I just finished this YA book I borrowed from Anna Claire called Birdwing by Rafe Martin, which is like a continuation or sequel to a Grimm's fairy tale. It was kind of weird and clunky but somehow also super engaging, which I don't know how that works. I guess they just created some characters that I really liked and wanted to know more about, even if it was all woven in kind of a weird way. So overall I'd totally recommend it, especially because it's quick and easy, even if it had a few hiccups in the telling of it.
For Christmas I got two copies of the complete novels of Jane Austen, so I took one of them back and exchanged it for On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I've sort of dipped my toes into both so far and I really love both of them, but for totally different reasons. Ian McEwan is like full entire pages of absolute poetry, and it's so romantic and beautiful yet posh and English. JSF is more like if you were in a car with a 9-yr-old in the back seat who is both unendingly chatty and incredibly bright. He's hilarious and kind of ADD, but also has moments of this totally childlike sadness and wisdom that can break your heart.
I don't know what it is lately, but I've been reading so many books that can literally have me like fighting back tears one paragraph and laughing out loud the next. Seems like they're usually in the perspective of a kid though too, so I guess that's the key. But done well. A couple of other ones I read like that recently were Eggs by Jerry Spinelli and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. I'd also recommend both of those. Just go read them in one of the chairs at B&N with a latte or whatever, they're pretty quick reads. Ok but disclaimer for the Alexie book -- it's kind of... I don't know, PG-13 sometimes? Or not, I don't know. It's probably a pretty accurate depiction of a 13-yr-old boy. Maybe. I never was one.
Another one I recently read was called Everything and More: a Brief History of <infinity> but it had the little symbol, by David Foster Wallace. It was kind of math/philosophy/logic/history, not exactly like a summer beach read but totally fascinating and oddly hilarious. I'm sure it was a practically impossible book to write, because I do feel like it was probably pretty accessible to newbies (well, you'd probably need at least a little college math) and brainiacs. I can't really speak for the brainiacs though. He'd have these little footnotes (DFW? Footnotes? No way!) that could either be filling in gaps for the less knowledgeable or adding even more depth for the more knowledgeable so you could kind of customize. Made me excited to read one of his novels once I get it back from Susanna, he's just so readable and challenging at the same time. My favorites were how he constantly refers to particular aspects of math or theorems in terms of their "sexiness," or how he'll say something about the relative futility of a certain mathematical paradigm and how that's why he's just not going to go into it, and then round it off with an uber-professional "Deal." This one might not be for everybody but it's probably for more people than you'd think. And it's a nice review of the ole higher-level calc.
So from YA to infinity... I guess I'll wrap this up.
So some things I've been enjoying recently -- (because I don't know what else to talk about)...
Ok I just watched Stardust again last night, and that was a seriously fun movie. Why wasn't it bigger than it was? One thing I liked about it was that it was made from a book, but they like totally changed big parts of it, but in the best way. I guess that's what happens when you include the author in the process. But like, I'd read the book (twice?) but then seeing the movie I still didn't know what was going to happen, which is genius. Sometimes it sucks when people change a book when translating it to film, but only if they ruin it or destroy the tone. This was was just good fun, and I think it's my favorite Robert DeNiro role ever.
Saw Benjamin Button, and Dane and I talked about the visual effects alone for like 45 minutes probably. It is a beautiful movie, whatever else you think of it. Something about the romance was kind of off, I don't know, I liked the story and I liked how it all played out, I just didn't get like ANY actual chemistry or attraction off of BP and CB. Maybe because they're a kid and an old man and then an old lady and a kid. But even when they're both sort of in the middle and beautiful, I don't know. It did really well as far as that goes though portraying a couple of people that mean the world to each other but just can't get the timing right. And I kind of loved both of their life stories even if I wasn't super invested in the part where they met in the middle. Anyway, another one I'd totally recommend.
We also watched There Will Be Blood the other day which I realize everybody else was done talking about AGES ago but we're behind the times. I had heard how just utterly completely bleak and depressing it was, and I think that helped set up my expectations so that it ultimately wasn't that bad. It's just about a maniac who also happens to be a jackass. It was so well-done and super interesting though.
I always sort of ask myself after I see a movie why that movie was made. Like, whoever wrote it and greenlit it and chose to direct it and all of the big steps that got it into theaters, why did they make it? I'm sure like 99% of the people (or 100% in some cases) were involved in it for money, but somebody at some point wanted to make that movie because they wanted to say something or thought it was a new perspective or a lesson or SOMETHING. That one was obviously pretty anti-religious, but also I guess was kind of this morality tale about greed and what it costs... But I don't know, I feel like those stories have kind of been told before. I guess they mostly all have though, that's why I love people like Charlie Kaufman who are coming up with truly new things.
