It seems to me, too...

"It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it; and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied; and it is all one."M. F. K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

I have a new website - http://feeding-the-flock.com/

Come and visit!

Peaches!

Yay jam! My first attempt at peach jam appears to be a success. I used a super easy recipe from a food blogger, Orangette, called Italian Family Jam. I am very happy with how it turned out - though my normal tasters have not yet passed down their verdicts, so we shall see.

Watch it!

even if you already did, watch it again... this is history being made.

A few of the things on my plate this semester...- Classes - i am taking 9 graduate credits- Teaching - i teach 1010 every monday, wednesday and friday- Program for College Teaching - i am getting a teaching certificate- PRAXIS - so i am marketable on a high school level, in addition to college-Thesis - i need to have narrowed my topic by then end of the semester... a hard task for someone with such disparate interests...and that is just for school...

A few of the things on my plate this semester...

- Classes - i am taking 9 graduate credits
- Teaching - i teach 1010 every monday, wednesday and friday
- Program for College Teaching - i am getting a teaching certificate
- PRAXIS - so i am marketable on a high school level, in addition to college
-Thesis - i need to have narrowed my topic by then end of the semester... a hard task for someone with such disparate interests...

and that is just for school...

6 August 1945

Hiroshima... 8:15am... 90 percent of buildings either damaged or completely destroyed... 140,000 people dead - 70,000 instantly...

Our world changed...

I made pickles!!! This may only be exciting to me, but I have never done it before and it is an exciting kitchen accomplishment for me. They are Garlic Dill Refrigerator Pickles and when the 3 days is up and I know if they are good, I might post the recipe. Until then....

Squeee!

Some diesel sweeties

http://www.dieselsweeties.com

Almost makes you want a Big Mac...

Funny on Wonkette...

and also very sad...

Are you thinking yet?

Max brought this to my attention recently and I have to say that while it is somewhat shocking for anyone steeped in the Christian world views of the modern US, it is very thought provoking and pretty much spot on... in my opinion anyway...



Pat Condell has more good videos and you can get them here...

a rant...

I hate moving. I am not moving, but we are getting two new inmates at Flock Hall 2.0 and one of them will be taking up residence in my room, so even though I am not going any where, I am moving my stuff, cleaning out storage and making room for a bird cage. I don't suppose that I have a ton of stuff, renting kinda precludes it. But I am more of a collector than anyone at flock hall, and I have sort of sprawled out a little bit when I got some extra space. Now I am having to suck it back in, or trim it out. I don't like trimming, even when I like the results - more space and new companions. The process is at best tedious and at worst painful. Most of it is only out to the garage - more tedious than painful - and multiple moves have really pared down the collection urge, or at least prevented me form giving into the urge with any frequency. But there are still the boxes and totes that need to be sorted through and weeded out, or at least consolidated. It makes me want to run screaming in the opposite direction. Or go take a nap. But I wouldn't be able to sleep, because I would be thinking about all the stuff I need to do. Or I would fall asleep and dream about it and wake up more tired than I started...

Bah Humbug!

I think I will go cook something, food makes everything better...

Not so serene...

We have all heard it...

Lord,
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Well it seems that the guy who thought that he thought it up was wrong, or stealing, depending on the way you look at it...

the NYT article is here...

Astrophil and Stella

Sir Philip Sidney
1

Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,

That she (dear She) might take some pleasure of my pain:

Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,

Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain;

I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe,

Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain:

Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow

Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sun-burn'd brain.

But words came halting forth, wanting Invention's stay,

Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows,

And others' feet still seem'd but strangers in my way.

Thus, great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes,

Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite--

"Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart and write."

Survey says...

I know there are musical people out there in my sparse and nebulous readership, and I have a survey for you. What would you say my theme song is - a song that represents my personality, quirks, and interests? Please let me know...

When Candy Goes Wrong

I can't decide what is funnier the title, which sounds like something from a budget horror film, or the picture, which speaks for itself...

It is my passion.

