Hobbit-Sense at OneFreeGarden.com

Here’s hoping the link is correct, because the time difference has put me ahead– wooohooo!  Well… technically I should be getting dressed, etc., so we’ll see how quick these quick takes can be!

1.  I need lists.  You know why?  Because otherwise I’ll plan a shopping trip, get to the store, and have no clue why I’m there.  Luckily this week I remembered this before I went to the store I’d planned to go to on Tuesday– nice because Moscow is a large city and to get good prices you have to travel.

2.  I need lists for things like Quick Takes because after posting last week, and mentioning how I’d saved up some, etc., I realised I hadn’t remembered more than one of the things I’d planned to mention.  Do I remember them now?  Er….

3.  I remember this one!   Anyone else gotten some funny suggestions from Facebook?  It’s been trying to tell me how to treat people I know… of course, not every FB friend is, in fact, a person…

Do you think the Pope would mind if I scribbled my affection on the side of St. Peter’s?  …  Really?  Darn.  Guess I’ll just have to keep going to Mass and praying to Jesus.

4.  I was thinking about my recent preponderance on food on this blog… it’s very strange, because I don’t actually eat tons.. I tend towards one actual meal and then fruit or bread or what have you.  I think it’s because I actually completely love preparing food for a group… especially one in which my very basic cooking skills look good by comparison.  Have to make some things a bit more obviously good for you… I love making veggie soups but for a 50 minute metro ride to a friend’s, not so much.

5.  I have gotten the Moscow Bargain Hunter seal of approval from my local manager and other teachers.  A teacher from Brooklyn but of Russian descent (and now Russian marriage, speaks fluently, etc.) recommended this place as similar to a TJ Maxx and thank goodness she was right– a friend and I went and we did very well.  We did so well, in fact, that most people have been double-checking that they’re not used… no, they’re just past season.  Score one for the bargain-ator;  this city is pricey.

6.  Speaking of other human beings… amazing what a concerted effort towards NOT being a hermit will do for one’s social life.  I don’t dislike other people- actually, I LOVE people.  I just have this natural proclivity for avoiding them like the plague for reasons unbeknownst even to me.  The food and people love are coming together, though- a group of us are getting together on Sundays.

7.  And a serious one… if you haven’t seen my reflections on that Ten Prayers book, do check them out (Sage Sayings: World Record Sinners;  Outdo Me, Lord; Upping the Ante;  listed in chronological order as well as order of increasing awesomeness).  I think the prayer about asking God to use one as an instrument… well, let’s just say it’s more evidence that the book is on target, because I think God has been using me as such the last couple weeks.  I sure hope so anyway!

alright… that’s it… gack 15 minutes to dress and get the heck out of dodge… bye!

-theRosyGardener

Okay so last week I was so on the ball and this week I’m back to not being so on the ball.. but on the bright side, I’m now 9 hours ahead of Jen… which makes me 9 hours less late!  Aha!  Please do go drop by Conversion Diary for the Quick Takes hub- the graphic to the right is a link.

1.

So I got a question last week about this logo, and while I did answer it there I don’t get tons of traffic so I thought I’d recap in a quick take this week.  When Jen first mentioned she was thinking of a graphic, I made this one for fun.  It doesn’t really match her site however and she’s got that post-it note one that’s adorable (I consider anything even vaguely related to a post-it note good as a post-it note addict myself)… but since I made this one obviously it’s in my tastes.

It’s not meant to be an “alternative logo” as if there were any competition, but we’re all fellow quick-takers and if anyone would like to use it s/he’s welcome to it– I just ask that you save it and upload it to your own webspace.  If anyone asks where it’s from, a link to Hobbit-Sense would be nice.  :)

2.

I discovered why I was extra suspicious to the grocery store people!  I hadn’t noticed that I was marching in with a backpack on right past the counter before the entrance where you’re supposed to take your big bag to be sealed– amazing what a bit of observation will do.  They actually put large bags in a plastic bag and seal the plastic with heat. That it some serious theft prevention measure…..

I think I prefer the locker method I mentioned last week.  On the bright side, this time I was able to buy a couple random objects without alerting the scary men- whoo-hoo.

