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In order to understand my book collection, you have to understand how I purchase books; rarely do I buy anything I haven’t already read. This may seem strange to some, because why get it once you’ve already read it? With me, I buy books generally because I read it and loved it so much I had to own it. I’m very, very big on re-reading books.

Without further ado, here are some books I’ve read recently and would like to recommend:

A Handmaid’s Tale
I’d only heard about this book, but never talked to anyone who had read it and hadn’t ever had it recommended to me. The subject matter seemed interesting and I’d heard it was somewhat of a classic, so I got it.

If you have any interest in books about future societies (e.g. George Orwell’s 1984), women’s rights, or just well-written books, you should totally read this. I think it’s especially appropriate given our administration at the moment.

The Leap
This is by Jonathan Stroud, the same guy that wrote the Bartimaeus Trilogy that I liked a lot. The story follows a girl who is recovering from nearly dying trying to save her best friend. Nobody believes her story that he’s not dead, and her family constantly tries to take her mind off of the situation. Then she starts having weird dreams where she gets hurt and wakes up with real wounds. She just knows her friend is still alive, and she’s determined to save him. It’s a young-adult book, but very, very good.

The Notebook
I rented the movie The Notebook on a whim because 1) I heard it was good, and 2) I heard people kiss in the rain. Really, how could you go wrong? I ended up loving the movie and when I found the book at a thrift store, I picked it up. It’s very short, but it’s absolutely beautiful. Both the book and the movie make me cry - in a good way - because you can just feel the love that these people have for each other. Sappy but true. It’s a wonderful book.

Blink
This talks about your gut reactions to people, places or things and how they can actually be beneficial to you. Malcom Gladwell, the author, contests that your instincts are not often wrong, and this book talks about the times they do go wrong and what you can do to avoid that. It’s thought-provoking and interesting.

Edited to add:
Eats, shoots & leaves
A must for anyone who likes grammar and spelling. I bought this on a whim because I heard good things about it, and it’s seriously so great. If you see signs like, “All patient’s welcome” and cringe because you know they’ve misused an apostrophe, this book is for you. I love it.

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After a solid day of listening to the new Type O Negative album, I have to say that I am enjoying the music a lot. I like both of their sounds, the faster stuff (Carnivore-esque) and the more “cuddly,” slower stuff, so I’m generally happy with whatever they put out.

I am not happy, however, with the subject matter of the song “These Three Things.” Apparently, Peter Steele returned to his Catholic roots and rediscovered Christianity (so I have heard), and several songs on the new album reference his beliefs. “These Three Things” in particular is about being vehemently against abortion, calling it “infanticide” and “the worst sin you’ve ever performed.”

If you watch a lot of Seinfeld, you will totally get it when I say that I feel exactly like Elaine right now. (Season 6, “The Couch.) Elaine dates this hunky moving man but is forced to break up with him because he doesn’t support a woman’s right to choose, and she can’t be with someone who feels that way.

I don’t want to begrudge anyone their beliefs - don’t get me wrong. It’s totally within his rights to believe whatever he wants to, and to write songs about those beliefs. It’s just that they’ve always been this very irreverent, sarcastic band that liked to poke fun at all forms of religion - that’s part of why I liked them - and all of a sudden they’ve got these religion-y, anti-choice songs and it’s out of the ordinary and I’m put off by it.

The awful thing is that I really, really like that song. It’s awesome musically. I just… Now I feel like endorsing them means endorsing the message in that song and I don’t like that.

Can I ignore it and be like people who listen to rap, but don’t focus on the fact that it talks about smacking bitches up and stuff like that? Or really racist black metal? I don’t agree with the message but the music is good. It’s never really been possible for me to ignore lyrics of songs entirely - half the time that’s what I find interesting about the song, but… this is my favorite band and I want to feel good about liking them, and now they’ve gone and made that all difficult.

MUSIC CRISIS OMG.

guitar playing

About a week and a half ago, I got a message through Flickr mail from a man who works at New York Magazine, inquiring whether I would give them permission to use one of my photos for a piece they were preparing about Chinatown.