Do you remember falling in love, discovering your passion - I was nine. We had free-time. I was laying on my stomach looking at the books on the bottom shelf of the classroom bookcase, books we never used in class. I have always had a fondness for things that involve never. There were lots of books i knew by then that i was supposed to be interested in, classics - Treasure Island, The Jungle Book, Black Beauty. The there was this old, faded blue book - you know that weird library-binding blue that is nothing like the author or publicist intended. There was a grainy, faded picture of a girl on the front with her yellow skirt and hair blowing out to the side - rather unrealistically, I now know - but completely wonderful to my rather overdeveloped imagination of the time. The Witch of Blackbird Pond. I started reading it. For people who know me now that may seem like no big deal, but let me assure you it was. I did not read. I was in Chapter 1 reading, not because I didn't know how, I was reading when I was three years old, but because I refused to do it. The power of my will to not do something I didn't want to was such that I almost failed out of school - before the 5th grade. So me reading, and right there in the middle of the classroom even, that was not normal behavior. But it was free-time and no one noticed. It was not the first book I had read, but for some reason I was pulled into that world. It was the first time I wanted to read. I took the book home with me. I finished it in two days. I read it again. And again. (I did eventually give it back - but only after I had acquired my own copy at a school book fair.) Then I went to the library to see if Elizabeth George Speare had written any other books. The Calico Captive, The Bronze Bow, and The Sign of the Beaver were all quickly devoured. And just like that I was a reader. It is my passion.

except it is so windy here that you can't feel that melting power... =(

6 June 1944

a guide...

a dedication...

to Strong Soviet Mother...

The new release list...

So I was browsing the through the cookbook section, as I am wont to do on occasion, and what do I discover, but a lovely conflation of my interests in food and technology. If you thought about getting me a gift to celebrate the end of a successful school year, this is something you might want to consider (and if you didn't, why not - it is always a good time for presents)...


Food 2.0: Secrets From the Chef Who Fed Google By Charlie Ayers looks like tons of fun, and as one of my goals for the summer is to get back into the kitchen more, it would be a lovely addition to my already extensive, but never complete, collection. And as the buzzword for this chef is brainfood, it would be helpful in fortifying me for my other summer goal of finishing my reading list...

the "Google Generation" can't Google...

"A recent survey shows many students from the so-called 'Google generation' lack the basic skills needed for online research"

In a recent article put out in the UK, the findings of a study say that while they may proficient in the use of Facebook and Wikipedia, this generation (born after 1993) is not actually connected to information in this information age.

status quo...

I have been quite busy - the status quo of the semester - and so, as there was really nothing else going on with me, I thought would tell you a bit about that.

I have really rediscovered a love of literary studies and theory this semester, which is nice as that is what I am planning on doing with my life. I am writing my final paper for my Critical Theory class on food imagery and cultural identity, rather appropriate given my two great loves are books and food. The title will be "Cooking Up Culture: Food Imagery and the Creation of Cultural Identity in Silence" - a bit wordy, I know, but I like it.

I have another paper that I will have to write for Poetics, as well, but that will come together eventually - even though I have no idea where I am going with that one.

I also really need to get my reading list finalized and signed off on. I still have to decide what theory texts and articles I want to be my summer reading. Decisions, decisions...

I think a cuppa tea would help...

a poem placeholder

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal
of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting,
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

some serious funny...

einstein quote of the day...

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."

i am locavore...

so, i am not a big ranter... overall, i tend to avoid conflict whenever possible - i mostly just want everyone to get along...

that said, this is a rant - and not surprisingly it involves one of my two great passions: food... it was inspired by little tatooed girl - our conversation made me realize how seldom i talk about some of the things i really believe in... so you all get a rant...

i am an advocate of local food - or as much as possible in a place like BV city... i believe quite passionately in the importance - to all levels of society - of buying your food locally... it is one of the most important food choices you can make - and it effects all other dietary choices... this does not mean that you have to give up all foods that don't grow within a 100 miles of where you live, which is good, 'cause i would starve here, it just means buying locally whenever you can - let's be real, i am not going to be giving up good dark chocolate anytime soon, and everyone is better off for that decision... but i can get my tomatoes and squash locally, eggs and beef, too.

there are so many good great reasons to eat local...

eating local means more for the local economy - dollars spent locally support the local community twice three times as much as business owned by outsiders...
locally grown produce is fresher... and as a result, local food just flat out tastes better...
locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen - less spoilage - less waste...
eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic - organic food is often shipped hundreds and sometimes thousand of miles, using so much more fuel and energy to get to you, and thus polluting more...
buying local food keeps us in touch with the seasons - you eat what is fresh when it is harvested, instead of imported out-of-season food...
eating local protects us from bio-terrorism - you know where it came from and who had access to it before it when on your plate - and the opportunities for tampering just aren't feasible in a market which is so much smaller...
local food connects you to your community - you get to know the people who grew your tomatoes and baked your bread...
local food equals more variety - smaller farms can try crops that you would not normally see in your local agri-business run supermarket, and things like zebra tomatoes and purple string beans become available for anyone to try...
supporting local providers supports responsible land development - land being used in a sustainable manner for farming will not be sold to developers to build McMansions - and the variety of crops helps to keep the land continuously productive and in use, without damaging it or leaving it fallow...
and if you do eat meat, you know how the animals were treated before they were killed, what, if any, chemicals and hormones went into their diet, and how fresh the meat actually is...

