Review No. 2

For this week's review, I going to discuss the book "I Was Told There Would Be Cake" by Sloane Crosley, which is a collection of essays in the similar vein of authors like David Sedaris or David Rakoff who write essay about their own (and by extension their families) neurosis and idiosyncrasies. I enjoyed a majority of the essays, they weren't as funny or outlandish as those by David Sedaris but also none were as sad as some of his essays. The majority of the essays in the book are about single life in New York like balancing jobs that don't really go anywhere, moving to a new apartment, and dealing with possible illnesses. There are a few essays that I really identified with about growing apart from friends from high school and feeling guilty about spending less time with some of your friends. I know that there are some days when I feel like I haven't made an effort to stay in contact with people that I spent time with everyday in high school or shared interests with in college. Overall, the book was quite enjoyable and I recommend getting it from the library (maybe not buying it).

Don't worry, I won't be posting only book reviews, there will be a regular post in the next few days!

My Favorite Jane Austen

As I have mentioned before, Jane Austen in one of my favorite authors ever. And while "Pride and Prejudice" is her most famous, it is not my favorite book. My favorite Jane Austen book is her last book "Persuasion". The story is about Anne Eliot, the middle daughter Sir Walter Eliot. The story opens with, after years of financial mismanagement, the Eliots have decided to rent their family home (rather than retrench or cut back on expenses) to Admiral Croft who has returned home (very wealthy) from the recent Napoleonic Wars (this is on of the few novels of Jane Austen that mentions the wars that occurred during her lifetime). Sir Walter and his favorite daughter Elizabeth(the eldest), both of whom are extremely snobby and concerned about social position, and leaving to live in Bath (and take Mrs. Clay with them, the daughter of Sir Eliot's solicitor and friend of Elizabeth who hopes to marry Sir Eliot) leaving Anne to finish preparing the house for Admiral Croft and his wife before visiting her younger sister Mary (a hypochondric) who lives with her husband and children near her (Mary's) in-laws in a house called Uppercross Hall. Is it here at Uppercross Hall that Anne meets and befriend the Crofts and is reunited with her former finance (who happens to be Mrs. Croft's brother), Captain Fredrick Wentworth, also made wealthy by his involvement in the Napoleonic wars. Eight years before, Anne and Fredrick had been engaged (he was a poor naval officer at the time) and Anne was persuaded (hence the title) by her neighbor (and friend of her mother who had passed away in Bath, causing Anne to dislike spending time in Bath) Lady Russell to refuse Fredrick and break the engagement. I don't want to go to in depth with the plot because I don't want to ruin your enjoyment of the book. The reason I love this book more than something like Pride and Prejudice or Emma is because it incorporates so many recurring themes in the other novels and presents those themes very well. When I took a class about Jane Austen, we often discussed how Austen presented ideals that were common in the evolving middle class, namely marrying for love and not money and determining a person's "internal" worth. I wrote a paper about how the heroine often creates a "family" that personifies these ideals. I think that the family that Anne constructs for herself (specifically because her own family is not very supportive) is one of the best representation of this family with middle class ideals. The dichotomy between the haughty and snobby Eliots (Walter and Elizabeth) and the Crofts (and Fredrick) makes this very clear. On one hand there are the Eliots who are unable or unwilling to change despite that they are destroying their very way of life by refusing to live within their means and on the other the Crofts, who have built their lives based on their own skills. And I think that Anne is the most mature and well drawn Austen heroine. She is aware that she was persuaded wrongly to refuse Fredrick and she remains constant to him even though there may be little hope that he returns her affection. Anne is somewhat of an anomaly because she is oldest of all Austen heroines (at 27) and she is not described as a great beauty or outgoing (like Elizabeth Bennett or Emma Woodhouse), in fact is it often mentioned that Anne has lost her "bloom". And the same is true of Fredrick Wentwoth. He is not extremely handsome or overtly charming (like Darcy, Mr. Bingley, or Henry Tilney), he is much more reserved (like Anne) but as the reader you are never really in doubt of his feelings or motivation. I highly recommend this book to any Austen fan or anyone who enjoys novels set in the 1800s or who enjoys an interesting love story.

