Category: Blogroll

Holiday in Cambodia (and Vietnam, Laos and Thailand)

My friend Jason is currently off on an amazing 40-day trip around Indochina. He started a blog just for the trip, and has posted some fascinating blurbs and some incredible photos. (Jason is a superlative photographer.)

I strongly encourage you to go check out his site. If it’s photos you’re after, you could just dive right to the posts with photos from Hanoi, Hoi An, and this post with shots from various spots in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Of course, I also recommend that you check out his other posts, as Jason has some great observations, as well as some fine tales of adventure. (He is not one to shy away from trying new things. While I like to try new foods, I’m not sure I could be so easily convinced to sample crickets and tarantula.)

allow me to bore you

YTSL of Webs of Significance tagged me (ages ago) for this “unimportant things” meme, the task of which is to list six unimportant items about myself. Seeing as I talk about myself all the freakin’ time, it’s become harder to come up with lists of things about myself that I haven’t revealed in a post. (cf. 6 weird things about me, 7 little known things about me, and 6 guilty pleasures I indulge in.) Whereas it would greatly amuse me to make things up, and maybe I’ll do that one of these days, I have decided to dredge up more insignificant factoids.

  1. I sneeze when I eat dark chocolate. As in the really dark, 70% cacao or above, kind. Strong mints have the same effect. If I eat white Tic-Tacs, I will sneeze exactly once per Tic-Tac that I eat, within a few seconds of putting it in my mouth.
  2. I don’t like bell peppers. I particularly don’t like green bell peppers. I find it irritating that a lot of vegetarian food has lots of peppers in it.
  3. I have crooked teeth. Not hugely crooked, but enough that you will rarely see me smile with my teeth visible in photos.
  4. My body doesn’t self-regulate its temperature very well. My hands and feet tend to get very cold in the winter. In the summer, I often overheat, since I tend to sweat very little.
  5. I have very dry skin. This, along with the previous item, makes me feel somewhat reptilian. (Well, not really.)
  6. But, speaking of reptiles, I like lizards. (I’ve never had one as a pet, though. They felt a bit like pets in Hawaii, though, the way the ran around on the walls. This may be the source of my appreciation for lizards.) I have somewhat of a collection of things with a lizard motif, but am glad they are somewhat subtle in our home. Some of my friends and relatives have given and/or made me some really cool lizard things over the years.

This meme comes along with some rules, which you can see at YTSL’s if you like. (Ha! I’m breaking a rule just by not posting them. I am a rebel!) But I’ll mention the tagging bit: “Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.”

I’ve decided to have a bit of fun with the idea of “six random people.” I have (more arbitrarily than randomly) chosen the last 6 people to use the tag “randomness” on WordPress.com at the time that I checked. I tag, and offer to you, this list of six lovely semi-randomly chosen lovers of randomness (along with their last posts of randomness).

  1. ladyhustler of Simple Complexities (how to write a Haiku)
  2. maddie of alive & amplified (This distance)
  3. theblossoms of Blossom-ing (schizophrenic)
  4. Carrie of in the process of living (Looking forward.)
  5. blandable of Bland Musings (Poetry Saga part Deux)
  6. Olivia of Olivia’s Total Randomness (Things I Love)

The Golden Pants Award

golden_pants.jpgJon Stewart: …and the award for the Most Distinguished Pants Blog, the coveted Golden Pants Award, goes to alejna of collecting tokens. [cue cheesy music]

alejna: [choking back the tears] I can’t believe what an honor this is for me. It seems like just yesterday that I first tried on pants blogging. Now with 31 pants posts under my belt, I feel that I’ve come far in the world of pants blogging. But I know that there are many more important issues of pants that need to be laid bare. I will continue to strive to dress them…I mean address them in the dignified manner which they so richly deserve.

I would like to thank the Academy of Pants. I’d of course like to thank my mother, who put me in my first pair of pants. I’d like to thank all my friends and family members who encouraged me in the pursuit of pants, with the occasional kick in the pants. Thanks to those who brought pants crises and pants celebrations to my attention. And thanks, above all, to my various pairs of pants, which were always there to cover my ass in times of need.

—–

This week’s Monday Mission, which I chose to accept in part because I have many other things which I should be doing and this seemed like more fun, was to write a post in the form of an acceptance speech. I’d also like to extend my thanks to Painted Maypole, for the specific inspiration for this post. When she wrote her pants entry for last week’s Mission, I told her I felt like I’d been awarded the Golden Pants Award. It seems only fitting that I should have my acceptance speech ready.

dot dot dot

exclamation_point1.jpgThere are times when the world conspires to make me ponder a topic for a list. This week the world apparently wants me to reflect on punctuation.