3.

Can you guess what Russia’s going to have soon?  I cleaned the picture up….

Yes, an election.  I’ve seen this painted on sidewalks a number of places.  I can’t just stand around gawking at it, and honestly, I’ve been trying to surreptitiously photograph it all week when I got lucky on the way home from work- no one else was around and I just whipped out my camera and did it sideways and fast.. which may explain a few things.  I haven’t translated the long, cut-off, penultimate word at the bottom, but it’s something about the Moscow City Duma (city council I guess)– Yes to #5!

4.

This also explains why I was handed a newspaper coming out of the metro last Friday… I figured it’d be good language practice so I took it without thinking.  Upon further examination, I discovered it is titled “Sovyetskaya Rossiya” – yes, that’s “Soviet Russia” – the “Informational Bulletin of the Moscow City Bureau of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.”

The headlines are really grabbing- “OneRussia (Putin’s political party) didn’t come to debates with communists– WHY DOES THE POWER (THE AUTHORITIES) GAMBLE ON VOTES WITHOUT VOTERS?”  – and yes, they really did put that in red.  The really interesting thing though is a Communist party worried about votes…  given this joke from Soviet times especially:

On the day of elections a voter received a ballot, but instead of lowering the ballot into the voting box, he began to read the surname of the single candidate.

‘What are you doing?’ his observer asked

‘I want to find out who I voted for.’

‘Yes but don’t you know that elections are secret?!’

I doubt I can trust the CPRF (KPRF) for accurate reporting, but it’s quite a historical twist…

5.

Of course, it was explained to me that I shouldn’t walk around with the paper.. I don’t think it would get me into too much trouble, and the picture of a party member demonstrating against the current government by having a display of a bear burying his head in the sand is hilarious.. I just can’t decide if it’s meant to represent Russia as a whole (the bear being a rather traditional symbol of it) or Medvedev, whose name means “bear.”

6.

The sign above this door does in fact say “Emergency Exit” (okay, more like, “Dangerous Exit” but it’s the Russian equivalent…)

Run Out This Door In Case of Emergency! .... Or if you need a smoke...

Or the stairwell can double as a smoking lounge..

Or MAYBE the need for a cigarette IS the emergency!  It all becomes clear suddenly…

7.

I finally have an idea of food that might make sense…. hallelujah.  I have been a most sporadic eater, and it’s not been so smart… so I’m going to go back to Plan A (Soup) and supplement with Plan B: Freezing stuff.  So, a pot of soup Sundays and I got chicken wings so I can have an okay stock (I know you need more than that but limited space, budget and time) plus some veggies and then freeze the remaining chicken wings till next Sunday when I use some more for a new pot of soup.. and I got ground beef so I can make cevapcici … well kind of, ideally it’d include some lamb and pork… although actually I don’t know the exact meat words for anything but chicken so it could be, lol.  Freeze and cook individually… add in some frozen veg and we’re good.. not the best, but cheaper, cost-effective, and doable for someone who works 4ish-9ish…

And even if it doesn’t– hey, atleast there was a plan!

Thanks and have a great week, hope to be back more regularly soon.

-Rosy

Quick Takes makes a comeback at Hobbit-Sense!  Amazing.

1.  So, I found an ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS WEBSITE this week, courtesy a link from someone’s facebook.  It’s called Not Always Right, and is a collection of stories from customers who were a bit off, weird, stupid, or just plain annoying.  There are some that are off-color, but most are fine and they are absolutely hilarious.

2.  Of course, this makes me think of a few interesting customer experiences I’ve heard of.  My grandmother works at a grocery store, and my teenaged sister got her first job in the same chain this summer.  Grandma is famous in the house for her tales of frustration with customers who are annoying, stupid, or downright rude.  A recent one goes like this:

Customer buying ice: “Is that an expiration date?”

Grandma: “I don’t think so.”

Customer: “Well, if it’s past its expiration date, I don’t want it!”

(I’d hate to be her kid learning earth science!)

