that all summer, but it will be such a novelty the first few times I won't know what to do with myself. Oh wait, yes I will - Hell's Kitchen is on!

I also want to get organized, as my organizational skills lack a certain something (like organization). Seriously, it's not that I lack organization, it's just that it's an organized mess, but it's rare than I can't find something in the mess. I have stuff that I need to get rid of, things I want to put on eBay, and stuff that needs to be recycled.

I also want to get writing again. I've had this story floating around in the back of my brain for about a year now - well, alright, two years - that needs to be started. And I have another story that needs to be edited and submitted somewhere.

I also need to start looking for a job, as I don't yet know if my internship will continue until August or end on June 30th. I don't want to leave this place at all, but I really need to prepare for not being here come July 1st.

And somewhere in all of that, I need to actually get this independent study put together, ha.

I love summer! Now if I just had a beach and a margarita...

Earthquake!

2008-04-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

The big news today in central IL is the earthquake that happened at about 4:35 this morning. The epicenter was in SE IL, about 20 miles west of Vincennes, IN in the West Salem area. It measured 5.2, and it woke Jeff and me up. Fortunately, Liam didn't feel it and stayed asleep.

I missed the aftershock though. My office mate and I were out on a walk and didn't feel a thing. Everyone back in our office did though. I find it hard to believe that I missed an aftershock simply because I was on the ground.

I probably wouldn't be this excited about an earthquake if I lived in California, so please forgive me if I sound flip about this whole thing. I don't mean to - it's just exciting to experience something here that I never thought I'd ever experience. Never mind that we were both a bit frightened early this morning when it happened...

Hope everyone down in Southern IL is alright. You're in my prayers.

Something I never thought I'd hear come out of my mouth

2008-04-15T10:54:00.001-07:00

"Honey, have you seen my economics textbook?"

April 1

2008-04-01T07:04:00.000-07:00

It's only 9:04 am, and I'm already tired of April Fool's Day. Or as I like to call it, "Make someone else the butt of your asinine joke" day. Yeah, it's really funny...

Of course, I'm cold and stressed, so maybe it's just me.

So now when I tell people my favorite sport is Quidditch...

2008-03-31T08:54:00.000-07:00

...I'm not making things up! YAY QUIDDITCH!

Happy Birthday!

2008-03-31T08:15:00.000-07:00

A big happy birthday to my mom today!

Spoiler Alert

2008-03-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

Spoiler Alert

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!

Brain-damaged woman at center of Wal-Mart suit

2008-03-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

Randi Kaye
CNN

JACKSON, Missouri (CNN) -- Debbie Shank breaks down in tears every time she's told that her 18-year-old son, Jeremy, was killed in Iraq.

Even though the 52-year-old mother of three attended her son's funeral -- she continues to ask how he's doing. When her family reminds her that he's dead -- she weeps as if hearing the news for the first time.

Shank suffered severe brain damage after a traffic accident nearly eight years ago that robbed her of much of her short-term memory and left her in a wheelchair and living in a nursing home.

It was the beginning of a series of battles -- both personal and legal -- that loomed for Shank and her family. One of their biggest was with Wal-Mart's health plan.

Eight years ago, Shank was stocking shelves for the retail giant and signed up for Wal-Mart's health and benefits plan.

Two years after the accident, Shank and her husband, Jim, were awarded about $1 million in a lawsuit against the trucking company involved in the crash. After legal fees were paid, $417,000 was placed in a trust to pay for Debbie Shank's long-term care.

Wal-Mart had paid out about $470,000 for Shank's medical expenses and later sued for the same amount. However, the court ruled it can only recoup what is left in the family's trust.

The Shanks didn't notice in the fine print of Wal-Mart's health plan policy that the company has the right to recoup medical expenses if an employee collects damages in a lawsuit.

The family's attorney, Maurice Graham, said he informed Wal-Mart about the settlement and believed the Shanks would be allowed to keep the money. Video Watch this couple's story »

"We assumed after three years, they [Wal-Mart] had made a decision to let Debbie Shank use this money for what it was intended to," Graham said.

The Shanks lost their suit to Wal-Mart. Last summer, the couple appealed the ruling -- but also lost it. One week later, their son was killed in Iraq.

"They are quite within their rights. But I just wonder if they need it that bad," Jim Shank said.

In 2007, the retail giant reported net sales in the third quarter of $90 billion.

Legal or not, CNN asked Wal-Mart why the company pursued the money.

Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley, who called Debbie Shank's case "unbelievably sad," replied in a statement: "Wal-Mart's plan is bound by very specific rules. ... We wish it could be more flexible in Mrs. Shank's case since her circumstances are clearly extraordinary, but this is done out of fairness to all associates who contribute to, and benefit from, the plan."

Jim Shank said he believes Wal-Mart should make an exception.

"My idea of a win-win is -- you keep the paperwork that says you won and let us keep the money so I can take care of my wife," he said.

The family's situation is so dire that last year Jim Shank divorced Debbie, so she could receive more money from Medicaid.

Jim Shank, 54, is recovering from prostate cancer, works two jobs and struggles to pay the bills. He's afraid he won't be able to send their youngest son to college and pay for his and Debbie's care.

"Who needs the money more? A disabled lady in a wheelchair with no future, whatsoever, or does Wal-Mart need $90 billion, plus $200,000?" he asked.

The family's attorney agrees.

"The recovery that Debbie Shank made was recovery for future lost earnings, for her pain and suffering," Graham said.

"She'll never be able to work again. Never have a relationship with her husband or children again. The damage she recovered was for much more than just medical expenses."

Graham said he believes Wal-Mart should be entitled to only about $100,000. Right now, about $277,000 remains in the trust -- far short of the $470,000 Wal-Mart wants back.

Refusing to give up the fight, the Shanks appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. But just last week, the high court said it would not hear the case.

Graham said the Shanks have exhausted all their resources and there's nothing more they can do but go on with their lives.
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Jim Shank said he's disappointed with the Supreme Court's decision not to hear the case -- not for the sake of his family -- but for those who might face similar circumstances.

For now, he said the family will figure out a way to get by and "do the best we can for Debbie."

"Luckily, she's oblivious to everything," he said. "We don't tell her
what's going on because it will just upset her."

Brain damaged woman center of walMart suit

I've emailed this to as many people as I could, and I encourage you to do the same. I haven't really shopped at WalMart for several months, but I certainly won't be shopping there now.

Does WalMart have the right to do their insurance as they see fit? Sure. Should they have someone actually sit down with their employees at sign-up time and let them know exactly what the fine print is? Absolutely. While that particular exemption on the insurance is perfectly legal, it's despicable. WalMart makes all that money every year,and they can't properly take care of their sick employees?

There are other things WalMart does that are perfectly legal and almost as heinous as this, but this takes the cake. Let me encourage you to shop somewhere else and spread the word to others about the crap that is WalMart.

Sam Walton would be rolling in his grave.

