A Quiet Corner

Because Andrew just posted it...

2011-01-18T14:44:00.000-08:00

And I still have that warm, fuzzy, "Aww! THAT WAS THE BEsT HOUR EVER." feeling about it.

Me, Andrew Shaffer, and Pat Rothfuss talk about Contemporary Myth.

I seriously love these guys.

Andrew has a new book out, too: "Great Philosophers who Failed At Love".

And I hear Pat has, ya know, written some stuff.

In Remembrance

2010-11-11T08:04:00.001-08:00

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

I have seen the third circle of hell.

2010-11-10T14:43:00.001-08:00

I had hoped to get around to launching a fantastic post about the American Civil War, civil wars in general, and our need to view history through therapeutic eyes. But instead, I have a one-year-old with the stomach flu, so you get this post instead.

I have seen hell. It is being trapped in a car, in downtown Madison, during rush hour, on campus, with a toddler who is puking all over the back seat and herself, knowing that no matter what, you won't get home for fifteen minutes. At least.

This will be the longest fifteen minutes of your life. It's not just the nasty factor, which hearkens back to at least one bus ride in elementary school days, with the smell of vomit stinging your nose. It's the fact that it's your baby, and she's sick, and wretched, and crying, and desperately wants you to hold her and clean her off and make everything ok. But the best thing you can do is get her *home*, and that takes time, and traffic just won't move.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why god invented beer. Which I can have, in 3 hours time.

Deep thought for the day

2010-11-09T13:34:00.000-08:00

Saying the Civil War wasn't really about slavery is like arguing that Roe vs. Wade really was about privacy rights.

More on that this evening, I hope, but I had to snark first and explicate later.

Fame Monsters

2010-11-03T14:26:00.001-07:00

I just got back from an absolutely amazing weekend at the House on the Rock. I'll post more on that later, but first, I wanted to throw something up here that it really stirred up for me. And it's this: what is it about fame? What draws us to the famous? And why?

I had one goal going into this weekend. I found out at the last minute that I'd be sitting on a panel with someone I am a fairly big admirer of, and Neil Gaiman was likely to show up for at least part of the two panels I was on. So my goal was this: Don't Be That Person. If you've been to cons, you've seen them. The people who run up with a camera or a pen the minute the guest of honor walks in the door. The person who corners the author and won't. Stop. Talking. The person who doesn't realize they're being inappropriate and more than a little silly and while it's very sweet it's more than a little uncomfortable for, well, everyone else involved.

Now don't get me wrong: there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a fan. I myself am a screaming fangirl on several levels. There's nothing wrong with being an enthusiastic fan, I think. Or with wanting to meet people you admire. These are all good things. They're part of the transaction of art. Creators give us what they create, and we pay that energy back in our admiration and thanks. And as long as it stays within appropriate boundaries, that's great for everyone involved. In fact, one of my absolute favorite parts of the internet is watching two artists fansquee *on each other*. Wil Wheaton and Neil Gaiman tweeting to each other and both seeming a bit giddy about it? Absolutely fantastic.

But some people get silly about it. And some people get downright insane. And I wonder why that is. What about fame itself draws us? It's not a new phenomenon. Roman gladiators used to need bodyguards because women would tear them limb from limb like a pack of rabid tweens at a Twilight premier. Independent of theology, this is what Christian and Buddhist relics are about: the desire to touch something that the celebrity, the saint, the holy one, has touched.

Maybe that's the answer, then. There is this power, fame, and we secretly hope that by touching it, we can acquire some. Shake this hand and you too will be as gods.

But would you really want to be famous? If I were to be completely honest I'd say I'd like to be a little bit famous. Say, famous enough to get upgraded to first class but not famous enough to actually make headlines. But then I ask myself, why? What would I want out of it? Money? That would be nice, sure. But even the famous have to work for their money, at least after the initial buzz wears off. To receive the kind of scrutiny the truly famous come by? Oh, hell no.

To meet other famous people?

Ah, now we're getting somewhere. To be admitted to the ranks of the Great and the Well Known, that's what it's really all about. And… then what? At the end of the day you'd still be yourself. You'd be yourself occasionally having dinner with Brad Pitt, but he's (more or less) married and even that would get old. Brad and Angelina would be the people you have dinner with every third Thursday. And yes, I'm sure many of us would love to be bored by that kind of tedium. I'm not trying to suggest that it wouldn't be fantastic to be able to call up Charles de Lint and Jim Butcher and say "Why don't you guys come over for beers and a jam session?"

Because clearly, that would be AWESOME.

But it's not likely to happen. It's certainly not likely to happen as the result of a brief encounter at a con, or on a red carpet somewhere.

So what is it that makes some people lose their damn minds?

Metonymy, Domine

2010-11-02T07:48:00.001-07:00

Metonymy is a really great word. No, really, say it out loud once or twice. Me-TO-ny-my. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Not quite as beautiful as "Cellar Door", but still rolls off the tongue really well. It's a technical term for a form of speech in which you use one thing to refer to something closely related, or to refer to one part of something to refer to the whole (OK, this is technically synecdoche, which is ALSO a fantastic word). So if you say "Wall Street" when you mean the American financial and banking industry, you're using metonymy.

It's something we use a lot in every day speech. If you buy something with sweat, pay attention to Hollywood, keep your word, or get annoyed with the Vatican, you're familiar with it. It has a lot to do with the way our minds work: words don't have exact associations. They have "lexical fields": whole clouds of meaning, and what we do with language is play with those meanings like kids with LEGOs. (Which is also why computers can't really do translations, but that's a whole 'nother post.)

This is all prelude to an observation I had this morning. In Latin and ancient Greek, the most common metonymy for a person was the head. Which makes sense, right? It's the most distinguishing feature about us. Heads are immediately recognizable; bodies a bit less so. "You dear little head" was a Latin term of endearment Ovid used, and we even preserve this in English when we say things like "Let this be on your head." But somehow, in the last hundred years or so, the most common referent for someone has become the ass.

"Get your ass over here."

"I'll call his ass tomorrow."

"We're running late, time to haul ass."

This means something. I don't know what but I'm sure it means something.

Back. Alive. Barely.

2010-11-02T07:19:00.001-07:00

Ok, so after completing a dissertation, submitting a pile of job applications, and attending an amazing event this past weekend, I looked around and realized this thing had sat, sorely neglected, for quite some time.

Have to fix that.

2010-09-23T19:17:00.000-07:00

My beautiful little girl,

You've been in my life now for one year, one hour, and 42 minutes.

And it just keeps getting better. You are so precious, little one. Just yesterday you started walking around the house with your hands on your hips. You did it the first time, and looked up at me, so proud. I realized I was standing the exact same way.

You were imitating me. Lord, that's terrifying.

You've gotten so into books lately! We've had to adopt a 2 times per hour rule on a few titles.

You love drumming with Dada, and chasing the pets around the house. You love it when I turn the music up loud and we have dance parties in the living room. You love going outside and sitting in the grass, just staring at things.

You love yogurt, and strawberries, and cheerios best of all.

You've gotten very into snuggling and hugging in the last few weeks, which I like very much as well.

Just keeps getting better, kiddo. Just keeps getting better.

2010-09-14T08:24:00.000-07:00

I'll be even less chipper than usual today: Punk woke up at 1:30 with a fever and slept fitfully next to me after that. *is groggy* But in honor of these late night shenanigans, I bring you, THE TALKING HEADS.

IT'S FRIDAY!!!

2010-09-10T11:33:00.000-07:00

Got some dark desire?
Want to play with fire?
Why not let it rip? Live a little bit!

Video Month, Day 9

2010-09-09T12:56:00.000-07:00

One of my greatest regrets is not seeing this on the big screen. Moulin Rouge is a movie that rewards repeated viewings: what initially seems like an extended frenetic music video is both a retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth and an exploration of the interplay between art and commerce in the entertainment business.

See what grad school does to you, kids? It lets you talk fancy about ANYTHING.

Pardon the French: this was the only cut I could find that was less than six minutes.

Day 8, in honor of their reunion!

2010-09-08T13:03:00.000-07:00

A very dear friend introduced me to the Dresden Dolls back in 2004, and they've been one of my favorites every since. What's amazing about them, to me, is just how much sound and depth they're able to produce with only two musicians. They're good on album, but live they're a complete experience. Absolutely amazing.

2010-09-07T07:17:00.000-07:00

Author's Note: Over on facebook, I've been posting a video a day. I figured I'd start porting those over here! I'll post the last 6 and backdate the entries: from now on they'll be cross-posted with a bit of extra commentary over here.

This song has become one of my all time favorites. The Swedish band Garmarna released their album "Vedergällningen" (Vengeance) in 1999, which is full of modern arrangements of ancient Norse folksongs about revenge.
Yeah, it kinda has "Liz-bait" written all over it.
This is probably the best known single off that album: it's certainly one of the most powerful. In addition to the quality of the music, I love their performance style. This is true to how they perform it live, apparently: the musicians thrash around the singer, while she stands perfectly still. It's profoundly powerful.

Yes, I just used the adjective "powerful" twice in that paragraph. I dare you to do differently after watching it. ;)

Transcription and translation can be found here.

2010-09-06T07:22:00.000-07:00

As you relax at your Labor Day barbecue, remember that the forces of evil are always hard at work, and the poor imps never even get a day off.