I figured I really didn’t have anything to lose, so I said it was fine as long as they gave me photo credit.

The magazine supposedly came out last Monday, but you can also see the Chinatown article on their website.

My photo is near the bottom of the article and it’s a cropped shot of Bubble Tea. They masked out the background so it looks a bit dorky, but hey! My photo is in New York Magazine!

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Recently, Daniel and I rented the movie “An Inconvenient Truth,” (the one by Al Gore that’s about global warming) and I have to say that I think everyone should see this movie. I do not understand why we make global warming as small an issue as it is. Because it is not a small issue. At all.

One of the most frustrating things about this movie is that the United States is so much more crap at everything than the entire rest of the world. We are one of only two countries in the entire world - THE ENTIRE WORLD - that has not yet ratified the Kyoto Protocol. The other is Australia. The US is the single largest emitter of Carbon Dioxide and yet we are not ratifying this agreement. To add insult to injury, China is doing better on the emissions scale than we are, and they have roughly five times the number of people.

I’m recommending An Inconvenient Truth not only because I agree with Al Gore’s sentiments, but because it manages to still give you hope. You know how some movies like this are all doom-and-gloom, the sky is falling, you are wrecking the world and there’s no hope for you? This is different. Sure, things aren’t great and we should definitely turn our habits around, but this movie encourages you and makes you feel like you can do it. It’s possible. It’s not hopeless, we just have to start.

And as Roger Ebert said, “In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to.”

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Check it out: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Squee! Thanks to Yajaira for the tip-off.

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Storm - “Nagellstev”

I want a Wii. I am only sort of ashamed to admit that pretty much 98% of why I want a Wii is because of the game Rayman’s Raving Rabbids. Please do me a huge favor and watch some of the videos about the game (with sound ON! Much funnier). I’d recommend the one from Nov. 16th first, the video review one. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME. Rabbits? Crazy rabbits with plungers? And you fling cows? Plungers and rabbits. What more could you ask for in a game?

Plus, the remote for the Wii is called - get this - a Wiimote. Is that not the most hilarious thing in the world? WIIMOTE. Just say it. The console is worth it for a Wiimote.

I received my business cards in the mail today and they look beautiful. I have about five million of them (well, 500, but since when do I know 500 people?) so I feel compelled to give them to everyone I meet. This is related to the above paragraphs only because my business cards have a rabbit on them. I’m so glad they turned out as well as they did. I’m not the best at setting up things for press, so I had my manager at school-work check out my files before I sent them off to the printer and then again after I received the PDF proofs of them. I will wholeheartedly recommend Cedar House Media for all of your business card needs. The default paper they use is silk laminated, which means that it is soft and smooth and apparently waterproof and almost doesn’t even feel like paper. It is wonderful. I purposely went with that company because they do the silk laminated paper by default. I heart it muchly. I want to hug my business cards, they are that good.

They are also pretty reasonably priced (so I hear. I know nothing of business card printing). I got the full-color, double-sided cards with rounded corners (can you honestly imagine any of my collateral not having rounded corners? No.) so it cost me $85 total for 500 of them, but I do feel like they’re worth it.

Since I am all about awesome segues in this post, today was my last day at school-work, and I’m actually sort of sad about it. I really liked working there - I felt like I did a good job, I was super nice and helpful to customers, even the ones that were mean to me or told me we sucked because our printing was expensive (it’s not) and… well… I basically got paid to surf the Internet for nine hours a week. My job was not particularly stressful. Except when the phone rang.

Since my manager is totally awesome, he is going to give me a sort of “going-away” lunch sometime soon, just kind of to say thanks and goodbye and good luck, and so coworkers can say bye to me since I’ve been there so long. I feel very happy about this. I mean, I’m sad I’m graduating and leaving and not working there anymore, but it’s an incredibly nice gesture. Also, he once sent me a link regarding the 50 Worst Video Game Titles Ever which totally made my day.

