Just...nasty

Yet another "What is wrong with people?" rant. What the heck would cause a father to kidnap his own daughter, lock her in a secret basement room for 24 years, and rape her repeatedly, fathering seven children (one of whom died and he burned the body)? Sick, sick, sick.

I hope his sentences run consecutively (can they do that in Austria?) because it sounds like the longest individual penalty is 15 years for rape although they are looking into murder through failure to act in the case of the dead infant. This slimebag should be tossed in a deep hole with a bucket and maybe some bread and water if the jailer is feeling charitable.

Methinks I need a library card...

So tell me again, why do I buy books? I could just as easily save money by checking books out from the library (as this would prove my mother absolutely right, you're not allowed to tell her that I might finally see her point - thankfully, she's not prone to surfing the Web, either), although with gas prices the way they are it might cost more just to drive to the library because it is farther from my house than the mall. Mom used to complain that it was pointless to buy me books because I would have them read in a day; ten books from our weekly trip to the CR Public Library would last me about three days followed by four days of whining about "having nothing to read." I think she was relieved when I graduated to books longer than sixty pages because they lasted longer.

Back to my point. I picked up two "easy" reads because my little brain was swimming after reading Beloved (I also knitted quite a bit to get Sethe out of my system). Our little group at BN is reading Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass, Or, Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office by Jen Lancaster (yes, that is the whole title) for May so that was book #1 and then I snagged I Was Told There'd be Cake by Sloane Crosley which I'd been eyeballing for some time. Give you three guesses to figure out how long it took me to read Lancaster's book....give up? FOUR HOURS total. That's it. This is why my mother is right and you can't tell her - I bought a book and finished it in only four hours (I also read about half of the Crosley, too, during that time). Maybe I should have checked it out from the library instead....nah, I hate how library books make my bag smell like old glue. And besides, bookaholism can't be cured by just going to the library (the local library is also undergoing renovations and has yet to lure me in to apply for a card).

Bitter is the New Black was a good book and I'll have to pick up the next two (Bright Lights, Big Ass : A Self-Indulgent, Surly, Ex-Sorority Girl's Guide to Why it Often Sucks in the City, or Who are These Idiots and Why Do They All Live Next Door to Me? and Such a Pretty Fat : One Narcissist's Quest To Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, Or Why Pie is Not The Answer) because the writing style is really engaging. Even though Lancaster is a self-described condescending hag, I do identify with her (there are many days where I was thinking the EXACT same thing she said to someone in her book but I didn't say anything for fear that my grandmother would appear and haunt me to death) and I was righteously pissed off that no one would hire her. For anything. Because I've had people hint that I'm overqualified for a job (working at the bookstore is a good example; by the way, newsflash, ALL of us working at the bookstore are overqualified to work there). As if being overqualified somehow ranked higher than the need to eat and find shelter.

Thank you to Netflix for allowing unlimited Instant Viewing - it helps with the insomnia because I can watch movies in bed now.

Current book-in-progress: I Was Told There'd be Cake, The Black City, Villette, and The Shakespeare Wars
Current knitted item: Pretty red scarf
Current movie obsession: I finished Enchanted (really cute movie, Disney actually has a sense of humor, but I wanted to slap Amy Adams after a while because the crazy, wide-eyed cartoon thing gets kind of old in live action shots), watched the Timothy Dalton-Zelah Clarke Jane Eyre (gets the award for most bland ending ever, although kudos for making Timothy Dalton look beat-up for once), A Midsummer Night's Dream (with the awesome Helen Mirren as Titania), and Clash of the Titans for variety (still a good movie even though the effects look super dated now); Sweeny Todd is sitting in the DVD player right now (mmmmm, Johnny Depp)
Current iTunes loop: John Mayer (I'm trying to will spring to appear)

Ha! I'm not the only one

The College Board's National Commission on Writing just released a survey of 700 students - nearly 2/3 of the students said they blended e-communication styles into their written school assignments.

Guess I'm not the only one who noticed that teens really do write poorly. And I can't understand half of what they write.

Scary thought: Richard Sterling (a prof at UC Berkeley) thinks that capitalization could become obsolete because "when his teenage son asked what the presence of the capital letter added to what the period at the end of the sentence signified, he had no answer." HEY!! I use capitalization to help delineate parts of written language. Grrr.

[Side note: I have a headache because the barometric pressure is playing havoc with my sinuses. I'm going to lay on the floor of my office for a bit.]

Current book-in-progress: Last night I read more of The Shakespeare Wars, pretty interesting about the textual infighting amongst Shakespeare scholars
Current knitted item: Pretty red scarf (yesterday someone asked if it was a dishcloth - like hell it is because a) it's made of really nice alpaca/wool yarn and b) it's about 2 feet long)
Current movie obsession: Michael Clayton (I must be jaded from too many cop/legal shows because it's not really catching my interested although Tilda Swinton is quite good)
Current iTunes loop: KSUI

I finished Jackie's socks

Yippee! That second sock really flew (I wonder why the first one took so long) so no Second Sock Syndrome here. Sorry no pics because I gave the socks to Jackie before I remembered to find the camera. Oops.