3.  I’ve been holding off on seeing the new Harry Potter flick- I really want to see it, but I thought it’d be cool to go to the Imax 3d cinema which is actually the closest movie theatre to my home.  Somehow I totally blitzed myself out of common sense on it, though– I had checked when it was coming probably a month or more ago, and it said July 29.  I think I suffered from some sort of delusion though, because I decided that the movie must be coming out in all theatres on that day.  And I persisted in this, so that when I found out it was coming out July 15 or whatever day it was, I decided that the date had been moved up and the Imax would also move its date up.

I don’t really understand how I missed just how weird a line of thought that was.  On the bright side, I will be seeing it sometime this week.

4.  Inspired by #4 at Jen’s Quick Takes, I don’t have any good recommendations for books about caving– but I do have a story about caves from when I was 3 and visited Yugoslavia with my dad.  We went to the Postojna Caves (Po-stoy-na) in Slovenia, which are the deepest caves in Europe.  I remember going in, that it has a little open-air train with what looked to me like brightly and variously colored school chairs stuck on it, so we sat on that and went off on the tour.  Being very deep caves, and in a limestone-rich geologic area, they have MASSIVE stalagtites amd stalagmites, huge.  Apparently, these terrified me, so my poor dad had to sit through the ride with a screaming three year old on his lap.

Ironically enough, when I visted the Wieliczka salt mine outside Krakow last year, I saw a billboard leading up to it that reminded me of this, and told the story to another girl on the trip.  On the way out, I took a second look at the billboard and saw that it was, in fact, and ad for those exact mines that had terrified me almost 2 decades before.  :)

5.  This week, I spent a couple days filling in my boss’ shoes while she was at a corporate meeting.  It’s been interesting.  The nice thing is that, because I worked at the kiosk, I have a surprising number of answers, most of them correct, fortunately.  I got a call this morning from a new store that doesn’t have the computer in yet saying $300 was missing– and I just knew it was a particularly crappy type of calculator that seems to mysteriously populate our stores.  Score one for the manager!

6.  Oh my gosh, how did it get to be this late?  I’m still in pajamas!  Do you think I can claim lost pajama time because I didn’t stay asleep the whole night?

7.  Target color codes their stock!  A new employee’s brother works for their distribution center and apparently that’s how they organise it.  I don’t know if that’s shipping only, but they have a lot of great stuff that’s… not in any logical arrangement.  And suddenly the vast separation between trash cans and trash bags becomes so much clearer.  On the cool side, I went into one yesterday that had a special escalator for carriages (carts? around here shopping carts are “carriages” just like some parts of the South call them “buggies”).  I just pushed my carriage into a track and then I stepped onto the escalator and met it at the bottom… I know I shouldn’t be that wowed, but it was pretty awesome as far as shopping carriages go.

And there we have it, a quick takes successfully done.  I wish I had more pics but the few links in here have some cool ones so check it out.

-the Rosy Gardener

Another week, another Quick Takes.  I’m actually off work today (which is nice, since last week I worked 6 days), and I even did write these before today/last night.  Of course, after reading the morning paper, I think some are going to be adjusted, but I won’t be scrambling to hit seven for once, so that’s a reason.

1.  I have begun to accept that I can be a very angry driver.  I’m not usually an angry person, and I have driven quite long distances without a hint of road rage (and that said, my rage is confined to my own car – I still don’t tailgate, make rude gestures, or beep).  But now that I have a (not very long at all) commute to work that takes me on the interstate (and an exchange with another interstate) I’m getting annoyed at all the idiots out there.  I try to be a very courteous driver (somewhat suspended when people are getting on the highway and I’m in the slow lane – if they’re not clearly slowing down or speeding up to get in without making me change speed, I speed up), but I’m pissed that so many other drivers are whipping past me and zipping in and out of lanes rudely and unsafely.  So, now I’m trying to keep my cool and not feel morally superior because I’m a (generally) courteous driver.  This is I think what really irks me… my image of myself is faced with the reality of myself, which is quite adept at colorfully criticising other drivers.  I used to be much better at making excuses for why they were driving poorly (they must’ve had a bad day;  perhaps they have an emergency, etc.)….