Aaaand, I am back to video games again. Daniel found this Tiger Woods golf game at Goodwill for $2 a while ago and has played it non-stop since then. I think it is… well, I find it obnoxious, mostly because Daniel mulligans everything 298473 times on each hole and it takes him 23984792387 hours to finish a game because of it. He’ll re-do the shot even if the golf ball gets a foot away from the hole because “he can do better” and it annoys me to NO END. Gah. (Hi Daniel! I love you! Even if you virtual-golf obnoxiously!)

The best part of the game, however, is a portion of the commentary. One of the commentators starts off his little blurb saying something about the shot being good, and then… Oh god, it is awful. He begins to get louder and says “It’s over the hole…” and continues with the phrase, “IT’S IN THE HOLE!”

Now, this in and of itself does not sound remotely funny, especially since he finishes the sentence by saying “Ohhh, it’s not in the hole” because he says this whole awful bit when you just barely miss. It would not be funny, except his delivery of the line sounds so blocked and stopped up and constipated and strained that you cannot help but dissolve into a fit of giggles after he says it. Seriously. It sounds like he is trying to expel something from every pore in his body. I have no idea how he managed to sound like that. It’s nearly impossible to imitate successfully because it is SO strained sounding. It’s almost worth sitting through the gazillion mulligans to hear him say it.

(I just re-read through this, and sorry about all the parenthesis. I apparently like parenthesis and segues today.)

That said, I’m off to write some sort of paper for my independent study. Why in the world did I ever decide to put that in my syllabus? I also need to work on the assignment for this week. And yes, if anyone would like to know, I am rather behind in two of my four classes. The other two, I am only moderately behind. Small victories, I suppose. But I have a really organized paper system now.

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Just got back from watching “Little Miss Sunshine” in the theater, and I can’t recommend it enough. Steve Carell is the perfect blend of sarcastic and funny, the self-imposed mute brother is great, and the little girl Olive is so charming and awkward.

There was a point where Daniel and I almost thought it was going to go too over-the-top with the crazy antics, and then it was artfully and hilariously resolved and all was well.

If you haven’t seen it yet and you like movies that a) have Steve Carell in them, or b) like movies that are funny because they are poignant and awkward, you should totally see it.

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - “Jolene”

The show last night was a lot of fun. The venue was quite a bit smaller than I had expected, but it made it kind of cozy and not at all like crazy metal shows where people windmill around in a pit and punch everyone in the head. Everyone seemed respectful.

The opening band Agalloch is apparently from here in Portland, and they weren’t anywhere as bad as I expected them to be. Their songs were pretty long and mostly instrumental, and I’d consider getting a CD if I found it for cheap-ish.

The singer for Daylight Dies had hair down to the top of his butt, and he was probably a few inches taller than Daniel so his hair was insanely long. I’d never heard their stuff before and I liked what I heard last night.

Katatonia was GREAT. You know how sometimes bands take liberties with their “classic” songs when they play them live, and try to spice them up a bit by changing the rhythm or harmonies and then you get disappointed because it doesn’t sound like the song you know and love? They did NONE of that. The singer hit everything dead on and it was so refreshing. Also, he sort of looked like Wormtongue when his face was visible. I liked their set a lot.

We only stayed for about three of Moonspell’s songs. I think we were both just tired and wanted to head home. Plus, this was the third time we’d seen Moonspell so it wasn’t crucial that we stay for all of it. Katatonia was definitely worth it though, and they played some of my favorite songs of theirs which is always nice.

Katatonia - “Deliberation”

I’m off to see Moonspell, Katatonia, and Daylight Dies. This is probably the first concert/show/whatever I’ve been to in a year… Well, maybe not a year, but a really, really long time at least. Definitely not since I’ve been 21. Daniel’s gone to a couple, but it’s been stuff I haven’t really been interested in.

I’ve never been to the venue before so I’m not sure what to think about it, but I’m sure I’ll have a good time.

