Better Living Through Literature

Not A Verb

2010-07-29T08:13:00.003-06:00

I've found a site that I want to print out and leave at everyone's desks at work: notaverb.com. It makes the case conclusively that "login" is not a verb (if you don't want to read the page, use it as two words). This makes me unreasonable happy--as does the conclusion on the "login" page:

If you take only one thing away from this page, take that one fact: "login" is not a verb. Educate others. Correct manuals, software, and web pages as you find them. Tell everyone you know that "login" is not a verb. You will make a pedant (me) happy. You will earn the respect of grammar nazis. Most importantly, you will know the truth.

Toby Says:

2010-07-28T08:20:00.003-06:00

"Do we have to get up today?"

Baby, I wish we didn't.

(I was counting last night and realized I'd cranked out 12 voiceover scripts in three weeks. No wonder I'm not excited to go to work!)

Tuesday Project Roundup: The Summer Of The Skirt Continues

2010-07-27T08:15:00.002-06:00

Hey look, a pencil skirt in a bright print--bet you haven't seen anything like that before!
It's the same Burda pattern that I used on all the others, and it goes together in under two hours now. The fabric is a print from designer Heather Ross' collection inspired by fairy tales. I went with generic roses, but the Owl and the Pussycat fabric was tempting.
I have one more dress planned for summer, but lately all I can think about is fall and fall sewing--which makes me feel kind of disloyal to the season. I was secretly happy about the rain and the coolness last night. (Sorry, summer.)

Mad Men Music Monday

2010-07-26T07:55:00.002-06:00

How great was the first episode of Mad Men season 4 last night? I loved seeing Peggy like that and the ending was fantastic, with Don and his whiskey and this song:

Friday Unrelated Information

2010-07-23T08:25:00.002-06:00

1. Today is Raymond Chandler's birthday. Here's one of my favorite quotes, talking about Phillip Marlowe setting up a chess problem for himself:
[It was] ...a battle without armor, a war without blood, and as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you could find anywhere outside an advertising agency.

2. With the windows open at night, I've been hearing some rustling in the front sometimes. It's not human-sized rustling, but I've wondered what creature is doing it (mice? snails? there are a lot of snails here). This morning at 4:00 it woke me (and Toby) up again and I looked out to see a mama raccoon and FOUR big babies. They seemed to be eating snails. Carry on, raccoons.

Thursday Poem

2010-07-22T08:04:00.002-06:00

I like today's poem; it sounds like the blues. (A minor seventh is the interval between the opening two notes of "There's a Place for Us," by the way.)

Minor Seventh

by Jeffrey Bean

Foghorns, grackles, wheat fields sighing in wind. The night
hawk's ricochet. You better come on in my kitchen. Mixolydian
trumpet runs boiling up the Mississippi, turning into urban
blues and smokestacks over Gary, Indiana. Hymns. Grief.
The hiss of sprinklers in timber yards, brawl of log trucks
crawling up Mt. Hood. Chainsaws, see-saws, sneakers,
squeaking in high school gyms. Have you driven a ford lately?
Field hollers. Sorrow. Fat fathers riding their mowers' thick
Chords. Throngs of Santa Clauses all across Wisconsin ringing
bells in snow in front of Wal-Marts. Musac at Costco, Osco,
Piggly Wiggly, Winn-Dixie. Arawaks' shouting, the Santa
Maria creaking onto shore. Cell phones, car alarms, laptops,
the air raid siren's range. Achy Breaky Heart in the flamingo
light of roller rinks. The wheeze of progress. The forests of
Mississippi echoing with Me and the devil was walking side by side.
Grind of church organs, cotton gins, sledge hammers
knocking into granite. No one listening to Monk play
Crepuscule with Nellie at The Open Door. Toyotas starting,
crows screaming, a rabbit snatched by an owl. Gimme a pigsfoot
and a bottle of beer. Reverend Dimmesdale speaking in tongues
of flame. Michael Buffer crooning Let's get ready to rumble!
Chants at NBA games. Weeping. St Louis woman, where's your
diamond ring?

Happy Birthday, Papa!

2010-07-21T07:46:00.004-06:00

No, it's not my father's birthday--it's Papa Hemingway's!

Hem and his cat.

There are a lot of old interviews with him floating around the internet--one from The Paris Review has this gem:

HEMINGWAY [asked about the amount of revising he does]: It depends. I rewrote the ending to Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, thirty-nine times before I was satisfied.

INTERVIEWER : Was there some technical problem there? What was it that had stumped you?

HEMINGWAY: Getting the words right.