I got Fleet Foxes for Christmas and have been listening to it for a few days, and I think I love it more every time through. It sounds like it should have come from like the '60s or something but it's also really new and creative. I kind of want to give it to my dad, but I think he's the one who gave it to me. I also got the new Mates of State Rearrange Us which I really enjoy but haven't had time to marathon-listen yet, and She & Him Volume 1 which I also really like but I think it might end up being really great like dinner party background music or for when I'm in the mood for singing along with something. It's another total throwback and I really enjoy it but it might not be one that you like dissect and hear a new layer every time you listen to it.
I was going to talk about some books too but this is already longer than some people probably want to read so I'll do those tomorrow.
I wish I had posted this incredibly eloquent and moving post right when I got back, but oops. I promise you I started a few, but lovely vox doesn't save drafts. I know there are ways around that, but I am lazy.
To start with, here is a link to a video that shows a lot of what we did, and it's pretty well-done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_8hbpRuF1g
Here's what we did in a nutshell: we threw parties. Five of us from Dallas joined up with somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 other people down there, some Canadians, lots of others from Indiana, Detroit, Atlanta, and some strays. We spent several mornings packing up stuff and preparing for the parties, and then we'd have the parties in the afternoons. Saturday and Sunday were all-day parties that were much bigger (3-4,000). The first 3 days, after the morning preparation, we'd split into two groups and do two parties, so of all the ones you see in the video, I didn't go to 3 of those. Overall we had over 10,000 people come to the parties.
Ok, what were the parties? We'd have games and crafts (for everyone, those are NOT exclusively kid things there) and give out candy and toy prizes to contestants/participants. We also had family Polaroids with Santa (that was what I did every day until the last day, when I painted nails and faces). On the way out, every kid would get these bags that we had packed full of little toys (usually the only toys they got for Christmas, or the only toys they HAD), and each family would get a big bag of staple food items like beans, rice, flour, corn, etc. At a few places we also gave out hygiene packs, like at the old folks' home. We mostly went to join with organizations that are already serving the children or families of particular areas every day of the year, rather than just doing our own thing. Seems like that's what ER likes to do, enable existing (LOCAL) organizations and find ways to meet their needs. Which is awesome.
If you haven't gotten my pictures and would like them, email and let me know at abbeyrenee at gmail dot com and I'll invite you to my album.
Ok first of all, Ecuador is GORGEOUS. We were at about 9,300 feet usually, right in the mountains. Some of the places we went were unbelievable. Ok fine, here's one pic:
That's at El Refugio. There were tons of weeee little indigenous people that came to that party, more than the others. I was like a giant.
Our biggest party, and the organization that ER is most directly responsible for (if I understand it correctly) is the dump at Zambiza. There are hundreds of people who work there as "miners" who dig through mountains of trash and try to find recyclables to sell back for pennies. When ER showed up there and became aware of it, whole families would have to work together in the dumps to survive (including kids) and so tiny wee kids would just be hanging out and playing in the trash all day with nobody to watch them, getting cut on broken glass or poked with waste needles or eating whatever they found in there.
They started a daycare to get the babies and kids out and give them some order and education so that they can be fed into the school system, baths, and a couple of meals a day. Out of that also came a clinic to get vaccinations, emergency medical care, and pre- and post-natal education and care for the workers there. They have also started a program building houses for residents who live in shacks made of the trash. Here's another video on youtube about that particular dump, if you're curious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnaEmbaxhDo
The goal there is partly to better the lives of the dump workers, but the biggest thing is the day care. Most of those kids, by the time they reached the age to enter public school, were undernourished, underdisciplined, undereducated, couldn't sit still in a class room, weren't healthy enough to attend, etc. So their biggest goal is to get them into school and out of the cycle of working in the dump from childhood to old age.
Ok for some reason this is reading really dry and blah. I assure you the trip was not. I need to write something up for our missions blog, so maybe I'll just copy that in here when I have time to do it. I came right back and was at work the next morning, from the equator to 29 degrees to 70 degrees to 26 again this morning, and I've been fighting some icky bug cold flu thing since the day I got back. Which yay! That it didn't come while I was there, nothing did, we were all fine, but boo to be hit by that and cold and work as soon as I got back.
My end-of-week/weekend was pretty sweet. Thursday we did the Turkey Trot: Jenn, her mom, my mom, Dane, and me. And approx. 34,000 other people. I think we've decided next year to do it at some nice park area in Coppell and save the commute, parking hassle, port-o-potties and massive herds of people for everybody else. Just map a course and do it ourselves. But it was fun! It's a good place to shop for future dogs with my husband. "Bigger than that one, but with shorter hair, but smaller than that one. And longer legs. That's what I want."
