Category: Blogroll

putting my money where my mouth is

Yick. That sounds gross. I will not actually be eating money, or putting any in my mouth. But I will be eating lots and lots of other green stuff.

I’ve taken the produce plunge and signed up for a CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture) share. This means that I’ve paid a subscription¹ price to get regular assortments of freshly harvested vegetables from a local farm. In doing so, we’re not only going to be getting lots of really good, seriously fresh vegetables, we’re supporting a local organic farmer in her efforts to farm sustainably.

I’d been planning to try to buy more local produce this year, and was thinking of making trips to some local farmstands rather than forking over my usual baskets of money to Whole Foods. However, when I came across a post at Can we kick the bar here? about CSAs a few weeks ago, I realized that this could be something for me. I followed the link to look for CSA opportunities near me.²

I’d heard of CSAs before (though hadn’t retained the name of them) from my sister, who knows a thing or two about vegetables (especially about cooking them). A friend of hers had signed on to a CSA a few years ago, and started a blog to chronicle her vegetable adventures: Vegetablog. But somehow, it didn’t sink in as something I wanted do until I read that other post.

So, tomorrow, we start. We’ll head out to the farm and collect our veggies. Then will come the trickier part.

I realize that I’m in for a big challenge. For me, for the past few years, cooking has usually involved throwing some brown rice in the rice cooker. That’s when I’m getting more complicated than a bowl of cereal. I’ve gotten a bit better with making food for Phoebe, and have regularly steamed up vegetables for her. But this endeavor will be big. Big. I do have a plan, though. I’m hoping to have friends over for dinner at least every couple of weeks to help us eat our vegetables. And what we can’t finish off, I’ll hopefully be able to pawn off on my guests. Every dinner guest can take home a head of lettuce or a parsnip as a parting gift.³

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¹ Oops, almost typed prescription. “I’m sorry, those vegetable are not sold over the counter.”

² I’d also like to share that I came across that post by way of reading the last round up of Just Posts. So I’d like to offer this up as evidence that writing about issues that matter to you can make a difference.

³ So, if you are a local friend, you’ll be hearing from me soon about getting over here to get your veggies on. If you are a long-distance friend, and planning on travelling to New England in the next few months, you also get an invitation.

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good for the heart

With all the cheese I’ve been serving up this week, I can imagine that some of you might be getting concerned about the cholesterol levels. Well, this should help. Might I suggest that you get yourself a helping of this month’s round of Just Posts? One again, they’ve been served up tastefully by the fabulous folks of One Plus Two and Under the Mad Hat. Just click on the button with the purple bird, and you’ll be presented with plenty of links to whole lot of posts that speak to the same thing: making the world a better place. The Just Posts are good reading, good for what ails us, and certified to be 100% cholesterol-free.

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And just in case that’s not enough enticement, please consider the following:

Clicking on those links says you care. (Sorry if that sounds cheesy.)

There’s so much going on in the world that it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and overburdened. There are so many wrongs that need to be addressed. It’s all too much for any one person, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you can’t do enough to help. You may not be able afford to give money, especially to every cause you think deserves it. You may not have time to volunteer, and there are so many groups anyhow. You may not have the energy or know-how to fight the system over the issues. But let me share a secret.

Clicking on those links actually helps.

Think about giving an impassioned speech to a nearly empty auditorium. Now think about how encouraging it is to be surrounded by people who care about what you have to say. Clicking on the links is like a virtual round of applause for the authors. Thouse clicks count.

Encouraging others to write about what they believe in, act on what they believe in, fight for what they believe in. That matters, my friend.

Read some of those words. Even if you don’t have time to read everything, you can still see what people have to say.

So click on some links.

Think of it as mouse-based activism.

extra cheese

You know what really cheeses me off? When I finish a list and realize I’ve forgotten something.