50 Things I have learned by being a Bank Teller

2008-03-20T20:48:00.000-07:00

1. I know everyone in the world, so I never need to ask for ID.
2. "I'll be with you in one moment." means "Come right up here into my business and breathe your popcorn breath in my face for awhile."
3. Every bank in the world steals money from it's customers.
4. I'm always kidding when I tell people a check isn't any good. I'm a good kidder.
5. I know the balance of every account at the bank.
6. I am at the bank just because I feel like it, my window isn't actually open when I say "May I help you?"
7. I know everyone's account number.
8. I know everyone's address.
9. I don't understand how banking works.
10. I have to do whatever the person who gave my customer the check said.
11. I don't know how to count.
12. I don't know how to add.
13. I don't know what the date is.
14. I can read everyone's mind.
15. If I ask for your social, I'm trying to steal your identity.
16. I know when every new coin will be arriving.
17. I know how much everyone's bills are for the month.
18. We are a post office, a UPS, and a Kinko's wrapped up into a one stop shop.
19.We are just here for fun on most holidays, we're not really open. We love it when you rub it in.
20. When someone asks how you want your cash back, you are supposed to tell them after you get your money back.
21. Apparently people have different definitions of commercial.
22. Your time is more important than mine. I have no life. When you show up 5 minutes before close to make 10 deposits or open an account, we don't mind.
23. Everyone with the bank name tag is related.
24. I am also your secretary.
25. We love to place holds on your checks for fun, we are the only bank that does it.
26. 13 hours and 10 minutes is not enough time for people to do their business.
27. I am in charge of the never-ending dum dum suckers, hard candies, cookies, coffee, and dog treats.
28. It is polite to ignore someone when they say hello.
29. It is my fault when someone cuts you in line. I should have been paying attention to you and not your money.
30. I know what a checking/deposit/withdrawal from savings is.
31. Being rude makes me want to help you more.
32. I am not really human, I should not make mistakes.
33. It is okay to go into someone's office when their door is shut.
34. I enjoy keeping people's ID's and have a secret stash of them in my cubby.
35. I can't hear. I need you to ding the bell 5 times in a row before I will hear you.
36. The sign that says Next Window Please is just a decoration.
37. I make people wait on purpose, it's fun to make them mad.
38. I know everyone's pin number to their ATM card.
39. Running huge bags of coin through the machine is my favorite thing to do at the bank.
40. The bank gives out free poinsettias at Christmas, we order them for you, not the bank. Display only means whatever you want it to mean.
41. Please and Thank You are forbidden words at the bank. We hate to hear them.
42. Checking and Savings deposit slips are EXACTLY the same. We just like the color pink and wanted to make them more colorful. Marking through the word savings changes the deposit slip completely!
43. When I tell someone the same thing over and over, I'm just doing it for fun. I like to waste my breath.
44. We will break the rules for anybody as long as you gripe for 10 minutes.
45. I am a professional coin counter. Even when the coin counter is broken, I am supposed to count coin for you by hand.
46. I am psychic! When you call I can recognize your voice and pull up your information. My computer is voice-activated. It's that fancy technology we have.
47. You don't have to tell me that you've been with the bank for 50 years. I can tell.
48. Even after 5 years, I am a new teller to anyone who has never seen me before. If I've never met you, I have no idea what I am doing.
49. I make the rules for the banking industry. You can blame everything on me.
50. If you know anybody high in the bank, you may name drop and will bow down to your every need. Even if that means breaking the rules.

I'm so happy I'm not a bank teller anymore.
Thanks to Trish for sending me this list.

Jeff thought of more... he said this wasn't a definitive list, hahaha:

51. Women’s breasts are the perfect place to hold bills ... particularly for very large women ... in the dog days of summer (no ma’am, I don’t have a hair dryer to dry out your cash).

52. Tennis shoes are the perfect place to hold coins ... particularly for athletes ... right after basketball (sir, I’ll just credit you that last fifty cents if you promise to leave your shoes on).

53. You can tell what the driver is smoking when they send in their drive-through canister (particularly if it is pot)

54. Bank fees are outrageous – but so are people having a high school diploma with zero ability to do math (or any people skills for that matter).

55. Sticking out a finger in the pocket of a “Member’s Only” jacket looks just like a gun. (Very funny sir – I applaud you for an eerie over-estimation of your creativity and sense of propriety.)

56. I know the balances of not only our customers, but of every other account worldwide, and should have no reservations about cashing a check from your third cousin twice removed for $2,000 when you only have $0.17 on deposit.

57. Our bank was so much better when the bankers would give out loans based upon a single phone call, without collateral, credit check, or visible means of support.

58. Threats are powerful things (Yes sir – I’m sure you closing out your checking account for less than $20 will cause a ripple effect that will be felt all the way to Wall Street.)

59. A properly balanced checkbook is surprisingly sexy, even if there isn’t any money in the account.

60. A person with an unbalanced checking account probably is in other ways as well.

61. Three words – signatures are optional (Yes ma’am, I would be more than pleased to turn my back while you sign your husband’s name to that check).

I've had #55 happen to me before - well, most everything on this second list, but I remember #55 pretty well. I told the guy that I could call the police on him just for joking like that. Suddenly it wasn't so funny for him anymore.

Oh, and check forgery on endorsements? Yeah, we've all done it. But here's a tip: don't try it in front of the teller, because while we can't laugh at you outright, we'll laugh at you in our heads and proceed to tell you that forgery is a crime. And if you say that you're going to go home to get the other person to sign it, don't think you can go out to your car, sign the other person's name, and come back into the bank in a span of five minutes. Bank tellers aren't stupid, and we'll just make you bring the other person in to endorse the check.

#56 just makes me giggle. Seriously.

Twenty questions

2008-03-19T07:50:00.000-07:00

Saw this on another blog I read and thought I'd answer the questions:

1. You have 50 dollars in your pocket what do you do with it?
Tough question. There are always bills, but there's always LUSH.

2. What is your most guilty pleasure?
Harry Potter Fanfiction.

3. Have you ever seen someone die?
No. And it's not something I'm looking forward to, either.

4. Are you confused as to what lies ahead of you?
Usually, no.

5. What was the last movie you saw, for pleasure, and would you recommend it?
Probably Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Would I recommend it? No, of course not. :::rolls eyes:::

6. Superman or Batman?
Batman. Especially Val Kilmer's Batman.

7. If the person you like does not accept you, would you continue to wait for them to change their feelings?
I've been married for far too long to even remember what this sort of thing felt like.

8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?
Well, the person I not-so-secretly like is attached to me...

9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy recently?
Yeah. Environmental economics. I understand the concepts. Working them out on paper makes me want to stick a fork in my eye.

10. If you could have chosen at birth whether to be a boy or a girl, which would you be?
My answer depends on my mood. Mostly, I like being girl. But there are times when i want to be a boy.

11. Which of the 7 Deadly Sins do you think you relate to the most; why?
Pride. My high opinion of myself is my horrible downfall. (this was the other blogger's original entry, and it's good, so I'm not changing it)

12. Who would be your ultimate six dinner guests?
C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, Arthur C. Clarke, Val Kilmer, Rich Mullins, and Jesus.
OK, I had a hard time with a few of these. Lewis and Rowling have been at the top of this sort of list for years, as has Rich Mullins. Clarke goes on by virtue of me wanting to talk to him and knowing I'll never have the chance. I've had a crush on Val Kilmer since I was eight. While I'd love to have Jesus at a dinner party, it sounds cliche. And I definitely believe that where two or more are gathered in His name, He's there, so He'd be there anyway.

13. Clinton or Obama?
Obama.

14. Would you rather be a really good person or a really interesting person?
:::whines::: Why can't I be both?

15. Do you believe in some form of life after death?
Yes.

16. Which fictional character could you most see yourself marrying?
I think Jeff would be upset if I married a fictional character, but he likes Belinda Carlisle, so what does he know? I'm gonna have to say a Weasley twin. Or Severus Snape. (C'mon... tall, dark, mysterious... I don't really care about good looking!)

*17. Best bald Star Trek Captain - Picard or Sisko?
Sisko. Definitely Sisko (wait, did I say I didn't care about good looking? I lied)

18. Do you have a motto? If yes which one?
Not really. Is that a requirement?

19. What type of friends do you have?
Well, I think they're cool.

20. What place most speaks to you?
Tybee Island, Georgia. I want to live on an island. A warm one where it never snows. (another of the other blogger's answers. Heck yeah I'm keeping it!) Also, London.