This is the first of my weekly book reviews, I will try to review a book every Friday (or during the weekend). I am hoping to do a mix of some of my favorite books and books that I have recently finished. I have recently joined Paperspine (which is like Netflix for books) so hopefully I will get a wide range of books read and reviewed (if you are interesting in starting Paperspine, let me know and I can tell you more about it).

From Mundane to Exciting

My weekend has been full of both mundane and (slightly) exciting. The mundane being the usual dropping off my recycling and paying some bills. But there were a few exciting things that I did this weekend. On Friday after work I went to Target to pick-up a few things and decided to go the Meijer to get a few groceries for the weekend. And now I am in love with that Meijer! It has a really good selection of international food include AeroMint bars from the UK which I love. Then on Saturday, I went to Lehman's for the first time. Firstly, the store is huge! Secondly, they have all sorts of things at the store from kitchen needs to hand tools. And they has so beautiful reproductions of stoves and refrigerators. The store is about 30 miles aways so I won't be going every weekend, but it would definitely be a place that I would take visitors. Today, I haven't done anything too exciting, I did make a cheesecake in the new springform pan I got at Lehman's. But it's still chilling so I haven't tasted it yet.

DALE (speaking into a tape recorder): Survival diary update: I have been drinking dewdrops found on the forest leaves, and I have been eating mushrooms and moss. Mostly mushrooms. My rabies has taken a turn for the worse. I am starting to hallucinate. When I close my eyes, I can see strange characters running around chasing colorful geometric shapes in a dark and infinite limbo. I have stopped closing my eyes. I fear I am going mad! (Dale's stick house collapses) Survival reminder: need hammer and nails. (Dale notices that his tape recorder has no batteries) Also batteries for tape recorder. (Dale throws his tape recorder away and speaks into a pine cone) Also need new tape recorder.

Because my nerdiness knows no bounds!

One of my favorite books is The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. I bought my copy from Shakespeare and Company bookshop (it is stamped with the store name) in Paris during my senior year of high school. Every time I think about that book it reminds me of the summer before college, living in the little house and building our new house, reading the book and listening the The Invisible Band CD by Travis over and over again. My local library has a very good selection of books on CD (I listen to them at work), so I thought that I would see if they had a copy of The Woman in White on CD. But when I checked the catalog, the library only has one Wilkie Collins book (the still very good book The Moonstone, but that book it not as good as The Woman in White). So what did I do? I bought a copy of The Woman in White (from Amazon for about $6) for the explicit purpose of donating it to the library. Because I love this book that much. I am thinking about doing a weekly book review (on Fridays), so let me know if anyone would enjoy this or if I should just keep my opinions to myself!

HANK: I am a finely tuned ex-high school athlete. I spent four years holding guys like you upside down over toilets.
CANE: I don't care how many guys you held in the men's room, you still can't beat us.
HANK (to his friends): What do you say, you want to teach some punks a little respect?
BILL: Yeah!
DALE: Very little!

Admitted foolishness

I watched the first 2 seasons of Lost religiously, I mean every week, no talking, subtitles on so I wouldn't miss anything. And I would watch the summer reruns just so I wouldn't forget anything. Then came a big chunk of time between the 2nd and 3rd seasons and I forgot all the important stuff. Then the producers announced that they have decided that when the show was going to end and I thought great, I can just wait for the last season to come out and then I can watch all the seasons in a month long extravaganza. But when I went to the library on Monday, there it was the first season crying out "Watch me, you know you miss me! You know you want to!" And I did, I checked it out, and then instead of stretching it out during the week, I watched the whole thing on Saturday and Sunday. Damn you JJ Abrams, I'm hooked again! The library has seasons 2 and 3 as well which means once season 4 comes out (and I watch it) and I can be all caught up in time to watch the ending of the series on TV (there are two seasons left, with 17 episodes each, airing with no repeats). And honestly, I forgot how good the show was and how groundbreaking and innovating the structure of the show was when it first aired. I mean at this point it has so permeated popular culture, it's hard to think about what it was like way back in 2004 when it first aired.