2.  Working at a Mall, especially when there aren’t many people around, leads to boredom and a bit of ennui.  I have discovered that for me, this in turn leads to eating.  I pack lunches usually, but man that food court’s so close…  I’m hoping the “I really don’t have the money for this” diet kicks in soon, because it’s hard to tune it out, especially when the CCTV keeps showing chocolates for Valentine’s Day and how to keep whole nuts longer (you put them in a ziplock with a date on them for 6+ months, in case you were wondering).  On the bright side, writing these down definitely helped alleviate some “empty mall” boredom.

3.  I admit it, I am a font addict.  Were it truly up to me, I’d probably be doing different fonts all over the place on this website (luckily, common sense and the limitations of WordPress kick in).  I used to be able to look at practically any font my computer had and recognise it.  I can’t do this with every font anymore, however, because I have since discovered free font download sites.  I’ve got 185 right now in their basic forms, and you can’t imagine how I was practically drooling at hearing that Adobe has some font library program with thousands of them… the fact that the price tag matches is why I haven’t got it, lol.

4.  Childish dislikes…For the longest time, I was certain I hated onion rings.  Then not long ago I tried a little bit of one and liked it.  My parents had told me when I was really young I loved them, but then for some reason I decided I hated the slimey-ness of the onions (a total misconception).. that said, I’m still not recanting on asparagus and shrimp.

5.  You’d be surprised what people think is real gold.  The display at work is designed to catch your eye with really glitzy fake coins, etc.  But these look obviously fake to me.  Kids coming up, sure, they’re kids.. but adults actually pick up the coins and I have to tell them they’re not real.  They’re gold-painted plastic – it really doesn’t look that real (about as real as the fake $100 bills we have scattered around).  

6.  So, BC (known in some circles around here as “Barely Catholic” – not the most charitable, but unfortunately not entirely inaccurate) has put crucifixes in its classrooms.  I was somewhat stunned, actually.  What was more stunning, however, is the professorial outcry.  The students didn’t care;  the professors did.  I guess Jesus and the Church are anti-intellectual (despite the Church being basically the center of learning for atleast 1500 years following Christ’s death and resurrection).  If I, as a Christian, worked at a Jewish, Muslim, or Hindu university, I would rather expect symbols of these religions in every classroom and religious activities.  As long as I was free to refrain from worshipping Lakshmi, etc., I wouldn’t have any issues.  On the bright side, I did find a column by a Jewish woman whose daughter is an alumna of BC:  ”Respecting BC’s faith is an easy cross to bear.”

7.  Courtesy today’s paper I also found an interesting if disturbing article about a family mourning its pet.  Apparently, funeral homes are increasingly being used to hold memorial services for pets.  Yes, this is real.  Now, I love my pets, and I’d be upset at their deaths (I have, in fact, been very upset over a lost dog and a lost cat, and I’m thinking at 10 years old my tiny turtle is nearing his end (his species typically lives 10-12 years)).  But the reprinted obituary listed human parents, human siblings, even human grandparents.  I bet that dog was a great dog — but he was just a dog, he wasn’t human.  Color me old-fashioned, but I just don’t get this trend of treating pets like people.  

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So, I’m waiting for the library to get a hold of Man of La Mancha (I don’t know where my copy went) but I’m going to start working on the Quixotic Catechesis today, and I can tell you it’s going to be atleast 5 parts.  I’m thinking of posting a new part of it every Monday or Tuesday, and then doing an unrelated post every Wednesday or Thursday.  Again, my apologies for “going silent” in the middle of the week – once my coworker is back from vacation my hours should stabilise and give me a bit more free time to do this and also read more.  :)  Thanks again for reading!

-Rosy

Another quick takes.  I wish I were taking notes for this all week — maybe having to scramble like this will train me to be better prepared.  On the amazing side, I actually have finished these the night before – lucky since I’m working all day Friday!

1.   It never ceases to amaze me just how well organised God is.  Somehow, despite all my “best” efforts, I end up right where I’m supposed to be.  Of course, I should know this by now, but oh well.  My first buy at the gold stand was with a woman with whom I connected on a faith level.  I made a big mistake on a buy, but the person who benefitted had just had hours cut and had rent coming due.  I also have really enjoyed getting to know the folks at the kiosks near me.  I think I’m there for a bigger purpose than buying gold.. I know God can use me for that anyway.