*This was the alternate question. Email me for the original question so you can substitute if you'd like.

Just thought you should know...

2008-03-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

Not that I'm excited or anything.

The Science Fiction Community Mourns

2008-03-19T06:53:00.000-07:00

Writer Arthur C. Clarke dies at 90

By Ravi Nessman
Associated Press Writer / March 19, 2008

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka—Even in death Arthur C. Clarke would not compromise his vision.
more stories like this

The famed science fiction writer, who once denigrated religion as "a necessary evil in the childhood of our particular species," left written instructions that his funeral be completely secular, according to his aides.

"Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral," he wrote.

Clarke died early Wednesday at age 90 and was to be buried in a private funeral this weekend in his adopted home of Sri Lanka. Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome for years, had suffered breathing problems in recent days, aide Rohan De Silva said.

The visionary author won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future. The 1968 story "2001: A Space Odyssey" -- written simultaneously as a novel and screenplay with director Stanley Kubrick -- was a frightening prophecy of artificial intelligence run amok.

One year after it made Clarke a household name in fiction, the scientist entered the homes of millions of Americans alongside Walter Cronkite anchoring television coverage of the Apollo mission to the moon.

Clarke also was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.

His nonfiction volumes on space travel and his explorations of the Great Barrier Reef and Indian Ocean earned him respect in the world of science, and in 1976 he became an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

But it was his writing that shot him to his greatest fame and that gave him the greatest fulfillment.

"Sometimes I am asked how I would like to be remembered," Clarke said recently. "I have had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer and space promoter. Of all these, I would like to be remembered as a writer."

From 1950, he began a prolific output of both fiction and nonfiction, sometimes publishing three books in a year.

A statement from Clarke's office said he had recently reviewed the final manuscript of his latest novel. "The Last Theorem," co-written with Frederik Pohl, will be published later this year, it said.

Some of his best-known books are "Childhood's End," 1953; "The City and The Stars," 1956; "The Nine Billion Names of God," 1967; "Rendezvous with Rama," 1973; "Imperial Earth," 1975; and "The Songs of Distant Earth," 1986.

When Clarke and Kubrick got together to develop a movie about space, they looked for inspiration to several of Clarke's shorter pieces. As work progressed on the screenplay, Clarke also wrote a novel of the story. He followed it up with "2010," "2061," and "3001: The Final Odyssey."

Planetary scientist Torrence Johnson said Clarke's work was a major influence on many in the field.

Johnson, who has been exploring the solar system through the Voyager, Galileo and Cassini missions in his 35 years at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, recalled a meeting of planetary scientists and rocket engineers where talk turned to the author.

"All of us around the table said we read Arthur C. Clarke," Johnson said. "That was the thing that got us there."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Clarke said he did not regret having never traveled to space himself, though he arranged to have DNA from his hair sent into orbit.

"One day, some super civilization may encounter this relic from the vanished species and I may exist in another time," he said. "Move over, Stephen King."

Clarke, a British citizen, won a host of science fiction awards, and was named a Commander of the British Empire in 1989. Clarke was officially given a knighthood in 1998, but he delayed accepting it for two years after a London tabloid accused him of being a child molester. The allegation was never proved.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa lauded Clarke for his passion for his adopted home and his efforts to aid its progress.

"We were all proud to have this celebrated author, visionary and promoter of space exploration, prophet of satellite communications, great humanist and lover of animals in our midst," he said in a statement.

Born in Minehead, western England, on Dec. 16, 1917, the son of a farmer, Arthur Charles Clark became addicted to science fiction after buying his first copies of the pulp magazine "Amazing Stories" at Woolworth's. He read English writers H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon and began writing for his school magazine in his teens.

Clarke went to work as a clerk in Her Majesty's Exchequer and Audit Department in London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society and wrote his first short stories and scientific articles on space travel.

It was not until after World War II that Clarke received a bachelor of science degree in physics and mathematics from King's College in London.

Serving in the wartime Royal Air Force, he wrote a 1945 memo about the possibility of using satellites to revolutionize communications. Clarke later sent it to a publication called Wireless World, which almost rejected it as too far-fetched.

He moved to Sri Lanka in 1956.

In recent years, Clarke was linked by his computer with friends and fans around the world, spending each morning answering e-mails and browsing the Internet.

Clarke married in 1953, and was divorced in 1964. He had no children. He is survived by his brother, Fred, and sister, Mary. His body is to be brought to his home in Colombo so friends and fans can pay their respects before his burial.

I wasn't really a science fiction fan until I read 2001: A Space Odyssey about two years ago for my SciFi class. I was kind of dreading it, to be honest. I asked Jeff, "This is the one with the apes and the monolith, right?"

"Yes. The first part is really slow. You might not like it."

So with much trepidation, I read the first few chapters. I adored it.

"I thought you said the first part was slow and I wouldn't like it? I really enjoyed it!"

Jeff looked at me. "Well, if you liked that, then you probably won't like the rest of the book."

'Great,' I thought. So I buckled in to read the remainder of the book, and enjoyed it just as much as the beginning. I couldn't put it down, and that's probably the fastest I've read a class assignment.

The next time I encountered Clarke was just a few weeks after that. As the article above says, Clarke read the early science fiction writers, including HG Wells, who seemed to influence Clarke pretty heavily. Wells wrote The Star in 1897; Clarke wrote his version of The Star in 1955. Both stories deal with some sort of cosmic tension and destruction. I think Wells version can be summed up as "shit happens," while Clarke's story wants to know why shit happens. Both have a twist at the end that surprises the reader and makes one think more about the story.

While I stand at odds with Clarke's staunch atheism, he is still someone I would have liked to meet. The reason I had such a dislike of science fiction before Clarke was because often, the science part, if there was any, was wacky. As a reader, I don't like having to suspend disbelief to get into a story. If a writer wants me to do that fine, just tell the story in such a way that I do it at the beginning of the story and can read it from that perspective. I like fantasy (obviously, if you've kept up with my Harry Potter posts at all, you know this), but I don't like it when a genre suddenly becomes fantasy in the middle. I especially don't like to do it when an author is talking about science, and there is some really bad scifi out there for that very reason. Clarke's science, on the other hand, is completely plausible. And I would have loved to sit down and talk to him about his version of The Star. In fact, I like his version so much that I wrote my own version of "The Star" as my final project for this class.

Some might find Clarke's version of the story completely disrespectful of Christianity; I find it troubling, but at the same time, it makes me think, and I think ultimately, has strengthened my faith.

Goodbye, Sir Clarke. You will be missed.

What book are you?

2008-03-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

Jeff found this on Marko's blog this morning. These were the results that I came up with:

You're Mother Night!

by Kurt Vonnegut

Nobody knows what to believe about you, and you know least of all. You
spent most of your time convinced that the ends justify the means, but your means were,
well, downright mean! And the end is nigh. Meanwhile all you want is to travel back in
time, if not to change, then to just delight in the way it used to be. You are who you
pretend to be. Oh yes, you're the great pretender.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Apparently, this answer hinged on the question "are you popular?" and after I told Jeff "No," he said I always get the answer to that question wrong.

"What? I'm not popular. I've never been popular. But I'm Ok with that."

He just stared at me for a minute, then said, "Yeah, you are."

So with that in mind, I took the quiz again (and also because I'm NOT a mean person. I have my moments, but I don't think the ends justify the means and I'm not mean. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it...). Here are the results:

You're The Great Gatsby!