Now I think I'll make a pair of socks in Mountain Colors Bearfoot for myself. Mmmmm...

Current book-in-progress: The Black City by George Sand for BNBC May, Notes from Underground, and At Swim-Two-Birds (there must be a disorder that's known as reading ADD because I can't concentrate on any one thing)
Current knitted item: Pretty red scarf; I might have an idea for the obnoxious tan neck warmer
Current movie obsession: Criminal Minds Seasons 1 and 2 (Mandy Patinkin is AWESOME and Thomas Gibson isn't too bad, either; Shemar Moore is just HOT); Enchanted just came from Netflix
Current iTunes loop: audiobook of 1984

Feasibility? Really?

So...like anyone who lives in Iowa City and is from the Chicago area/likes to visit the Chicago area/has friends who are from the Chicago area you know that train service bites. The Amtrak goes through Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, which is about 45 minutes south of us. And has a much smaller population (no University of Iowa, either). Much bemoaning this fact everytime one would like to visit something in Chicago but dread having to drive there. I'm partial to the Art Institute, the Adler, Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, and the Museum of Science and Industry. Just to name a few.

Today the Cedar Rapids Gazette announced that Amtrak had done a feasibility study regarding service from Chicago to Iowa City, etc., via the Quad Cities.

They did???? Did the Amtrak representatives actually speak to anyone in the Iowa City area to see if anyone is interested?? I didn't see anyone. Might actually be helpful to speak with the natives to see if we are CHOMPING AT THE BIT to have Amtrak service.

The results of the study will be announced on Friday morning at the Iowa Memorial Union on campus. Joy.

Current book-in-progress: Would anyone believe that I'm still working on Beloved? Vilette and Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (I have got to get an acronym for that) are still in the picture as well as The Gunseller (Hugh Laurie, the man can write and act) and whatever else I can procrastinate with
Current knitted item: Pretty blue sock (working on the ribbing) and pretty red scarf; the tan neck warmer refuses to start itself (humpf)
Current movie obsession: Watched Charlotte Gray with the BN crew (Birdsong doesn't exist as a movie as yet); very sad in some places but we were all punchy from having worked all day at the crazy store so we were making fun of some of the situations (Michael Gambon-Dumbledore references kept popping up). Great quote - "Beth, you took French, what's 'Un, deux, trois, cherchez la pas' mean?" "one, two, three...."
Current iTunes loop: John Mayer and the audiobook of 1984

Spellchecker aside...

Is it just me or do teenagers have unbelievably poor spelling and grammar???

It's getting to the point where I can tell someone's age by how he/she/they/it form words and sentences.

I think it's due to an overuse of texting and IM. I'll be the first one to admit that beyond the standard LOL, BRB, and TTYL, I really don't abbreviate my words in IM. I type fast enough to make do with the full words.

So...I have a quandary: if someone posts in my group, and this person has atrocious spelling and grammar to the point that I can't understand the meaning, can I ask them to restate the post in correct English? This quandary does not apply to non-native English speakers/typers because they actually have better written English than some of the Americans.

The Western Canon and Then We Came to the End

I finished Harold Bloom's The Western Canon over the weekend. Took me quite a while because it was pretty dense; not dense in the crazy-philosophical-theory sense, but dense in that Bloom quotes from a number of different works and you have to sort through the quotes and the thoughts to get anything out of it. I probably would have enjoyed the book more if I had actually read all of the pieces Bloom described. I've read only half (maybe, probably less than that) so chapters on Ibsen, Goethe, and Latin American writers kind of went past me. I started Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human and it will go much faster because I've read most of Will the Shake's plays.

I also finished Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris (UI alum before he went to Irvine for his MFA). A really great book that observes the characters from the point of the corporate "we" (sort of like the royal "we") but doesn't distance the reader from the characters. You really start to care about all of them, including the crazy ones, so once you get used to the mode of storytelling the novel just flies. Props also to Joshua for winning the Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers 2007 Fiction and also the Hemingway/PEN award.

Current book-in-progress: Beloved, Vilette, and Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human
Current knitted item: The tan neck warmer is proving a pain because I'm having trouble finding the correct sizing (I'm looking for a men's turtleneck sweater - none exist in my pattern books because I never knit for men, or haven't has yet)
Current movie obsession: Network television is back (CSI: Miami is new for two nights in a row!) so my movies are suffering
Current iTunes loop: My order from BN came (as well as a BN Music store sale) so I've got plenty of new things to listen to - Sunday in the Park with George, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Sweeny Todd (movie soundtrack - Johnny Depp, yowza!), and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Deep thought for the day

If you are up shit creek, is it necessary to kill your entire family?

Granted, the autopsy will tell whether or not the father is the charred body in the family's van but if that's not the father and if the evidence doesn't point toward him as the murderer of his wife and four children I will be very, VERY surprised.