I’m quite fond of punctuation, really. Not so much the prescriptive uses of it. I like the informal uses of it that reflect the prosody of spoken language. You can break up a sentence or phrase with periods to show the strong emphasis of making each word its own intonational phrase. (What. The. Hell?) There’s the use of parentheses or commas for, you know, parenthenticals. (And I’m quite partial to parentheticals.) Or you can use ellipses to signal that you’re trailling off…

So I offer you a ThThTh list with an abundance of punctuation marks.

First, I offer to you the Evidence of Punctuation Conspiracy:

Further punctuation-related things include:

  • The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. This blog is a “great” place to see of all sorts of abuses of quotation marks.
  • Apostrophe Abuse. Its the cats pajama’s in terms of misused apostrophe’s.
  • The Ominous Comma. A blog. While not actually about punctuation, it gets points for having such a cool punctuation-related name.
  • Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss. A book on punctuation that is said to be entertaining. (Yes, I should have read it. I have it. But haven’t read it. It will probably tell me to stop with the sentence fragments. Or some such. Screw that.)
    • There’s a punctuation “game” based on the book. (I use “scare quotes” here to suggest that there is not a lot of “fun” or “playing” involved.)
    • More fun is the panda joke that is the inspiration for the book title (offered up by Geoffrey Pullum of The Language Log) .
  • “I love you period,” a song by Dan Baird

    I love you period
    Do you love me question mark
    Please, please exclamation point
    I want to hold you in parentheses

  • Let’s not forget the colons and semi-colons of the island nation of San Serriffe:

    The native people of San Serriffe are the Flong. However, the dominant group are of European stock, the descendants of colonists, known as colons. There is also a large mixed-race group, known as semi-colons.

  • Finally, I offer a bit of cartoon swearing. As in using punctuation marks in place of swear words, usually in a cartoon. (This allows me to end the post with a bang. Or 2.)(Sorry, a little punctuation mark humor.)(No, I’m not sorry. I’m dorky like that.)

          &*%#@$!!

What’s your point?

I found this punctuation mark quiz at raincoaster‘s earlier this week. I was going to post this as part of a bigger list today, but my list was getting out of hand. So decided to pop it up now. (From the train. Hah! My commuter train now has free wireless.)

I am a question mark.


You Are a Question Mark


You seek knowledge and insight in every form possible. You love learning.
And while you know a lot, you don’t act like a know it all. You’re open to learning you’re wrong.

You ask a lot of questions, collect a lot of data, and always dig deep to find out more.
You’re naturally curious and inquisitive. You jump to ask a question when the opportunity arises.

Your friends see you as interesting, insightful, and thought provoking.
(But they’re not always up for the intense inquisitions that you love!)

You excel in: Higher education

You get along best with: The Comma

I’m quite amused to see that I excel in higher education. I wonder if such excellence is measured in terms of years spent pursuing degrees. ‘Cause I’m getting quite a few years under my belt. The bit about collecting lots o’ data is…um…right on the mark.

So, do you dare to try the quiz? Who will get the dreaded colon?

sharing the pants

This week’s Monday Mission was to write a post in the style of another blogger. I found myself stumped by this task. Or perhaps too lazy to really give it a try. Or perhaps too tired. (Would you like an exhaustive list of my lame-ass excuses? I could do it, you know.)

Anyhow, even better than having found the motivation to write a brilliant post, I have instead been honored by Painted Maypole herself, esteemed hostess of the Monday Missions, as the blogger whom she chose to imitate. And imitation, we all know, is the sincerest form of flattery. And I must say that I am flattered to the bottom of my pants.

So, please go pay her a visit. Pants off to you, Painted Maypole!

It would seem that my pants have been falling down again, and it’s been a while since I’ve given you the sort of pants-laden content you’ve come to expect. However, I’m quite pleased to say that there will be more pants here in the near future. (My lovely friend Jean even sent me a special treat that I will have to share. A friend with pants is a friend indeed.)

no damn cat, no damn hat

So I sat on my ass
All this cold dreary day
And I said “How I wish
I had more time to play.”

No time to write posts
That are well thought-out rants,
No time to write lists
about movies with pants.

So I all I can do is to
Bitch,
        whine
                and moan
And each time the phone rings
Shout “leave me alone!”

No damn cat came in wanting
To show me his “things”
But the living room’s trashed
And the bathtub’s got rings

Glued to the keyboard
With deadlines a-loomy
The house is a mess
And my mood is all gloomy.

I should do my work now
While the clocks say it’s lating
But this is a fun way
Of procrastinating.

——
I couldn’t resist this week’s Monday Mission, which asked for a post in the style of a children’s book or poem.

gifts and thanks

Dear Jen and Mad,

I want to thank you for starting the Just Posts, and keeping them going. Ever since I read a gift post by one of your original wedding attendees/co-brides, I have been drawn in. What’s more, I have taken it upon myself to draw others in. You see, I think that when a person makes an effort to use their voice for social change or for generally making the world a better place, that person deserves an audience. And I see the Just Posts as a means to that audience.

