Media Favorites of the Day

First, there's a splendidly choreographed video from OK Go "Here It Goes Again". If you like go to Google Video and check out their other videos, most are quite enjoyable.




Now I'd like to talk about I Heart Huckabee's. Actually I don't, I think the movie speaks for itself. I'd only seen it once before and I forgot how much I love it. My Dad thinks it's one of the weirdest movies ever, but I enjoy it so much - it's beautiful and humourous and who doesn't enjoy existentialism? Probably nowhere near a good review, I'm not even trying, but it did me a world of good to watch it. Recommended.

Video Spoof

A funny new spoof of Shakira's 'Hips Don't Lie' video. Allegedly for a Spanish final. One wonders, but let's face it, I do enjoy people being silly.
Enjoy!

This Week in Books

Whose panties are these? - A collection of women's travel stories edited by Jennifer L. Leo. This book is pretty good, a variety of styles and humour about women on the road. Sometimes just hilarious, sometimes more thoughtful, the book edges close to becoming 'Chicken Soup for Laughing About Travel Misadventures'. A noble goal. Again, not a book to sit down with for long periods, but good.

Sinfest.com - a comic strip online. I've read about 1.5 years so far, about 5 more to go. It often recieves a chuckle.

Watership Down by Richard Adams. Adventures of cute little rabbits with their own lapine language. The author does a good job of reminding us that rabbits are a different species and gets into character with them, but at the same time can't help but make them incredibly human. My mom liked it, I didn't dislike it. Apparently it's a classic.

The 14 Dilemma by Hugh Pentecoste. A charming old-fashioned murder mystery. Short, quick to read, with strong characters and sub-plots that will suck you right into the story.

Warning: Cat Lovers Only

This morning I felt particularly enthusiastic towards my cats and I decided that it was time to take more pictures of them.
Due to the picture problem I have (see Blogger Beta), I'm importing all my pictures from eyespot.com as videos. Please note that the fist two "videos" are really videos, and the all the rest are pictures.
Ziggy is the striped tabby cat, blurred often as he attacked the string on the camera. Abbie is the black and white cat, generally docile unless attacked by Ziggy.
:D Enjoy!

Sunset on a Golf Course

It's a beautiful thing. Pictures!

Blogger Beta

They updated blogger, and isn't it exciting? Well, sort of. They forced me to switch to their new version or go to a different blog site. I wasn't resentful, they had some cool new options to play with.
HOWEVER, now every time I try to publish something with pictures - something I've been trying unsuccessfully to do every couple of hours since my last post - I end up cursing their new little system. It comes up with the equivalent of a busy signal when I try to upload photos. Perhaps they're busy forcing everyone to switch, perhaps they hate me, perhaps something is screwy with the new version. Whatever is wrong, it's a pain.
Blogger Beta, hear my cry!

Picture

What is it that makes the subject in this picture appear to my senses to be so vulnerable? I argue that it is not the actual bruises, but the positioning and intent of the body. The hand wrapped around the waist, the bent neck, the head tucking into the shoulder and crook of the arm, and the uncertain knowledge of how the picture will turn out, what it will capture, because it is taken blindly, with only the hand to do the work of eyes.

But mostly the bent neck. Here is where Japanese culture really has had an impact on me. Heads bent in shame. I always get the irrational notion that a samarai sword will soon end their lives. It makes me think bent necks are very vulnerable.

And uh, oh yeah, the bruises.

Haha - boy so white!

Thanks to Matt for the pictures, taken in the aftermath of the fun-fun glass suction-cup massage of the East.

Chewed-Up Pen

Upon seeing this pen you might think "Eww, Allison chews on her pens!"
But I must tell you that your thoughts would be wrong!
To be correct your thoughts would have to run as so: "Eww, Allison's cat Ziggy chews on her pens!"
Oddly, I'm not making this up.

Just a Reminder...

..in case anyone forgot. Prince rocks. Hard.