HANK: You've got to think long-term, Bobby. Auto shop is where boys become the men that girls will want when they become women. It worked for me.
PEGGY: The proof is in the pudding. And I am that pudding.

Reunion rap-up

So, as mentioned the blogs of my family members, over the 4th of July weekend, I attended our family reunion. I had worked a few extra hours early in the week so I could leave work a few hours early on Thursday and Mom and Lucy (and Vaughn of course!) were nice enough to drive a little out of their way to pick me up and we got to drive through the Amish country together to Aunt Carol's house. I shared a room with Lucy and Vaughn the first night, but then I had a room for myself (I know how extravagant!). I had a wonderful time with everyone (and all the babies, there were 5 all together!). It rained almost everyday, but it was nice to sit out on Carol's porch in the cooler weather (even though there were a lot of mosquitoes!). I rode back to Ashland with Rachel and Bridget (we were only slightly smushed in the van until we dropped Orrin off the airport). But all in all, it was nice to have a few extra hours of visiting time with them, and the babies were quite well behaved. And then I will be heading to the farm next weekend to celebrate Silas's 3rd birthday!

PEGGY: I am field-tripping in an hour and I can't remember any good songs for the bus. What does that John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt do again?
BOBBY: He goes out, people shout. Not a lot more is known about him.

That guy!?!?

That is what I exclaimed when I saw the end of "In the Heat of the Night". Since I've watched so many episodes of Law and Order and read so many Agatha Christie mysteries, I can usually pick up on certain clues and at least have an inkling of the ending. But not with this movie, even so I enjoyed it. I like Sidney Poitier at lot, but I must say I enjoy him more in movies like To Sir with Love and Lilies of the Field than The Defiant Ones and In the Heat of the Night. I also finally saw the PBS adaptation of Mansfield Park, which was better than the BBC Adaptation of Persuasion, but not as good as the Andrew Davies adaption of Northanger Abbey (or Pride and Prejudice). I couldn't believe how much Mansfield Park got compressed (to only 1 and 1/2 hours!). Of all Austen novels, Mansfield Park is my least favorite mostly because I think that Fanny is the hardest heroine to like. And I also have problems with Edmund (the hero), he kind of a milquetoast and completely obvious to that fact that Fanny is in love with him. This plot device sometimes drives me crazy which is odd because some books that I really like have that as part of the story ( for example Roger and Molly in Wives and Daughters and David and Agnes in David Copperfield). But that could be because the secondary characters are more interesting than those in Mansfield Park (which is another reason that Mansfield Park is my least favorite, the secondary characters in that book are boring and not very likable).

"The clock radio smells like my Game Boy, but it tastes like my library card. I wonder if it smells different when it's on?" - Bobby

Weekend gone by

This past weekend, I visited Rachel, Trey, and Ellis mostly to be a companion to Rachel while Trey was at a networking function for most of the weekend. I helped Rachel run errands (and reign in Ellis) on Saturday and then we met Trey downtown for a delicious dinner at a place that specializes in Central American cuisine (I had some really good tamales with excellent guacamole). And then Rachel and I watched a movie while Trey put Ellis to bed. We also watched episodes of the Simpsons from the first season (back when the show was still really funny and well written). Since I have moved, I've been looking for a nice sized table for my sewing/guest room. On Sunday, Rachel took me to Ikea (the first time I'd ever been there) and helped me pick out both a table and a really nice chair (that is really comfortable, which will be nice when I am quilting on the frame). i finally finished putting it together (I broke down and purchased a screw gun, my arm got tired) so here a picture of my swanky new set-up:















The trunk to the right of the table is the trunk that I found at a garage sale over Memorial Day weekend that is now full of quilting fabric (and the plant is basil, this room gets some really good sun during the day).

