Month: January 2017

Not the best thing to see out your window

When the gas leak that caused an explosion that leveled a building is fresh in your mind, it is little comfort to see that you are on the outside of the caution tape of an area that is being evacuated due to a gas leak.

I left early, as did everyone still in my office.

All was fine though.  No explosions.

What I liked in books, 2016

Just for fun, I made some notes about what I liked about the books I read in 2016.
 
Not surprising: I like to read historical fiction, romances that aren’t Romances and books that are funny.
 
Surprising: I love reading about famous people. Not actual famous people, but characters in books who are famous. I like the females in my romances to be reluctant participants in the romance. I like mysteries in my plots, but not Mystery, the genre.
 
Here’s my list:
● Adventure.
● Bad girl turns good
● Based on Shakespeare (2)
● Characters of color/gay
● Clueless main character.
● Clueless romance.
● Completely bizarre premise.
● Dancing
● Difficult topic, Hard to read
● Fame/Famous person/Famous.
● Fantasy without being obvious about it
● Feminist in unexpected ways.
● Fights to get back to normal
● Finding out layers to a relationship.
● Full of a topic I knew nothing about
● Fully developed characters
● Fun premise.
● Funny. (2)
● Girls who want to do what guys do
● Great characters
● Great premise.
● Great voice.
● Guy wants girl
● Has a situation thrust upon her
● Healthy appetite for safe sex
● Historical fiction (4)
● Impossible situations, friendship/romance-wise.
● In the style of 30s children’s serials.
● Interesting setting.
● Inter-sibling violence
● Learning the layers of secondary characters
● Lots of feelings
● Love triangle (2)
● Magical realism, without being weird.
● Misunderstood meet-cute.
● Multi character (2)
● Multi-generational saga
● Mystery without seeming like one
● New friendships.
● Nobody gets her level of worry.
● Perfectly cast characters
● Problem-solving
● Random stories of other people.
● Reluctant romance
● Resistance to relationship.
● Sad (2)
● Short, but full
● Slow realization character is the nerd.
● Slow reveal that main character is the bad girl.
● Slow-burn romance.
● Small details dribbled out at the right moment
● Small mystery.
● Solid female character
● Solid friendship
● Stories revealed
● Swoony Romance.
● Takes place in one day.
● Three very different characters.
● Trickery
● Twist on the Twilight theme
● Unfamiliar setting, world.
● Update of Austen. (2)
● Veronica Mars-style atmosphere pulls me in.
● Very funny.
● Very proper
● Weird premise
● Weird.
● Woman goes against society’s role for her.

Mork has been a fun visitor

As mentioned before, we’ve had a visitor in our house the last few months.  Mork is my co-worker’s cat.  We took care of her while my co-worker went home for the holidays to visit her family.

Mork is very sweet, and quite small. I think Sentinel is twice the size of her, even with his three paws to her four.  

She really likes to sit on laps and Matt enjoyed having her here for that reason.  Being so small, and such a committed lap sitter, she was content to continually reposition herself as he shifted around.

Hopefully, Mork will be able to visit again soon. (Though Antares would be quite happy if she didn’t)

Walter Scott’s Personality Parade not needed due to internet

Walter Scott’s* Personality Parade is the feature on the first page of the weekly Parade Magazine.  Tradition is that I read the Parade Magazine while eating my Sunday breakfast. However, I did not read Personality Parade for years because of sexist answers.**  I’ve recently begun to skim it again and you know what?  There is no reason for it to exist.

Back in the day, if you wondered something, like, say: “Did Theo James appear in a TV show before starring in Divergent?” you would have a few choices.  You could just keep on wondering, waiting for the information to come to you.  You could ask your friend who knows everything about movies/TV.  You could call the library reference line.  You could make a bet with your friend, so she would do all the research.  You could write to a columnist and hope they published your answer.

But now?  We have the internet.  If you and your friend have a bet, you establish the parameters and then get out your phones and use them to find out that Theo James was Mr. Pamuk in Downton Abbey.    Thirty seconds after the bet is made, you know the answers.  So why are we still reading this column?

I know the answer.  It has to do with promotion of upcoming things. The Wikipedia article tells me that even back in the day the questions were “composites”  of actual reader questions.  I assume they are fully made up today.

*Who is Walter Scott, anyway?  Wikipedia tells me, it’s a made-up name.  Lloyd Shearer was the original writer.  Today Edward Klein is the author.
**There was an answer to a question about Hillary Clinton wearing pantsuits that was the final straw.  The questioner wondered if it was appropriate.  The answer was that her legs were kind of heavy, so it was probably better that she wore pantsuits instead of skirt-suits.  (Grrrr.)

Three sentence movie reviews: Valley Girl

Aside from being an amazing time capsule of 1982 Valley Girl fashion, this was also an enjoyable movie.  It’s also fun to see how mainstream the “outsider” music has become.*  It’s also a nice bit of adolescent exploration: should you give up your friends for a boy you like?**

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home, while painting toenails purple

*There’s a great falling-in-love montage backed by Modern English’s “I Melt With You” which I was fully introduced to as a Burger King commercial. Also Nicholas Cage and his friends have outfits that transcend time much better than the Valley Girls.
**Generally I would say no, but in this case: yes.  Also, aside from this being early Nicholas Cage (before he fixed his teeth!) I also enjoyed Elizabeth Daily as the somewhat slutty friend.  She’s got a classic 80s look, (this is her in Better Off Dead) and has a great voice and I’m pleased she’s still working.  Mostly voice over work.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1983/valley_girl.html
(This poster features the woman who was in the movie in flashback, for maybe two minutes.  It does not feature the main female character.)