Voltaire is an artist that many outside of the goth scene haven't heard of. He is, in fact, exactly what the goth scene needs: a musician with a sense of humor and an understanding of just how ludicrous the sub-culture is. In fact, Goth is (in my occasionally humble opinion) at its strongest when it's operating with its tongue firmly in its cheek. Much like the author from whom he takes his name, Voltaire is here to make sure that those who dress in too much black never take themselves too seriously

2010-08-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Punky turned 11 months old. She's walking, and beginning to talk, both of which are amazing and bittersweet.

When I pick her up now, she'll reach up and put one hand on my cheek, and press her face to mine. She winds her other hand into my hair, and hums to me. I hum back, and chest to chest, we say I Love You wordlessly. This is our song, hers and mine, our perfect little moment.

And then she pushes away, wriggles to be let down, and goes off to chase the doggie, or play with shoes, or grab her ball.

It's a fierce and beautiful thing, motherhood.

Random updates

2010-08-19T07:59:00.000-07:00

* Howdy, Rogue Classicist readers! Welcome to my (sporadically updated) blog. I have a very small child, a dissertation to deposit in the next few weeks, a household to run and job applications to submit. But I'm also mouthy and opinionated, so you never know what you'll find.

And now for our irregularly scheduled programming.

I am...

Reading
Undone, a spin off of the Weather Wardens series by Rachel Caine. Lightweight, well written fun stuff.

Believe me, when you spend most of your time working on Lucan, you want light and fluffy when the time comes.

Watching

True Blood. I am so addicted to this show it's ridiculous. We canceled our satellite service last month, but luckily one of my best girlfriends has HBO. Plus, it's one of those shows that is considerably more fun with company. Some of my readers would not appreciate the show's aesthetic or attitude. (If you're wondering what I'm talking about, google "True Blood Rolling Stone" and check out that cover.)

It's trash, but it's beautiful trash, and I can't stop watching.

Listening To
Pandora's Ditty Bops channel, which has now led me to the Wailing Jennys. August is made for bluegrass and country/folk. I think because in Indiana, the farmer's market always hosted amazing local musicians. The harvest comes with a banjo, to me.

Creating

My most excellent mother-in-law gave me a stack of scraps from her quilting. Many of them were of the long and skinny variety, so I'm slowly turning them into a rag quilt for The Punk's room. If it's not a horrific disaster, pictures will follow.

Mom Hacks

2010-07-22T06:29:00.001-07:00

The question I hear most often on the mom boards is "What do you DO all day?" Don't misunderstand: this is not the condescending question of someone who thinks that after the champagne brunch and the manicure it must be so difficult to come up with enough leisure activities to fill the rest of the day.

No, it's the question of mothers with young children. Kids who still need close, constant supervision, who have far more mobility than sense. Time spent with them is joyful and fulfilling, but also sometimes long, unbroken, and a bit boring. The Punk right now, for example, requires the kind of watching that doesn't allow a lot of chores to get done. (Mother's curse? Yes, I WAS whammied with it, why do you ask?)

Every family will come up with their own answers, but my life, mind and sanity saver lately has been audiobooks. They don't attract and suck in toddlers like the TV, they allow me to keep my full attention on her, they're entertaining and provide some much needed cerebral stimulation. Moreover, they're good for kiddo's verbal development. While they will never take the place of reading to your child, they similarly expose them to large amounts of vocabulary in this all-important sponge phase. What's not to love? Here are some of my recent favorites.

The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett
Always a favorite author, this YA series read by Stephen Briggs manages to be both funny and profound. It's tangential to the Witches series, and Granny Weatherwax has a recurring role. What's not to love?

The Jane Austen Mysteries, by Stephanie Barron.

Jane Austen has become an industry all her own these days, and there are some truly terrible books coming out of the trend. These are some of the bright points. Painstakingly researched, they feature Miss Austen as a Napolean-era Miss Marple, whose keen insight into human nature make her an ideal detective. While they do not fully retain Austen's sensibilities they manage to never be too lurid.

Forgotten Classics, read by Julie of Happy Catholic
All right, this one is technically a podcast, which will get an entry of their own shortly. But it's mentioned here because Julie is taking on the task of reintroducing listeners to some fantastic books whose time has come again.

Weekend video

2010-07-10T06:47:00.000-07:00

Julie over at Happy Catholic posted her usual weekend joke (worth a stop every Saturday, I say!) and it reminded me of one of my favorite scenes from West Wing:

West Wing has always been one of my favorite shows. I watched it a great deal when I was pregnant with Alexandra,as it was the only thing I could watch on television during my first trimester. (It fulfilled two basic requirements: it rarely showed food, or people eating, and the camera was fairly static without a great deal of physical movement.) While I don't always agree with the politics of the show (which at least were explicit!) I've spent most of the last ten years wishing that Jed Bartlett was president, and that the White House was staffed by hard working, intelligent people who really cared about doing the right thing.

ANYWAYS, it was also frequently very funny in a wonkish sort of way, and this is my favorite bit.

Pratchett quote of the day

2010-07-08T09:02:00.000-07:00

"...she was a witch, and a teacher, and that's a terrible combination. They want things to be right. They like things to be correct. If you want to upset a witch, you don't have to mess around with charms and spells. You just have to put her in a room with a picture that's hung slightly crooked, and watch her squirm."
~A Hat Full of Sky

Happy Mid Year

2010-07-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

Today is July 1st, the midpoint of the calendar year. It's like a mini-New Year's Day. So I'm taking time today to assess goals, dreams and projects for the rest of the year. Things like:

* Do one serious deep cleaning of the house, top to bottom, between now and December 1st.

* Make it to the gym 60 times by the end of the year.

* Graduate!!

* Recommit to doing the Daily Reading... daily.

How about you?

2010-06-18T08:01:00.000-07:00

INTRO: The Whippersnapper and I will, over the next few days?weeks?, be having something of a conversation about work, family, income and living. Who knows where it will lead....

Dear Whipper :P,

To get the ball rolling, I think the first question I wanted to raise is one of terminology. Is “career” really the best term for many women’s relationship to work now? Or most people period? According to various statistics, people will change “careers” several times in their lives, shifting their work focus to meet the demands of family, technology, and the marketplace. Others are becoming increasingly disillusioned with a work style that takes them away from family for so many hours of the week. Is it time for us to change how we think about work and income?

You make your own what?

2010-06-08T18:29:00.001-07:00

We've been cloth diapering Miss Punky Peanut since day one*: for us, and where we live, it made good economic and ecological sense*. Until now, we've used a local diaper service. But now that she's older, I feel like I have a grip on the household again, and the dissertation work is back to a steady pace, I've decided to start doing cloth wipes as well. After all, if you're going to be washing the diapers, wipes don't add much in the way of labor!

Plus, after Pampers' recent string of PR FAIL I'm disinclined to give them any more of my money. So here's what I've done:

At our baby showers we received a great many receiving blankets. And we used every one of them. They were indispensable the first several months, for swaddling, layering, emergency spit up clean-up on the go, and portable play blankets. But with the advent of summer and toddling, they get very little use.

I took two of them, and cut them into roughly wipe-sized rags (I got 12 out of one blanket and sixteen out of another). If you are lucky or crafty enough to own a serger, you can serge around the edges; if you're like me and don't, you can simply do a quick zig-zag to check any fraying.

After that, you simply need to wet the rags with a cleansing solution and use! There are literally dozens of recipes online: all of them consist of a base of baby shampoo, oil, and water with various essential oils added for both their fragrant and medicinal properties.

Afterwards, they can be washed in the same load as your cloth diapers, about which I imagine I will have more to say next week after we dive in fully.

* During the day, that is. She's in a disposable overnight, because that girl can flood a diaper like nobody's business.

** This is important to note. We live in what has been described as "The Saudi Arabia of Water". I have another family member who lives out West, however, in an area that is chronically water-challenged. For them, disposables make more sense than increasing the household water load by using cloth diapers. There are other concerns as well: cloth diapers will work better for some families and not as well for others.

Laundry!

2010-05-27T14:51:00.000-07:00

It seems to be the hip new thing: making your own cleaning supplies. Especially laundry soap. I don't know why, but it has shown up in my Google Reader several times in the last week.

Actually, I suspect I do know why. People are getting more conscious of their own household chemical load. They're also more conscious of their budget load, and making your own cleaners seems like a way to tackle both. Me, I just find it fun. I'm also very smell-sensitive, so I like being able to make things smell however I want.

Thus, the experiment in laundry soap. Here's the recipe I used:

2 cups borax
2 cups washing soda
4 cups grated bar soap (I used Zote, but Fels-Naptha also comes highly recommended. Next time, however, I may go ahead and get castille soap so that I can scent it myself.)

You use between 1/8 and 1/4 cup per load. So far, it works very well indeed, but I'll be interested to see how it does over multiple loads.

What retail stores still don't get about their target market.

2010-04-23T06:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Target,

You don't know me, exactly, but I'm your target market. I'm a stay-at-home Mom with a young child, pets, and a small but nonetheless existent amount of disposable income. When it comes to day to day household purchases, I'm the primary decision maker. So what I want to know is: why don't you know me better?

Let me get a little more specific. There's this thing, called the internet. You obviously know this, because A) you're reading this and B) you have a website. Quite a large one, with some serious flaws, but we'll get back to that in a minute. Two of the biggest users of this large series of tubes are geeks and SAHMs. For very similar reasons: the 'net allows us to quickly access a large body of information pooled from millions of users. Need a driver for the new video card? Check. Teething baby won't stop screaming? Check. Need to diagnose that strange mole that's magically appeared? Check. Oh, you may not get the right answer, but there are answers to be had.