2.  I think I’m going to start freaking the people at the Apple Store out, because I keep glancing over… I popped in quickly yesterday for the first time – I spent all of two minutes in there.  I don’t know why after drooling over it so much I was so sheepish about actually going there.  I clicked one of the click pads on one of the new MacBooks… and walked right out.

3.  I love the MacGruber/Pepsuber commercial(s) from the Super Bowl.  I especially loved that the real MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) was in it.  Pepsi has had good ads lately.

4.  Has anyone else noticed all the stroller contraptions out there?  I don’t have any kids, but having a large number of siblings younger than I am, well, I’ve got a better than average familiarity with them for someone my age.  The other morning in the paper the comic Baby Blues revolved around the idea of a “stroller system” and I’ve seen tons of newfangled ones…  I can tell you they may be able to switch from stroller to rocker to car seat, and are generally ugly.  Some doubles also do weird things like having one kid effectively under another…. wow, that’s a great view.  I think the designers are trying too hard.

5.  Brrr, it’s cold!  And nasty!  I acquired a fair bit of sludge driving home Tuesday night that froze behind my front tires, which is how I discovered it Wednesday.  Every time I turned, I heard a disconcerting grinding noise.  Luckily I was able to get the giant gross grey ice blocks off (eventually on one of them).

6.  I’ve started playing “A Living Prayer” by Alison Krauss and Union Station obsessively this past week.  If you haven’t heard it, it’s simply beautiful… I can listen to it and sing along with it endlessly because it’s gentle but really meaty prayer-life-wise, and has a lovely melody.  I especially like the last line of the chorus: “Take my life, and let me be a living prayer, my God, to thee.”

7.  I mentioned in #1 that God seems to have put me in the kiosk for a reason.  Well, I also feel like he sends people my way to help me out.  I’m not the most naturally assertive – I have a hard time starting the conversation, but I feel pretty confident once I’m talking to someone that I make a good case.  I don’t want to be the worst buyer, and while I’m planning my budget around the base pay, not the commission, it really helps.  So I sit there, a bit reserved, and just start asking God for help.  And amazingly, he gives it to me – I have been doing pretty well courtesy the “Big Man Upstairs.”  Lucky for me, he doesn’t mind that I keep asking.  

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Well, that’s this week!  Working on a post about the ideas of generosity and desert (as in, deserving something, not an arid region). 

Thanks for reading!

I admit it, I was going to skip this week – I just felt kind of uninspired somehow.  Maybe it’s because I’m a bit tired (from doing things like staying up a bit late to begin with, and then realising that I never actually put the clothes into the washing machine that I need to dry for tomorrow).  But then I figured, hey, it’ll be good practice.  So far, I’ve basically spent WAY too much time on each individual blog post, and I need to get into kind of a short column mode, so let’s see how quickly I can quick-take!

1.  So, I never got to the other post, which was going to be about abortion.  Oops.  I think it was a good thing, though, because within a couple hours after losing it, I saw Jen F.’s post about an article she had written about responses to pro-choice statements.  I really am glad I did, and that I’ve encountered a few other pro-life posts and articles in the intervening time, because it helped me realise how unhappy I would’ve been with the post in the long run.  On the other hand, it seems like I haven’t learned my lesson about typing in a word processor rather than my browser, lol, but hopefully no server hiccups will occur.

2.  One of my “core issues” (or “pet causes” if that not-so-flattering term makes more sense to you) is genocide.  I don’t consider myself a particularly articulate person (in speech – I’m better in writing I think), but because it’s so close to my heart, I can speak well about it.  Today, I came across a documentary film about the reconciliation process in Rwanda.  I hope to see it soon and I hope you all will consider doing the same.  Here is the trailer (~2min):

3.  I can’t believe I forgot how much I love to read history, esp. when it’s written by Stephen Ambrose.  The guy is masterful.  I’ve been reading Americans at War, which I’ve had for probably 5 years and never opened, and it’s amazing.  Despite being very much a fan of peace, I’m fascinated by war history, and I have to say, Ambrose brings it to life and offers really unique perspective.  How unique can be evidenced by the fact that this near-pacifist actually agrees with his explanation of how dropping the bomb on Japan actually was the least-worst choice.