DOCTOR COLE: Just have your office send over your worker's compensation forms, and I'll sign off on them.
HANK: Worker's comp? Do I look like a hobo to you? No, sir, I am not going on welfare.
DOCTOR COLE: If you insist on working, I'll write you a prescription for pain medicine.
HANK: Whoa there, Dr. Feelgood, I work at a propane dealership, not Woodstock.
DOCTOR COLE: Then I'm sorry, but all Western medicine can really offer you are drugs and nothing. But some people have had good luck with yoga. I hear there's a studio over in McMaynerbury.
HANK: Yoga? Isn't that a cult?
DOCTOR COLE: The group that rented the space before them was a cult. That's probably what you're thinking of.

Someone please explain to me

It is getting pretty hot here and as a result a strange phenomenon that I never understand is back: men driving without shirts on. Where are they going? They obviously are not going to any business or running errands. So does the heck are they doing or going? The only thing that I can think of is these men are just driving around for fun which is another thing that I don't get. It could be that living in a very small town where driving down the main drag lasts for about 3 minutes (5 if you really want to slow down) has led me to missing the appeal of cruising.

HANK: Boomhauer, where'd everybody go?
BOOMHAUER: Yeah, man, I tell you what, man, I took Dale to the dang ol' truck... muffler fallin' off, man, ain't got no brakes, sparks flyin' everywhere... I told him, man, you wanna fix that thing, use dang ol' duct tape, man.
HANK: What? They took Bobby to Snapz?

That fact is only increasing my contempt

I've been really stressed the past two days at work, trying to get a report finalized and mailed to the client. I finally got it done today, but not without much gnashing of teeth. The report was not mine, I was finishing it for a writer who has since transferred back to the department he came from (he in fact had never finalized a report and his supervisor was really busy, so there were several of my co-workers finishing the writer's work). For about 5 minutes, I was worried that I wouldn't get the report done today, but fortunately one of my co-workers knew exactly how to fix the problem (and he asked me if this was a report that belonged to a writer who left which led to the comment that was used for the title). One good thing about this mess was now I know how to fix this problem in the future.


"Do it, you monkey boy! I'm the boss of you!"-Jimmy Witchard

Exciting Weekend

This past weekend, I drove three hours to Ann Arbor to celebrate Memorial with Rachel and family and my parents. We all went to some garage sales on Saturday, where I got this really cool trunk, a picture, and some quilting fabric. And then mom and I helped Rachel (and Ellis to a lesser extent) clean and organize some of her stuff downstairs. Then on Sunday (when Mom, Dad, and Trey were on their back from the hardware store) Lucy called to let us know that Vaughn was on his way, and only 11 days early!! He looks so cute in the pictures on her blog, but I want to know where are mother/baby pictures? So after hearing about my newest nephew and spending lots of time with Ellis and everyone else, I headed back to Ashland on Monday afternoon. The drive to Ann Arbor is not too long (and according to Rachel, I will be making this trip monthly). And now I can't wait to meet little Vaughn Charles!

BOBBY: I hope Grandpa treats the baby better than he treats you.
DIDI: Oh, he will, Bobby. Until the baby crosses him.

Movie Reviews

Last Saturday I went to the movies to see Iron Man, which I really enjoyed. I've just recently started to like Robert Downey Jr.'s movie, and he was really well cast in the role. But as much as I enjoyed that movie, it was not the best movie I have seen in the last week. That would be the BBC adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South. The novel is about a woman who moves with her family from the agricultural south to the industrial north and gets involved in the struggle of the millworkers. I've read Wives and Daughters and really enjoyed the novel, so I figured I would like North and South and I was right. It was really well acted and the cinematography, especially the scenes in the mill, was really beautiful. Right after I finished the movie, I wanted to watch it all over again. And I wanted to start reading the book immediately. Even more, I am willing to try reading Charlotte Bronte's Shirley, which also takes place with the backdrop of a cotton mill. I took a class at Purdue all about the Bronte sisters and I read all the books except for Shirley. Try as I might, I just could not get through the last third of the novel (but that was probably due to the fact that I thought that the story had come to a successful conclusion but Charlotte did not a tacked one another 150 pages although I did learn the about Luddites, which is a reference I like to use from time to time). So next time I'm at the farm, I will have to remember to bring it back with me.