What all this means is that before I make a major (or even relatively minor) household purchase, I do my research. Thanks to google, this doesn't have to take more than five minutes. But I almost always do it. I check different prices at different stores, but most importantly, I check user reviews. I'm looking for that perfect triangulation of quality and price. I want to know if the product will last me more than 3 months, if it will do the job I need it to, if there's a better model out there...

And that's what happened this morning. You see, I have a dog, two cats, hardwood floors, and a child who is beginning to crawl.This all adds up to me needing a stick vacuum cleaner so that I can vacuum the main areas at least daily. So while the baby was playing, I went to your website. Within 3 minutes, I found the best option available. Four star rating from a wide pool of users, and at a very good price.

But it wasn't available in the store. No, the only models available in store were either lowly rated or three times the cost of the online-only model. This is far from the first time this has happened. But really, it shouldn't happen at all. You have access to the exact same information I do. You know what your top rated products are. Why on earth wouldn't you make them available in stores? At one time, the cynical answer would have been the obvious one: you wanted the pricier model in store. But now? Amazon has got free shipping, baby. You just lost out on a sale.
No Love,
Liz

Speed post during naptime!

2010-04-22T07:36:00.001-07:00

Reading

Drawn by the Sword by James McPherson. So far I've only read the first two articles, but he does an amazing job discussing Southern Exceptionalism (which he argues is actually Northern exceptionalism). He frames the American Civil War as the conflict which determined what kind of nation the United States would be. As a Classicist, I'm amazed at the similarities between Rome and the American South, as slave societies go. Slavery really is America's original sin, and it fundamentally shapes everything about the region (and the nation). Literacy rates, for example, were phenomenally lower in the South because slave societies in general see education as dangerous. The conceptualization of America as a nation where upward mobility is possible and where we are not locked into the class in which we are born is one that could only exist after the defeat of the South and the elimination of slavery.

And that's just by page ten. An amazing book.

Watching

Kevin and I have gotten completely hooked on "Supernatural". Strong story telling, loads of fun, seventies hard rock soundtrack, great car... all played out against the backdrop of the coming apocalypse. I'd call it "Buffy for Guys" but that would undercut the massive appeal of the two leads. Ahem. A guest starring visit from Christian Kane and this girl would be in Hoosier Heaven.

Relaxing

The dissertation has been turned in, and the defense is on Monday. *gulp* In between has been a long stretch of blissful laziness. Well, not really: I've been housecleaning, baby chasing, cooking, visiting, reading up a mad storm of trashy novels, and trying to get into the habit of getting SOME kind of daily exercise, even if it's just a short walk around the neighborhood. My daughter is a daily delight, the sun is shining, the breezes are warm, life is good.

Loving

And now the obligatory cutie shot:

Now We Are Six (Months)

2010-03-23T19:45:00.000-07:00

Hey little peanut.
You're six months old today. SIX MONTHS. This absolutely blows my mind. You're becoming such a little personality! You have a zany sense of humor that I haven't quite figured out yet, and you're so outgoing and social. You love going out to places now, because you get to LOOK at everyone else in the world.

You're scooting, and getting up on all fours. You recently discovered splashing, too, so bath time is suddenly exciting and fun. Your dad was THRILLED by this, because it meant he got to break out the bath toys. You also discovered the pets, which has led to them all now giving you a wide berth. You've started babbling, and say "Hi!" to us, sometimes. I'm positive you're working on Mama and Dada, but your Daddy thinks I'm imagining things. You'll wave back if I wave, and are very generous with your grins.

I'm so happy for every day I get to spend with you, Punky. You're an absolute delight, and every time I think I couldn't love you any more, you prove me wrong.
Love, Mommy

pops head up from dissertation

2010-03-22T08:35:00.000-07:00

Well, it passed. To those who are celebrating, and those who are gnashing their teeth, I offer up an anecdote. When Bush was re-elected and the Republicans gained a majority in the house and senate, I was fairly depressed. My father said to me, "Look at it this way. This is the GOP's testing ground. They'll either prove themselves right, and get the country back on track, or they'll really show up the weaknesses in the party. Either way, good will come of it." We saw how that went.

Healthcare in this country *is* a disaster. Simply fixing tort reform would have done absolutely nothing: malpractice related costs account for less than one half of one percent of health care costs. I don't have any faith this bill will fix our problem, either. But we will have tried something, and we'll have a better idea of how to fix the problem.

If it works, we all win. (I have high hopes about what health care reform will mean for entrepreneurship, for example.) If it doesn't, we'll see why and move on. This is a change, but it's not the end of the world. Or, for that matter, the initiation of the American utopia some people are hoping for.

2010-03-10T13:29:00.000-08:00

Still alive! I'm sorry to have been so quiet for so long: I have a 5 month old (see above) and a dissertation due in two weeks. It'll be quiet for a little bit longer, but I'll be back come April!

2009-12-23T09:50:00.001-08:00

Dear Alexandra,

Today you are three months old. I can't believe you've been with us such a short time, because I can't imagine life without you now. You're two feet tall already, although you're a skinny little thin so everyone says that you're tiny. Not for lack of trying, though - I've never seen a kid with such a voracious appetite. It seems you spend most of your waking hours nursing. But if that's what it takes to get you to sleep through the night, I am more than happy to do it. Right now you sleep from about 9 pm to 7 am. Thank you for that, peanut. Really. It makes Mom's life pretty awesome.

You're learning so much now. You're just learning how to bat at things (like the hanging birdie on your play mat, which is one of your absolute favorite things), and you're starting to roll over. Now, you can get from your back to your side - I dont think it'll be long before you make it all the way over. You love to stretch, and stand up on Mommy or Dada's lap. Sitting up still disorients you a wee bit, but you can do it if we put your boppy around you. You do like being upright, though, because you're constantly looking around and watching everything.

You're just so much fun, little girl. Every day with you is a delight. I can't even tell you how much we love you and how glad we are that you are ours.
Love, Mama

Things I didn't know before

2009-11-05T20:06:00.000-08:00

I knew people could be real jerks. But having a young baby has shown me just how amazingly kind people can be.

Yesterday, I had to run an errand to Joann fabrics. Usually, she just naps through trips like this. Not this time. Of course, she waited until I was inside to start wailing. But everyone there went out of their way to help, from the people who let met move to the front of the line to the woman who held her carrier while I checked out. Of course, it helps to live in a state known for its friendliness.

Happy six week birthday, baby!

2009-11-04T10:15:00.000-08:00

I can't believe she's been here that long. At the same time, I can't imagine a time when she wasn't here.

Baby Torture!

2009-11-02T19:06:00.000-08:00

As you can see, this child is terribly mistreated. For example, I dress her funny.

Actually, this is her Halloween costume. I had to make sure it fit before the day actually arrived, and she? Did not like it very much. She's not a huge fan of having her clothes changed at the moment, and trying her costume on put of nursing for a whole three minutes. Thus? The screaming!

NaBloPoMo!

2009-11-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

Ah, the modern American fascination with Acronyms! November is NaNoWriMo,National Novel Writing Month. It is also Nation Blog Post Month, wherein folks pledge to post every day for 30 days. Since I've shamefully neglected this space for some time now, I figure this is as good an excuse as any to get back on the wagon. So... watch this space!

Sorry for the silence of late...

2009-10-17T21:46:00.000-07:00

... but we've been a wee bit busy the last 3 weeks. Our daughter was born on September 23rd, weighing ALMOST seven pounds. She is, in a word, amazing.

The fall of Richmond, through different eyes

2009-08-19T15:55:00.000-07:00

Ta-Nehisi Coates has been touring Southern battlegrounds. His perspective as the descendant of slaves gives his accounts a particularly poignant edge. An excerpt from one:

Shirley Plantation on the James is majestic. All the ancient detail--the smokehouse, the outdoor kitchen, the flying staircase--is there. Until you stand in front the big house, staring out at the approaching main path of gravel and dirt, until you observe the trees on each side standing green guard, until you note that, though the path connects to a bigger path, it seems to disappear into nothing, devoured by the woods, you really have no sense of the magic inherent in a Southern Road. Back home, a road gets from Jamaica to East New York. But in this deeper home of mine, from the aspect of the slave, a Road is a star-ship, a tesseract from half-man to man.

He also shares this anecdote from the Fall of Richmond:

"What is your name, sir?"
"My name is Garland H. White."
"What was your mother's name?"
"Nancy."
"Where was you born?"
"In Hanover County, in this State." "Where was you sold from?"
"From this city."
"What was the name of the man who bought you?"
"Robert Toombs."
"Where did he live?"
"In the State of Georgia."
"Where did you leave him?"
"At Washington."
"Where did you go then?"
"To Canada."
"Where do you live now?"
"In Ohio."
"This is your mother, Garland, whom you are now talking to, who has spent twenty years of grief about her son."

An open letter to John C. Wright (reposted from elsewhere)

2009-08-19T14:44:00.003-07:00

Sir,
You complain now that your journal was attacked by "a flash mob of trolls". I beg to differ.
Trolls are people who go to a Catholic blog and quote the DaVinci code, or to a Jewish blog and post anti-semitic propaganda. What happened to you was a community response.