one of the best resource (for the US readers), no matter what your diet choices are, to find locally produced food is an organization called Local Harvest... you can find all sorts of sources for locally produced food, including CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) - which are kinda like a subsidy - but instead of the government paying farmers to grow (or not) what they think should be on the market, the consumer pays the farm directly for the food, ensuring that they make a fair amount for their products without government intervention - a fresher and more varied product than what is available in most stores... the one that i am looking at is Grant Family Farms, which is just across the border into colorado...

i really could go on for quite some time, but as i stated at the beginning, i am not big on rants and this one covers most of the main points...

it is really just a logical iteration of the maxim that to effect change you have to think globally and act locally...

food, food, food...

i have found a new food blog that i absolutely love, so i just had to share - even knowing that i am probably the only person who reads this blog who is interested in food blogs...

it is called Tea & Cookies, and beyond being as much in love with food as i am, she is a fabulous writer, really worth checking out... here is one of her early posts that made me happy ... and here is one that is more recent ...

don't worry, i know that the interest here is less than the sqee-ness that i am feeling... but because of that squee-ness i had to share...

life and whatnot...

i seem to have been posting quite a bit of content from other sources recently and, well, that just seems lazy ... even though that is what most bloggers do, really ... so, in an effort, albeit a weak one, not to be lame... i am giving an update on my life... and stuff...


grad school - it's great! i love my classes, even when i don't want to go... theory is not sucking nearly as badly as i was afraid it might... i am actually really liking it *gasp*... i know, crazy, right?... poetics is often very theoretical, as well, but with a direct connection to the poetry we are reading, rather than text in general... and really my classes are made that much better by the rather brilliant people by whom they are populated - the comments of my classmates are something i look forward to as much, if not more than, whatever topic is under discussion for that day...

on a note related to grad school, i am also putting together my reading list... for those not from the world of literary academia, i compile a list of works encompassing at least three categories - in my case, time period, genre, and approach - read them and then next fall i will have to synthesize them in a reading list test, an oral exam given by the committee approving the list... i have decided to specialize in the medieval - probably not a surprise for those who know me - so along that line i have chosen to read medieval french lit, 19th and early 20th century fantasy, and cultural studies theory... my list is not yet complete and approved, but i am excited for it anyway...

work is not so bad... i enjoy the labs and love the internet time... though i suppose i would not be opposed to having the same internet time at home... i have applied for a teaching assistantship for next year, and, should i get it, my lab time will be significantly reduced... and i might get an office... how odd...

in the kitchen... well i haven't actually been in the kitchen that much recently... yesterday was the first time in ages i had cooked, and it was lovely... i suppose there is a combination of reasons for that... my kitchen style tends to be slow food for large groups, and while i am living with a large - relatively - group, the various dietary choices and restrictions of that diverse group make slow food somewhat difficult... most vegetarian and vegan food actually happens rather quickly... and slow food often involves meat of some kind... and timing has also been an issue - time to cook when i don't need to be doing other things has to be balanced with the time that other people want to use the kitchen... it is not a single-butt kitchen, but the flow does not work really well for more than two or three people... as a result, very little of my time has been spent in the kitchen as yet this year ... and that is sad, because i love food, making and eating it...

one of the things that has been taking away my kitchen time is fitness - largely, bellydancing and hula hooping - and i really love it... i am no where near the level of skill that i would like at either of them... but, i am gonna keep working on them both, even though this week is the last week of bellydancing class - no more security of having a teacher to tell me what to do... i am hula hooping a lot and i am finally starting to try some tricks - tricks which will need much more practice before they are made public... the result of all this jiggling is that i have finally started to lose the weight that i want off, though, again, only a start on a much bigger project...

so, overall, life is good... and now you know...

a poem

poetry speaks to me in a way that prose just can't, no matter how thrilling i find happily-ever-after ... it is on a level so much more elemental, visceral - proceeding from instinct rather than intellect ... and it frustrates me that i can't accurately explain what it is about certain poems that is so powerful to me, even knowing how rarely one can explain instinct...

anyway, a poem...