4.  I think soon I will have to do a post on surprise endings and what “redeems” cinematic experiences after having the disparate viewing experiences of Last Chance Harvey and The Last Templar (made for TV movie).  I am exceedingly good at finding ways that things are “okay” but I’ve been trying to make sure that I don’t excuse things that really shouldn’t get a pass.  I can say, however, that while definitely a “grown up” movie, Last Chance Harvey is a great film, mostly clean language and no scenes better kept private, plus some interesting parts where pain caused by a couple of actions that are more modern (atleast in their frequency).  

5.  I feel a sort of pull between arts (included: creativity/imagination) and reason.. not a conflict between them, but in me over which to prefer or focus more on, atleast in this blog (as they relate to faith, mainly).  So, I think talking about these two areas of society are kind of the direction this blog is going, although I can’t keep my mouth shut so causes and the occasional political commentary will probably besmirch these pages, lol.  

6.  Older small appliances are totally the best ever.  I say small because in my last apartment, I swear the oven was lethal, but I can unequivocably say that the old hand mixer and the old clothes irons I grew up with beat the pants off the new (admittedly) cheap ones I bought for myself in college.  Old sewing machines are cooler, too.  (On that note, I didn’t get to those pants yet – I just keep rewashing the ones I successfully hemmed, lol.  I guess I’m a chicken, or lazy – maybe Sunday will be my next try.)

7.  I’ve come to realise I have a really hard time committing to things for myself.  I am a super-star at committing to things for causes, other people, etc., but when it comes to doing things I know I should do for myself (exercise, healthier eating), frankly, I suck.  On the bright side, I think realising this may help.  Also the idea for a book to write while trying to be in shape for the first time in the latter half of my life (sad, because I’m only early 20s) may help motivate me…  I’m also thinking prayer should definitely come first.

Well, huzzah!  That actually was about half and hour, amazing.  Yay!  Hope you have a great weekend.

-the Rosy Gardener

Another Quick Takes Friday!  Yay!  Most of these are lighthearted this week.  I’m glad to have one more week that I’ve actually been productive on this blog.  I’m trying to be better about commenting on other Quick Takes participant blogs, but I’m not there yet.  I plan to do so, however, and I will get to it!  Thanks for visiting and commenting even though I’m a bum about it.  On to the quick takes!

1.  I’ll start off with the one serious one.  Yesterday was the 36th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.  This decision was based on the idea that we couldn’t possibly know what was inside a woman until the baby came out.  The logic was faulty to begin with, but now we have ultrasounds.  Some people say it doesn’t look like a baby for the first few weeks.  Well, I have no doubt PETA would say it didn’t matter that tadpoles don’t resemble full grown frogs at the beginning of their lives – if you kill them, you’re killing frogs.  Another point of irony is the lack of media coverage of the March for Life.  There were “tens of thousands” of marchers, but a march only “three blocks long” (according to the AP in two different places — see Gateway Pundit courtesy the CMR Reader).  If this were Catholics for Choice or an anti-war rally, do you think it would have gotten the same treatment?  On the bright side, profile in courage: a priest who was asked to serve as a fill-in chaplain yesterday at the Kansas state house had the fortitude to pray for an end to abortion. Go him!

2.  I really need to find my sewing machine manual.  I received a beautiful machine from someone at church, and I’ve actually used it, but not very often.  So, I managed to figure out again how to thread it and get the bobbin in, and hemmed a pair of pants.  I was very proud of myself.  Then I had to change thread to hem a different color pair.  This did not work so well.  I have broken a needle, broken the thread multiple times, and had the distinct pleasure of ripping out horribly sewn bits 3 or 4 times now.  Here’s hoping I figure out where I’m going wrong with the main spool.

3.  Wilma Flinstone + Spitball Attack = A Feeling of Vindication for last week’s quick takes:

Given my lack of sewing machine acumen, it may surprise some of you to know I have a degree in costume design.  From that lofty place of BA (just kidding), I can say this dress is all wrong for her.  Mrs. Obama has a larger frame and is more angles than curves.  You can’t just put a lot of fabric on her and expect it to help that.  It just made her look large and ungainly when she should look, as she is, statuesque and graceful.  That strap was hideous, and she clearly had no idea of what to do with the train that kept getting in her way – and who adds a train when they know the client will be dancing on national television all night?