Amen, brother.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Vacation Wear (I Wish)

2010-07-20T07:55:00.008-06:00

Here's that button-back top pattern from last month again. I tweaked the fit a little (lower neckline, longer sleeves, more room all over) and made it in a good cotton, and indeed I like it a lot more now.

I was going to add a collar, too, but I decided the print was enough. I also like how the plain neck makes it look like vacation wear from 1963:

Now I just need a vacation...

(Screenshot from Mad Men taken from the fabulous Tom and Lorenzo blog. If you're not reading their posts on "Mad Style," you should be.)

Hot

2010-07-19T08:28:00.002-06:00

I don't know why the heat is bothering me so much this year--maybe because it's hotter than it ever got last year? Because it hasn't been cooling down at night? Anyway, here's something from Dandelion Wine about the heat in Greentown:

Air ran like hot spring waters nowhere, with no sound...Tar was poured licorice in the streets, red bricks were brass and gold, roof tops were paved with gold. The high-tension wires were lightning held forever, a threat above the unslept houses.

Friday Unrelated Information

2010-07-16T08:25:00.002-06:00

1. The Writer's Almanac tells me that "It was on this day in 1951 that J.D. Salinger's first and only novel, The Catcher in the Rye," was published." His only novel that we know of, that is.

2. I don't really understand this but I love it when science seems like magic (i.e. the Large Hadron Collider, space): Quantum Entanglement Holds DNA Together, Say Physicists

3. My friend Jason linked to this "writing style analysis" page this week--you copy in some of your writing and it tells you who you write like. Except I tested the system four times and got David Foster Wallace, Chuck Palahniuk, Margaret Atwood, and Dan Brown. So I'm saying that it's not really accurate. (Because I don't write like Dan Brown! Right? RIGHT?)

New Desk!

2010-07-15T08:02:00.004-06:00

Internet, look! I finally have an adult-sized desk!
The saga of the desk began months ago, when I decided it was time to retire what I'd been using since I was ten. Then came the deciding what to buy, then came the deciding if I should just wait until I get a house and have something new delivered there, and then I saw a project that involved decoupaging filing cabinets, and everything clicked.

My parents had two filing cabinets in storage and my handy father offered to make a desktop (since the options from IKEA were the wrong size). So for the cost of paint, Japanese paper, and some shelving--plus a week of free labor from my dad--I have a new desk!
We (I use "we" loosely) decided to use spray adhesive instead of Mod Podge, and it worked out great. I'm glad I went with a subtle pattern, since there's already a lot of pattern in the room.

And LOOK--there are no visible cords. My dad rigged up a brilliant system for mounting the power strip on the back support.
I love the desk (Toby does too!). Thanks, Dad!

If Only

2010-07-14T08:34:00.002-06:00

I've had a hard time writing this week (and I have the bitten fingernails to prove it). These solutions would be PERFECT.

Speaking of smoking and drinking at work, 1.5 weeks until the new season of Mad Men!

Tuesday Project Roundup: Sewing For Toby

2010-07-13T07:57:00.002-06:00

Toby had a brown donut that he slept in all winter, but the velour on the top was getting ratty. So I recovered the top in a plush leopard print for him.
I debated re-doing the entire cover, but there's a zipper all around the bottom and a zipper going in a circle seemed like more effort than it's worth. The new top does have piping around the edge, though.

He jumped right in and had a bath, so even though it's been too hot to sleep in it, I think he likes it.

Happy Birthday, Pablo Neruda

2010-07-12T08:07:00.003-06:00

The Writer's Almanac tells me that today is poet Pablo Neruda's birthday, in 1904. (His first book was called Crepusculario [Twilight], ha.)

Here's some Neruda to start the week--it reminds me of going to see the lava and the ocean in Hawaii:

"It is Born" (trans. by Joel Gallo)

Here I came to the very edge
where nothing at all needs saying,
everything is absorbed through weather and the sea,
and the moon swam back,
its rays all silvered,
and time and again the darkness would be broken
by the crash of a wave,
and every day on the balcony of the sea,
wings open, fire is born,
and everything is blue again like morning

Friday Unrelated Information

2010-07-09T08:11:00.002-06:00

1. Are you bothered by people writing "alot" instead of "a lot"? This is the post for you, from a blog with really funny illustrations.

2. The beginninng yoga class I'm taking includes some background on how yoga fits in with Hindu philosophy, and last night we were told that the heart is a deep well of generosity (my inner hippy loves this, by the way). I had to remember a quote I found from the Upanishads that I posted a long time ago:
The little space within the heart is as great as the vast universe. The heavens and the earth are there, and the sun and the moon and the stars. Fire and lightning and winds are there, and all that now is and all that is not.