"Hank, this is hard. And Bill's not carrying my share of the load." - Dale

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers (and mothers to be) that I know and love (and there are a lot of them!). You all are amazing!

PEGGY: It is my day -- I should be able to do anything I want.
HANK: Not anything. You can't kill a man. Then you'd go to prison. And with that attitude, they'd put you in the hole.

HANK: Peggy's just not like you, I guess. You devoted your whole life to raising me, and let's be honest, you loved every second of it.
TILLY: Well, actually, I took odd jobs as often as I could, just to get out of the house. Don't you remember the year I drove a taxi?
HANK: No. Wait, I remember one year you had a yellow car.

Many apalogies

I know I haven't posted in a while, I really don't have a good excuse other than I am sick, but that is just this week. Last Thursday, I went to the This American Life event in Mansfield which was great. There were clips from the upcoming season of the TV show (on showtime) as well as outtakes from the first season and stories that never made it on the show and a question and answer session at the end of the show that was really interesting. But what I didn't except was that a girl from work was there. We both didn't except to see someone that we knew so that was a nice surprise. We chatted before the show started and we talked about how much we both like listening to NPR and podcasts (and she recommend this great podcast called RadioLab which I started to listen to today, and it was really good). Then on Friday after work, I drove home to the farm to celebrate Mother's Day a little early (with Rachel and family). I had a nice weekend at home, even though we worked the cows and Rachel and I mucked out the goat stall. And I got to spend lots of time with Ellis (and he was so tired, it was very easy for me to put him down for a nap/bed). On the downside, I think he gave me his cold. But I don't feel so bad now, earlier this week I had a sore throat and I felt really tired. Work is still going pretty well, it's a little more intense over the next few weeks because I have a lot of stuff due (and a few of the studies that I am writing up are a bit more interesting because the is some actual toxicity in the study unlike the previous studies I worked on).

"All his dreams from now on are gonna be about leaving. And then some high school guidance counsellor is gonna tell him to follow his dreams. Then how will he end up? A fruit pie salesman with a whoopie cushion living in Wichita Falls." - Hank

Extra points to who ever can identify the source of the title of this post!

Some poems for your Monday

This Is Just to Say by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

And spoofs of the poem:
Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams
by: Kenneth Koch

1
I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer.
I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do
and its wooden beams were so inviting.

2
We laughed at the hollyhocks together
and then I sprayed them with lye.
Forgive me. I simply do not know what I am doing.

3
I gave away the money that you had been saving to live on for the next ten years.
The man who asked for it was shabby
and the firm March wind on the porch was so juicy and cold.

4
Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg.
Forgive me. I was clumsy and
I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!

"Yeah, I'll get them to do something nice for each other! That's even better than my plan of turning them both against Luanne!" -Bobby

Reviews

Today, I went to a place that I thought no longer existed, the discount theater. That's right, there is a dollar theater in Mansfield. So today, I saw Penelope which was pretty good. I recognized a lot a British stars, besides Richard E. Grant, Lenny Henry (from Chef!) and Nick Frost (from Hot Fuzz! and Shaun of the Dead (the heavier set guy) so that to me is the mark of a good movie. The theater isn't to far away, and the movies that are shown there are a better good selection of big budget movies (like National Treasure 2) and more independent movies (like Penelope and Be Kind Rewind). There is a second theater is Mansfield as well that shows first-run movies and there have a lot of special events (like Met Opera showings and a This American Life live event (which I am going to!). And tonight, I watched the Turner Classic Movie Essential: The Night of the Hunter. I don't think that I like Shelly Winters (but that could be the result of the movies of hers that I have seen, like Patch of Blue where she plays a horrible woman). But Robert Mitchum scares the crap out of me, because of this movie, and because I have the parts of Cape Fear where he is particularly menacing (if you have seen this movie, you know what I am talking about!). I liked the movie, but it made me cry because I just felt so sorry for the little boy John.

