Just thought I’d post a note to say that I have not been abducted by aliens, nor have I been buried under an avalanche of plush toys. (Both of those sound somewhat appealing, though.) Much like a few nights ago, my stress levels are high, and concentration levels low. So I can’t really write much now, beyond blah blah blah. Perhaps I will be able to write tonight, when I should be doing work.
mismanners
I had a funny experience a couple of nights ago. I got a call from a woman in my graduate program that I hadn’t seen for several months. She said she had a question about thank you notes. I sputtered for a moment in confusion. Had she found out about my blog, where I’d recently posted about being several months behind in writing thank you notes? To confuse me more, this is someone who had given a present for Phoebe, and to whom I had not yet sent a thank you note. Was she asking about that? Hey, dude, where’s my note? (Not that she’d ask that way. She’s very polite. Also Japanese. Can’t picture her saying dude.) In a moment, I remembered that I’d gotten a message from her a couple of days before saying she was going to a job interview. Aha! She must mean thank you notes that she would be writing. Indeed, this was the case. She was calling to ask me about the etiquette of writing post-interview thank you notes. But let me repeat and rephrase, she was calling to ask me about the etiquette of writing thank you notes. Me. I laughed maniacally. Somewhat to her confusion.
I guess I know a fair amount about etiquette somehow or another, and have reasonably polished manners. (I mean, when eating in a fancy restaurant, I know which is the proper fork to use when skewering the last piece of potato off your companion’s plate when he’s looking the other way.) But it strikes me as funny that someone would ask me for advice on etiquette on a matter where I’ve been so terribly delinquent.
Anyhow, if anyone out there has some etiquette questions for me, lay ’em on. I’m thinking of writing a column. (And by the way, no, I haven’t yet finished the damn thank you notes I owe. So don’t ask. That would be rude.)
approaching level orange
I have to say that my stress levels are not great tonight. Due to a variety of factors good (my mother is visiting) and bad (we are renegotiating Phoebe’s terms of sleep), my time and concentration have been reduced to critically low levels.
Please note that it is almost 1:00 a.m., and that rather than going to sleep I have chosen to: a) spend time writing, re-writing, re-re-writing (etc.) this largely incoherent rant due to stress-induced cognitive deficits and b) use a picture for which I had to 1) go on a scavenger hunt around the living room to locate a set of rings 2) set up said rings for a photo 3) upload pictures to my laptop 4) determine what application to use to put an arrow on a picture and 5) look up appropriate image-spacing html tags. And I wonder where my time goes.
actions speak louder through words
Since I may not have time to post much myself, I just wanted to send a pointer to some cool posting that’s going on elsewhere. There are a couple of bloggers who are organizing an ongoing project of collecting posts from their blogging community written about social causes. On the 10th of each month, the anniversary of a group wedding of minds, they have promised to post links to other posts written during the previous month. This month’s list can be found now on their respective blogs.
I’ve only had a chance to read a few of the posts so far, but the ones I’ve looked at treat a diverse range of issues including universal healthcare, climate change/global warming, racism, and excessive consumerism.
I’m hoping to be inspired and motivated to, at least periodically, post something of redeeming social value. But I can at least resolve to read what others have written. And reading counts. Awareness matters.
Potentially kick-ass women movies that probably suck
This is another installment of my ongoing project to collect, classify and critique movies, TV shows and other media that prominently feature kick-ass women. I started by putting together lists of my all-time favorite movies in this genre. (I also started a consolidated list, for quick reference, but have to update it.) A recent contribution to the project has come from another blogger, who put together a list of her 10 favorite Hong Kong kick-ass women movies. Other installments from me have included a couple of lists of movies that I haven’t yet seen, but would like to. I also recently made a list of movies with kick-ass women that I found disappointing. (Whether it was disapointment in the movie, or disappointment in the potentially kick-ass women.) This next list somewhat straddles the last two categories: movies with potentially kick-ass women that I haven’t seen, but don’t have high expectations for. In many cases, I’m (morbidly) curious about them, though.
9 potential kick-ass women movies I haven’t seen, am not sure I want to see, but have some morbid curiosity about
- Barb Wire (1996)
This is the one starring Pamela Anderson (Lee). I really don’t expect anything redeeming about this movie, though I did read a review on imdb saying the movie is fun in a campy way. - Batman & Robin (1997)
This looks awful. I’ve read that it’s awful. But I’m somewhat morbidly curious about Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy and Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl. - Starship Troopers (1997)
I stumbled across a mention of this one at some point in my “research,” but from a source I don’t have much trust in. Not sure the details on who the kick-ass woman is. It has Denise Richards and Dina Meyer. (Funny, I just typed Dina Richards and Denise Meyer…guess that reflects that I don’t really know either of their work.) Googling “Denise Richards” and the movie title brought up various mentions of breasts and sex scenes, which is not a good sign. Oh, and I did find this useful abridged version of the script, though. - Out of Sight (1998)
Jennifer Lopez plays a US Marshall. I vaguely recall that this is the movie where she lets her own ass get kicked due to mushiness for George Clooney. - Entrapment (1999)
I have very low expectations of this for 2 reasons: 1) Sean Connery, who is, as far as I can tell a misogynist. I blame him for some of the atrocities of The Avengers (1998). I don’t think he likes to have a character he plays bested by a woman. and 2) Catherine Zeta-Jones. I once read an interview with her in a magazine (I don’t even know which. I was probably in a waiting room somewhere) where she talked about the importance of the and the challenges associated with being…pretty. - Miss Congeniality (2000)
I have serious doubts about the kick-ass qualities of Sandra Bullock in this, but I’m curious. Looks to be a lightweight comedy. - Lara Croft Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (2003)
Angelina Jolie, once more. The first one was moderately disappointing. What should I expect from the sequel of a moderately disappointing movie? - Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
I just don’t know if I can stomach this one. What with Arnold and all. Kristanna Loken plays a female terminator. That Arnold presumably whoops. - Catwoman (2004)
I wanted this one to be fun, but I heard it was pretty bad. (Although one friend of mine said she enjoyed it.) Halle Berry wears the catsuit.