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Having grown up in immense wealth and privilege, the world is truly at
your doorstep. Instead of reveling in this life of luxury, however, you spend most of
your time mooning over a failed romance. The object of your affection is all but
worthless--a frivolous liar--but it matters not to you. You can paint any image of the
past you want and make it seem real. If you were a color of fishing boat light, you
would be green.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

ACK! That's not any better!! I HATE The Great Gatsby!! Absolutely one of the worst books I've ever read!!!! oh, and I didn't grow up with immense wealth and privilege, I'm not mooning over a failed romance, and i refuse to be a green fishing boat light!

I'm taking this stinkin' quiz again:

You're The Hobbit!

by J.R.R. Tolkien

All you wanted was a nice cup of tea when some haggard crazy old man
came into your life and told you it was time to do something with yourself. Now you're
all conflicted about whether to stick with your stay-at-home lifestyle or follow this
crazy person into the wild. While you're very short and a little furry, you seem to be
surrounded by an even greater quantity of short folks lately. Try not to lose your ring,
but keep its value in perspective!

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Admittedly, I cheated. I took the quiz until I came up with a book I liked. So there.

Deathly Hallows in two parts!!!!!

2008-03-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

The 'Deathly Hallows' films are scheduled to be released in November 2010 and May 2011.
By Geoff Boucher, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 13, 2008
For "Harry Potter" and Hollywood, eight is the magic number.

Warner Bros. Pictures and the producers behind the $4.5-billion film franchise featuring the beloved boy wizard will split the seventh and final novel in the J.K. Rowling series into two films.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I" will hit theaters in November 2010, followed by "Part II" in May 2011, a decision that is being met around the world with fans' cheers but also plenty of cynical smirks. The publishing industry is learning to live without new "Potter" releases, but Hollywood just pulled off a trick that will keep its profitable hero on his broom into the next decade.

Any twist in the "Potter" universe is the stuff of global news bulletins. The books were a publishing sensation. And to an entire generation, the film saga has become a heartfelt touchstone on the level of "The Wizard of Oz" and as culturally and commercially ubiquitous as the "Star Wars" series. For all those reasons, everyone involved in the franchise is jumping forward to say an eighth film would be to serve the story, not the bottom line.

Daniel Radcliffe, the star of the franchise, said it was the dense action of the final novel that made the decision, not any executive or ledger.

"I think it's the only way you can do it, without cutting out a huge portion of the book," Radcliffe said. "There have been compartmentalized subplots in the other books that have made them easier to cut -- although those cuts were still to the horror of some fans -- but the seventh book doesn't really have any subplots. It's one driving, pounding story from the word go."

The same could be said about the relentless "Potter" franchise, which hit screens for the first time in 2001. The five "Potter" films to date have averaged $282 million in U.S. grosses, but the overall receipts go well beyond that. The faces of the stars stare out from DVDs, video games, tie-in books, toys, clothing, candy wrappers and a staggering array of other items. By some estimates, the brand represents a $20-billion enterprise, and that's without the planned "Potter"-themed complex opening next year at the Universal Orlando Resort in Florida.

Extending the "Potter" franchise is a boon to the studio and to its parent, media giant Time Warner, where recently named Chief Executive Jeffrey Bewkes is reining in costs with moves such as the recent gutting of New Line Cinema. Time Warner's stock price has stagnated since its merger with America Online eight years ago.

Right now, Radcliffe and his costars are filming the sixth installment in the franchise, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," at an old aircraft factory outside London. "It's been brilliant," Radcliffe said of the production. "It's also, I think, the funniest of the films so far."

Radcliffe is now 18 and, by the final film, will have spent half of his life in the role of the scarred orphan who finds friendship and danger within the stone corridors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Each film (following the construct of the novels) has been framed by a school year. Producer David Heyman, a key figure in the films from Day One, was reluctant to depart from that and make the last book into two movies.

"Unlike every other book, you cannot remove elements of this book," Heyman said. "You can remove scenes of Ron playing Quidditch from the fifth book, and you can remove Hermione and S.P.E.W. [Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare] and those subplots . . . but with the seventh, that can't be done."

Rowling, who signed off on the idea of a two-part finale, has been a more frequent visitor to the sixth movie's set than with previous installments. One big reason is that she is no longer busy trying to finish the "next" "Potter" book; she walked away from her signature character in July, when the climactic "Deathly Hallows" hit stores and sold a record 11 million copies in its first 24 hours on shelves.

Alan Horn, president and chief operating officer of Warner Bros. Entertainment, will be in Las Vegas today to talk up the "Potter" plans at ShoWest, a key annual conference of movie exhibitors. Horn said Wednesday that "it would have been a disservice" to downsize "Deathly Hallows" into one film.

"This way, we have an extra hour and a half, at least, to celebrate what this franchise has been and do justice to all the words and ideas that Jo has put in the amazing story," Horn said. "This is the end of the story too. We want to celebrate it. We want to give a full meal."

David Yates, director of the fifth and sixth films, will return and make the final two films concurrently. Screenwriter Steve Kloves also returns, and, by the completion of the franchise, he will have written seven of the eight films.

They will be adapting a seventh book with 759 pages packed with action and twists and turns in the race toward the final conflict between Potter and the dark lord who murdered his parents, the serpentine Lord Voldemort. Reviewing last summer for The Times, Mary McNamara wrote: "What Rowling has achieved in this book and the series can be described only as astonishing. Just as her characters have matured, the language and tone of the books have grown in sophistication and lyricism. But she has never lost the sense of wonder that has propelled her into literary legend."

After the dust settles, the book ends with an epilogue that finds the main characters -- Harry, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley -- grown up, married and 19 years removed from Hogwarts. Horn said that particular denouement has the filmmakers fretting about how to keep the young familiar stars on the screen just before it goes dark.

"That," Horn said, "is something we will need to deal with. People have watched these kids grow up, and it's been very special to do so. That's important to us."

Heyman said splitting "Deathly Hallows" is the right narrative formula, but the next problem is figuring out the division. As he put it: "The question will be, where do you break it? And how do you make them one but two separate and distinct stories? Do you break it with a moment of suspense or one of resolution?"

Horn said that screenwriter Kloves has already latched on to an approach that might work. Rowling could not be reached for comment, but the most recent entry on her website journal declared that "Hallows" stands as her favorite among the novels -- and that saying goodbye to Harry is never easy.

"It was the ending I had planned for 17 years, and there was more satisfaction than you can probably imagine in finally sharing it with my readers," Rowling wrote. "As for mourning Harry -- and I doubt I will be believed when I say this -- nobody can have felt the end as deeply as I did."

While I wish they were releasing the movies at the same time (I mean, c'mon, this isn't like The Lord of the Rings), I'm just happy that they're going to do this movie justice. Maybe we'll actually get to see Dudley tell Harry thanks. Maybe we'll actually get to see Snape's Patronus. (and in a nod to The Return of the Jedi, would anyone else absolutely crack up if at the end, Harry turned to see the ghosts of Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape, and Tom Riddle staring proudly at him? That would have required Tom Riddle to actually become a good guy like Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker, but Warner Brothers has done worse things to the Harry Potter movies. But I digress...)

Color me a happy Potter fan!

Oh, for the love of...

2008-03-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

It's 8:56 am. So far, I've spilled oatmeal on my pants and dumped my tea all over my desk.

Go ahead and laugh. It's funny in its own infuriating way. At least I didn't dump the tea on my keyboard...