The Dream

I dream an inescapable dream
in which I take away from the country
the bridges and roads, the fences, the strung wires,
ourselves, all we have built and dug and hollowed out,
our flocks and herds, our droves of machines.

I restore then the wide-branching trees.
I see growing over the land and shading it
the great trunks and crowns of the first forest.
I am aware of the rattling of their branches,
the lichened channels of their bark, the saps
of the ground flowing upward to their darkness.
Like the afterimage of a light that only by not
looking can be seen, I glimpse the country that was.
All its beings belong wholly to it. They florish
in dying as being born. It is the life of its deaths.

I must end, always, by replacing
our beginnings there, ourselves and our blades,
the flowing of history, putting back what i took away,
trying always with the same pain of foreknowlwdge
to build all that we have built, but destroy nothing.

My hands weakening, I feel on all sides blindness
growing in the land on its peering bulbous stalks.
I see that my mind is not good enough.
I see that I am eager to own the earth and own men.
I find in my mouth a bitter taste of money,
a gaping syllable I can neither swallow nor spit out.
I see all that we have ruined in order to have, all
that was owned for a life time to be destroyed forever.

Where are the sleeps that escape such dreams?

~Wendell Berry, 1968


i wonder if this is how god feels looking down on creation, sometimes...

V-Day

february...

as readers and fellow flock members know, february and i have a mutual distrust and hatred for each other - i try my best to endure and the longest month of the year does its best to defeat me... as an antidote to the dismay imparted by this interminable month i have complied a list of moments...

happiness is...
...cooking with my grandmother
...the perfect glass of pinot grigio
...medieval french poetry
...blood oranges
...a hot cup of tea on a cold day that i don't have to be out in
...shopping with my sister
...summer stars in the high desert
...slow food
...my mountains
...the sound of the ocean
...dancing until i can barely move
...hula-hooping
...soup and sourdough
...happily ever after
...the sound of the rain
...late night conversations
...green growy things
...visiting someplace i have never been before
...heirloom roses
...ripe, summer peaches
...other peoples stories
...red carnations
...old, character-filled houses
...cooking for the people i love

...a list as fleeting and incomplete as happiness itself...

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 -- 5:55 PM ET
-----

Senate Votes to Broaden Government's Spying Powers

By a vote of 68 to 29, the Senate gave final approval to a
bill that expands the government's spying powers and gives
legal protection to phone companies that cooperated in
President Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program.

Read more here...

economic stimulus at the expense of reading...

i have to admit, i haven't really paid attention to the economic stimulus package that has been in the news so much in the past few weeks - other than to think election year bulls**t... however today while i was reading my blogs i had to sit up and take notice...

President Bush Eliminates Funding for Reading Is Fundamental’s Historic Book Distribution Program Serving 4.6 Million Children

apparently the only way to stimulate the economy is to make sure that the future of at-risk kids is even harder, because they can't read... he probably thinks what's the point, they aren't going to have time to read anyway - what with flipping burgers and shooting up their neighborhoods - no point in cultvating skills that would help them improve themselves and thus the country and the economy... arg! this administration makes me so mad...

269 days left... if another republican is elected i think i might move to europe... or canada...

lawyers...

for my fellow labbies...

and anyone else who may work in a tech support related job...

medieval tech support...

raks sharqi...

i love belly dance... i know, it has only been one lesson, but it is so much fun!!!! and i am not as sore as i thought i would be... it is really hard, lots more so than i expected, but soooooo much fun... i can't wait till i am good... g-fresh and i are going to practice every night...

i only wish i was as good as this girl is...

mass media...

so, as descriptions of mass media, i find this one to be very entertaining... and somewhat true...

there is a ton of information, much of it i don't care about, on the internet - just as i imagine the drunk librarian in the corner at the cocktail party... and like the librarian, once one gets it started, it sucks you in with information to places you never wanted to go... like facebook, myspace and random forums that suck the soul from the ideas they may have been founded on... and occasionally you get a gem - a well-edited wiki, an educational website, friends blogs - but more often you lose hours of you life that you can never get back... and i love it...

i must be perverse, because i would rather talk to the drunk librarian in the corner than most of the other people at the party... the internet is where i get my news, talk to friends, organize my life... and i really love the random places that the drunk librarian leads me... beautiful, brilliant, fun places... even though there are some places that you can not un-know, no matter how much you may wish to - like some of the places you can find kittens...

still, it beats the hell out of "fair and balanced"...

culture, in brief...

i have discovered a lovely new(to me) site that will inspire horror in those of a serious literary persuasion, possible confusion in the rest of the population, and general hilarity all around...

please go visit Book-A-Minute Classics and see for yourself - they are truly brilliant...

my favorite so far is this one, of The Odyssey ...

i posted a general update on the status of my holiday break on flock hall 2.0, so if you are interested go there to read it...

i have to say that i am not a fan of new year's resolutions - in my experience no one follows them anyway - but there are a few things in my life that look like resolutions...

