The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
March Madness Costume
My brother, Scott, just sent me this from his iPhone. I don’t know who is buying Ainslie fairy princess costumes, but at least she knows what to do with them!
Weekend Assignment #362: Emergency!
Weekend Assignment #362: Emergency!
Extra Credit: Does your smoke detector (if you have one) have fresh batteries in it?
McDonald’s Oatmeal
In more than one conversation with more than one group of people, I have heard someone ask, “Has anyone tried the oatmeal at McDonald’s yet?” And no one had. So this morning, I stopped in before an appointment an ordered some:
Zombie Spaceship Wasteland, by Patton Oswalt
I think I grabbed this audio book to fill out an order from bn.com , and it was such a quick read (three discs) that I am almost embarrassed to include it in the count. Oswalt is a geek that does stand up comedy, so you know that there are going to be self-esteem issues.
The title comes from an idea that, “before all young minds have anything to write about, they will home in on one of three storylines: zombies, spaceships, or wastelands”. He argues that Darth Vader is effectively a zombie on a spaceship that came from a wasteland. OK, then.
Personally, I preferred vampires.
I like Oswalt’s personal stories much better than his schtick (I totally could have done without the hobo chapter), and I imagine that the schtick does better on this audio version than in print. Also, there is a “bonus chapter” on the first disc that is not a “bonus” at all, but the pdf of a graphic chapter that couldn’t be translated well enough into audio. Which you find out in Disc 2.
I could probably read Oswalt again. But I will not be seeking him out on Comedy Central.
Kiva.org and the Gift that Keeps on Giving
I received an e-mail from Kiva.org, the organization that hooks up borrowers and lenders for microloans. I had lent a lady in Samoa $25 to expand her farming operation and she has finished making the payments. There was a credit in my account , so I logged in to find another borrower.
I found a lady in Senegal that started a small grocery and is looking to expand. Click. Click. Done. But it had been awhile since I logged on, so I took a look at my account. They have some statistics. This was my third loan, whereas the average participant has had six. Ooooh. Make it competitive. That almost worked, folks.
Then I saw that I had invited one person, which is 1/2 a person more than the average. That must be my grandfather. I clicked on him. He has three active loans going, for a total of eight.
This was a Christmas gift from three years ago that he used and expanded on, and is still using. I am pretty sure that makes me the Christmas Queen.
Slouch, Gorilla Tango Theatre
Monday night, I went to see Slouch, at Gorilla Tango Theatre. Its posting on the League of Chicago Theatres says this:
“Three unlikely friends on the lookout for their friend Larry. Is he a friend? A lover? Something in between? Join us for this dark comedy. It’s Waiting for Godot meets The Rules of Attraction.”
I would say this:
Three friends or roommates or something are each having some kind of later-than-quarterlife crisis in which they each see their lives in the context of their relationships (or not) with this dude named Larry. Larry is a character-in-absentia, who may or may not ever show up, and seems to be a really successful professional as well as a self-absorbed ass.
If that was a lame summary that didn’t make sense, I will defend myself only by saying that the script was written in a narrator’s stream of consciousness that was spoken by all three of the characters.
Not at the same time, of course.
Part of the challenge is to determine what is “real” and what is imagined or perceived or remembered. Not that it really matters because what is imagined or perceived or remembered is real to the characters. But it seemed to me that the moral of the story is that if you are waiting around for someone else to make your existence more stable or exciting or vibrant or otherwise better..you really are missing something. So I liked it.
Full disclosure: My friend, John, plays Ritter in this show. He refuses to engage in shameless online self-promotion, so I will tell you:
Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri
The third book by Jhumpa Lahiri, whose work was introduced to me by Da Mare, is another collection of short stories. While this is not my favorite genre, I enjoy Lahiri’s perspective on Indian American families. I like the way that the Indian culture is sometimes a featured part of the story, and sometimes matters not at all.
One thing that was a bit foreign to me was the idea that an Indian couple would come to the United States, raise a family, and return to India upon retirement. As this happened in more than one story, I wonder how often it happens in reality. It was a new take on the “building a life in America” for me.
One thing, though. The cover? I spent the entire reading of the book wondering what the heck that was. It wasn’t until the very end of the “trilogy” tales at the end that I figured it out. A bangle bracelet lost on the ocean. And not to spoil anything, but that just sucked.
I am looking forward to what Lahiri does next. And hoping that it is a full length novel.
DC Redux. Again.
I forgot contact lens solution. But I found an old Holiday Inn room key that I was able to return when I checked in.
Yesterday, the cupcake truck came to our office. Apparently, they have two trucks now. But I hear that they are posting so often that my colleagues are now unfollowing them. Whatever. I got in line for the Black Irish Creme Cupcake:
Dark chocolate cake and Irish Cream frosting. The chocolate was so dark that I would call it bitter. The frosting had just a hint of Irish Creme flavor. I imagine the dark chocolate people are loving this one. I am going back to vanilla.
Cosmo Video
Cosmo is a grey with his own book. He speaks in context better than Kiwi. But this is a video of Cosmo opening drawers. I am posting it so that my mother can see we do not have the only cabinets on Earth scratched up by cheeky beaks. Kiwi isn’t opening drawers yet, but I bet she knows what to do with an emery board. Vain thing.
Blanket #5
I have to stop finishing these late at night, so that my pictures turn out lame before I pack them up:
I used Loops ands Threads Impeccable yarn, which I believe is the house brand at Michaels. The colors were Forest, Cadet and Seaside Ombre. These colors seemed to match extremely well in the store, but in daylight..not so much. Also, you can tell in that variegated one where I changed skeins, because the color pattern changed. I don’t appreciate that. And I used that yarn to do two finishing rows around the outside. I will probably use that brand again, (and I have plenty left over from this project), but I think I am over the variegated yarn in general.
The Next Dark Age 