3. Check out ten pages of old WPA posters on the Library of Congress site.

Halfway Report: 30 Things

2010-07-08T08:13:00.002-06:00

Now that it's July, I realized it's been six months since I put up my list of 30 Things To Do Before 31. Halfway through the year, I'm not really halfway done but I think the progress has been steadier than last year. The full list is below, with commentary--green is done, red is not, and pending or in progress things are orange.

Put the money that I was using to pay off debt into savings for a down payment on some sort of house, townhouse, or condo. Still saving!
Learn about real estate and home buying through the Utah State Extension classes. I made it through the first few chapters, ran aground on the "choosing a realtor" unit (there was an icky video) and then gave up. But I need to learn about earnest money and closing costs.
Stop buying non-essentials (ready-made clothes, really expensive fabric, shoes, magazines, etc.) for three months (months TBD) I made it a month, and now I'm limiting personal spending to $100 or less a month--so far, so good.
Buy that Eames desk chair. I'll use the money I'll be saving from not buying any non-essentials. I've actually found a different desk chair and have plans to get a whole new desk set-up involving an IKEA desk top, filing cabinets, and decoupage. I'll let you know how it goes.
Buy that damn garbage can already. Um...
Buy a living room chair--armless, small-ish, but comfy. This will help with seating to accomplish #22. Done!
Sew new pillow covers for the living room. Done!
Buy a vacuum. Done! (How did I live so long without one?!)
Refresh my yoga skills and then...
Start doing yoga once or twice a week. In progress. I finally started going to beginning yoga in June and I've mostly kept it up.
Get recycling at the apartment. I haven't had it for three years and I'm tired of feeling guilty every time I throw away some junk mail. Not done. Sorry, Earth.
Similarly, bring in some actual flatware for the breakroom at work to cut down on waste. Also not done. But I feel guilty every time I throw away a plastic fork.
November-March, walk or ride to work at least twice a month. April-September, up it to at least four times a month. Summer is going pretty well.
Eat at one new restaurant a month--any meal, but it has to be somewhere I haven't been before. I've been doing ok with this, if you count Sampan takeout in June as a restaurant experience. (And I do.)
Eat at Red Iguana. Why is this so hard? I've been trying for two years now!
Go to Bonneville Speed Week. It's in August. Or in October. They need a better website.
Go to a roller derby game. Planned for this Saturday, so I say it's green!
Stop biting my fingernails (I mean it this year). Things were bad, then I got a manicure, then I did some home manicures, and then crazy a week at work did me in again. I think I can keep up the manicures at home.
Wear more colors of lipstick than "pink" and "darker pink." Um...
Find a perfume I want to wear regularly. Done!
Stock and maintain a home bar and keep it stocked. No drinking it up and not replacing it. I still haven't done this--for some reason it seems SO decadent to go spend $150 on booze all at once.
Have more people over to the apartment--not huge parties, but a few people for dinner, or drinks before a restaurant, etc. I was being really social (for me) at the beginning of the year but no one has been over all spring. I'd better plan something.
Learn more about wine. Does a wine class in January count?
Learn and retain the difference between whisk(e)y, bourbon, and scotch. "Retain" is the key word here...
Learn and retain the difference between brandy and cognac. Cognac is more expensive? Does that count?
Get my eyes checked again, update my prescription, and start wearing glasses in front of the computer. Not yet.
Find a dermatologist to look at a couple of moles, if only so I can stop worrying about skin cancer. Ha, I've been too busy sunbathing to look up a doctor...
Learn how to can fruits, veggies, or jam. Done! Oh, the feeling of accomplishment. What can I can next?
Get a better camera. Every time I get a blurry or overly dark shot (which is ALL the time with the Target closeout toy camera I use), I mean to really do the research and just buy one. Not yet, though...
Go to Moab and/or Zion. Planned for the fall, hooray!

We Know How To Have A Good Time Around Here

2010-07-07T08:02:00.003-06:00

Yes, just another exciting Tuesday evening sorting yarn and vacuuming the yarn basket:

(That vacuum is Thing #8, by the way. I'd better do another quarterly report soon!)

Tuesday Project Roundup: Roman-American

2010-07-06T07:54:00.004-06:00

I was ready for something easy after that involved sailor skirt and all the seam finishing, so what could be easier than making two big rectangles into a skirt? I think hemming all 85" around the bottom took about as long as the rest of the sewing combined.

This is a patternless project that my mom first turned me on to, but you can find a tutorial here if you don't have a mom who grew up in the 50s.

Every time I wear a full skirt I have to think of Roman Holiday, which has the best blouse-skirt-sandals look for summer, ever (in Rome or not).

Yay, America!

2010-07-05T08:49:00.004-06:00

Here is a poem I've always liked. I hope everyone's pets weren't scared by the fireworks last night. (Toby wasn't too worried: People coming in the house are much scarier than noises outside the house.)