~ i have set up a fairly rigorous (by fleur standards) work-out schedule with my sister - both gym time and belly dancing and pilates classes
~ my roommate's vegan lifestyle is spilling over into my eating habits - i think about them more than i have in the past, anyway
~ my master's program reading list is going to force me to read some of the things that have been in the to-be-read pile since before i started college
~ the massive amounts of reading which i have to do this semester will require a schedule to keep on track - more planning than i have ever really done for homework before this year - grad school is much different from undergrad
~ tighter-than-planned money situation will require better budgeting skills and more fiscal responsibility

you can probably see how these items have the flavor of resolutions, but i prefer to see them as life changes not dependent on a date cycle to come into effect (besides that, i am listing them a couple weeks after the new year- where did the break go?) - and also they will hopefully have a longer life span than mid-february, unlike the average new year's resolution...

my two geeks...

so my literature geek and my tech geek both sqeeeeed a little when i saw this article about the One Laptop Per Child program and UNICEF teaming up to create a database of oral tradition stories, so as to preserve them... yay for the preservation of culture!

here is the stories database...

a holiday list...

tacky or not, the holiday wish list is making an appearance - it is by no means a complete list of my desires, and if you feel inspired to get me something not on here, feel free... and if you don't want to give me anything at all that is fine, too... but several people have asked what i want, so here it is in all of its greedy glory...

fun, writer-type stuff:
anything from here, cause they are fun: http://www.ninthmoon.com
Scrivener
Curio

kitchen stuff:
le creuset cookware
a digital kitchen thermometer
a mandolin slicer - talk to squid first, though cause she said she might =)

and the ubiquitous book category:
Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich
Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Restaurant Reviews, Articles, Memoir, Fiction and More by Dianne Jacob
The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller
More Great Good Dairy-free Desserts by Fran Costigan
Rejection, Romance and Royalties: The Wacky World of a Working Writer By Laura Resnick
any of the Andrew Lang Fairy Books
this category could go on indefinitely, so i am stopping...

that is more than enough greediness for the year... and really i don't need presents from anyone, but honestly, who doesn't like presents...

my nod to the commercialism of the season has been fulfilled...

mfa, anyone?

wow ... some bright future prospects with a my degree (kinda - i will have an MA not an MFA - not sure what difference that one letter makes in this case, though)


http://www.marriedtothesea.com/

politics and literature...

in a publicity-hounding world it is really not that much of a stretch to combine book tours with campaigns, and what a prolific bunch of candidates we have... if you are unfamiliar with the literary politicos, Salon has reviewed the candidates' books here... some i have seen some i had not heard of... will this supposedly candid look at their lives and their views (the books are all "non-fiction") give you a better insight during the 2008 election, or does it just drive home the lack of good options? by the way, Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You) was not reviewed... =(

a matter of heart...

so this is a subject that is close to my heart on many levels... it just plain rocks...
Suzanne Brockmann, a bestselling author of romance novels, is donating all the profits of her latest book, All Through The Night, which was released on 30 October, to MassEquality... you can read more about it here... as a note for all my gay friends, who may not normally be interested in such a book, it features a gay wedding, possibly a first for mainstream romance and all the profits go to a great cause...

i have not yet read the book, but i plan on it... and i am going to buy it first, not something i generally do with new authors, as the public library system here rocks... but is supports such a good cause and, well, i love romance, so...

NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month... read about it here... and then go write...

referals... reading rules my life...

my life has been subsumed by grad school so here are some other cool places to go read stuff... cause i am not posting here...

cute overload
postsecret
ironic sans
suicide food
the sneeze
wonkette

they are in no particular order, but they are all fascinating to me for one reason or another ...
they are all found on PC Magainze's Our Favorite 100 Blogs 2007 though i had seen some of them before...
enjoy...

so i had to share...

some of you have already seen this i am sure, but it came up again recently in a paper i am writing on conduct books from the middle ages because the similarity really struck me...

from 1406... "She will be overjoyed to see him, and when she is with him she will try hard to say everything that ought to please him, and she will keep a happy expression on her face."

from 1953...