PEGGY (singing):
Fan Fair can be Fun Fair,
But if you don't wait your turn in line,
Well, that's unfair!

Future Plans

So I decided that I would start swimming a few days a week for some exercise (and stress-relief). For awhile, I thought that I wouldn't be able to find a pool in Ashland (I thought that I would have to drive to Mansfield and I couldn't figure out if I could actully use the Ashland University pool). But then I remembered that I could look for a local YMCA. And it turns out that there is one not to far from my apartment. And even better, there is open adult laps swims everyday from 6-7:30 am and 5-6pm, which means I can swim right before/after work. So next week, I am going to get my membership and start swimming. I am really looking forward to it, especially since there is already lap swims scheduled for people so I don't have to try and avoid kids playing.

BOBBY: Dad, I know what I want to do with my life. I can be a motivator. All I need to do is find a field where I have no potential. Hm. I'd make a terrible dam-builder.
HANK: Why don't you just try to be good at something?
BOBBY: Don't try to motivate a motivator, Dad.

Few and far between

I know that I should post more, I have been meaning too, really. I'll play catch-up a little bit by blogging about last weekend when I went to my aunt Carol's house for Easter. I had Friday off from work so I drove to her farm, and I went the "back-way" on route 250 which was a very nice scenic drive. My cousin Jacob and his wife Jessica (who I never met before Easter weekend) over for dinner on Friday night (we had some very good chicken enchiladas). And then my cousin Elizabeth and her husband Rob and new baby Robert came to Carol's on Saturday afternoon and we all had fun making food for lunch on Sunday and holding the baby! And we decorated eggs on Saturday night (which I haven't done in a few years) while waiting for Rachel and family to arrive at the farm. They arrive a little after 10:30 and I helped them all settle in and kept Scout with me in my room. Then on Sunday, we had a very nice meal (for which I made apple pies, scalloped potatoes, and cinnamon rolls). And I headed back to my apartment in the late afternoon, driving back on the interstate which was not a bad drive back either. I want to thank Carol for her wonderful hospitality over the Easter weekend and I will be sure to visit her often (including to coming to help bake/decorate cookies for the famous cookie walk after Thanksgiving).

"You're the lead monkey on the back of this ostrich." - Buck Strickland

Making up

Okay, so I am making up for lack of posts by having two posts in one day. I heard a book review of a book about a Cleveland radio station (the Buzzard) that played a major role in introducing new rock and roll artists. And as a result this was in my head all day:

"Why don't you have the girl turtle fall in love with a boy turtle. See then the song it about something." - Hank

Everyday grind

I know that I have been lagging in writing post, but I assure you all that this is not due to being overworked, but lack of inspiration. Work is going pretty well, my 30 day review last week went fine and I think that the workload will start increasing a little bit in the near future (which is fine by me, I'm getting better/faster at writing reports.) I'm getting used to the hours as well (I'm actually home about 2 hours earlier than compared to grad school hours). In the evenings I mostly work on Lucy's baby quilt while listening to music/an old This American Life episode or watching Law and Order. So there is nothing to exctiing happening to me other than getting into a routine at work. But I will be heading back to the farm for Lucy's baby shower in a few weeks!

"I am a twelve year-old boy! I am this child's nephew! I cannot do this. I cannot do this! If anyone makes any dinner, I'll eat it, but that's it. All I'll do is eat!"-Bobby Hill