You see, LiveJournal is not blogger. What you say here, you say as part of a broader community of users. That community happens to have an inordinately high (as contrasted with the general public) population of GLBT folk and their allies. You made a post that most of them found grossly offensive. And they reacted as a community does. They went to your blog and told you that you were patently offensive.

Since then you have mischaracterized the response. While a few people were, in fact, downright rude (leaving comments that consisted solely of 'F*** you!'), the overwhelming majority of the more than 700 replies to your post were civil. I saw only one or two that were anti-Christian, and those were quickly smacked down by other commenters.

This community decided that it would not listen to someone who clearly stated that he considered homosexuals to be the literal equivalent of pedophiles and "dead puppy rapists" without responding. That's what communities do.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth

ETA: There are a wide variety of opinions about homosexual acts out there. I firmly believe that all people who hold this range of opinions should be respected. Except for Rev. Phelps. He's evil. But other than that, I mean what I say. But this post went far beyond the pale of religious or political opinion. I was not kidding with the "raping dead puppies" reference. That was in there. This is also a man who recently claimed that he would not allow his children to read Harry Potter, lest they later learn that Dumbledore was gay and thus have a positive opinion of a pervert. Quite frankly, I would not have bothered posting anything about it, but there have been substantial misrepresentations about how this event went down. I saw it all unfold live, so I feel fairly qualified to comment.

Update

2009-08-14T12:37:00.000-07:00

- I love the sound of fighter jets overhead. We live near an airbase, and they've been doing a lot of training exercises the last month to six weeks. Some people complain about the noise. I think it's just cool.

Then again, I go to the Indy 500 for the noise, too. There are few sounds on this earth as exhilerating as an entire field of Indy Cars starting their engines. Not to mention the whine as they scream past at 210 MPH.

- Crunchy Con posted an interesting article today arguing against the rapid canonization of John Paul II. Like Rod, I don't really have a dog in this fight so I won't voice much opinion on the specifics, except to say that a good long wait seems wise in all canonizations, and while admirers of individuals are admirable in wanting rapid canonization, that doesn't mean it is prudent.

- Mad Men starts sunday!! This fits in my mood well, as I've found myself craving all things vintage lately. Lots of Brian Setzer and Ella Fitzgerald on the radio, and I've been learning how to put my hair up into rolls. Husband has wisely kept his mouth shut as I, who used to laugh at hair product, have been slowly importing things to achieve the perfect Victory Roll.

-This afternoon: Curtains! It's curtains for me! I'm trying to tackle as many home projects as possible before little miss Alexandra arrives, so the next step is getting rid of the blinds in our bedroom and replacing them with muslin curtains. Mostly because blinds + cats = certain destruction.

So THAT'S where my cake went...

2009-08-05T14:22:00.001-07:00

So THAT'S where my cake went...
Originally uploaded by AlieraKieron

So in one of my concessions to pregnancy related cravings, I broke down at Copps this week and bought a cake. I don't know what it is - cake has been my real weakness this whole time. Husband laughed, and shook his head, but didn't say a word.
(He's a very wise man.)

Then, this morning, I awoke to find a significant portion of my cake missing! This note was attached: "Tell Spit [our calico kitty] to catch the mice. They've been eating your cake!"

Yes. Of course. It must have been mice. Very large, very tidy mice, with an insatiable craving for cake. Clearly our cats need to undergo some serious kitty ninja training to defeat such a clever foe...

Marrying him was the best thing I ever did. I never stop laughing around here.

Never a dull moment...

2009-08-02T21:09:00.000-07:00

We had our childbirth and parenting class this weekend. One of the handouts they gave us on the first day was a list of the common symptoms women experience in the third trimester.

Husband: Look honey! You won the scavenger hunt!

The power of henna

2009-07-30T10:48:00.000-07:00

This is an absolutely amazing story: NGOs in Sudan are teaching women to encode the henna designs on their hands. To what end? To secretly signal to their midwives that they don't want FGM performed on their daughters. If a woman signals her midwife this way, the midwife will stage a false ceremony, leaving the the girl (and her reputation) intact. It's not ideal, no, but it's an ingenious solution.

The best laid plans...

2009-07-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

Feeling
- I had this wonderful, productive day planned. Then I woke up at 2 in the morning sweating through the sheets and feeling like I had swallowed broken glass. So it's generally been a day spent on the couch babying myself. The frustrating thing is that I'm fairly certain a hefty dose of Nyquil would knock it out, but... ah, the joys. 7 more weeks to go...

Speaking of which, I am seriously running out of womb. My liver is squished. So are my lungs, for that matter. Walking more than half a mile is now known as the One Big Thing I'll Do Today. And the Braxton Hicks are growing gradually stronger. Otherwise, though, I'm feeling very well over all - better, in fact, than I expected I would at 33 weeks.

Watching
Leverage is back on! I know I pumped this show a bit earlier in the year: it's really something. This is one of my more favorite scenes:

Reading

Life is a Miracle, by Wendell Berry. Berry is frequently cited by several authors / bloggers I admre, so it was time to check it out.

Amazed by...
This story: Beluga Whale Saves Diver.
Cetaceans are my favorite non-human species. Partly because the more we know about them, the more they challenge our ideas of just what makes humans different from animals.

Online sale alert!

2009-07-21T09:32:00.001-07:00

Walgreens is having a sale on 4x6 prints: 50 for $5.00, and you can use it up to 5 times. Go forth and scrapbook, y'all!

Blogging around the block

2009-07-20T11:52:00.001-07:00

- Steven Pressfield guest-blogs at zenpundit.com with a post on the Spartan sense of humor:

Spartans liked their quips terse and lean. They trained their young men for this. Youths in the agoge (”the Upbringing”), the notorious eleven-year training regimen that turned Spartan boys into warriors, would from time to time be called out before their elders and grilled with rapid-fire questions. The boys were judged on the wit and economy of their answers.

The reason for this was fear. The Spartans developed their style of humor from combat and from the apprehension that precedes combat. Hoplite warfare was surely among the most terror-inducing for the individual fighter, not only because he knew that all the killing would be done hand-to-hand, but because he often had hours preceding a battle to stare at the enemy phalanx across the field, while his own imagination ran riot.The Spartans prized the type of wit that cut such tension, the kind of humor that could release fear with a laugh and pull each individual out of his own head and his own isolation.

- Ta-Nehisi Coates pointed the way to an editorial by Frank Rich that, I think, the GOP needs to read. Regardless of what you think of Sotomayor, her nomination has caused some ugly, ugly heads to rear:

Among Sotomayor's questioners, both Coburn and Lindsey Graham are class of '94. They -- along with Jeff Sessions, a former Alabama attorney general best known for his unsuccessful prosecutions of civil rights activists -- set the Republicans' tone last week. In one of his many cringe-inducing moments, Graham suggested to Sotomayor that she had "a temperament problem" and advised that "maybe these hearings are a time for self-reflection." That's the crux of the '94 spirit, even more than its constant, whiny refrain of white victimization: Hold others to a standard that you would not think of enforcing on yourself or your peers. Self-reflection may be mandatory for Sotomayor, but it certainly isn't for Graham.

What Rich doesn't point out is that male nominees never receive the kind of "tone" criticism that females do. We all get stuck between Scylla (Hilary is a castrating bitch!) and Carybdis (Sarah is just so trampy!) on this one.

- While on a completely different note, Julie at Happy Catholic has an excellent post about dating non-Catholics.

If my husband had only dated Catholics I might still be a single agnostic wondering "what's it all about" as I wandered looking for my soul mate. It took marriage to this good man and God's use of our children to bring me to knowledge of Him and then of His Bride, the Church.

- Finally, The Agitator asks why cops keep shooting puppies, and asks why the heck police officers don't receive the same training that, say, postal employees do:

The Indianapolis Star reported that between 2000 and 2002, police in that city shot 44 dogs. A recent lawsuit filed by the Milwaukee owner of a dog killed by police found police in that city killed 434 dogs over a nine-year period, or about one every seven-and-a-half days. It's impossible to say how many of those were pets (versus strays), or in how many of those shootings the dog may have actually presented a serious threat to the officer or someone else. But in too many reported accounts of dog shootings, it seems doubtful that lethal force was necessary....

If dangerous dogs are so common, one would expect to find frequent reports of vicious attacks on meter readers, postal workers, firemen, and delivery workers. But according to a spokesman from the United States Postal Service, serious dog attacks on mail carriers are vanishingly rare. Bites do happen, but postal workers are given training on how to distract dogs with toys, subdue them with voice commands, or, at worst, incapacitate them with Mace. Mail carriers are shown a two-hour video and given instruction on how to recognize and read a dog's body language, how to differentiate between aggressive charging and playful bounding, and how to tell a truly dangerous dog from a merely territorial one.

New Rules (Monday Snark!)

2009-07-13T06:39:00.000-07:00

1) Liz's Law: If you cite WND.com as a source in an argument, I will officially consider the argument over. I won't declare myself the winner, but I will declare you incapable of being argued with if you refer to a website that still claims that eating soy causes The Gay. (Yes, there's a Left Wing corollary to this law, regarding the argumentum ex aurea aetate Paleolithica.)

2) A corollary to the above: if you believe that any national candidate's True, Secret Religion is anything other than The High Church of Political Expediency, I'll assume you haven't been legally able to vote for more than 6 years.

3) Liz's rule for politicians: National office requires gravitas. A central aspect of said characteristic is acting your age. The following things are not appropriate to anyone over the age of 30:

* Picking public fights with a teenager. Even if he really deserves it. Even if his entire family is found in the dictionary as the definition for Whiskey Tango. Even if he says your dog is ugly.