Then we went over to Laurie's house and had a deeeelish meal, except with no jellied cranberry sauce which was very sad. I think I'll just go buy a can of it and eat it, for my one time in 2008. I guess there aren't any rules against that kind of thing. So after we ate, which was super dee duper fun at the kids' table, let me tell you, if not always 100% G-rated. :) I guess that's ok since we're not actually kids any more. Anyway afterwards we somehow found this I Love Lucy marathon on tv which was SO funny. I can't believe how totally hilarious and relevant that show still is. I mean, it's STILL funnier than 90% of the stuff on now. Seriously. It was great.
Then it was time for Fam #2, (just chronologically, not in order of importance). I went in and took over Teresa's hand in a game of Hand and Foot, or Hand in Foot, or something, and it was fun but Mother Ann and I lost. Oh well. And then Cary showed us this AWESOME game called World of Goo that you should go google and download. It's super fun. And then we played it until super late.
Friday Dane worked all day and I went to B&N to just bum around, 'cause I didn't want to be sitting at home and that seemed like it might be one of the chiller places to be on Black Friday. It was. I found this music magazine and then went to the back and listened to samples of a bunch of new bands, and I think I found some good new stuff. I asked for it all for Christmas so hopefully I'll get a few new albums. Then I went and hung out at my parents' house, then went and met Dane when he got home after his computer crashed, and then we went to see Australia with my parents. It was crazy long, at least crazy-long-feeling, but I really liked it. It kept moving the whole time, just felt like it might end about 4 or 5 times. But I mean, Hugh Jackman. Hee, at one point he did something all muscley and I leaned over to Dane and I was like "He's huge!" and Dane goes "Well yeah, his name is Huge. Huge-ackman." Hee! Ok well I laughed.
And then Saturday was IKEA cinnamon rolls, a bit of shopping, a lot more World of Goo at the Daniels house and hanging out with the siblings (-in-law), and then we had this super yummy Greek food that Teresa made and then we did all the Christmas decorations in their house and then all piled in the car (6 of us, with one on laps) and went to Pier 1 and World Market, where I got some chili powder chocolate (I opted for that over the bacon-and-sea-salt-chocolate, although I'm still totally curious). It was like the most fun day with the in-laws ever.
Then yesterday we had church where they showed this video Dane made that was really good and the music was really good, and then we went and ate at mom and dad's house, and then watched Lost on the elliptical with Mom and Dane, which holy cow I didn't really forget how awesome that show is but I kind of did. And now I'm all pumped up for Season 5. And then we went and helped the Knights move their piano and their new baby stuff (!!!!!) into their house and then had pizza and I just LOVE hanging out with them. Then we went home last night and had beer and Curb Your Enthusiasm, which I think CAN be like so funny and creative and really different, but I think we might wait a while for the next disc from Netflix cause it's also kind of uncomfortable and honestly, just about all the people on the whole show are cynical vindictive jerks. Which can be hilarious! But you know. I don't know.
Anyway, Ecuador tomorrow! Expect pictures when I get back. If I can find my universal international power adapter thingie to charge my camera batteries. Hmmm....
So tomorrow is a short day, and I tend to just about NEVER get on the computer unless I'm stuck behind it at work, so I'm going to pay my Thanksgiving dues a couple days early. I mean, cheesy, but it's a good idea to honestly stop and think about what I'm grateful for, right? So here it is, in no particular order except Dane is first:
Dane and how unbelievably FUN he is, like almost all the time, and sweet and understanding when it's not really the time for fun.
My job, I know a lot of people looking really hard for jobs right now and there just isn't much to be had. And aside from just being A job, I have a particularly awesome job.
Family being around and involved and real and comfortable, there really is just nothing like it.
Our awesome warm/cool apartment with the comfy bed and the fridge full of food and the closet(s) full of clothes.
My car.
Awesome friends who try to make each other (and themselves) into better people.
I blame you. You people. All of you people that didn't watch Pushing Daisies. How dare you.
Yeah, so it's canceled. The sweetest, cutest, most visually amazing show that's been on TV for years, and it's canceled. I will never, in all my days, if I live to a ripe old age, understand television, and how shows like 2 1/2 Men stay on for eons and are nominated for awards, and shows like 30 Rock and Pushing Daisies and Arrested Development and Veronica Mars struggle and gasp and then die.