Deathly Hallows in two parts? (Part 2)

2008-03-10T07:15:00.001-07:00

From Mugglenet, I followed a link to Evanna Lynch's (Luna Lovegood in the films) fan page, where there happened to be a story about filming some scenes in Half-Blood Prince. In that story, it was mentioned that the writer asked one of the crew members about splitting Deathly Hallows into two parts:

Quote:
Well guys you will get the news first. Today I went down to Millennium Bridge to check out the filming for HBP. They were set up at the base of the bridge, there was quite a lot of equipment. I got speaking to one of the crew who was really friendly. There were about 120 extras standing on the bridge. There was a helicopter that was filming it all and coming down right close to the bridge to get the shots. The crew member told me that they will have stunt men jumping/falling into the Thames from the bridge later on (shame I couldn't stay to watch it).

They closed off the area when the scenes were being filmed but you could still see everything. They are only allowed to film every half hour, so as to allow members of the public onto the bridge. I then started speaking to the crew member about filming, I asked him about Deathly Hallows and YES IT WILL BE SPLIT INTO TWO MOVIES!!! which will be shot continuously. There are also still location shoots to be done in London but he said he's not allowed to tell me where.

Evanna Lynch Fans

If this guy is right, then we might just have the DH we want, need, and deserve.

Now - who will I dress up as...?

Is this the lion or the lamb?

2008-03-04T12:05:00.000-08:00

So you know the old saying about March: In like a lion and out like a lamb. Or in like a lamb and out like a lion.

On Sunday here in IL, it was 72 degrees outside. 72. I kid you not. Today, it's like 28 out and we've gotten about 3 inches of snow in the past three hours, with no sign of it letting up. I usually go home for lunch, which is about a 5 minute drive from my office, and I slid three times going home and once coming back.

I'm supposed to have an environmental economics mid-term tonight. If the right people at the university don't cancel classes for tonight, I'm really going to have to question their sanity.

So, it was 72 Sunday and today we have snow. Is this the lion or the lamb? And more importantly, will I still have to take a mid-term tonight?

YAY! Classes are canceled!!! No mid term tonight!

Weasley is Our King!

2008-03-01T19:33:00.000-08:00

Good thing I checked Mugglenet tonight, because today is my favorite redhead's birthday. Happy Birthday, Ron!

Weasley can save anything,
He never leaves a single ring,
That's why Gryffindors all sing:
Weasley is our King.
-- victory song (OP30)

Not Even Once

2008-02-27T17:28:00.001-08:00

The IL Meth Project is using these ads now to help prevent meth use in the state. You can view them by clicking on the link below: (Warning: these are graphic)

Not Even Once Campaign

I've seen all four of these commercials, and they're not just powerful, they're horrifying. Hopefully, it will make people who are at risk for using meth think twice.

Sleep

2008-02-26T13:43:00.000-08:00

I was thinking about this on my way to work today because I'm always tired. Most mornings, I might be tired, but I can get out of bed pretty easily anyway. This morning was one of those mornings that I almost reset the alarm to lay back down for more of a siesta.

I think most doctors recommend that adults get between seven and eight hours of sleep a night. I get between five and six. It's my own fault, because I read until the last possible minute, and usually my husband tells me to put the computer away and go to sleep.

So let's say I average six hours a night. That means that over the course of a week, I'm missing between seven and fourteen hours of sleep. That's one to two full nights of sleep I'm missing.

Geesh. No wonder I'm tired all the time.

The Moment of Truth

2008-02-26T07:16:00.000-08:00

I'm sort of ashamed I've even watched this show, especially after watching someone destroy her marriage in front of millions of people last night.

Fox's "The Moment of Truth" is a game show; all the contestant has to do is answer questions truthfully, questions they've already been asked while hooked up to a polygraph machine. The more questions they answer truthfully, the more money they win.

Last night, a 26 year old woman laid it all on the line in front of her husband, parents, sister, and brother. Apparently she'd stolen money from an employer, was in love with an ex-boyfriend on her wedding day, and has had an affair during her brief marriage. The last question she answered, and lied about, was this: "do you think you're a good person?" Her answer: Yes.

Assuming the polygraph machines are accurate, somewhere deep down, she thinks she's not a good person, even though she believes she is.

How much is the truth worth to you? On one hand, I think being on a show like this would be a lot of fun, but then again, I live in a little bubble of my own making and haven't done a lot of things that people would consider "bad." Sure, there are things I'd be uncomfortable discussing, but i could probably do it. On the other hand, I'm not sure I'd want to lay it all out there for complete strangers. The truth is worth a lot more to me than the price Fox has put on it.

In my not so humble opinion, this show, like most game shows, is about greed, plain and simple. It would be great to get $1 million in easy money, but at what price? destroying your marriage? Hurting the people you love? Degrading yourself on national tv? No amount of money is worth those things. And there are some things I think people should just have to suffer by themselves because confession does more harm than good. We're you in love with your ex on your wedding day? Keep it to yourself. Had an affair? Keep it to yourself. You might think confession is good, but in reality, while it provides a much needed catharsis for you, it will only hurt the person you're confessing to.

So anyway - I don't think I'll watch this again.

HP Rant

2008-02-19T14:19:00.000-08:00

According to Mugglenet, Fleur Delacour won't be featured in this November's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Mugglenet cites this interview with Clemence Poesy, the actress who played Fleur in Goblet of Fire.

I understand that the whole Bill/Fleur subplot in HBP might seem trivial to some people, and therefor unworthy of being included in HBP. The problem with leaving one or both of them out is that Deathly Hallows pretty much starts out with their wedding (after the obligatory Harry at the Dursleys'/Harry leaves the Dursleys' opener we're accustomed to from the previous six books). The wedding involves a huge chunk of DH. I know they've finagled this before (after all, GoF doesn't even INCLUDE the Dursleys - Harry just wakes up at the Burrow the morning they go to the Quidditch World Cup), but we're talking about 75 pages of text that could possibly be cut from the DH movie because Fleur wasn't included in HBP and no one knows what's going on. "What do you mean Bill married Fleur? How can that be? It's not mentioned in HBP movie..."

The other problem I have is that Bill could potentially be left out of HBP as well. Charlie has already been left out of the movies (we never saw him in GoF, even though it was his team that kept the dragons for the first trial in the Tri-Wizard Tournament), and leaving another Weasley out of the films would break a lot of hearts (mine included).

Can you tell I'm a purist when it comes to making movies out of books? If Warner Brothers would just leave it alone, the movies would be so much better.

Eeew...

2008-02-06T04:00:00.000-08:00

20%

well, this is good to know.
You think this is gross? You should have seen the code that had a picture in it? Blech.

Deathly Hallows in two parts?

2008-01-14T12:48:00.000-08:00

Found the link to this article on Mugglenet.

My first thought: if they're scheduled to start filming in February 2009, and we don't have a clue when this dumb writer's strike will be over, get someone other than Steve Kloves to write the screenplay. Hell, I'll do it myself!

Second thought: Warner Brother's needs to get a damn clue. Harry Potter fans have been saying this since Tolkien's Return of the King came out in 2004. True fans will sit through a four hour movie. Give us an intermission at the halfway mark to do an input/output break and stretch our legs and we're good to go. Charge $15 to see the movie - we'll pay it! But for crying out loud, guys, don't take this movie and chop it into 150 minutes. You'll never do it justice!

Third thought: I don't know about splitting DH into two parts. Might work, might not. Would both parts be released at the same time? If so, it might be worth it. Then those of us who want to see it in all its glory can watch back to back if we want, and those people who just can't stand to sit for that long can come back the next day.

What about you? Thoughts on this?

Congratulations, Tom and Ellen!