* Make reference to hip hop. Even worse, RECITE hip hop (this can never be called rapping). This goes triple if you're a fifty year old white man. You're a middle-aged politician. You will not be cool. Embrace this fact. It's a good thing. Letting go of being cool is one of the good things about getting older.

* Playing any instrument in public, unless your first career was as a nationally recognized classical musician. I might make an exception for the piano: one can play piano and look dignified. But woodwinds are right out.

Pansies!

2009-07-09T19:18:00.001-07:00

June 2009 029
Originally uploaded by AlieraKieron

I love pansies. Most years they would be done by now, but the cool summer has meant that they're still going strong. Although the downside is that they're going out with a whimper: this shot is from early June, and now they're leggy and pale. So after the storms pass tonight and tomorrow I'll go after them with a pair of scissors and stick fertilizers.

Recipes: Banana Bread

2009-07-05T17:56:00.000-07:00

This has turned into one of my most-used recipes. Boy eats bananas for breakfast every morning, and we inevitably end up with a few left over at the end of the week. I then turn them into this loaf, which becomes my breakfast for the week. It's sweet enough to satisfy my pregnant-lady morning sweet tooth, but not so overwhelming that I end up jittery and sick-feeling.

The recipe is modified from the one found at the Hershey's site: they use shortening instead, and use a different method. But I find that using a stand mixer for a light batter like this can ruin the texture in just a few seconds, so I've done it my own way.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

3 bananas, mashed
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream together mashed bananas, butter, and sugar. Beat in eggs. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix together briefly. (By briefly, I mean no more than 50 or so strokes. There may still be a few lumps: it's not a problem, trust me.) Pour into a 9 inch loaf pan and bake at 375 for about 55 minutes.

A note on flour: I've recently become amazed at the difference brands of flour make. I grew up on one brand (which shall remain nameless) but was frequently disappointed when baked goods came out tasting less than spectacular. Then, I switched to King Arthur brand. It's more per bag, I admit. But the difference in results is absolutely stunning.

Oh, dear, it has has been awhile.

2009-07-01T14:47:00.000-07:00

I just realized it had been almost two weeks since I posted! Many apologies for those of you still reading. It's been a busy time: a bathroom makeover (complete with tiling), 3 family visits, much dissertation writing, and full entry into the third trimester in all its glory. (Please, can someone get this kid out of my ribs? The ladies at bible study all commented today on how ridiculously high I'm carrying. I can, quite literally, feel her poking my liver. Yikes!) But while it's been busy, it has also been very good. I'll post pictures in the next couple of days, I promise! All in all, I'm just doing what I can to get ready, while still enjoying this last several weeks before Alexandra is here!

2009-06-19T11:40:00.000-07:00

I've blogged before about the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Artwork of the Day" feed. There was something there today that I found particularly compelling:

It's an abolitionist button, possibly sold to raise money for the cause in the 1850s and 60s. It also "may be one of the first political buttons made in America to incorporate a photograph. Believed to be unique, the miniature daguerreotype shows two hands held together, one black, one white resting on a book assumed to be the Bible."

Random post!

2009-06-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

Reading
The Helper by Catherine Marshall. It was recommended to me recently at another site where we were discussing the Holy Spirit (AKA the part of the trinity that I had the absolute least understanding of), and when I showed up for Women's Bible Study for the first time at Bashford UMC, this was what they were reading. I can take a hint...

Watching

Lark Rise to Candleford is being run our local PBS station. It's the story of a young woman who moves from Lark Rise, a small English farming village, to Candleford, a nearby town, in order to work at the post office. It's an absolutely charming, gentle sort of show that you can apparently only get from the BBC. Lots of familiar faces: Julie French (of French and Saunders), Julie Sawalha (Lydia from the One True Pride & Prejudice production, or Saffy from Absolutely Fabulous) and Ben Miles (the tripod from Coupling) all appear.

Investigating
Last week, we received some checks supposedly from a class action suit involving J K Publications and the FTC. We were suspicious, as one generally should be when one receives a check in the mail for no apparent reason. But it would appear to be legitimate: several people have posted online that they've spoken to the FTC to confirm it.

Following

The continuing unrest in Iran. Andrew Sullivan is, of course, the place to go these days. But I'm also getting increasingly frustrated by the criticism the American President is taking over his relative lack of response. I'm no Obama cheerleader, but I think he has the right of it on this one. Any endorsement of the revolution from the American government will be spun by the Iranian government as western interference, and will weaken the position of the protestors. Of course, just like the previous administration, some folks out there will never see anything good from the White House.

Visiting
Mom and Dad are in from Indiana! Yesterday we went to New Glarus and looked around; today, if the rain holds off, we'll go to Olbrich Gardens, and then to Dad's favorite steak house for dinner. Mmm... It really is nice to have them here.

Twitter grows up

2009-06-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

I've been following the events in Iran, partly because it's a great moment in history with the potential to seriously affect us here in the United States. But even more than that, I'm fascinated with the role the internet in general and Twitter in particular have played. Iranian students have been using Twitter to inform the world about what's happening there, to organize protests and rallies, and to call for help when besieged by riot troops. Then, last night, it got really interesting. It turns out the Iranian government was attempting to firewall off much of the internet in order to disrupt the protests. So a group of Iranian hackers were frantically setting up proxy servers to allow people to bounce around the firewalls and keep up with the information flow as it was happening. Twitter users from around the world helped by continuously retweeting (IE, copying and forwarding) the information so that it could be tracked back to no one user.

This is an amazing turn of events: it's like watching William Gibson come to life. We are rapidly entering an age where totalitarianism will be unsustainable because the information flow is simply unstoppable. If they cut the power, enough people will still have cell phones to get at it. The international nature of the web means that no one government can block access: even the Great Firewall of China has more holes than a fishing net.

This creates its own share of problems, too, of course. For every Twitter there's a StormFront. But this weekend a site that has been mocked as a worthless corner of the internet became the most important player in what may well be the eventual overthrow of a tyranical regime. How's that for a fairy tale for the 21st century?

2009-06-15T09:23:00.001-07:00

Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one's first feeling, 'Thank God, even they aren't quite so bad as that,' or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies are as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally we shall insist on seeing everything--God and our friends and ourselves included--as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred.
~C. S. Lewis

Now THIS sounds like a Wisconsin story

2009-06-12T18:29:00.000-07:00

"Urinating on a house and grabbing a piece of chicken off a grill proved to be the downfall for two Beloit men arrested Wednesday night in downtown Madison, police said."

Peein' on a man's house is bad enough. But then you stole his chicken? Ohhhh no....

Oh, Japan...

2009-06-12T08:55:00.001-07:00

Origin of so many strange and wonderful things! How I love your pop culture!

I'm not used to seeing a story like this so far north...

2009-06-12T06:48:00.000-07:00

'A man called "Country" was arrested for allegedly pulling out a knife at an east-side city park and threatening another man, apparently telling the victim "I'm going to cut you up like a wild hillbilly."'

To no one's surprise, the gentleman was looking for beer and has no known address.

Random links

2009-06-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

This is just cool. GIANT JELLYFISH!!

Sharon Astyk has a beautiful post up about stillness, while Needle N Thread has posted a beautiful, hand embroidered icon of the Dormition of the Blessed Mother.

In much more troubling news, I just learned that I woman I am acquainted with from Bloomington was standing next to one of the murdered security guards at the Holocaust museum this afternoon. It really has been a terrible couple of weeks, nationally speaking.

Lagaan

2009-06-06T19:49:00.000-07:00

After having this movie in my Netflix cue for... well, ever, Julie's post a couple weeks back urged me to see if I could get a copy of Lagaan by other means. Luckily, our local library system is well stocked. Luckily because this is a truly beautiful way to spend a few hours. I'm a burgeoning fan of Bollywood movies, and this is a great example of the genre. If you're not familiar, Bollywood movies tend to be large production numbers, frequently in historical settings, with a lot of song and dance numbers. Think 1930s Hollywood with brighter costumes. If you want to dip your toes, I would recommend Bride and Prejudice, which is an American made take on the genre and happens to combine two of my favorite things in this world: Aishwariya Rai, Jane Austen, and, um, oh yeah:

Naveen Andrews. *fans self*

Ok, so three. THREE of my favorite things. Ahem. Now, where was I....
Right. Lagaan. Check it out, you won't be sorry.

(Although it cracked me up: I spent the first hour of the movie saying "Where do I KNOW that actor from?" Finally, I squealed and said (out loud to the great amusement of the cats) "Holy Crap, it's DRESDEN!")

This was my favorite number:

And since we could all use kitten therapy these days!

2009-05-31T21:00:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine, back in the day, said it best: "Cat's aren't domesticated. They're habituated." I've often said myself that I exist, as far as my 2 cats are concerned, solely to serve them.

Turns out they may be right, evolutionarily speaking.

The only thing worse

2009-05-31T20:50:00.000-07:00

than this terrible crime is going to be the backlash.

That having been said, I would at least hope that Operation Rescue would take a serious look at its tactics. They are the ones who posted wanted posters with Tiller's picture, who posted his home address, the addresses and phone numbers of his family, and the information about his church. As of this afternoon they still had him listed on the front page of their website as a mass murderer at large.

Tactics like this do nothing to advance the pro-life cause. We cannot win hearts and minds by terrorizing people. Rhetoric has consequences, and all too often it comes around to bite is where the sun don't shine.