4.  I hate when people embarass themselves in movies.  I change channels, I mute, I leave rooms – I don’t want to watch it.  It’s rather ridiculous, because it’s not like the actors are actually being embarassed – it’s their characters, but I don’t like it – I sit there and cringe. 

5.  This one comes at suggestion of my mother.  She’s noticed me sitting around with a notebook a lot lately.  What have I been writing?  Yes, blog posts.  Oh the irony.  I’m rather techno-savvy, I like to think, for a layman anyway, and yet I keep writing these posts out on paper first.  On the bright side, I’m less picky about writing utensils than I used to be for notebook writing (I prefer non-mechanical pencils and pens with flowy ink, but this post was written in an old ballpoint pen). 

6.  We are inundated with snow.  My high school senior brother actually started construction on an igloo in the backyard last night.  We’re fluctuating between heavy snowfalls and pretty cold temps (not as cold as those in the below-zero range, but definitely colder than Jen F’s Texan defrost drawer).  This is what we’ve woken up to quite a few times now:

My older sis and I made a great snowfort once when we were probably 6 and 8.  We – and by we, I mean she – burrowed into a snow drift in our back yard and hollowed it out.  (Honestly, I think I did very little – J was the one talented with snow, but she let me ride on her coattails, so that was good.)  We crawled in and made grand plans for the rooms we were going to dig out further the next day.  Then J rolled a giant snowball (another snow activity I sucked at) and put it in front of our “door.”  It must’ve melted a little bit that day, and then got a lot colder overnight and the rest of winter, because the snowball froze to the door and we never got back in.  Yes, it was tragic.

7.  To end on a fun (and funny) note, I have to share what my turtle did this week.  His name is Patton, after the general, and true to his namesake he goes after everything in his tank.  He’s been insisting in crawling between the suction cups attaching his island (called Sicily) to the wall of the tank and the wall, thereby detaching the lower two.  Well, apparently he managed to detach all of them, and set it truly afloat.  But it’s also where he sleeps, so he actually secured the bottom two suction cups by partially burying them in gravel.  I think he’s brilliant, but even if he isn’t, he sure has a lot more personality than I anticipated a reptile (esp. such a small one!) would have.  Here, check out the pictures:

I think he needs a bit of work on getting it straight up, but he is only a 5 inch long turtle in a 20 gallon tank.  It’s actually stayed – he’s been climbing on and off of it all week.  And here’s a close-up of the General and his command:

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Well, there’s this week’s Quick Takes!  Thanks for reading!

-Rosy

Another quick takes Friday!  I really want this blog to form into a community (doesn’t have to be a huge one, like some of the awesome bloggers out there, but it’d be nice to have a regular crowd of commenters!), and so I’m trying to figure out a writing schedule I can stick to so that there’s more than 2 posts per week.  

Okay, on to the quick takes:

1.  I know as a culture, we like to idealise presidents and their families, but when I saw Michelle Obama described as “First Lady of Fashion” in a local newspaper this week, I was reminded of my inner furor over this issue.  Sometimes, Mrs. Obama looks great.  Other times, I think she’s had some fashion missteps (that floral print?  that weird black and red number?).  So, why do I keep hearing these comparisons to Jackie O.?  Jackie actually worked with designers, she didn’t just buy their things, and honestly, I don’t think it’s disrespectful to view M.O.’s fashion with reality rather than some weird worshipfulness.  She’s an accomplished woman in her own right, but she’s not a fashionista (nor should it matter).  Besides, compared to Carla Bruni (Sarkozy), no other leader’s wife has a chance.