That ALMOST killed my buzz from the boots I just got in the mail that are perfect and I love them, and they came in like 2 days even though I got the 7-14 day shipping. Yay!
Oh, and also, it appears that "canceled" only has one L. How embarrassing. Who knows how long I've been doing that.
So we went to the Twilight midnight premiere last night and fought through hordes of fainting and be-glittered high school girls, and oh! it was every bit as deliciously cheesetastic as I wanted it to be. And yes, my wee juice box of merlot was the perfect accent to the whole thing. Thanks, Kat! Seriously guys, it's not good. But it's so good. Here are a few of the thoughts that I had during the whole thing:
-Holy crap, the TRAILER for the Unborn is frikking scary. And evidently most of the audience last night agreed with me. I know I'm a big baby about these things but I could go the rest of my life without watching just the TRAILER again.
-Kristen Stewart talks like somebody took a pepper shaker full of periods and sprinkled them all over her script. She's all. halted. and like. spurtsoutafewwords. and then. stops. Oh, and also, I think her eyes are like in permanent REM sleep mode, just rapidfire back and forth and back and forth. But honestly? It's kind of like a real, somewhat shy and awkward 17-yr-old girl. Like, an actual real one, not all polished up for the screen. I believed her as somebody that high school kids would fall all over and that would really truly not like it.
-Charlie was one of my favorite characters in the movie. I don't know why, he was too good-looking to fit the book, but I liked him.
-Jasper is by miles the cutest person in that movie. Edward schmedward.
-Speaking of, I am by no means a fan of the body builder types, but seriously, Robert Pattinson. Would it have KILLED you to pick up a couple weights or something? Just to get rid of the like totally flabby kinda hairy upper arms - a wee bit of toning. And hello, also not a fan of excessive man-grooming, but I think a chest wax wouldn't have been out of line for a supposedly 17-yr-old supposedly vampire. He was just a bit icky in a few parts. Does nail the "smoldering eyes" though. I guess that was a must.
-I think I want to rent that one martial arts movie that the bad vampire guy was in and watch it with Erin. I bet it'd also be craptastic but with awesome fight scenes, and I'm a sucker for those. And she's a sucker for Cam Gigandet.
-That movie was the weirdest combo of really cool CGI/other effects for the vampirey stuff, and then REALLY corny ones. They did some stuff that was so subtle or mostly off-screen or done sort of organically in some way instead of with CGI, and then the next scene would be just distractingly bad. Ok, humiliatingly corny uniforms aside, I did think the baseball scene was one of the coolest as far as the effects and the dynamics of their group and how they'd use their 'powers' or whatever. Bella and Edward's romp through the forest, yikes. Not so good.
-I thought Carlisle and Esme were totally miscast from pictures, but both of them totally sold me. Esme has about 4 seconds on screen but she NAILS it and gets across a ton of the character in so little time. Most of it was honestly just her look, but she was just right.
Ok I think that's all I can say by way of a review. Other than that it was SO fun just to go with all my friends! I'm so glad everybody came! I wish we had all been in the same theater, but it's cool I guess. My recommendation to you is if you go see this movie, see it soon or in some way ensure that you will be in a theater packed out with teenage girls. I feel like there are parts that might kind of (completely) fall flat if you were, say, mostly alone. But in the right company, and having unleashed your inner dorky melodramatic 14-yr-old girl, it's totally fun.
So I think I mentioned a while back about how I was getting the Better World Shopping Guide, but I don't know if I ever really talked much about it. Anyway I just thought I'd post some of the interesting parts of it for whoever reads my blog.
It has a ton of consumer corps rated A+ through F, on the basis of their records in human rights, the environment, animal protection, community involvement, and social justice. I sort of figured when I got it that everything they recommend to you to buy would be super expensive and hard to find, all Whole Foods or local stuff and to follow it I'd have to like completely change everything about the way we eat and shop. BUT! That's not really the case.
I mean, I think if you wanted to live only on A-, A, and A+, it could get a little pricey and difficult to maintain. But I sort of figured I can cut out all Ds and Fs, and Cs when at all possible, and at least make some sort of a difference.
Here are a bunch of companies that I already bought from, and you probably do too, that are actually pretty good, and you can feel good about continuing to support them:
Newman's Own
Clif Bars (Top 10 BEST Companies List)
Ben & Jerry's (Top 10 BEST Companies List)
Honest Tea (Top 10 BEST Companies List)
Southwest Airlines
Chipotle
Kettle Chips
Cuisinart
Pillsbury
Quaker
Aveda (Top 10 BEST Companies List)
Cadbury
Toyota, Honda, Acura, Lexus
General Mills, Cheerios, Chex, Total, Wheaties
Gap, Nordstrom, Levi's
Starbucks
HP, IBM, Compaq, Apple, Sony, Canon
Panera Bread
BP (gas), Valero, Amoco, Diamond Shamrock
Smuckers
IKEA
Pepsi, Izze
Mattel, Sony, Toys R Us
Etc., etc., etc.