2008-01-12T19:04:00.000-08:00

Our friends Tom and Ellen got married today. In true Tom and Ellen Style, the ceremony started out with both of them laughing for a few minutes, followed by Ellen dancing during "How Great Thou Art" in her pretty white dress. At the altar. Well, you know, if you can't dance at the altar of the Lord, where can you dance?

It was a wonderful, beautiful, fun ceremony. Ellen and Tom, congratulations, and may you have many blessed and joyful years together.

Happy Birthday!

2008-01-09T19:06:00.000-08:00

First, to my dad! Hi Dad! Hope you had a great birthday!

And to one half of the blog's title - Severus Snape. Fandom is celebrating your birthday, you know.

No Excuses

2008-01-09T19:05:00.001-08:00

I hate change

2007-12-29T16:26:00.000-08:00

It's why I don't do New Year's Resolutions.

Oh, I tried to do them, for many years. You know, the usual stuff: exercise more, eat healthier, lose weight. Those were the same resolutions I made every year, and I just knew I was going to stick to them.

Then I gave up chocolate and caffeine and quit making resolutions, ha. (seriously)

I don't like change. Let me make this clear: I hate it, despise it, etc. Oh sure, the odd change, like a new hairstyle or job is always a good thing. But don't move my furniture. And don't try to impress on me that I need to do such and such to be healthier, thinner, more beautiful, etc. And I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way. Judging by the amount of people who break their resolutions by January 2, I'm not the only person who'd rather be fat, poor, and a couch potato than make some changes.

That's not to say I don't make changes in my life, but it's slow and it's definitely a long process. And it takes a change of heart to really make changes. My changes of heart don't come suddenly on December 31 and make me want to go out and run every day so I get in shape and drop the pounds. More often than not, my changes of heart come months, or even years, before I start making a daily change in my life. Like when I only gained 19 pounds when I was pregnant with our son a few years ago, and developed gestational diabetes anyway. It put me at risk for type 2 diabetes later in life (which runs in my family anyway), so I decided after our son was born to start being healthier. It took me almost two years to get serious about it, but that's why I started walking every day.

There have been other major changes, and I'm happy to say that I'm in better health now than I was in my twenties. I still have a long way to go, and a lot of changes to make, but I've learned that we make choices every single moment, and every single moment is a moment of change.

I also firmly believe we can't do it on our own. Want to make a change? Ask God to help you make that change. Or maybe He's already put something on your heart, and you don't have the strength, courage, willpower, etc., to make it happen on your own. That's fine. That's great actually, because you have a better chance of making a change if you ask God to change your heart. And keep asking, because He is faithful. I walk every day. And everyday, I thank Him for motivating me to walk and ask Him to keep motivating me to walk. If I were left up to my own devices, I'd sleep in. I have friends I pray for every day, because every day, they have to make a choice to stay sober. And I know every day, these same people are praying to God to make good choice and to change.

It's not easy. Like I said, I hate change. I hated giving up chocolate and caffeine almost nine years ago, but I hated how they made me feel more. Some mornings, I hate getting up to walk, but I hate how I feel when I don't do it. If there's something on your heart, something you don't just want to change, but need to change, ask God to help. He is the God who makes all things new.

If you know me at all...

2007-12-19T17:50:00.000-08:00

... this will come as absolutely no shock to you.

Common Characteristics (for verbal/linguistic)
Notices grammatical mistakes
Often speaks of what they have read
Likes to use "fancy" words (Ok, this isn't me - I don't like fancy words)
Loves word games
Cherishes their book collection
Easily remembers quotes and famous sayings
Likes puns and rhymes
Enjoys writing
Enjoys foreign language (not this either. If it's not English, I'm bad at it)
Always enjoyed English class

Career Matches (for verbal/linguistic)
Writer (any type) (NO! NOT ME!!!)
Editor
Public Speaker
Politician (definitely not this.)
Preacher
Teacher
Journalist
Broadcaster
English / Writing Tutor
Actor / Actress

I think there needs to be a job for sarcasmo in the there.

I dig Alice Cooper

2007-11-18T19:47:00.000-08:00

The first time I heard an Alice Cooper song, I was 5 or 6, and it was when Alice was on The Muppet Show. He did "Welcome to My Nightmare." I can still remember the stage set up, and man was it cool!

I'll be honest. I don't know many of his songs, but I love the ones I know. A friend of mine from church let me borrow a set of CDs with some of his greatest hits, and I'm finally getting around to putting them on my computer. What prompted me to post this was reading the little book on his life and history of the band, then I went to a couple web sites about him.

The rumor for years has been that Alice Cooper is a Christian. You never know when rumors like this get started, but I saw it again on Wikipedia. So I checked the footnotes; sure enough, Alice Cooper became a Christian in the 1980s. Hurray, hurrah!

I dig Alice Cooper. I dig that he's a brother in Christ. I like that he's not a celebrity Christian, and I'm going to listen to a lot more of his music.

Frail

2007-11-18T14:38:00.000-08:00

if i was not so weak
if i was not so cold
if i was not so scared of being broken
growing old
i would be...
"frail" by jars of clay

This song has been running through my head a lot the past few weeks. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had a cold which turned into a sinus infection and I'd been to the dr's for it. Well, last Saturday night, I felt like a truck had hit me. Honestly, I thought I was coming down with the flu; if I'd had a fever, I would have been convinced.

I've felt frail the past few weeks. A cold/sinus infection/cough shouldn't make me feel this way, but it does. Mainly it's the cough that does it. Up until last year, I had serious degeneration of my L4/L5 and L5/S1 discs in my lower back. A cough like the one I've had the past two weeks meant numerous trips to the chiropractor or all the coughing caused my back to get so out of whack that I'd throw it out doing something stupid. Last November, I started going to a new chiropractor because he has a DRX9000 (the easy story - it's gentle traction, which is slightly inaccurate), and I did a series of treatments on it. The result is regenerated discs, and I have before and after MRI cans to prove it. The DRX treatment also includes physical therapy, which I've been doing at home every day since the beginning of the year. So not only is my back better, I have stronger back and abdominal muscles that hold my spine in place better.

It's good to type this out. It's a logical reminder of the work I do daily (along with two mile walks every day) to keep my back - and body - healthy. But then I get this cough and my mental state gets whacked out, and I start feeling, well, frail.
I'm afraid of pain. I'm afraid of hurting my back and not being able to take care of my son and husband or go to work. I'm afraid that everything I've done over the past year has been for naught. Mostly, I drive myself silly with worry and fear that I'll never be able to lead a normal life, even though I'm living as normal a life as possible.

God created us to be strong creatures, but He also created us to be frail. In the order of things, we're the top of the food chain. We're every creatures' natural enemy, including our own (just check out your local news). We have minds that create things which can destroy. We see men and women who can bench press hundreds of pounds without flinching, yet a stray baseball to the temple has killed men instantly (that's happened twice recently). We can survive car crashes, yet be felled by a virus. The creatures at the top of the food chain can also be at the bottom.

What makes you feel frail? What makes you question the strength God has given you? What makes you worry every day that you can't possibly live a normal life?

It should be no surprise that this is something I pray about every day. I figure one day, I'll get to the point where I really will have faith and not worry, and today I am closer to that than I was yesterday. But I'm still scared of being broken.

Order of the Phoenix

2007-11-12T18:37:00.000-08:00

For those of you stateside who are waiting (im)patiently for its release here on December 11, Order of the Phoenix was released in the United Kingdom today.

The review comes from CBBC Newsround, but you can also find it at Mugglenet, along with some other news about characters and filming of Half Blood Prince.

I'm not waiting until Christmas to get this DVD, I can tell you that right now.