It’s like going to the grocery store to buy bread, eggs and milk, and then remembering I need cheese too as I’m driving on my way there, but I figure I’ll wait to add it to my list, since it would be hazardous to write while driving, even if it is only one word, and then when I get there, going into this trance as I wander the aisles with my shopping cart, and wondering what it means that supermarkets now play music that was actually popular when I was in high school, and feeling up the melons and squeezing the toilet paper, then browsing the cereal aisle and feeling nostalgic for the days of my youth when lucky charms were an exotic unattainable bowl of cereal at the end of the rainbow because my mother insisted on having us eat healthy cereals like wheat chex and when I finally tried them, they really weren’t that thrilling, and resisting the urge to buy cookies and redi-whip and donuts, and before you know it, I’ve filled up the cart and then I head home with my bags of groceries, and after I put away my bread and my milk and my pint of organic blackberry sorbet, which seemed like a healthier choice than the chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, but screw it, I bought that too, and bananas and maple syrup and zucchini and oatmeal and frozen peas, and then find a crumpled up paper in my pocket, and it’s my grocery list with its three measly items (bread, eggs and milk) scribbled on it, and realize that I’ve forgotten the eggs, and (crap!) I also forgot to get more cheese.

You know what I’m saying?

Anyhow, I realized that I left off some key pieces of cheese from yesterday’s cheeseful bounty. Such as:

  1. Richard Cheese, a musician who, along with his band Lounge Against the Machine, provides cheesy lounge music reinterpretations of so many your favorite contemporary songs. Also in the music category is the band The String Cheese Incident. Then there’s the apparently sadly now-defunct Cheese Patrol, a

    yearly homage to all the songs that people vociferously hate but secretly know all the words to. These are the songs we grew up with; overorchestrated. overwrought, oversynthed, over the top.

  2. Somehow I also managed to leave off the appearance of the cheese guy in the Buffy episode “Restless“, as well as a few other cheesy references. And in my research I came across this brilliant essay “An Analysis of Cheese as Metaphor in Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. Apparently, the layers of cheese in the Buffy series run far deeper than I’d realized.
  3. For more on cheese philosophy, you can check out this essay “on the non-existence of cheese.” Is there proof of the existence of cheese in the universe? Perhaps not.
  4. Then there’s the Cheese Burglar. But I’m not really a big fan of the cult of which he is a member. So instead I offer this cartoon mouse classic, The Cheese Burglar (1946). (You can even see it on YouTube. Though I admit to not having watched anything close to the whole 7 minutes.)
  5. I actually like the animation of this (shorter) shortThe Cheese Trap better, which features a cg version of the board game Mouse Trap, one of my childhood favorites.
  6. Do you hanker for a hunka cheese? Do you remember this rather creepy cartoon psa from the 70s? You might also be interested in the hunk-hankerers guest appearance on the Family Guy.
  7. Yesterday’s cheese did not include much in the way of cheese activities for those of you with too much time and not enough cheese on your hands. Options include: a quiz to let you know what kind of cheese you are. (There’s also a similar-veined one-step cheese “comparator,” but the reviews are not stellar.)
  8. There’s even an experiment with cheese that you can perform at home on your own. (However, the author does recommend exercising caution if you are lactose tolerant.) (And no, my dear seester, this is not the same cheese experiment you tried with me that one time when we were little. I’ll write about that later.)
  9. Most thrillingly, you can actually watch cheese *live* online. That’s right, you can watch watch cheddar cheese aging. Not only is it just as exciting as it sounds, it is also apparently the cool thing to do. (If you don’t have the months to spare to see the change in progress, you can also check out this time-lapse video encapsulating 3 months of the cheese-aging process.)
  10. And even though I offered it up yesterday, no cheese list would be complete without The Cheese Shop sketch. This time, I serve it up in its youtubiful glory:

them’s good eatin’

The fabulous folks of one plus two and Under the Mad Hat have served up the latest feast of Just Posts, a tantalizing buffet of posts addressing issues of social justice. I highly recommend you sample a few. To start nibbling, just click on the pretty button with the dove:

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Bon appetit!

I asked for it

There’s a thing going around whereby folks ask each other questions, and then write some answers. In response to an offer to spread this thing, I requested questions, and The Amazing KC from Where’s My Cape? answered with some questions. Below I’ve answered the questions. Perhaps you will question my answers.