Quote of the Day

2009-05-29T14:59:00.000-07:00

Obedience is an unpopular word these days, but the artist must be obedient to the work, whether it be a symphony, a painting, or a story for a small child. I believe that each work of art, whether it i a work of great genius, or something very small, comes to the artist and says, "Here I am. Enflesh me. Give birth to me." And the artist either says, "My soul doth magnify the lord," and willingly becomes the bearer of the work, or refuses: but the obedient respnse is not necessarily a conscious one, and not everyone has the humble, courageous obedience of Mary.
~Madeleine L'Engle, Walking on Water

A request

2009-05-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

Think good thoughts for me, eh? I've been having some belly pains, and it's either nothing (organ squishage from the growing L'il Chickpea) or something (namely that I'm one of the lucky 15 percent of women who develop gall bladder trouble during pregnancy). I'm going for an ultrasound tomorrow morning, so hopefully we'll find out what's going on quickly.

2009-05-27T11:47:00.001-07:00

Shorter John C. Wright:

I'm not going to look up this legislation, or any commentary on it, or even bother to google the APA's definition of "paraphilia" vs "sexual orientation". I'm just going to post a 3 page rant about how there's no difference between two consensual adults having a relationship and the rape of a 13 year old child.

Seriously, people. False Witness. It's a grave sin. Look it up some time. Passing stuff along that you find on the internet without critical evaluation? Leads to this kind of stupidity.

In fact, the internet makes people extra prone to this kind of stupidity in general. As is the case when last week, the rumor flying around the feminist blogs was that Texas was charging women for their rape kits. No one did any investigative work, they just hit cut n' paste. Meanwhile, can I remind everyone out there of a beautiful little site:
factcheck.org.

It's non-partisan website: right now, for example, the front page slams Obama, Pelosi, the Secretary of the Interior, and a Conservative group who recently released an ad about the health care policy of the Obama administration. Meanwhile, just remember: if it sounds completely absurd, it might very well be. If someone only quotes you one sentence, read the rest of the context before commenting. (There's a speech by Sonia Sotomayor, for example, that folks really oughtta read in its entirety.)

In Flanders Field

2009-05-25T17:53:00.000-07:00

By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Memorial Day Random Post

2009-05-25T16:34:00.001-07:00

* L'il bro and sis-in-law left early this morning. It was really, really wonderful to have them here. We did state street on Saturday, and went to New Glarus on Sunday. Well, 3 of us did. L'il bro got taken out by Das Boot and spent Sunday recovering. Heh. Amateur. But he was able to make it for dinner last night, so it's all good.

Now, I'm spending the day recovering myself. Two days of running all over Madison and South Central Wisconsin have sucked just about all the extra energy out of me. Tie that to the fact that I'm pretty sure the bebe is about to hit a growth spurt (I've spent all day munching, with no end to the appetite in sight) and it just seems most wise to me to spend a day doing small tasks that require little physical or mental energy. A little bit of baking, some light reading... luckily we have leftovers that will make for awesome dinner, so all in all, I can slack and feel little guilt about it.

*Although I do need to make up for it tomorrow by spending lots o' time working on the diss, just to get some momentum back up. I've gotten about ten pages written since school got out: not terrible, but I need to pick up the pace, a nd get into a routine. I'm quickly hitting the "Oh, Lord, just get the damn thing DONE already!" point, too, which helps. If I can write ten pages a week from now until the baby's born, I can have the blood thing completely drafted. Barring that, which may not be possible, I at least want to finish the Libya chapter (Underway with 15 pages so far) and the Cato chapter (which is far, far less research intensive than the Libya chapter, and will be easier to do at home as my mobility decreases with my girth). That's ALL the new material at least *drafted*. If I can get those two done by the end of July / beginning of August, all I'll have left is a chapter on Roman approaches to anger (which is all Lit review with only minor new stuff by me about ethnicity), an introduction and conclusion, and then revisions. The intro and conclusion may, in fact, get written between the end of July and whenever the bebe comes, with revisions beginning in December / January. In other words, it's all really, really do-able, I just need to get into a groove wit' it.

It's also been an ongoing writing process for me in ways that I'm just coming to understand. That is, I've often thought of my academic writing as separate from the "Real" or "Artistic" writing that I wanted to do. But now that I'm able to work solely on my own projects, I'm finding it energizing in ways I didn't expect. When I stop procrastinating and get down to it, I love the work. It may be academic writing, but it is every bit as artistic, a creative enterprise just as much as the short stories I have on the back burner. When I treat it as such, as the Holy Thing that creating always is, it becomes transformative. Not to mention considerably more pleasant.

* The porch garden is doing ridiculously well. In fact, I may never dig in the dirt again.
Ok, I'm lying. But with as shady a yard as we have, the container garden is turning out to be such a good option I wish I had thought of it two years ago. So far we have green bush beans started, as well as 3 beefsteak tomato plants, two windowboxes full of strawberries, a pot of violas, pansies, hot peppers, and a whiskey barrel that is half full of kitchen herbs. The other half will go in this week. Meanwhile, I think I'll turn the bed in front of the picture window into a larger herb bed, with basil and giant dill, since those are the two we just most often.

* Meanwhile, I'll have to post a belly-pic soon. I caught my reflection in a shop window on Saturday and almost jumped. Oy, do I look like a pregnant lady now! I feel really good, all in all: my energy is almost back up to normal, although as I said above, I do have to watch myself lest I get overtired. Which can be really hard to do, because the "nesting" thing has kicked in and the urge to clean, scrub, and organize everything in sight is starting to take over. Yowza.

Which reminds me: if anyone in Madison wants a rose bush or 4, let me know.

* Right. off to make banana bread. With chocolate chips in it. Mmmmmmm...

Quote of the Day

2009-05-24T07:57:00.000-07:00

From Charles Cosimano, over on this thread at Crunchy Cons:

Corpses in Chicago have always had the right to vote. There are few things more horrifyingly impressive than dawn of Election Day, when the trumpet sounds over the Sears Tower and the ancient dead rise from their graves and march to the polling places where they receive their offerings of donuts and coffee from the polling place workers, cast their vote and then return, once again mute, to their places of rest.

Meh.

2009-05-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

Today is one of those hard days. You know those days where it feels like when you're trying to fall asleep, and you keep tossing and turning, trying to find a comfortable position, and you never quite manage it? It's like that. Except on the inside.

So far I've tried a library run, Madeleine L'engle, piano practice, guitar practice, donut therapy, house cleaning... I think I'm just stuck in pissy mode for a bit.

Hooray for the UK!

2009-05-22T07:14:00.000-07:00

Who are finally allowing the Gurkhas the right to settle in Britain.

For almost two hundred years, the Gurkhas have fought for the British army. I've heard legends of their bravery and fighting skill from several American veterans. But until this week, they received pay and benefits significantly smaller than British troops and very few were allowed to permanantly settle in the UK.

Cool Stuff on the Internet Sunday

2009-05-17T20:05:00.000-07:00

A lot of crafters already know about this, but Dover Publications offers a weekly sampler of free, copyright free images. They can be used for your website, craft projects, scrapbooking... you name it.

Star Trek

2009-05-13T16:36:00.000-07:00

So we saw The Movie last night. It's amazing just how much I've been hearing about this one, and it's everywhere. My students talk about it, the blogosphere is abuzz, and since I have a fairly geeky group of friends, I hear about it from them a lot as well.

What can I say: I loved it. I loved the look and feel of it. I loved the grittiness, relative to previous outings. I loved that in the early scenes, the military com sounded military.

While I know that what a lot of people enjoyed about Star Trek in the past was its idealism, that was the part that always irritated me. 3oo years from now people will not be magically peaceful. 3 THOUSAND years from now, people will not be peaceful. And Kirk's smug moral superiority always made me want to smack him upside the head. Give me Babylon 5 any day: a Sci-Fi world that is messy, complicated, filled with a thousand different cultures, a thousand different religions, still struggling to harmonize.

This new Trek Universe has, I think, the potential for that level of complexity while not surrendering the idealism that underlay the original. I have high hopes - and can't wait for the sequels to come.

Liz thinks..

2009-05-12T09:40:00.000-07:00

that the end of the school year isn't nearly as exciting when you aren't in classes anymore.
that Perez Hilton is an obnoxious blowhard, who shouldn't be sitting on panels to judge anyone.
Liz also thinks that Miss California should not go through her contract point by point and violate every major clause if she wants to stay Miss California. (Hint: if you know there are multiple nude photos, don't lie and say there is only one. If your contract says you can't simultaneously contract with a political lobbying group, don't. If your contract says that Miss America means showing up at the Boondock County Soybean Fest, you show up. It's the gig you signed up for: do it, or resign.)
that Wanda Sykes is just dang funny. And after everything that Rush has said about women in general, and lesbians in particular? If he can dish it out, he can take it. But humor is one of those things
that the White House is a bunch of losers for not saying just that.
that people who talking about "Going Galt" should actually read "Atlas Shrugged" and find out what it means. Then, they should read a biography of Ayn Rand and ask themselves if they really want to be associated with a raging, insane cocaine and amphetamine addict. (I have a major bug you-kn0w-where about Rand, and even more so her followers. I admit it. )
that the best part of living across from a parish church is the noon-time bells. (The worst part is the traffic and parking situation. What is it with Catholics? I think the world's fastest land mammal is a Catholic escaping from Mass, followed very closely by a soccer mom picking up her kid from Catholic school.)
that it's time for a roast beef sandwich. With cheddar. On an egg roll. Mmmm...