Haha

2007-11-12T18:30:00.001-08:00

You'd think this would bother me, but it's doesn't - mainly because my other two blogs both read at a graduate level, LOL.

And, well, the title of the blog IS "canary creams and foolish wand waving." If that ain't a fluff title, I don't know what is.

My Science Project

2007-11-06T20:30:00.000-08:00

Jeff sent me the link to this about two weeks ago and I've looked through some of the experiments and nearly laughed myself silly. Science experiments are fun, and at
My Science Project, they do CRAZY experiments. If you're easily offended, I wouldn't look around much. There's a neato pumpkin experiment, but there are at least two about jello shots and one on condoms. And some warnings not to do these things at home.

Give it a shot, I think you'll have a good time.

Candles!

2007-11-06T20:16:00.001-08:00

I was finally able to make candles this past Sunday. There's a two to three day wait time before doing a test burn, so I did the first burn tonight with two scents: Mint sugar cookie and holiday bash.

Love them both and will be adding them to the line. YAY!

Haha

2007-11-06T19:31:00.000-08:00

A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.

Magic pill?

2007-11-05T18:59:00.000-08:00

As is my usual custom, I developed a sinus infection from this cold Liam gave me last week, and it's completed by the usual asthma flare up-coughing cycle. Joy.

So I went to the doctor today, the guy who's been taking care of me since July 2006 for this stuff. I really like him - he's an allergist/pulmonologist/immunologist who takes me seriously when I tell him I can't breathe. When I'm like this, I can't even get in to see my GP because of their stupid rules, and when I go to the acute care clinic this soon after it develops, they tell me it's nothing and if I'm not better in a week to come back. (see previous post where the pediatrician tells me it takes 7 to 14 days for a sinus infection to develop...) So I just go to my allergy guy, Dr. Wright.

Dr. Wright has been a Godsend. He's helped me get some things done for my back, he's taken time to explain medications, he answers my health questions, and he cares about my health issues that haven't been resolved.

For example, headaches. I have them quite a bit. He's tried to get me to take several medicines (most of them for migraines) in the past, and I just won't do it. He tried to give me topomax last year because he thinks I get migraines, but I didn't like some of the possible side effects I'd heard topomax has, and I know a few people who've had the side effects. He tried to give me another one earlier this year, and I never got it filled. So today he says to me, "I'm concerned you're still having so many headaches, and I want you to try something else." I'm not so adverse to trying this one though, because I've been on it before for other reasons, so we'll try it and see what happens.

Dr. Wright is what I'd call a pill guy. I came home with samples of two kinds of medicines and scripts for three others. So I'm on an antibiotic and prednisone for my sinus infection, my daily asthma/allergy medicine, a medicine for reflux (apparently, people with asthma usually have reflux problems - it's what really triggers asthma in the first place. Who knew?), and tomorrow I'll be starting on two new meds - the ones for headaches and then another one for sleepiness during the day (I'm having a sleep study done for sleep apnea - also a popular ailment with asthmatics - in three weeks) which it turns out is an amphetamine.

I used to be a quick fix kind of person; if there was a pill that would cure it, I'd take it. I'm not really that way anymore. I'm not sure if it's because I'm getting older, or if the whole walking/physical therapy/losing weight/becoming a vegetarian thing has changed me that much. I appreciate things more now if I work for them, and I'm not sure I want to put all those chemicals in my body. But I also believe that God gave us doctors and medicines for a reason, and it's silly to not use the resources we've been given if they'll help us stay healthy.

I'm truly blessed to have a dr that cares this much about his patients. And I know that because of asthma, I have to be a little more high maintenance with prevention. i just cringe at the thought of taking this much medicine. But if it helps, then I'm all for whatever is going to get rid of this hacking cough.

Pay no attention to me, I'm just his mom.

2007-11-02T11:01:00.001-07:00

Being sick sucks. You know what's worse than being sick? Being sick and having a sick child who got sick first and is still sick.

Liam came home from daycare Monday night with a fever. Yesterday, I took him to the dr. He'd had the fever on and off for three days, green snot, tired, listless, no appetite, drinking very little, having a hard time breathing. Mr. Dr. (not his regular pediatrician) says his ears and throat look fine, it's just a virus, press fluids, etc. It's not a sinus infection.

Bull crap. This morning he woke up with a higher fever and more green snot. He also cried for half an hour before I went to work, reducing me to tears since all I wanted to do was curl up with him on the couch and watch cartoons all day long. We got some tylenol into him and Jeff took him to his mom's.

I know I'm just his mom, not a medical professional, but I am smart enough to know you don't give antibiotics for a cold, no matter how bad it is. I can accept that. What I can't accept is my child's fever going down, then getting worse on the fourth day he has it. I especially can't accept it when the dr's version of an exam is looking in the child's ears, nose, eyes, and mouth, and saying his nose has crusty stuff inside, but it's not a sinus infection because those take about 10 days to develop. Hi, let me introduce myself - I'm the woman who goes from cold to sinus infection in three days flat. That's why I started going to my asthma and allergy dr when I get a sinus infection. Honestly, I don't want to be coddled and told only what I want to hear, but I'd also like to be taken a little more seriously and not feel like a big goof.

As for me, I'm trying to get plenty of fluids, and I'm taking zycam (GAH! That stuff tastes like HELL!) and lots of vitamin C tablets to help boost my immunity. With any luck, this will just stay a cold and won't hit my chest any harder than it already has. I'm so glad it's Friday; tomorrow I'm laying around the house all day and making candles.

Boo!

2007-10-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big fan of Halloween. Oh, I used to love it when I was a kid, but who doesn't like dressing up as someone (something?) else and going from house to house to get free candy? And it only got better as I got older - my last two years, I went out with a group of friends and we wandered several neighborhoods in my hometown in search of chocolate nirvana. My last year, when I was in eighth grade, was by far the best; my best friend and I went as a car. That's right, a car. A 1976 baby blue Mercedes Benz made out of heavy cardboard that we kept on us with fighting Illini suspenders. I think my mom and dad still have the picture somewhere. Best Halloween ever.

I grew up in the church, and we had some guy at our church during those years who used to spout about the evils of Halloween and how it was the Devil's day. He wanted to turn our church Halloween party and pumpkin carving into a Harvest Festival. It really irritated me at the time, because what difference did it make calling it a Harvest Festival when there was still pumpkin carving, candy, and kids dressing up as vampires?

I became a Christian when I was 16, and that first Halloween was much like any other day for me. I went to school, handed out candy, talked to a friend on the phone (that friend is my husband now), and went to bed. My habit at that time was praying at night before I went to sleep, so I did that too. And all of a sudden I had this horrid, horrible feeling of fear, like I was in the pit of hell surrounded by demons. I haven't been that afraid before or since that night, and it took my mom praying with me for half an hour before I could get calmed down enough to even think about turning the light out. Looking back, the best thing I can think of to describe it was like a door being opened to the supernatural world, and I could feel it even if I couldn't see it.

For many years after that, I loathed Halloween. I missed the dressing up and getting together with friends, but I loathed the day, loathed the celebration of death, gore, and evil. Then a few years ago, I began to miss it more than I loathed it. I began to say "I can't wait until Halloween is over" less and less.

Needless to say, we don't celebrate Halloween in our house. Jeff hasn't really seemed to care one way or another, and he knows of my bad experience (I think I told him the next night), so he hasn't said one word in all these years about going ahead and handing out candy to little kids in costume. He hasn't said he wanted to dress Liam up in the three years we've been parents.