Also, in case anyone is wondering, a Google images search of Prince returns almost two full pages of the Artist before anyone else even gets a shot. Another proof (in case you didn't take it just on my word alone).

Just A Little Walk

So this evening I went out for a walk. All was nice and lovely. I walked along in the evening sky, down the golf course, past the deer, enjoying the breeze. All was nice and lovely. I walked down the hill and across the bridge. All was nice and lovely. Then mosquitoes started to eat me. It was not nice.. or lovely. So I got up, walked up the hill. It was nice and lovely. Then a wind blew something small - a bug? a leaf?- into the back of my throat and I quickly gagged then swallowed. It was not nice ...or lovely. Then I walked home in the dark, itching. Nice. Lovely.

Monday, Monday

It was a lovely Monday in my house in the suburbs.

My father played in the computer room, setting it up so that both he and my mother had their own computer, on two desks in the computer room. I came in later that day to find them both at their computers working. It was too cute.

Also, to liven up the day, my Mom got bitten by a dog. Plus she brought home a cookie. Her manner and the placement of the bite (right below her butt) caused amusement among her co-workers, one of whom was actually laughing too hard to eat her cookie. Poor Mum. Soap and water, peroxide, neo-sporin, band-aid.

Ta-ta!

Choices

If you've been keeping up with me, you'll know that I'm attempting to decide if I should return to school, and if so, which school I should choose for my studies.
I'm down to a fairly short list now. All these schools are ALA-accredited and have either a conservation or archives program.
I give you this list of schools, should anyone approve or object to certain schools, speak now or forever hold your peace. I'll give you my final choice when I am wedded to my new Masters' Program - or any updates before that ;)

California - San Jose State University

Illinois (Chicago) - Domincan University

New York - Pratt
- Queens' College

North Carolina - North Carolina Central University

Rhode Island - Rhode Island University


Whatever your reasons might be, I look forward to hearing them and/or your comments!

Books of the Week

I’m a Stranger Here Myself – Bill Bryson. Quite Excellent. Written by an American when he returns after living for 20 years in Britain. His insights and comments are sharp and humourous and I often have cause to agree with him (as in the astonishing use of cars and fat people). The only annoyance is that it is a compliation of a long series of weekly articles and not suitable for sitting down and reading for hours at a time.

Hula Done It? By Maddy Hunter. Funny little mystery novel. Quirky enough to be entertaining but the ending is perhaps a bit too contrived. Still, there are worse ways to spend 200 pages - like a contradicting self-help novel that appeals to God a lot. I give it three stars. Not the greatest, but lots of potential. I'll be sure to check out her other books.

Without Feathers by Woody Allen. Teehee. Oh Woody Allen, you devil. Enjoy!

Dangerous to Know by Margaret Yorke. Quite a depressing novel that accurately sketches mean, controlling people and the people who fall victim to them. It was less a murder mystery than an unravelling of the story. The main evil in the story ends up dead, and you wish only the best for the oppressed victims at the end. It is well executed, but not well loved. If you can withstand battered women and self-blaming victims without wanting to cry, there is a lot to gain from this book.

Ziggy Update

Ziggy now spends most of his nights sleeping with me. It's pretty nice. Comforting. Until the morning when he decides I should be up and makes a holy racket while playing with the blinds on the windows above my bed or, going straight to the most effective attention-getter, attacking my feet.
The other day he pranced across my keyboard in a series of quick steps. Result? I tried to type in words and kept getting Chinese characters instead. It took a good ten minutes to figure out how to fix it. Grr Ziggy grr.
But I like him, and he certainly has qualities I adore - entertainment value, fur, purring, lounging, and sleeping. I believe one should always have company while lounging. :)
Ta-ta.

Shakespeare Ends

After several highly entertaining nights of both The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare Under the Stars is once again over for the year. So sad to see it go.
All the antics onstage... *tear* Good stuff.
Strike night, besides the strike party, nothing was going on but it didn't end until after 4 anyway. I got a little teary-eyed when Patrick got his award, but other than that I behaved.
One of the unexpected joys of Shakespeare this year - Ben Bond. You rock Ben!
For those of you who don't know what's going on in this post, my apologies.