I think the voices do really matter. Mad, I know you have expressed some doubts about the possible emptiness of online activism. Are the Just Posts really Just Words? For me, at least, they are more than that. I have actually made efforts based on what I have read. I joined a CSA, to support a local farmer and sustainable agriculture. I have donated money. I have given gifts that benefitted a school library. I have considered ways to take action, and have at least in some cases, taken those actions. And, what I feel is most important, I have started to speak out more. I have shared my thoughts and my hopes, and found others who have listened. And I think that this in itself matters.

I must admit that I was taken aback when you started your gift registry list for the baby that the two of you are growing. When you asked for time for volunteering, for actual getting-out-of-the-house actions, I thought that this was too expensive a gift to request. You see, my life has gotten quite busy in the last few months. Pressures are building for school and work, and I’m at a point where I really need to buckle down and work towards my degree. At the same time, I have other demands from family and friends, which I cannot ignore to an even greater degree that I do now.

Here’s something kinda funny. Just a few weeks before you announced this new growth in your marriage, I had started to consider more ways that I could act. I have spent time in the past in volunteering activities, and these have been very important to me. Only few days before the big announcement, likely particulary inspired by this post of Jen’s, I started looking at online databases with volunteer opportunities, scoping out places that might be close to home. But I didn’t get too far. My scoping activities were likely cut short by some other demands on my time and attention. And I thought that this was perhaps not the right time for me to start wearing my volunteer pants again, but that I’d keep looking to see if there was something I could fit in down the road.

So when you made your request, I was thrown into a bit of an existential crisis. I may even have had a wee bit of a temper tantrum. I felt a little like I was being asked to clean my room, after I’d already decided to clean my room later. “I will not clean my room! I don’t want to!” I shouted to the universe. “I don’t need to clean my room!”

But the truth is, you are right. My room is a mess. I need to pick up the piles of stuff off the floor and take some action. Here’s the thing. I can’t promise a thorough job right now. It will have to be a gradual one. For a start, I will share my stories of volunteerism, in the hopes that these may motivate me more, and maybe someone else who sees them. I will look into volunteer opportunities, and share what I’ve learned. I will make some calls. And I will find more actions I can take.

I know it’s not the gift you were hoping for, but consider it more of a gift card. Or a promise of a gift card, scribbled on a greeting card. A re-used greeting card.

So, here’s to say thank you for all you do, and all the ways that you inspire me.

Much love,

alejna

——

As the ultimate in tacky gift-giving, this post is being offered not only as a shower gift to Mad and Jen for their Just Post baby, but as an entry to the Monday Missions. This week’s mission was to write a post in the form of a thank you note.

presents that make me feel happy

I sent some holiday gifts this year that really made me feel good.

There are some family members for whom it has become increasingly harder to come up with ideas for gifts, since we don’t see or talk to them often enough to know their tastes well. When I can, I try to choose a book or CD that I liked, thinking they can at least pass it on to someone else if they don’t like it. In other cases, when I don’t have books or music in mind, I try to keep the gifts compact or consumable so that the recipient won’t be burdened with storage of something they might not really like. (I wrote some more thoughts about gift-giving at this time last year.)

This year, I was multiply inspired by some blogs I read. First, Mad of Under the Mad Hat described and showed photos of her impressive craftiness, and asked what sorts of holiday crafts her readers were up to. I replied that I had in the past made some Christmas tree ornaments, but that my own days of craftiness were largely behind me. Then Sage of Not So Sage went and showed her own crafty endeavors.

Somewhere along the way, I started reminiscing about the things I used to make with my hands, while dreading the experience of holiday shopping. And I thought to myself, “wouldn’t it be great to spend my time and energy making gifts, rather than desperately hunting for gifts and parking spaces?”

So I decided to dig out my supplies, my brass and copper wire, my tools and my beads, and to make some ornaments. (I’ll post some photos later.) My plan was to give an ornament to these hard-to-buy-for relatives, and supplement with a donation to Heifer International, or some such.

But then my next inspiration came in the form of a post from jen of One Plus Two. In her preamble to the November Just Posts presentation, she mentioned a project described by Jess of Oh, The Joys: the rebuilding of a school library in New Orleans that had been destroyed during hurricane Katrina. There is an Amazon wishlist for this school whereby people can purchase books for this library, and have them sent directly there.

So the idea fell into my lap what I could give to those various people. I picked out books from the wishlist that I thought would be appreciated by the giftees: music books for/from the musicians in the family, a history book for/from a history buff, art books for/from the artists. And for each gift I bought, I printed up an image of the book, and wrote a little note saying “We sent your gift to New Orleans!” (And briefly describing the project.) I got on such a roll, I even bought extra gifts for/from people I already had other gifts for.

I have to tell you, as I wrapped up my hand-made ornaments, and enclosed the notes, I have never felt so good about the gifts I sent.

african-american_art.jpg ellington.jpg aunt_flossies_hats.jpg be_a_friend.jpg