(click to see all of the detail)

eerily similar, no? one might think no progress had been made at all...

recipes are fun...

Tessa - 1/4 cup of ambition - 2 heaping tablespoons of kindness - a gallon of crazy Serve hot.

'What is your personality recipe?' at QuizGalaxy.com

banned book week - the closer...

so this is the end of banned books week and i thought that i couldn't let it pass without saying something, so...

U.S Airport Screeners Are Watching What You Read
"They are noting people's race and they are writing down what people read"
"The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment."

really the whole article is about the censorship of travel... soon they will decide when and where you are allowed to go... the loss of personal freedom is huge, and when you start with small things like what people are reading and what they are allowed to read - it very quickly leads to bigger things... "Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings."- Heinrich Heine

some links in the fight against censorship...
Delete Censorship
The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000
Banned Book T-shirts
The Forbidden Library
Controversial & Banned Books
some more quotes on censorship...

"Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education."
-- Alfred Whitney Griswold, Essays on Education

"If the human body's obscene, complain to the manufacturer, not me."
-- Larry Flynt

"Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance."
-- Lyndon Baines Johnson, February 11, 1964

and my personal favorite...

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? - Who will watch the watchers?"
-- Juvenal

so, go read a banned book...

some funny craziness...

Arabian Formula- a crazy cross cultural marketing incident

Vulva Perfume (NSFW) - this one may have been visited by the flock before- but still vastly disturbing with a bit of amusement thrown in for good measure - what is new to this community is the smell test - now you can find out what men really think of the scent of a woman...

i was gonna find more, but i guess this is enough crazy for today...

enjoy =)

Harvest Home...

today is the autumnal equinox, the first day of fall astrologically (though if you live in wyoming you have probably noticed the chill in the air before today), second harvest festival and, in contemporary america, Mabon... it is a day of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and the gifts in our lives... considered a time of balance, as the day and the night are equal on this holiday, it is when we stop and relax and enjoy the fruits of our personal harvests, whether they be from toiling in our gardens, working at our jobs, studying for tests, or just dealing with the craziness that is everyday life... as with all pagan holidays, it reflects the cycles of nature and personal relationship with the world around us - and on this day we contemplate the seeds we have planted in our lives and see how they are coming to fruition...

oops!

so - i am at times internet retarded, and i mean that in the traditional sense of the word, not the un-PC sense... i am a little slow... along with the five questions i posted, i was supposed to say that if you want to play the game, let me know in the comments and i will make five questions for you... so, if you want to play, let me know in the comments and i will make five questions for you =)

Five Questions...

1. What is your favorite recipe to make?
biscuits or bread, doughy baked goods, really anything that i get to kneed - there is something so primal and connective in really digging into the creation your food like that...

2. Excellent post on Kitchen Witchery by you. What would you say to someone interested in following a such a path?
research... meditate... know yourself... know your world... know the history of the path... don't be fluffy... blessed be...

3. You are given a year to perfect your skills and knowledge in one cuisine that you are not fluent in, of your choice. Which would you pick, and why?
that is tough, i have so much to learn and there are so many places that cook beautifully, which i am only minimally familiar with - France, Eastern Europe, Iran, Brazil, the many provinces of China... but i think i would go with Thai - it is so completely fabulous and i love the balance of it - spicy/sweet/savory/sour - the delicacy and skill involved in balancing flavors like that is amazing...

4. Define "assmuppet."
that is one of those terms which actual definition is very contextual - it is a term used to refer to an individual who has someone else's hand controlling them, via their anus; however it can be used to refer to someone who is controlled in that manner by an institution, ideal, or other general stupidity, as well... i could put a name here, but you all know who he is anyway...

5. A biscuit traveling at 9.8 meters / second flies off the cookie sheet 2 feet away from the oven door, and 4 feet away from the kitchen table. It lands on page 734 of the Norton Anthology of English Literature, smearing butter into the pages. What velocity has it hit the book, and more importantly what bribery will it take for you to ship some biscuits across country?
as the Norton was on the counter, that is impossible to calculate with the given information, however, i would guess that it has hit with a velocity of "oh s**t..." unless the Norton was open to Aphra Behn, in which case the velocity was "thank the goddess"... as to bribery, i am so above that =) ... besides, biscuits are better fresh anyway... when are you coming to laramie?

classic

i have been having a bad blog week... i'll think, "i should blog..." so i open up my post and proceed to go completely blank... it's not as though nothing has happened in my life, i just can't imagine the happenings of my grad class, and my increasing fascination with victorian prose styles, and the latest paranormal romance novel as being of that much interest to anyone but me... so that leaves me with the dilemma of what to blog about... so, the cop-out of bloggers everywhere... ooooh, shiny...

heehee

day by day

reading...

i may not have had to buy any books for the class, but this is how my grad seminar started...