"American Names," by Stephen Vincent Benet

I have fallen in love with American names,
The sharp names that never get fat,
The snakeskin-titles of mining-claims,
The plumed war-bonnet of Medicine Hat,
Tucson and Deadwood and Lost Mule Flat.

Seine and Piave are silver spoons,
But the spoonbowl-metal is thin and worn,
There are English counties like hunting-tunes
Played on the keys of a postboy’s horn,
But I will remember where I was born.

I will remember Carquinez Straits,
Little French Lick and Lundy’s Lane,
The Yankee ships and the Yankee dates
And the bullet-towns of Calamity Jane.
I will remember Skunktown Plain.

Rue des Martyrs and Bleeding-Heart-Yard,
Senlis, Pisa, and Blindman’s Oast,
It is a magic ghost you guard
But I am sick for a newer ghost,
Harrisburg, Spartanburg, Painted Post.

Henry and John were never so
And Henry and John were always right?
Granted, but when it was time to go
And the tea and the laurels had stood all night,
Did they never watch for Nantucket Light?

I shall not rest quiet in Montparnasse.
I shall not lie easy at Winchelsea.
You may bury my body in Sussex grass,
You may bury my tongue at Champmedy.
I shall not be there. I shall rise and pass.
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.

Friday Unrelated Information

2010-07-02T07:33:00.003-06:00

1. Oh look, it's another three-day weekend. Hooray!

2. Today is the 30th anniversary of the movie Airplane, which is right up there with The Blues Brothers in my favorites. Take this quiz--"Don't Call Me Shirley: An Airplane Quiz" to see how much of the movie you've memorized.

3. My sad little Walt Whitman poem got cut off yesterday, which is also sad, but I've fixed it.

A Poem For When You Are Being Hard On Yourself

2010-07-01T07:47:00.003-06:00

Perhaps you think you should know more about real estate, or how to turn off your pilot light after all this time. Maybe you've decided to sell your violin, despite your youthful hopes and dreams. Regardless, it will be OK. Walt knows how it is:

"O Me! O Life!" by Walt Whitman

O ME! O life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill'd with the
foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I,
and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the
struggle ever renew'd,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see
around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me
intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring-What good amid these, O me,
O life?

Answer.
That you are here-that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

Thing #28: Learn How To Can

2010-06-30T07:51:00.003-06:00

Thing #28 on the list of 30 Things always seemed like it was going to be hard, but making jam is easy!

These were the berries from the u-pick farm. This is probably a year's supply of jam for a single person.

As Laurie Colwin says in the excellent chapter "Jam Anxiety" (in More Home Cooking):
...I felt contentedly thrilled with myself, as if I had pulled off a wonderful trick. People feel this way when they make bread or have babies, and although they are perfectly entitled to feel this way, in fact, nature does most of the work. Jam making is, actually, a snap...

Tuesday Project Roundup: Skirt Ahoy

2010-06-29T07:46:00.002-06:00

Here are some pictures of the sailor skirt from last week--sorry, no action shots; the sun is so far north that the bedroom (where the full-length mirror is) doesn't get any morning light.

It was hard enough to figure out how to assemble this, let alone make a lining for it, so I got all fancy on the seam finishes again. This front panel unbuttons to reveal a zipper and a pocket:

So the inside had a lot of seams to bind:

Ditto for the (flattering!) curvy panels on the back:

And inside:

(Obviously, I was getting bored working with plain navy so I had to add some color somewhere.)

I'm just pleased that this fits well, because there were a lot of steps to get through before I could even try it on to check the fit. Whew!

Yay for Three-Day Weekends!

2010-06-28T08:02:00.002-06:00

I really enjoyed that extra day off I took this weekend. Friday I ended up going to Antelope Island to see the lake (still stinky) and then stopping at a u-pick farm with my parents for some strawberries.

I think u-pick farms are the way to go: All the fun of a farm with none of the upkeep! It was nice to be out in the strawberry fields in the sun--until someone got "Strawberry Fields Forever" in my head. So now it can be in yours:

This video is kind of what Monday mornings look like to me anyway. More coffee!

Friday Unrelated Information

2010-06-25T09:47:00.002-06:00

1. I'm late posting today because I have a day off (!) and Toby let me sleep in until 9:00 (!!).

2. I actually went to an open house this week, despite not really being at the point where I would be ready to make an offer. It just looked like a perfect house, in my price range and location, so I thought, "Maybe the universe is giving it to me--I'd better go look!" But no. After seeing the un-remodeled basement, I decided the universe was actually telling me not to buy a 100-year-old house.

3. I've tried all these things! (From here.)