Home Sweet Home

We returned home, greeted only by dust and cat hair. The sort of greeting that tweaks my Mum's insanity meter.
With the temperature over 100 degrees outside, my parents set about to cooling the house more with the A/C. Several hours later, we realize that the air coming out of the vents is no longer cold - the A/C is broken. My Mom mopes around spouting gloom and doom - "It's always something. I can't do anything without A/C!"
I decide it's time for a shower. I turn on the water and PHOOMP! Out of the spout comes not only water but ants. Very quickly it's a tub full of ants as they all scrambled to escape. But there was no escape - my father and I set out very methodically to crush and drown them all. Then I showered :D
One of the really nice things about being home at this time is that the Shakespeare Under the Stars performances are going on. I took off to go see Russ's play The Taming of the Shrew, starring Patrick Byers and Annie Bond. Excellent. "Fabulous," I told Russ. So funny. It's rare to see such continual antics on stage and I was delighted.
I'm told the A/C repairman came at 10 PM and fixed whatever was wrong. Good deal.

Pictures of the squirrel in our bird bath compliments of my daddy.
Currently reading - The Art of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Text by Stephen Rebello. Pretty pictures plus random info about Paris, Victor Hugo, the novel and how Disney changed it.
Also: A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle. Highly recommended. A classic. I had read some of his other books, but this is the one that started his whole French series and is the most famous. It is well deserving of any accolades it recieves. Charming, amusing, and inspiring.

Leavin'

Sunday - We packed up the car, put our tea in mugs, and headed out. Destination for the night - Kansas. Yeahh..... Nothing happened. Nothing exciting, no stories. We drove and drove, miles and miles and miles. Lovely scenic landscapes, the eye never interrupted, the land streching out until the horizon with no impediments.
Currently reading: The Snake Has All the Lines. Wry and amusing. A quick read.

Monday - Same procedure, destination - Waco. Again not much happened. Braum's for lunch and ice cream (if you recall my parents are ice cream fanatics). Dinner with Triple A. I played with my nephew for a while before his bedtime - got out a cute little gun that shot little foam disks and tried to involve the whole family in our play ;)
Currently reading: Murder Between the Covers. It has a good sense of timing and some quite amusing word play. It could have been better... but I didn't exactly have anything else to do.
Also currently reading: The Metropolitan Opera Murders by Helen Traubel. A classy old-fashioned mystery novel written by a famous Opera singer. Charming. Also a quick read.

Day in Town

We were treated early this morning to two sightings of foxes. They're pretty cute aren't they? Pointy little ears, pointy little noses, big fluffy tails. I want one.
Today was the day of the grand book sale, nothing more assured to make my family pay attention. My father was worried that all the selection would be gone if we waited until after a hike, so today also served as our day in Estes Park to shop, wander, and enjoy.
Straightaway we motored up to the Conference Center and went in to the Friends of the Library Annual Book Sale. It was huge! It took up an enormous room filled with tables and boxes of books and had to have had hundrends of thousands of books there. Good times. We spent the majority of our morning there, wandering through the vast selection, until we had too many books to carry and we started to get hungry. My father was devasted at the outcome and looked worriedly at the car where all of our newly acquired books were supposed to fit. In the end it wasn't a big deal, there was simply a nixing of any footroom for me (not at all a problem as I either sit cross-legged or lay down in the back).
Next to a cute little cafe/restaurant for lunch. I got a cheesy omelet and I have to say it's the best cheesy omelet I've ever had (though admittedly, before Taiwan I didn't eat omelets, the Taiwanese don't quite get the dairy thing, and it's the first omelet I've had back in the States). Still, it was reeeeeeally good.
The rest of the day was spent walking around town, peeking into all the shops, seeing what there was to see. Nobody bought anything, but we enjoyed our day. We were a little tired, and went home after and started to (a little sadly) get our things organized for packing. Tommorow would be our last morning in the cabin, followed by our departure from Colorado. Little Tear.
Currently reading: Cut and Run by Ridley Pearson. It's a thriller, it's thrilling. The only problem I have is that I sometimes believe I have ADHD in the process of reading it. It uses the honored tradition of really short chapters that progress the action and leave you in a constant cliff-hanger mode. I'm ususally immune to the technique and generally quite enjoy it. However, in this case I believe it started too early. Normally a great deal of tension has to be built before and at a critical moment you want to break out the technique of step-by-step action by all major characters in short snippets. He had tension, don't get me wrong, but the two-page chapters started early in the book, and continued throughout. I have a pretty long attention span for things I'm interested in and this was defeating to me. Overused. Otherwise, not bad.