That emelye, that fairer was to sene
Than is the lylie upon his stalke grene,
And fressher than the may with floures newe --
For with the rose colour stroof hire hewe,
I noot which was the fyner of hem two --
Er it were day, as was hir wone to do,
She was arisen and al redy dight;
For may wole have no slogardie a-nyght.
The sesoun priketh every gentil herte,
And maketh hym out of his slep to sterte,
And seith arys, and do thyn observaunce.
This maked emelye have remembraunce
To doon honour to may, and for to ryse.
Yclothed was she fressh, for to devyse:
Hir yelow heer was broyded in a tresse
Bihynde hir bak, a yerde long, I gesse.
And in the gardyn, at the sonne upriste,
She walketh up and doun, and as hire liste
She gadereth floures, party white and rede,
To make a subtil gerland for hire hede;
And as an aungel hevenysshly she soong.

i enjoy middle english, but as a grad student i am going to have to read a lot more closely than i did as an undergrad... so if you wonder what i am up to there is a good chance it is this... or this...

The condition of England, on which many pamphlets are now in the course of publication, and many thoughts unpublished are going on in every reflective head, is justly regarded as one of the most ominous, and withal one of the strangest, ever seen in this world. England is full of wealth, of multifarious produce,supply for human want in every kind; yet England is dying of inanition. With unabated bounty the land of England blooms and grows; waving with yellow harvests; thick-studded with workshops, industrial implements, with fifteen millions of workers, understood to be the strongest, the cunningest and the willingest our Earth ever had; these men are here; the work they have done, the fruit they have realised is here, abundant, exuberant on every hand of us: and behold, some baleful fiat as of Enchantment has gone forth, saying, "Touch it not, ye workers, ye master-workers, ye master-idlers; none of you can touch it, no man of you shall be the better for it; this is enchanted fruit!" On the poor workers such fiat falls first, in its rudest shape; but on the rich masterworkers too it falls; neither can the rich master-idlers, nor any richest or highest man escape, but all are like to be brought low with it, and made 'poor' enough, in the money-sense or a far fataller one. ~Thomas Carlyle

happy reading to all you students, except for art students who have no reading, and thus suck ... =)

read much?

so i got my books for my classes, those that are available, and while i am still excited to start grad school i am having a bit of an oh-my-good-goddess moment... these are the books for one of my two classes, not counting the additional reading i will have to do for my research project that makes it so i get grad credit for the class...

Apologia Pro Vita Sua by Cardnial John Henry Newman
Autobiography Of John Stuart Mill
The Carlyle Reader
Culture & Anarchy by Matthew Arnold
Father & Son by Edmund Gosse
The Genius Of John Ruskin
Parallel Lives by Phyllis Rose
Past & Present by Thomas Carlyle
Victorian People & Ideas by Richard Altick

this is also not counting the reading i will need to do for my shakespeare/chaucer class, because the teacher(s) have not ordered any books from the bookstore...

still excited, but wow, that is a lot of reading... most of it i will enjoy, but still, wow...

As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it. ~ Albert Einstein

some odd facts...

so here are some oddball body facts... don't know if they are in fact true, but they are fascinating... strangely fascinating...
-A full bladder is roughly the size of a soft ball.

- Approximately 75% of human feces is made of water.

- It takes the food seven seconds to get from your mouth to your stomach.

- One human hair can support 3kg.

- Human thighbones are stronger than concrete.

- The attachment of human muscles to skin is what causes dimples.

-Your thumb is the same length of your nose.

- A woman's heart beats faster than a man's.

- If the average male never shaved, his beard would be 13 feet long when he died.

- Men without hair on their chests are more likely to get cirrhosis of the liver than men with hair.

- There are about one trillion bacteria on each of your feet.

- Side by side, 2000 cells from the human body could cover about one square inch.

- Women blink twice as much as men.

- The average person's skin weighs twice as much as their brain.

- When you are looking at someone you love, your pupils dilate, they do the same when you are looking at someone you hate.

- It takes twice as long to lose new muscle if you stop working out than it did to gain it.

- You're ears secrete more earwax when you are afraid than when you aren't.