Harry and the Potters - “Save Ginny Weasley”

Okay, so I’m probably behind the times and you all know about these guys already, but I have just discovered the glory and wonder that is the band Harry and the Potters. All their songs deal with topics in the books and they are pure genius. My favorite so far is “Save Ginny Weasley,” but other awesome songs are “This Book Is So Awesome” (which talks about the HBP potions book), “The Human Hosepipe” (talks about Cho and Harry in Madame Puddifoot’s Tea Shop - HILARIOUS) and “Stick It To Dolores” (which features the lines “Oh my god you look like a frog” and “Umbridge, you’re going down”).

They have two MySpace accounts (for more songs!): Harry and the Potters and I Need More Harry and the Potters. Check it out - you can download all the songs to your computer!

Rolling Stones - “Sympathy for the Devil”

A few things of interest:

I wrote a little page on Animal Crossing Tips if anyone is interested. Animal Crossing is my favorite game, so I put up a few tips for gameplay. It’s just for the Gamecube version, not AC: Wild World.

The property management company for our apartment decided it was restructuring how they do things, and sadly, we are no longer going to be receiving our $200 rent credit each month. We can afford the jump in rent, but it was so nice not to have to worry about it each month. Granted, we’re each still paying about half as much as we did at our last place, but I really, really liked having obscenely cheap rent. I’m trying not to dwell on the fact that in order to even pay this month’s rent, I have to wait for Daniel’s half of it to be transferred from Paypal into my bank account, otherwise I’ll be overdrawn. Stupid adult stuff. Fortunately I start working when school starts again, but I’m sure it’ll be another two weeks or so until I get paid. Lame!

I’m still sickly. I’ve been resting a lot and drinking lots of fluids, so I hope it goes away soon. It’s miserable.

I’ve been lurking around HP book 7 message boards and the like, doing some more speculation. Apparently, J.K. Rowling revealed recently that the question she wishes people would have asked her is “Why did Dumbledore have James’s invisibility cloak at the time of James’s death, given that Dumbledore can turn himself invisible?” and she mentioned that the answer was “crucial” to the story. AUGH. I have no idea. I’m up to page 24 on that thread and I haven’t found a reasonable explanation I agree with yet. I’m thinking it’ll be a situation like the last book’s Horcrux thing - there’s no way we could have guessed that, as we didn’t even know it existed. Maybe Dumbledore had it so he could put extra defenses on it (charms, etc.) and it would have changed the Potter’s outcome had they had it that night?

It’s so hard to guess this stuff! I don’t think I heard Snape being guessed as the HBP, since we had no idea what his mother’s maiden name was. I thought it was Hagrid. Same with the Horcruxes - we didn’t know anything about them. Maybe we don’t know anything about the invisibility cloak either?

I do like that somebody brought up Aunt Petunia in passing, though, since we know that she had contact with Dumbledore before (”Remember my last!”) and we know she may become more interesting in the book 7. I still don’t know who it is that will do magic later than normal, and we still don’t know what will become of the mirror that Harry had so he could talk to Sirius. So many things to think about!

Edited to add: Someone mentioned (on an early #30’s page of that forum) the cloak may have been used to hide someone, and Dumbledore has said (to Draco, on the tower in HBP) that they can fake people’s deaths - they’ve done it before - what if it was being used to hide Professor Slughorn? He was the one that initially told Voldemort about Horcruxes, and maybe he gave Dumbledore that awful altered memory of his, whereupon Dumbledore recognized it as a crap alteration and knew he needed the original, so he used James’s cloak to hide Slughorn to preserve the memory. This doesn’t explain, however, why that would have been done right around the Potter’s deaths and yet we don’t hear of Slughorn until over a decade later. I like the theory though. He was a potions master, Snape took over his job, Lily Potter was his favorite student, we think Snape may have had a thing for Lily because she was nice to him…

Also, I forgot to mention that I finally got around to reading George Orwell’s “1984″ yesterday. I’ve been meaning to do it for years and just never got around to it. I liked it, I suppose; it wasn’t bad, but I don’t know that I’d read it again anytime soon. I just wanted to read it since it’s pretty much a classic and it felt like everyone had read it but me. I never had a reason to so I just didn’t, and now that I’m all sick and stuff I figured it was perfect timing.