1. How did you get to live in rural Massachusetts? Is there anywhere else in the country you’d like to live?

We moved up to Massachusetts from Providence once we’d both finished college. John had been working in Massachusetts for several years already while in school, and during time off from school. We started off in a somewhat more suburban area, in a town next to the one where John worked. Then, when it was time to buy a house, we couldn’t find anything we liked in our price range close to Boston. (Things were run-down, on very busy streets with no yards, or hideous 70s split levels with flood-damaged basements.) We kept looking further and farther out. Our realtor was from this town, and tolds us of the charms and history of the small town. He encouraged us to look at houses here. When we did, we suddenly could afford nice houses. With yards and trees. It was the trees that got me. We live in the woods. It’s quiet. The air is clean. The snow stays white as snow until it melts.

I love the physical location of our house, but I wish we could be closer to civilization. Most of my friends live closer to Boston, and I love the city. I love the culture, the food, the activities. Museums, restaurants, indie movie theaters, concerts. I love the mixture of cultures and ethnicities. I’d love for Phoebe to go to school in a city. And I know that I could do more in the city. I would love to do away with this commute, which eats up time and energy, and keeps me from doing things I’d like to do.

My sister is always trying to get me to move back to California, but I’m resistant. For one thing, I’ve become attached to this area, have a lot of friends around. For another, I like seasons. I actually like winter. Plus it’s so crowded out in the Bay Area, where she lives. And so expensive. (I know, Boston is crowded and expensive, too.) Then again, my mother lives out in California now, too…it would be nice to be close to family.

2. You’ve graced the cover of American Hovel Magazine. What’s another magazine you would like to be on the cover on and what would be story about?

So you’ve seen the latest AHM? That’s right, you probably have a subscription.

You know, I don’t really know too many magazines. I don’t really read them. So I’d have to go for something generic or fictitious. Maybe a general news magazine. Time or Newsweek or some such. Or maybe Amazing Stuff Quarterly. I’d like it to be for some accomplishment I’ve done. Some unspecified achievement. Definitely for an intellectual achievement. Maybe something language oriented, or for some ingenious solution I’ve come up with that will address social issues or improve the quality of life of some group of people. I’d like it to be about “the woman who revolutionized X” or “who initiated Y” or “who solved Z.” (I’d really rather not be the person “who slept with X” or “who survived Y disaster.” I wouldn’t even care to be the one “who dazzled Z audience.”)

3. What are the top 3 things you want to accomplish over the next 10 years?

1. Get the PhD.
2. hmm…
3. well….

Um…It’s hard for me to come up with a list beyond that. Continued family development will be involved. There will need to be some sort of job at the end of grad school. I have lots of activities I’d like to get back to and/or develop further, but I don’t have specific goals. I mean, take the violin. I want to keep learning, but there is no specific target for how much or how good I’d like to get. I’d like to get back to painting, jewelry-making, martial arts. I’d like to get back to some sort of volunteer work. I’d like to travel. How odd to realize that my goals are overall somewhat vague right now. Hmm…

4. You seem to like pants. If you were a pair of pants, what kind would you be (details please)?

Ah, yes. Pants. I am actually fairly ambivalent about pants. I like pants. The word, more than the article of clothing. I like to say “pants.” Pants are functional, and more practical to wear than dresses. (I do like dresses and skirts. My tastes can be quite girly in spite of my tendencies to wear men’s clothing.) I actually hate shopping for pants. I shop the sale racks, and buy what fits, as long as it’s fairly plain. Jeans are comfy, but I wouldn’t consider myself to be denim. So, if I were to be a pair of pants, I’d probably be made of some sort of woven cotton blend, durable yet soft. I’d need to have pockets, because it’s important to have a place to put stuff. (I’m not a purse person.) Deep pockets. I’d have simple lines, and hopefully wouldn’t be falling down, tripping the wearer, or exposing the butt crack. I’d be fairly fitted, not actually tight, not really baggy, hopefully flattering to the butt, even for butts of varying sizes or shapes. I’d be loose enough or stretchy enough that the wearer could sit cross-legged comfortably on the floor.