An Old Favorite

Bear Lake to Lake Bierstadt, then to parking (new trail to avoid the shuttle bus)
After a long time of indecision that morning, we finally got moving. It was a pleasant hike to Lake Bierstadt, and then a rocky, treacherous downhill hike back to the car. As usual - worth it.


A little video for ya.

Currently reading - High Five by Janet Evanovich.

Alpine

Ute Trail
Alpine Center to Poudre Lake
Another lovely clear day with gorgeous blue skies. We decided to do one of our favorite hikes. At a certain spot along the trail, my parents renew their wedding vows, every year. So we have years and years of photos at one certain spot. 32 years of marriage and happy as can be. Anyway, the trail itself is above treeline, easy and flat flat. Easy and flat until the last half mile or so, when it starts to go downhill. If you decided that you wanted to roll down the last part and if we pretended there wasn't tons of trees and rocks and switchbacks to prevent you, you might notice that would less rolling than there would be falling. It's steep.

Currently reading – Full Blast by Janet Evanovich

Also currently reading – God bless you, by Kurt Vonnegut Mr. Rosewater, Jr.

The funniest part of this book is the last paragraph and particularly the last couple of lines. You have to read it until the end and no skipping or it doesn't make sense :P I do so enjoy it when a book ends well, especially if it takes in the whole scope of the book in its last joke.

Day Off

Today I took a day off from hiking. My parents have gone off to do Bridal Veil Falls, a hike we've done many times before. I am tired from not getting sleep. My father kept me up watching the movie The Aristocrats (dirty and all the better for it- yay for funny) plus I had to read some after that. I'm hoping that if I just leave my knee alone it will be completely happy tomorrow - even today it's not complaining that much.
So I'm hanging out in the Estes Park Library, thouroughly enjoying my wireless connection and getting caught up with my online world. Although a huge fan of living in a cute little cabin in the mountains, I'd have to compromise somehow to get an internet connection - do they have satellite internet or something?
Also today we're going to the thrift store in town. This Wednesday is Brown Bag Special day, where you can put anything you want into a big brown paper bag and it will cost two dollars (they don't even care if soe stuff is sticking out the top). In years past, this has been a family pasttime and quite an event. The way my father can pack a bag is truly spectacular, an art if you will. Anyway today we'll probably get some stuff but not much. I haven't been able to find too much this year - somehow shopping isn't the thrill it once was and the majority of clothes there haven't been appealing to me.
Currently reading: many, many blogs pulled up on my computer.

Still Hiking

Long Lake- Lake Isabelle

Blisters- check. Knee injury- check. Hiking- check.

I spent the next 4+ miles in fear that I would cause pain or damage to myself. I went very slowly and it was actually pretty enjoyable and the lack of injury was nice. To avoid pain I found an awkward way to walk where I tried to never bend my left knee and to never ever roll my left foot heel to toe.

Currently reading – The Bone Vault by Linda Fairstein. Fun book, though very long. It makes full use and more of its setting – a combination of the Met and the Natural History Museum in New York. So in the course of solving murders there, they have to learn all about the histories and inner workings of the places. Plus it’s thrilling. Joy.