So I was a little surprised when he sent me the link to this months synchroblog, a round robin of sorts, of bloggers posting about Halloween. (the links to the other blogs are available under Phil Wyman's post) Jeff didn't read any of the blogs, but it struck a chord with me. It seems Christians like Phil Wyman would be critical of my attitude towards Halloween. I'm not using that time to reach out to the lost of my city. I'm not using that time to be welcoming towards pagans. I fear evil. Well, yes, yes, and yes. But I also see the inherent idiocy in Harvest Festivals, so nyah nyah nyah.

Seriously though, I understand some of the issues they bring up in the synchroblog. The American version of Halloween is nothing like the ancient Druidic (and modern Wiccan) observance of Samhain. Halloween for American kids is about dressing up and getting candy from strangers, and it's all great fun. It's also another way that the church took over a pagan festival and gave it Christian leanings (if you don't know the pagan origins of Christmas and Easter, here's the short version: Christmas is celebrated at the same time the Romans celebrated Saturnalia and the Druids celebrated Yule, and Christmas has many of the trappings of both holidays - the Christmas tree, the yule log, all the lights, etc. Easter takes its name from the ancient goddess, Eostre, a Northern European fertility goddess.).

How does one justify not celebrating one thing and celebrating the other, many of the bloggers ask. I've asked myself the same thing, and perhaps is just justification, but here's what I've come up with: Christmas is a celebration of Jesus' birth, and Easter a celebration of His death and resurrection. Look beyond the commercial aspect of these two holidays, and you get days that are truly holy, days when we remember what God did for us as the Incarnation. We trim a tree or light a Yule log not in celebration of the ancient pagan Deities, but in celebration of God and His Creation.

Halloween is a different story. Yes, I know the Church celebrates All Saints Day November first, but the Church had to make something up in order to celebrate a "Christian" holy day. What about Halloween is about God? Is it the scary masks? Is it the jack-o-lanterns? Is it the glorification of evil and death? I know, I know, an American Halloween isn't about any of that - except that that's what a lot of people think it's about. The Celts viewed it as the death of the year, the time when they celebrated the last of the harvest and prepared for winter. It was the time when they believed the veil separating the world of the living from the world of the dead was very thin, and the spirits of their ancestors (and evil spirits) could roam the world. They used scary masks and carved out pumpkins, turnips, or gourds to keep away evil. In America, we hear a lot about black cats getting sacrificed at this time of year, and about Black Sabbaths on the Satanists holiest of days. I don't know if those things are true, but I do know that horror films are released more at this time of year than any other. Just a few blocks away, a family has decorated their yard for Halloween with a casket, a skeleton, and a mannequin that's missing its head. So what about Halloween says "fun and games"?

And yet, Halloween calls to me, even if it's dressing my three-year-old up as Winnie the Pooh and taking a picture for his grandparents just for fun. I miss it, I really do. But there's still a big part of me that says it's just not right for me. I would never judge anyone else for participating in the festivities, and I don't encourage others to abstain either. But I just can't get over the feeling of fear I had those years ago.

"though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me."

I shouldn't fear evil. No matter what, God is with me, and I do not belong to the Evil One any more. But I want to honor God with life, not a celebration of death.

Hello, Autumn!

2007-10-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

Autumn finally decided to show up today with wind, rain, and a high of about 60. I'm not sure it made it to 60, honestly.

I thought I was ready for the cooler weather. Now I'm not so sure.

Ah, Saturdays!

2007-10-20T10:03:00.000-07:00

Since quitting my bank job, I LOVE Saturdays! I get to sleep in, spend time with my family, take a nice leisurely walk after the sun's come up, and just relax for a whole weekend day. It's wonderful.

Today is especially nice. I slept in (until 7:30, woohoo!), then read a bit before I got out of bed. After getting Liam up and changed and breakfasted, I made a loaf of bread, did a load of laundry, then took my walk.

On Saturday mornings, I like to walk downtown to our local farmer's market and at least see what they have available. Many times, I take Liam in the stroller and buy some stuff, but today I just went by myself and enjoyed the market crowd, then the lack of people downtown. And the weather is finally feeling like Autumn should feel, so it was a nice walk.

Since then, I've been puttering around online ordering candle supplies, which I thoroughly enjoy, and it's been a while since I've ordered anything. I need to update Coming Home Candles sometime soon, but I need to figure out what I'm offering for fall and winter first, ha. It'll be great to get back into candle making in the next few weekends. With any luck, the end of November or beginning of December will bring another open house for the Christmas shoppers. Maybe I'll have an open house on the day after Thanksgiving and help people avoid the crowds!

I went grocery shopping last night and will be making soup later today. I'm planning on making bean soup, wild rice soup, and cream of mushroom soup, all in big batches that can be frozen. Then sometime this weekend, I intend to get to the pumpkins we bought a few weeks ago. I've got three pie pumpkins I want to roast, puree, and freeze so I have them for pies and bars later. We also have a few other pumpkins and butternut squash to deal with - haven't decided if I want to puree them or chunk them for freezing.

I also found a recipe for sweet potato gnocchi I want to try. I got into gocchi in July when I went to Boston. Holly and Scott took me to this fabulous little Italian place in Swampscott (I think) and Holly recommended the gnocchi. Since then, I've been hooked, and when I found this recipe, I knew I had to try it.

And if I can find time, I'm going to make a few candles for some orders I got Thursday.

I love fall, I love weekends like this. Now I just need to get started on it all! Have a great weekend, everyone.

Ahhhh...

2007-09-10T19:21:00.000-07:00

There is a cold front coming through Central IL right now. The temperature is dropping and it's raining. It's not even the middle of September, but it's starting to smell and feel like Autumn. We've got the house opened up, so I'm sitting here in silence listening to this nice gentle rain. Liam's asleep, Jeff had to go back to work for a while, and I'm getting ready to go to bed myself, but I'm going to actually sit here and enjoy the quiet and the cool, and maybe, just maybe, I'll get a good night's sleep tonight.

Here's to no school stress dreams and getting to sleep quickly.

Cheers, All.

Farewell, Ms. L'Engle

2007-09-08T06:13:00.000-07:00

'A Wrinkle in Time' author Madeleine L'Engle dies at 88

She will be missed, but I have no doubts that she is in the presence of God now.

School Stress Dreams

2007-08-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

OK, am I the only one who ever had bad dreams about school growing up? I remember a lot of them too.

I've heard that most people have bad dreams about showing up to places naked. My bad dreams are showing up for school and having forgotten to do some homework, though I do remember one particularly horrible dream about showing up to my third grade class, not only having forgotten to do my homework, but naked as well.

The last time I had a dream like this was my senior year of college, so just a little over a year ago. I dreamt that I was taking calculus (the prof happened to be my precalc teacher from high school) and only went to class the first day and for the final exam.

Of course, I say it was the last time before last night. Course, this is also pretty funny because it combined my high school days with the Harry Potter cast. So not only had I forgotten to buy my math and history books, I was asking Harry Potter if I could borrow his math book to start my homework (he asked if he could borrow my history book to do his work). Oh, and I asked Hermione how long the math work was. "Oh, one hundred pages with edits," she said.

Funny, huh? I know where this comes from though. The INO class has a lot of reading due for this week, and when I went to the bookstore Friday to get the books, they were sold out of every single one of them, except for the book that's online and the one that was actually the wrong title. :::sigh::: How do they not order enough books for this small class?!? So anyway, I ordered the books I needed from Amazon yesterday morning, but I'm probably not going to get them until later this week, so I know I won't get the reading for this class done.

Oh, and I was reading Harry Potter fan fic before bed last night. Talk about a weird juxtaposition of thought! Go ahead and laugh now, it's really funny.