I’d be of a style that wouldn’t reflect the latest fashions, whatever they may be, so I wouldn’t look too dated when you’d wear me years after you bought me. I’d be machine washable, tumble dry low. But if you wanted to line-dry me, I’d be okay with that. I’d be made in a dark color like black or charcoal gray, in part so I’d be stain-resistant, or at least forgiving of stains. (I know things can get messy.) I’d be fairly wrinkle-resistant, so that I’d be good to pack or wear on a trip. I probably wouldn’t be totally wrinkle-free, but you certainly wouldn’t need to iron me. I would be moderately priced, accessible, so that any who wanted to wear me could.

5. You are a superhero. What are your superpowers? What is your Kryptonite? Who is your arch villian?

You’re trying to trick me! You’ve discovered my secret identity!

This is actually a question that I’ve enjoyed playing with since childhood. (I remember daydreaming about being a superhero in kindergarden.) I’d definitely have the power of flight. Telekinesis would be handy. I’d also like to be skillful at some martial art. A showy one. Plus I would have the power to befuddle my enemies with my superior wit. Or perhaps render them helpless with laughter. (Laughing due to my wit, not my clumsiness…But hey, whatever works.)

My Kryptonite? Uncomfortable shoes? No stilettos or pointy toes for me. Or some sort of dissonant or excessive noise. I can’t stand hearing more than one form of music at the same time.

My arch villain? That’s a tricky one. I don’t really like having enemies. They’d have to be bizarre. Absurd. I like Casanova Frankenstein from Mystery Men.

……..

Okay, there are my answers. So I guess I should continue this thing by offering to give questions to anyone who’s up for being asked. Answer, and you shall be asked.

[Note: jenny of baggage carousel 4 and ericalee of something bookish and bluegrass in my pocket have both requested questions. You can see jenny’s answers, and follow along with those who in turn asked her for questions. Stay tuned for ericalee’s answers…]

18 of my favorite books

YTSL of Webs of Significance has (more-or-less) tagged me with a meme, by way of emails suggesting that I write about one (or more) of the (two so far) meme-related topics she’s posted on. One of the posts is on the book she couldn’t live without, inspired in part by a survey asking for people to list the 10 books they could not live without and a resulting list of the top 10 most frequently listed books. (The other meme-tagged post she’s written is called “wannabe“, which is about things she’s been and things she’s wanted to be. I may get around to this at some point, too.)

Because I don’t have a single favorite book, I’ll take some liberties with the meme concept, and write a list of my own favorites. The number of which will be determined when I get to the end of the list. And then hopefully I’ll get around to writing about the books in more detail. And because I have trouble determining which is my all-time favorite, I have not ranked them. Instead, I’m listing the books here roughly in the order in which I first encountered them. My list is in part selected to get a cross-section of the genres I enjoy reading, or phases I went through. I haven’t included any picture books, although that is a category of book that is very near and dear to my heart. Several of the books I list are meant to be representative of various works of that author, or a series by that author.

Some of my all-time favorite books

  1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis

    2. a children’s fantasy, and my favorite of the Narnia series (U.K.)

  2. The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster

    3. a silly children’s fantasy that plays with words (U.S.)

  3. The Shadow of the Moon, by M. M. Kaye

    4. a historic novel of the British in India with a bit of romance flavor (U.K.)

  4. The Peacock Spring, by Rumer Godden

    5. another British in India novel, but a more modern coming-of-age novel, by one of my all-time favorite authors (U.K.)

  5. Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy

    6. 19th century British Literature (U.K.)

  6. Emma, by Jane Austen

    7. witty 19th century British literature (U.K.)

  7. The Kitchen God’s Wife, by Amy Tan

    8. a novel of family, immigration and the meeting of cultures (U.S.)

  8. A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth

    9. a coming of age Indian novel (India)

  9. Winterdance, by Gary Paulsen

    10. a memoir featuring dogs (U.S.)