dubious distinctions
I just got home from my violin lesson. I’ve been taking lessons for just over 3 years, or, as I think of it “not that long.” I was sitting in the music store where I have my lessons, in the waiting area outside the little closet-sized “studio” where I have my weekly lesson. A few other people were sitting around waiting for lessons, mostly some older kids accompanied by a parent. And just as I was reflecting on the short time I’d been studying, I heard the following exchange from some folks sitting across the way:
“Have you been playing long?” someone asked.
“Yeah,” answered the teenage girl and her father emphatically. “Almost 4 years.”
We can chalk that one up to another instance of me apparently having a somewhat distorted view of the passage of time. Or perhaps the relative perception of the length of a year, say, for me vs. a teenager. (I feel old.) And me vs. the parent of a teenager. (I feel scared.)
I’d also like to take this moment to boast that, according to my violin teacher, I am her “best adult student.” (I’d also like to add that most of her adult students have actually been studying the violin longer than I have, so it’s not totally a throwaway compliment.) (However, I also should point out that, and I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that none of them are likely to read this, her other adult students pretty much suck.)
(I’d also like to share that I’m having some trouble deciding what categories to check off for this post. I mean, should I put music? “Does learning to play the violin count as music?” I just asked myself. To which the response had to be “not the way I play it…” Oh, but what the hell.)
You think you know someone…
As I mentioned recently, John and I have been together for quite a while. Over 15 years, to be specific. So you’d think I’d know John pretty well. But he does find ways to surprise me.
John has a background in math and computer science. He’s been working in the computer industry since before we met, and in the years since I’ve known him, has become an expert in his subfield of the industry. John also is a technophile. He likes the cool toys, and has a weakness for electronics. So when John bought his first impressive digital camera, it didn’t surprise me. And when John started learning the ropes of photography technique and digital image processing, that didn’t surprise me, either. What did surprise me is that over the last couple of years, John has been taking some really beautiful photos. I didn’t know I’d married an artist.
Anyhow, I’m happy to say that John has started posting some of his photos on his blog. Three posts so far. Hopefully more to come.
I’ve been thinking that one of my new resolutions in the realm of blogging, once I get around to acknowledging the new year and writing them, should be to post more pictures on my blog. So I’ll take this opportunity to post some pictures. Below is one of John’s, of an abandoned mill in the town next to ours.
The lines of the structure actually reminded me a bit of a Shinto shrine. The vertical supports of the wall and the slightly curving horizontal edge of the roof suggest the shape of a gate to me. I was particularly reminded of a picture I took of a street-corner shrine I came across in Nara, Japan when I was there for a conference in 2004. Here’s a photo of it.
And here’s another one, showing a bit more of the street.
Another list of kick-ass women movies
Not one of my lists this time, though. I’m excited to share that another movie buff has put together a new list of some of her favorite kick-ass women movies on her site Webs of Significance. Check out her list of 10 kick-ass women movies, which features a selection of Hong Kong movies in the kick-ass women genre.
num skull
I like to think of myself as an optimist, if a cynical one. But I often find evidence of pessimism. And quite honestly, I am a worrier. And sometimes, when something little goes wrong, it doesn’t take me too many mental steps to arrive at a worst-case scenario.
Last night, I had a bit of trouble with a website interface involving typing text into a field on the page. I thought maybe it was a browser issue, and didn’t think too much of it. Everything else seemed to be working fine on my laptop. Then this morning, soon after I opened my laptop to check email and so forth (read: see if any one left any comments on the blog…), I found I couldn’t type. Almost none of the keys on the keyboard were working. I sort of tried a bunch of keys at random, and all that showed up on my screen (in various applications I tried) were a few numbers. Crap. I thought there must be something wrong with the laptop. I mean it’s going on 4 years old. Did this signify imminent laptop death? I could still use the mouse, so I thought maybe I should back up my data. But what if my data files were already corrupted, and then I’d overwrite my last backup? So I thought, maybe I should just restart. But then I was a afraid that, without being able to use the keyboard, I wouldn’t be able to even log in again. So I closed up my laptop to wait for reinforcements to deal with the issue. After the reinforcements woke up and had a swig of morning diet coke, I related my fears of laptop catastrophe. After running a battery of in-depth diagnostics (well, he opened my laptop and looked), John helped me make the discovery that there was a little green light below the “f6” key. A key that also bears the text “num lock.”
Almost 4 years with this laptop, and I never noticed I had a numbers lock? Doh!
collecting tokens 