On Knitting...

The Power of Mead

"The boundaries of our country, sir? Why sir, to the North we are bounded by the Aurora Borealis. On the East we are bounded by the rising sun. On the South we are bounded by the procession of the equinoxes and on the West by the day of judgement."

Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" is a wonderful audio companion. Aside from the reader's talent, the novel's numerous vignettes pop up like daisies and weave themselves into a beautiful and haunting chain. While the concept of modern gods and of gods abandoned yet still clinging to their folklore is not revolutionary, the characters and their development are so strange and charming that it's difficult to put them down (or pause the track, in my case). There are so many stories, like so many pieces of candy in peppermint bark, that the novel becomes more of a collection of folk tales than the traditional singular thread. Great company if you're willing to drop the tail of a tale for another without warning.

Evolution and a Swede

With much bore and listlessness, I recently finished listening to the last of Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander series. Character development throughout these books was so slow that it took me two entire novels to care what happened to the male and female leads. When I did, I was sorely disappointed with soap opera drama fit for daytime TV. The timeline was inaccessible and plot twists predictable. All in all, it was acceptable company for hours of studio work filing and soldering and zoning out.

In contrast, Richard Dawkins' "The Greatest Show on Earth" was charming and informative. The structure of his arguments for the theory of evolution leave the reader/listener nodding his/her head along with the text, following with no room for doubt or argumentation. Dawkins' narrative style is at once sharp tongued and humorous. I recommend this book to anyone curious about evolutionary theory or to any persons lacking science and entertainment in their diet. Satisfactory read, good company.

Bonfires and Sea Anenomes

The first thing I'm going to do when I get a car is drive to the coast and spend the weekend trolling the beach in the giant blue coat I bought from Goodwill, making sand drawings and picking up interesting creatures. The sand fleas will prickle my ankles, and wet grit squish beneath my chilly feet. I'll be all legs and jacket and rustling blonde hair in the beach wind. Nights will be spent coaxing log fires to gently toast skins of mallow, slightly squished from my flannel pocket between car keys and sea shells. I'll eat them in layers, gnashing crispy skins between my teeth, crunching on salt and sand. The undulating vastness of the great Pacific hypnotizes while the sea fog plays a slow technicolor light show as the sun passes behind it. Seals bark lazily on their small island beyond a black rock jetty. On my way home, I can't forget to pick up saltwater taffy from Flamingo Jim's treasure trove of tourist goodies. It's family tradition.

My bathroom sparkles!!!1!!

I will never let pink mold grow in my shower again. No longer will males be afraid to lift the toilet seat.

Too Much Fun

Perhaps the problem with up keeping my blog is that while I'm having fun, I don't think to myself, "Gee, I should stop what I'm doing right now to write about how much fun I was having before I stopped, especially for the benefit of the millions reading about me I'm sure." So the moral of the story: stop doing so much stuff?

I could try to remember a bit better, but my friends know how that goes....

All in all though, I don't feel like I'm involved enough. I don't feel like I've gotten much done, even after finishing projects for school and going out to dance. Volunteering is only once a week for a couple of hours, and I've had unfortunate time conflicts with Toastmasters. Hopefully my part time job applications come through for the summer. Perhaps joining a community organization is in order. Or creating one...

Meh

Lost enthusiasm. Distracted. I'll go to my backpack to grab my keys and look through all the pockets for a class file instead. Reassessing my position in life all the time. I need something new, had hoped blogging would be it. Can't put my thumb on what I want to do at all. Feel like I'm clawing at the walls but don't know where to go. Letting friendships slip out of my fingers. Blogging incomplete sentences. Been thinking about writing again. No summary for this post.