  10. Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

    11. a fun, funny work of science fiction (U.K.)

  11. Startide Rising, by David Brin

    12. a futuristic science fiction novel featuring talking dolphins, part of the Uplift series (U.S.)

  12. A Pale View of Hills, by Kazuo Ishiguro

    13. a poetic and almost surreal novel of memory, family and Japan (U.K.)

  13. The Witching Hour, by Anne Rice

    14. a novel of the supernatural, representing my Anne Rice phase (U.S.)

  14. The Dispossessed, by Ursula Le Guin

    15. a science fiction novel about social structure (U.S.)

  15. Bellwether, by Connie Willis

    16. a novel about fads by a favorite science fiction author, but this one’s more social scientist fiction (U.S.)

  16. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire

    17. a tale retold, about the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz (U.S.)

  17. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver

    18. a novel of family, the meeting of cultures and living in Africa (U.S.)

  18. Thus was Adonis Murdered, by Sarah Caudwell

    19. one of only four books ever written by this author, a slightly racy, slightly academic, and very witty mystery and comedy of manners (U.K.)

Okay. So I ended up with 18. Which is a good number. For a start.

And as far as the meme business goes, I’ll try my hand at tagging some folks that I know to be book-oriented. Because I’d be interested in seeing your lists. Lists of whatever number you’d like to write. Perhaps within the range of 1-20. Erica, what’s your list? bs/Beckanon? jenny? John? Anyone else want to play?

more kick-ass women movies

I’m happy to share that YTSL from Webs of Significance has put together another list of her favorite kick-ass women movies, which ties in fabulously with my ongoing project to collect, catalog and critique movies and other media featuring kick-ass women. This latest list expands upon YTSL’s previous offering (which consisted of Hong Kong movies), and has movies from Korea, Japan, Thailand, and mainland China, in addition to a few more Hong Kong offerings. I hope you’ll check it out!

As for me, I’ve been a bit delinquent in my progress with the kick-ass women project, with almost a month having passed since my own last list. I still have plans to move into the next phase of the project, including more detailed discussions of what it means to be kick-ass. Perhaps this will give me the needed kick to my own hind quarters…

another late night when I should be sleeping

Ah, the same old story. It’s past midnight, and I should be sleeping. (My laptop says it’s past 3 a.m., since it’s still on east coast time, while I’m still out in California.) But I feel compelled to write. Once again, I have no time to write. But this time, I’m not feeling cranky. I’m feeling many things. For one, I am feeling both humbled and inspired by some posts I’ve been reading. KC at Where’s My Cape has written a brave, beautiful and gut-wrenching series of posts about dealing with eating disorders. Jen at One Plus Two has been writing soulfully about the value of treating others with kindness, especially when those others have fallen on the hardest of times:

Kindness matters. Taking a moment to look the person in the eye, to offer that inconsequential bit of spare change, to exchange a few words. It matters. It makes one feel human.

Imagine if everyone avoided you, all day every day. Imagine if you felt invisible. Alone. And on top of that, you slept in a doorway.

Which reminds me that I should share that I am thrilled to be a part of the February Just Posts, a collection of writings that speak to issues of social justice, with my post on language discrimination.

justpostfeb2007

Anyhow, I’m having a wonderful visit with my family. I am charmed by my beautiful new nephew Diego, and so happy to have time here with my sister, brother-in-law and mother. I’m so glad that John and Phoebe are also here with me, and it was worth the trials and tribulations of the journey. I feel warm and complete to be here with my family. (Yes, I am really a sap deep-down.)

A Message from the Ministry of Pants

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to bring you the following important message: Pants are everywhere. We bring you this pair of pants images:

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John and I saw these pants window banners at the mall a couple of weeks ago at Banana Republic. Neither of us had our cameras with us. I’ve been meaning to get back there to take a picture before they pull down their pants. But I haven’t had time. Yesterday, John, love of my life, heart of my heart, stopped by the mall again on his way to a meeting. Just so he could get me these pants.