2.  So, I was watching Dragons’ Den last night, and I realised that, beyond people having a lot of wacky ideas for companies, and even worse, some people think those are good ideas!  For any who are unfamiliar, it’s a show in which people who are starting or trying to expand businesses get to pitch to five successful business people for investment.  I was watching the UK version; it started in Japan, and is also in Canada (Australia’s was cancelled;  the US may get one called Shark something, after the Japanese version).  So, a fellow and his wife come in, and he talks about having had serious heart surgery, and making a mold for his wife of his lips in case he didn’t make it (like a little kiss).  That’s all well and good, but as a business, the idea of selling kits for lots of people to do the same thing is.. wacky.  Maybe it’s me, but the idea of having a cast of lips… well, say I was married and my husband died – am I supposed to kiss that thing?  It still wouldn’t be him.  

So, I figured the Dragons were going to shoot this down… they are not ill-named.  The Scotsman, Duncan, declares himself “out” quickly, but doesn’t actually rip into them.  Then a couple more say they’re out – but that they LOVE the product!  So, I’m thinking Peter Jones is going to rip them a new one – but he loves it, too!  And Theo Paphitis, who sits there and tests products by pulling at them, and tells those pitching to justify him giving them his children’s inheritance, agrees!  Nobody invested, but 80% liked it?  WHAT?!  Am I missing somerthing here? 

Then they invested in a product called iTeddy that looks cute.  But I have something similar that you can plug an iPod (or anything with an earphone jack) into (the iPulse bear, but I renamed him TechnoTeddy), so I of course protested loudly.  That said, I think it will be successful, but TechnoTeddy is sooo much cooler… I can’t find my pic of him, but if you Google image iPulse bear he comes up (I have the white one).

3.  Apparently, “to pluto” is now a verb… This I learned from Ace of Cakes (Thursday night has too much good TV).  Apparently, it means to demote something, as in, “you’ve been plutoed.”  

In my mind, Pluto is still a planet, and I’d rather they have added a 10th planet than take away Pluto’s planet status… it’s just not fair.  My favorite funny guys, Rhett and Link, commemorated Pluto with a song – music video below (totally clean – they’re hilarious and family friendly.

4.  So, I started my job on Tuesday – it’s actually a good set-up, about 30 hours a week.  Nothing fancy, but it’ll help me pay my student loans and also buy my plane ticket to go teach English in Eastern Europe next September, so I’m glad.  I also get to play chemist, and can make commission on top of salary, so that’s good.  The only problem was putting up the canvas tent around my kiosk.  I’m about five feet tall, and that is definitely not enough, so when I closed up Tuesday night, having never done it before, I spent forty five minutes circling my chair around the stand and climbing up it to try to get this canvas thing up.  I knew what it was supposed to be, but then I think I had it upside down, which was not so good, and so I became completely confused.  That night, my kiosk was the saddest in the mall.  I opened the next day, so I got there early so that none of the other kiosk people would see my shame.  I went back that night and a coworker showed me the trick..  I’m thinking I’m going to be making a hook on a stick to help me out getting it up there.  Even if I don’t, though, I definitely won’t be getting to my car an hour after closing tonight, and that will be awesome.

5.  I thought about making a post about how I never make resolutions for the new year, and then I realised I had.  I’m trying to read a book a week (on average).  Luckily, I stacked up Brisingr and a few Narnia books (Narnia was a reread), because I’ve been working on Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man since around Christmas.  I am within 30 pages of being done finally, so I won’t be getting behind.  Yay!  It’s really great, so expect some Chestertonian-themed posts.  As far as I can simply (if that’s possible), the first part’s thesis is: “There is a God, because man painted in caves.”  The second part is: “Christ is God, because people long for truth and stories, and he fulfilled both.”  I love these two arguments.  :D

6.  RIP Ricardo Montalban.  I wish I could say I knew his work better than I do, but what I do know of it is all good.  He was a great actor and a good person.  

7.  Writing blog posts is hard!  I’ve been working on and off on a post about just why we like scifi and fantasy so much as a culture, and I keep revising.  It makes me think of something Jen F. mentioned about people who worry about quality not writing as well or much as those who forego second guessing to just write as much as they can.  So, while I keep writing and hacking away at this one, I’m going to try to get my head around the idea of quality and just go for it… So, look for a post on what scifi and fantasy say about us in the next couple days.  

Well, that’s it for the second Quick Takes!  yay!!!

-tRG