I don't particularly care if your life has totally gone to pot, that you've been indicted for embezzling half a million dollars from the bank (of which you are the vice-president), that you're probably going to jail because you admitted to the police that part of that money went toward a serious coke habit. I really don't. If you want to skip out on the charges and kill yourself, be my guest. Just don't take anyone else with you.

Here's a little prayer hoping that the children's deaths were quick and that they didn't realize what was going on.

Current book-in-progress: Beloved (for LbW BNBC April), Then We Came to the End (gotta support the Iowa alum), Birdsong (for our in-store group), Villette (also for BNBC April, just not my group), and whatever else I find
Current knitted item: My first commission - a tan neck warmer for a co-worker's partner
Current movie obsession: I just finished Once - a great little movie, very moving and sweet, I might like the music better (the soundtrack is on order)
Current iTunes loop: It's a tie - Sarah Barreilles's Little Voice and the original cast recording of Rent

Ahhhh! Warmth!

If anyone is looking for a furnace repair company (and you live in CR/IC area) I highly recommend Colony Heating and Air Conditioning. They came down late on a Friday evening, cleaned the buildup out of my return duct, cleaned the strange gunk off of the ingniter sensor (which I can't even find, I can vacuum the return duct), and fixed my heating.

And for a very reasonable amount. Two thumbs up for them.

The Joys of Homeownership

It's really cold in Iowa.

How do I know this?

Because my furnace totally crapped out some time earlier today (maybe last night, who knows). It's about 50 degrees in my house and about 10 degrees outside (that's Fahrenheit to anyone not in the US). My fireplace works but it really just heats the living room.

The first repair company I called doesn't have parts for my furnace. Oh, and my furnace is out of warranty. Laaaaa! Just my luck. So if the second company doesn't have any parts I guess I get to buy a new furnace. Shitty.

Current book-in-progress: This is going to be a free-for-all night, also known as grab some tea and as many books as are at hand because the house is freezing
Current knitted item: My red scarf when I can feel my hands again
Current movie obsession: Northanger Abbey (yes, I realize the Oscars are on Sunday, but it would help if they would release all the movies more than one week prior to the ceremony)
Current iTunes loop: Chill tracks shuffle on iTunes (John Mayer, Amy Winehouse, Jewel, etc)

Where's my crayon sharpener?

I just wrote the worst professional letter in the history of the hospital. So bad that I deleted it before anyone else could see it and started over again. I sounded like a kindergartner with a broken crayon.

Gahhh!!!!!

This is all probably due to the fact that my neurons are still disrupted after some seriously strange dreams. I finished The Club Dumas and Requiem for a Dream and there was some strange stuff floating around in my head. The Club Dumas was OK - the denoument was a bit of a let down because I'd been expecting something spectacular and even the crazy guy summoning demons was fairly sedate. The writing flowed very well, even in tranlsation, so that was nice. Requiem for a Dream was seriously one crazy book about some very messed up people. Selby knows of what he writes and his vernacular writing style really made the characters' speech patterns come alive and differ from one another (Sara, Harry, Marion, Tyrone). The last 50 pages were just excruciating which is probably the way Selby meant the book to end.

That's also why I probably had a dream about a satanic, one-armed heroin addict.

Current book-in-progress: Susan Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason (read some great reveiews and just had to go buy it); I'm still chipping away at the Harold Bloom; started the ARC for the First Look Book Club (on chapter 2 - seems OK)
Current knitted item: trying to decide if I want to add a bit of a pattern to the cuff now that it's past the ankle or not
Current movie obsession: I work too much - no time to watch movie :(
Current iTunes loop: I've been listening to NPR today - I think the programming is starting to repeat from the morning (does it always do this?)

Pictures of Varying Types

As promised - I have pictures for certain events from the weekend.

First up is "Cats on the new coffeetable." Unfortunately, the really cute picture of the animals inhabiting the table before it was finished didn't turn out so well. So here is Chaucer on top of the finished table - he was getting a little frisky with an imaginary toy.

Second, was the Sunday evening yarn stash organization party, ocurring because the book group party was postponed due to weather. THAT all came out of the closet. And it all went back into the closet, neatly organized, and I even wound up the unrulier skeins on the ball winder.

Kind of a jumble, wasn't it? There was also a skein of Noro Kureyon that the Dante kitty made a holy mess of about 2 years ago. Think a sheep undergoing electroshock therapy. It took about 30 minutes, and I had to pitch a bit that had obvious cat damage, but I managed to get the skein wound up (I considered a "before" picture, but it would've made people cry).

Lastly, for the BNBC people, here's some pictures of my crazy book collection. Yes, I have a small obsession with Pooh.

Don't look behind the doors on the right - that's the clutter keeper. There are books in there, too.

(This is the cabinent with the textbooks.)

The little alien under the rocking chair is Chaucer. Dante surprisingly did not want his picture taken and ran off.