Cool things on the internet Sunday

2009-05-10T17:16:00.000-07:00

Did you know that you can subscribe to "Art of the Day" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art? Follow the link, and you can either view it daily on their website or add it to your RSS feed.

Childrens want to be free!

2009-05-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

One of the great sources of irritation to me since I became pregnant is the number of people watching out for my child, even in utero. Pregnant women become public property: it's ok, apparently, to come up and touch us, to comment on anything we're doing, to offer opinions on what we're eating, drinking, inhaling... A friend of mine told me the story of getting yelled at by a woman for being a bar.

For the record, she was drinking water.
And if she wasn't? God help her. Never mind the fact that most physicians will tell you that a beer or glass of wine *every once in a while*, after the 13th week of gestation, is extremely unlikely to cause any harm. Same goes with sushi, for that matter, or lifting the occasional heavy object. Fresh spinach is as likely to be harmful as that soft cheese.

In fact, that's the point. Life is risk. While I'm sitting here, typing this blog entry, there's a non-zero chance that an electrical short could electrocute me. I'm far more likely to trip over one of my pets and fall down the stairs, breaking my neck than I am to catch swine flu. We have to live our lives anyway.

But the twenty-four hour news cycle doesn't stop. There is an entire industry, indeed, multiple industries, with a very real investment in keeping us afraid. People who are afraid spend money to calm themselves: they drink or smoke to calm their nerves, go to the doctor more often, spend money on the latest alarm system or safety device.

And parents (and even more so, parents-to-be) make easy targets. We have a natural anxiety about our children - it's a scary world out there. But we're finding more and more that this anxiety is not only failing to do any meaningful good, it can actually cause harm. The "obesity crisis" (to the extent that there actually is one) can be traced directly to parents wanting to keep their children inside, safe from predators. Of course, the odds of a stranger injuring your child are something like 1 in 1.5 million. Our kids are no less safe today than they were in 1970, and considerably safer than they were in, say, 1984.

With that, I direct your attention of to salon.com for a fantastic interview with Lenore Skenazy, author of Free Range Kids. She points out that we're actually injuring our kids by smothering them, keeping them so "safe" that they end up afraid of the world and, in many ways, incompetent. 'Children' at 13 used to become parents, for pete's sake, and to to take on full adult careers. The reason that young Jewish men and women are Bar/Bat Mitzvaed at 12 is that this was the beginning of official adulthood. Now, we barely allow them to be adults at 20.

I don't kid myself: I'm sure that when little bean arrives, I'll be an anxious mom too. But I also believe that a large part of a parent's job is to let children learn how to cope with the world on their own. They can't do that if we wrap them in cotton.

For Red

2009-05-08T16:11:00.000-07:00

When I saw this:

driving down the streets of Madison, I had to get a picture. Yup, it's a cow-boat. This week the weather has finally gotten consistently warm, so people have started moving their sailboats out to the lake. This one is a real winner, though.

A post! With content!

2009-05-05T18:30:00.000-07:00

* This evening, Husband and I made Julie's Grilled Lemon Chicken. It's a keeper, let me tell you. I can't get enough lemon, Husband thinks it's very easy to have too much. Somehow, this recipe made us both very happy.

* Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. Red wine is proof he wants us to be happy AND have a longer life expectancy.

* Here, a history of one of my favorite spices: saffron. It took me until very recently to understand when and where to use it, but dang. I love me some.

* On a political note:
Nope, no race problems on the right. *headdesk* "Judge Sotomayor may indeed be dumb and obnoxious; but she's also female and Hispanic, and those are the things that count nowadays."

And to think, the GOP is having conferences right now trying to figure out just how they'll appeal to demographics they have been unable to reach.

* And finally, the post I've been waiting months to be able to make:
I give you the next round of pictures of our daughter, due in September!

HA!

2009-05-05T14:14:00.001-07:00

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

Another view of Lake Mendota

2009-05-05T07:16:00.001-07:00

The view from the bus
Originally uploaded by AlieraKieron

This is actually the view from the bus as it heads up "The Hill": Bascom Hill, which sits in the middle of campus, and is the bane of all students who must trek up it every day. When the weather is nice, it's really not so bad. But in winter, when you're already wearing ten pounds of cold weather gear and hauling a pack? Yuck. It's also interesting because there are several figure mounds. Right next to my office building, for exmaple, is a large bird mound.

Spring in Wisconsin

2009-05-03T09:40:00.001-07:00

The view from our department library
Originally uploaded by AlieraKieron

This was taken a few weeks ago, so the terrain has greened up considerably since then. But this is the view from out department. In fact, we've been voted one of the most romantic spots on campus. Er, I don't know about that: a room full of ancient books makes for a dusty rendezvous spot. But the view is inspirational.

I promised belly shots...

2009-05-02T19:51:00.001-07:00

Belly shot @ 20 weeks
Originally uploaded by AlieraKieron

And here they are. Well, here it is. Me at 20 weeks.

Er, please ignore the dirty mirror. And the ridiculous expression.

Weekend Update

2009-04-25T08:55:00.000-07:00

With, I promise, a picture post later this afternoon.

After a gorgeous day yesterday (sunny, 80, mild breeze - the whole city was half drunk on the sheer animal pleasure of having skin exposed to the sun and air) the thunderstorms rolled in last night. For my readers further south (which I think is almost all of you!) we don't get "real" thunderstorms up here. Oh, yes, there's thunder, and a bit of lightning, and every 3 to 5 years we'll see a tornado. But they're weak, puny little things compared to, say, an Indiana thunderstorm. A Wisconsin thundershower is something rather like seeing a shark at the zoo. An Indiana storm, however, will remind you of your place in the order of creation.

(Incidentally, there's a quiz on facebook: "How much of a Hoosier are you"? I scored 100%. In order to get that score, one of the questions was "What is the safest place during a tornado?" The correct answer was, "Duh! Hangin' out the window and checkin' it out!")

Thunder Snow, on the other hand, is really something to see. It pretty well defines "Eldritch".

But the truly wonderful things about the rain today? Our basement is DRY! First solid rain in almost a year that this has been the case. See, our house is over fifty years old, and had, of course, settled with time. No one had addressed the drainage situation, so... heavy rains meant battle stations with a shop vac. But this last week our friendly neighborhood landscapers came, pulled out some ancient yew bushes that needed to go, and dumped a load of dirt around the foundation. So far, so good, and I'm looking forward to a nap in the easy chair this afternoon, lulled by the sound of rain on the roof.

What an amazing universe...

2009-04-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

This is one of several pictures recently released from the Cassini mission: here, Rhea passes in front of Titan, which is lit from behind by the Sun.

A cure for dysblogatosis

2009-04-21T14:55:00.000-07:00

I have noticed a theme around the blogosphere today, a... disturbance in the force, if you will. Energy seems to be down, general crankiness on an upswing.

I recommend video therapy.

I lovelovelove the colors here:

Internet drama got you down? Dramatic chipmunk to the rescue!

And finally, KITTENS!

Cats and Dogs

2009-04-18T10:15:00.001-07:00

I have a confession to make: I’m bi-special. Yes, like a certain percentage of the population, I love cats and dogs. I refuse to assign myself as either a “cat-person” or “dog-lover”. How could one choose? On the one hand, there is something about a cat that just makes a house. There is nothing so homey or so contented as a cat sleeping in circle in a sunny patch on a quilt, and nothing as comforting as a purring cat in your lap. On the other hand, dogs are wonderful in their enthusiasm. Cats could take you or leave you, honestly. Oh, they like us well enough, and have affection for us. But if I left one day and another “mom” came home in my place? My cat would adjust pretty quickly. Our dog, however, is a big, devoted, love explosion. Sophie loves so hard she shakes with it. When Boy comes home, she can’t stand or sit still. She’s so excited and happy to see him, so full of love, that she runs around in circles, bounces off of him, and generally makes a rumpus.
And that got me to thinking this morning when I woke up. I’ve never much liked the “sheep vs. goats” biblical analogy. Oh, I understand it. Goats are stubborn, determined, and go their own way. Sheep are pliant, obedient, and follow where the Shepherd leads. They’re also profoundly stupid. No, really. Sheep will follow the herd off the cliff. Sheep are so stupid and filthy that they have to be watched lest they get so filthy they get infested with vermin. Sheep,in fact, convince me that there is an intelligent Creator. Because if evolution worked completely impersonally, as atheists claim it does, sheep should either be ten thousand times more intelligent, breed in large and frequent litters like rabbits, or be extinct by now. In this, they make a good analogy for Mankind as a species. But they’re rather terrible role models.
Sophie, on the other hand? Now there is a role model. Like I said, she’s a love explosion. She’s also a shining example of faith. That dog would follow us to hell and back, and just be glad we brought her along. The first time this really struck me was when I got home one afternoon and remembered I had forgotten to give her breakfast. (Bad Mamma!) I went down to the basement, and filled up her bowl, then headed back upstairs to read. She stared at her food bowl for a second, then looked at me, and followed me up. I realized that she would rather sit by my feet while I read upstairs than eat, even though she was clearly hungry.
Needless to say, I brought my book downstairs so she didn’t have to decide.
Much of this thinking was inspired this morning, when I woke up to discover that Boy had fallen asleep on the couch downstairs, and Sophie, rather than coming to bed, had waited up outside the bedroom for him. (Sophie loves me, but she’s really a Daddy’s girl.) And I thought, what could I do if my faith and devotion to God were one tenth of what that dog’s devotion to my husband was? If I could have that kind of love, faith, and commitment? To always set aside what I wanted in the moment in favor of my relationship with the Lord, and to have that kind of deep and abiding trust?
I saw a bumper sticker once: “Lord help me to be the person my dog thinks I am.” My prayer today is “Lord, help me to be more like my dog.”