- Your body uses 300 muscles to balance itself when you are standing still.

- If saliva cannot dissolve something, you cannot taste it.

- The average woman is 5 inches shorter than the average man.

You checked out the length of your thumb.. Didn't ya?

lammas

Lughnasadh (August 1) is the time of the first harvest, when the seeds of spring give up their fruits and seeds for us, to feed us through this year and to continue the cycle of life into the future. the feast has many names - Lughnasadh, Lammas, Feast of Bread, Harvest Home, Feast of First Fruits, Loaf-mass... whatever it is called, it is a celebration of the bounty of summer, a thanksgiving for the blessings in our lives, the food on our table... it is a feast celebrated by Christians and pagans alike ... it is a recognition of the passing of summer and the need for death to bring new life... it is the smell of sun-ripened peaches and the explosion of sweetness as you bite into fresh corn... may you never go hungry on this or any day and may we all be brought to greater awareness of the blessings in our lives

Blessed Be...

amateur

some of you may have noticed among my links Booksquare, the premise behind which is"Dissecting the publishing industry with love and skepticism." something i really enjoy and, as a lit geek, i find vastly interesting ... in a recent post they discuss andrew keen and his book, The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy or The Cult of the Amateur: How the Democratization of the Digital World is Assaulting Our Economy, Our Culture, and Our Values (depending on the citation or the country in which it was released). Booksquare's take on his book is yet another reason i really enjoy their site... um, pretentious title aside... is our culture dead? how is the internet responsible for the entirety of economics - rather than say, a decent domestic affairs policy (reaganomics didn't work the first time people!)? and why is it that he feels qualified to discount a huge portion of society and its creative expression by naming them amateurs... i have not read the book(nor will i as stupidity generally makes me want to tear my hair out, and i don't look good bald), and while i will admit the internet has content that i find useless, i do not blame it for the demise of a culture (not convinced that the culture is dead)... the arrogance and elitism inherent here really make me a bit crazy... do they give egos their own time zones? it may be needed here...

laramie, finally... kinda

so i am back in laramie now... and very pleased to be here... mark and i have a place in riverton and flock hall 2.0 to is starting to come together, though we do have kitchen paraphernalia scattered throughout the living room still... i am settling in quite nicely... until tomorrow, when it is back to elko to sell our car and grab the last of our stuff... then next week a visit home to the family... then back to laramie for laundry... then off to arizona to visit mandyland =) ... all of this i am really excited about, but it will be nice to be able to settle in for a stay that is longer than a week at a time... maybe unpack the rest of my boxes... but the brunt of the moving is over and i must say that it is a relief and i hope that we can stay put for a bit, cause i really hate moving... travel is great, but moving sucks... it's nice to be home

moving is teh suXX0rs!

mark! the nature is touching me!

i am a foodie...

my heroes are people like MFK Fisher, James Beard, Ina Garten, Nigella Lawson, Anthony Bourdain, Giada De Laurentiis. chefs and cooks, authors and entertainers, very different personalities with one thing in common – a deep love of food and its creation… aside from romance novels, one thing that i will always be excited to read is food writing, be it memoir, cookbook or restaurant review… a recent article linked off of Brendon’s blog made mention of a few things that made me wonder about the term foodie (this is a tangent, not a statement about whether wine or beer is better – i say, if they are good, give me both)… it spoke of “the rise of pastoral chic” – as though a return to local, sustainable food sources and a lack of chemicals in our food was, at best, a marketing ploy, if not a figment of the collective imagination. i have to say that i disagree with that thought… while it may not be a mainstream truth in America, it is a growing desire to have good, natural food – if this were not true, the marketing wouldn’t work… the rise in this trend was not brought about by hippies, but by foodies (though a lot of foodies are hippies at heart, just as many are irresponsible over-consumers, as well). and while the health benefits were considered, the main goal behind the call for fresh and chemical-free was, and is, taste – fresh food tastes better and a reliance on local availability calls for a greater creativity, because you have to work with what is there. i do think that this rise in popularity of fresh, organic food has brought about a support of farmers who may have otherwise not been able to maintain business, but i don’t think that the majority of the consumers with a desire for these products went out and bought a farm… they did not even follow the example of the early 19th century poets speaking out against the industrial world in which they lived, and extol the virtues of a pastoral life… they mostly just want their food... like me - mostly, i just want my food... but after watching the way in which food affected my mother’s cancer fight, am also way more concerned about things like antioxidants and vitamin content… lucky for me the taste goes well with the health benefits =)

yay for food!