Here are the top 10 WORST Corporations, I think even if you just boycott these guys you're helping a lot:
10. Tyson Foods (chicken, etc.)
9. General Motors (might not have to worry about this one much longer...)
8. Archer Daniels Midland (not sure what they even do)
7. General Electric (GE)
6. Nestle (and all incarnations, like Nescafe, Nestea, etc.)
5. Pfizer
4. Chevron-Texaco
3. Wal-Mart
2. Kraft foods
1. Exxon-Mobil
The book is designed to be small and portable so that you can keep it in your purse or car and take it out at markets and stuff to be able to compare brands, and so it's necessarily brief. It has some detail, but for more go to www.betterworldshopper.org.
If you want one of these for Christmas let me know.
Today I showed up to eat lunch with my mom at Cafe Brazil wearing this:
Only to find my mom sitting at our table wearing this:
That's the James Bond theme thing, I mean, like you couldn't tell. We went to see the midnight show last night for some random reason, it was us and this group of like 35 college guys, mostly, I really do think they were all together and it was like somebody's birthday or something. Anyway, I thought it was awesome.
I can't believe how many action movies get away with being SO derivative, so much of the time. Dane and I are not your typical boy/girl duo in picking movies, both of us like a WELL-DONE rom com or Oscar-contender or shoot-em-up, and both of us have very little use for the copycat ones. There are a lot of action movies I'll pass on, but not for some stupid gender reason, but because there are a lot that are just the same movie over and over again.
I couldn't believe how new and creative the action parts of that movie were last night -- the plot was kind of your typical Bond fare, the acting was decidedly above-par (or sub-par? Better than average. There.), I loved the new Bond girl, she's absolutely gorgeous and a lot more 3D than most action movie femmes, there were more genuinely funny moments than I expected, but mostly you just live for those fight/chase scenes. (**Spoiler!** There is a car chase, foot chase, parkour chase [hee, practically], BOAT chase, and PLANE chase in this movie. Awesome!)
Anyway, I got in the car this morning and evidently the NPR reviewer guy didn't like it but I've found that I agree with him like oh... 20%-ish of the time? So bite me. I wasn't looking for mind-bending, philosophical, change-my-life tear-jerker, or something, I was looking for style and creative, impeccably-executed action, not to mention a bad-A Bond, and omg I can't believe there is ANY dissension over whether or not Daniel Craig is the right choice. He's freaking awesome. He'd, like, eat Pierce Brosnan for breakfast.
Speaking of which, how did people ever get sooooo behind the gadget-Bonds? Like, how is a person this awesome hero if, when confronted by, like, a flesh-eating robot mountain lion on the edge of a cliff, they happen to have in their pocket a, like, flesh-eating-robot-mountain-lion-repelling personal helicopter device or something? Daniel Craig has his wit and his muscles and his speed and ok, that one time, an emergency defibrillator in his car. He doesn't even usually use GUNS.
Oh, and also, why did it take so long to make the Jack White/James Bond bridge, because that was just magic waiting to happen.
And ok, this is way too long to have written about a movie, but just one more thing. I don't usually get behind blanket statements or cultural non-patriotism, but English women just age SO much better than American women, on the whole. Anybody disagree? Judi Dench? Helen Mirren? Emma Thompson? Maggie Smith? They just are who they are and how old they are and don't feel the need to try and chemically and surgically perfect and lift and whiten everything and end up looking a bit scary. I like my actresses human, thankyouverymuch.
Probably five or so years ago I was looking through my CD case (remember those?) and realized that I had two Alanis Morissette albums, but other than that I had absolutely no female artists. This was not a conscious choice, I just had found and bought stuff I liked and it had been almost exclusively male.
I just realized yesterday that that has completely changed. I kind of have a "type" when it comes to female artists and I still am absolutely not a fan of the like female pop wailing power vocals, but ok, I'm not a fan of male pop wailing power vocals either. These are some of the really great girls I've been listening to a lot lately, and that are just so sweet-sounding and so easy to sing along with:
Brooke Fraser
Feist
Sara Groves
JJ Heller
Mindy Smith
Bjork
Among others. JJ Heller, last time I checked, had her whole album available for download for free on her site. So go check it out. Google her or something, I don't have the link. Sorry.