Nothingface - “Can’t Wait For Violence”

I’m slowly but surely catching up on my homework. I’m still a bit behind, but I feel like I can get it done. I am SO GLAD I will have this Monday off so I can work on stuff. I’m currently trying to design my portfolio site. It’s… going.

Daniel showed me this TV show called Metalocalypse on Adult Swim and it cracked me up. I can’t stand William Murderface and Nathan Explosion looks like Peter Steele with a different nose. The name “Pickles the Drummer” cracks me up, as does the part in the first episode where they visit a grocery store called “Fintrolls” (bonus points to anyone who catches that reference) and they declare it a “food library,” except it sounds like “fuuuuud lah-braaahry.” Hee!

Daniel and Josh playing Guitar Hero

Today after going bowling for Amanda’s birthday, Daniel, Josh and I walked home from the MAX station. We randomly saw a guy they used to work with named Craig, whom I’ve never met. I’ve just heard lots of things about him. We were introduced, and he said, “Oh, yeah! I’ve seen your picture on MySpace.”

I sort of felt like a walking Hot Topic t-shirt. Heh.

Nine Inch Nails - “The Perfect Drug (Meat Beat Manifesto)”

IF A MOVIE WAS MADE OF YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?

So, here’s how it works:

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, etc).
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question type the song that’s playing.
5. When you go to a new question press the next button.

Ready? GO!

Opening Credits: “You Know Who You Are” - Nine Inch Nails. (Fitting, I’d say.)

Waking Up: “Black Widow” - Children of Bodom. (What can I say, I am not a morning person.)

Falling In Love: “Stepping Outside the Circle” - Shadows Fall

Fight Scene: “My Mind Is Hazy” - Galactic (Apparently, I was drinking in this scene or something.)

Breaking Up: “Vilievandring” - Otyg (I’d be screaming “I DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON. I DON’T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING ANYONE IS SAYING. NOTHING IS MAKING SENSE.”)

Making up: “Sunday (The Day Before My Birthday)” - Moby

Life’s Okay: “Sanity” - Killing Joke

Mental Breakdown: “Getting Smaller” - Nine Inch Nails (Again, fitting.)

Driving: “I Want Your Girlfriend To Be My Girlfriend Too” - Reel Big Fish. (Not sure how much I should read into this.)

Flashbacks: “Sunday Bloody Sunday” - Evergreen Terrace

Happy Dance: “Moving Very Slowly” - Tarantula. (Leave it to me to have the slowest happy dance ever, influenced by The Brothers Chaps over at Homestarrunner.com, and of the metal genre.)

Partying: “Fun, Fun, Fun” - The Beach Boys (I go to good parties?)

Regretting: “A Night Like This” - The Cure (Can we assume I’d be hung over here?)

Final Battle: “Tears Have No Name” - …And Oceans

Death Scene: “Blood & Fire” - Type O Negative (My movie would not be complete without some TON involved.)

Ending Credits: “It’s OK” - The Beach Boys (Yay, my movie ends on a happy note!)

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Tonight was movie night with Paul (Callie was out of town visiting her parents) and we watched the first Harry Potter movie. Except it wasn’t really the first HP movie - it was, but it had this running commentary over the video the entire way through, much like Mystery Science Theater 3000, but by one guy with a hilariously weird voice (similar to Gilbert Gottfried but less obnoxious) who re-told the story in his own words. It was beyond awesome and I laughed throughout the entire thing.

He calls Hermione “the wretched Harmony,” Professor McGonagall is “Hardcastle McCormick,” Filch is “Dazzler” and Ron starts out as “Ron Weasel” and somehow morphs into “Ronnie the bear.” It is so wonderfully bizarre. It’s one of those weird things you find on the Internet that seems intriguing so you download it and then it ends up being the best thing ever.