Posted without comment

2009-04-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

One thing that nobody should ever be permitted to say again, after reading these memos: "The United States didn't torture." When President Bush said it, he was a liar. The only question is whether or not he was lying to himself, so that he could sleep at night, or consciously lying to the public for reasons of political expediency.

~Rod Dreher

If you want to know how democracies die, read these memos. Read how gifted professionals in the CIA were able to convince experienced doctors that what they were doing was ethical and legal. Read how American psychologists were able to find justifications for the imposition of psychological torture, and were able to analyze its effects without ever stopping and asking: what on earth are we doing?

Read how no one is even close to debating "ticking time bomb" scenarios as they strap people to boards and drown them until they break. Then read how they adjusted the waterboarding, for fear it was too much, for fear that they were actually in danger of suffocating their captives, and then read how they found self-described loopholes in the law to tell themselves that what the US had once prosecuted as torture could not possibly be torture because we're doing it, and we're different from the Viet Cong. We're doing torture right and for the right reasons and with the right motive.

~Andrew Sullivan

No, I will comment. We did things that we hung foreign combatants for. When we take actions like this, the terrorists win in a very real and material way. They wanted to destroy America. In regards to this, they were successful.

Edited to add this from Happy Catholic:

The basic principle of Catholic ethics of human life
are not things, objects of manipulation and control and design, to be judged by some other, higher standard than persons. There is no higher standard – God himself is personal (“I AM”). Persons are subjects, I’s. They are subjects of rights.They are not to be judged as worth more or less on some abstract, impersonal scale of health, intelligence,physical power, or length of life. Each life, each individual, each human being is unique, and each is equally and infinitely precious. That is the root of Catholic morality on all issues of human life.

Things that Have to be Shared

2009-04-16T21:05:00.000-07:00

I bring you:

Uncomfortable Plot Summaries!
(Caution: Sarcastic Humor for Grown-Up Peoples. Not suitable for children, housepets, houseplants, or those offended by smart-assed comments about Star Trek. Although Boy, who is a raging Trekkie and is probably watching a Voyager re-run as we speak, loved it.)

Some of my favorites:
SWEENEY TODD: Businesses flourish when freed from stringent regulation

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Woman with gold-digging mother nags wealthy man into marriage.

DOCTOR WHO: Elderly man serially abducts young women.

STAR TREK VI: Racist military commander past his prime nearly ruins galactic peace.

STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE: Religious extremist terrorists destroy government installation, killing thousands.

LABYRINTH: Girl is negligent baby-sitter.

Is It Thursday Already?

2009-04-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

This week is flying by. At the same time, when I woke up this morning, I had to check my phone to confirm what day it was. Oy!

We seem to be firmly back in Mother Nature's good graces, at least for the moment: today is 60 and sunny. Every building on campus is half-empty, as the entire population of Madison, Wisconsin heads outside. Tomorrow, I'll bring my camera to campus and grab some pictures so I can show off how pretty my town is at this time of year.

Stolen from Julie at Happy Catholic

2009-04-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

1. Most treasured childhood book(s)?
Can I count all the Chronicles of Narnia? If I *have* to choose one, I'm going with "Voyage of the Dawn Treader".

2. Classic(s) you are embarrassed to admit you’ve never read?
Dickens. I've read "A Christmas Carol", but otherwise? I can't get myself through them.

3. Classics you read, but hated?
I've covered this before, but I'll say it again with some shame: Lord of the Rings. I understand and appreciate it's historical impact, but... it's just too stiff and formal for me.

4. Favorite genre(s)?
Latin Elegy, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Ancient Philosophy

5. Favorite light reading?
Urban Fantasy potboilers: Dresden Files, Weather Wardens, Sookie Stackhouse...

6. Favorite heavy reading?
Aristotle, especially his works on Ethics.

7. Last book(s) you finished?
"Turn Coat" by Jim Butcher

8. Last book(s) you bailed on?
Wow... I can't remember one. I have a bit of a completion fixation, so I almost always finish a book. I bailed on "A Shadow in Summer" 2 or 3 times, but I finally slogged through the first 30 pages and am very, very, VERY glad I did - I really ought to post a review of the series.

9. Three (only three!) books on your nightstand?
Complete Works of C.S. Lewis (Not actually a complete works, more like a greatest hits of his apologetics: I love "The Great Divorce"!), "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff" by Christopher Moore (a book that had more to do with my faith than almost any other I can think of), and "Territory" by Emma Bull.

10. Book(s) you’ve read more than once?
"Jack of Kinrowan" by Charles de Lint, "Sense and Sensibility", "Mansfield Park", "The Chronicles of Narnia", "A girl of the Limberlost" by Gene Stratton Porter

11. The book(s) that meant the most to you when you were younger (ie, college/young adult)?
Do you promise not to hate me when I say "Mists of Avalon"? My only defense is that I didn't know any better at the time.

12. Book(s) that changed the way you looked at life?
No, not really. Although I chose my career based on two words.

Oh, you wanna know what those were?
Passi graviora.
It translates to "Oh you men who have suffered greater things than this..."
It's from Book I of the Aeneid. It blew my mind, and I've never looked back. Although I'm not a huge fan of Vergil, oddly enough.

13. Favorite books
Thaaaat should be pretty obvious by now.

14. Favorite author(s)
Charles de Lint, Jim Butcher, Lucan, Aristotle, Jane Austen, Ovid,

15. Desert Island Book
Complete Works of Jane Austen?

BONUS!
Desert Island Book for Your Worst Enemy
Anything in this series.
Time traveling Viking romance. They're bad. Really, really bad. I'm also fairly convinced that they're written by a man, since they seem to convey the kind of sophmorish misogyny you generally don't see in women. (Feminine misogyny has it's own distinct flavor.)

A varia post

2009-04-13T15:13:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely Easter weekend: the in-laws came up from Chicagoland and I made a massive brunch, resulting in many, many leftovers. But that's alright: I happen to love them. And breakfast caseroles reheat really, really well. This was my first time making baked french toast, too, although I think it's a new favorite. It's ridiculously easy, and I loved the custard-like texture of it. This time I made some cinnamon apples to go over the top: next time, though, I think I'll go with carmelized peaches.

Of course, this could be because I think everything is better with peaches.
Unfortunately, I think this meant I just blew all of my cooking creativity for the week in one fell swoop. I know I need to start cooking dinner any minute now (I like to have dinner at least underway when my husband gets home; I don't always achieve this, especially since the pregnancy, but it's good to have goals) but I have very little desire to do so.
This is probably because I've gotten a lot of other work done today, at least dissertation-wise. I'll start writing Chapter 3 by the end of the week. See, if I state it publicly like this, I have to do it. Right? I'm still committed to getting a complete first draft done by the end of July, although it will be a very drafty draft indeed. Lawd, I can't wait to be done with the process. Then it will be 3 blissful months without constantly thinking "I should be writing right now..." before starting a job. I hope...
In 3 weeks, we get to find out if L'il B is a boy or a girl! Or, possibly, a spawn of Chthulu. (There was some talk of adding that to the betting pool around the Department.) I'm excited to know only so that we can start picking out names and registering for clothes.
Speaking of pregnancy, I'm officially cutting myself off from all political blogs. The feistiness is getting the better of me, and it's just not good for me. I'm one of those rare birds who thinks that things quite simply aren't that bad, that while our president is a bit of a dunce on a few notable issues, he's overall not doing that bad of a job given the circumstances, and that things are actually, in most ways, better than they've been for most of human history. I'm not a Pollyanna, I'm just sick of listening to people go into hysterics over things that, half the time, aren't even true to begin with. Besides, most folks have simply made up their minds on what they think, and are unwilling to be convinced otherwise. Why beat my head against the wall?

Plus, I believe that everything I take in now affects the baby in one way or another, whether it's the food I eat, the movies I watch, or the articles I read. So no more, at least for the time being. (I may even have to give up watching "House", since the last couple of episodes made me just too upset. THAT may really bum me out...)
And now, some entertainment:

Find more videos like this on Channel Frederator RAW

REVIEW: Turn Coat, by Jim Butcher

2009-04-10T17:57:00.000-07:00

I came home Wednesday to discover that I was going to get very little done for the next 48 hours: my copy of Turn Coat had arrived. Turn Coat is the latest entry in The Dresden Files - and if you're not reading them, you really should.

Why? For one, The Dresden Files are extremely well written. They're light, they're funny, and fast-paced. They're also beautifully human. All too often, entries in the Urban Fantasy genres have main characters that are "Mary Sues", which is to say, thinly veiled wish fulfillment figures for the author. Harry, the protagonist of The Dresden Files, may be insanely powerful, but he's well fleshed out. He's a flawed character, but one whose power comes as much from his ability to form unusual alliances as from any inherent magical ability. Second, the series has a strong Catholic undercurrent to it. As I'm committed to making this a spoiler free review, I won't say more. But Butcher has created a wonderfully detailed universe, and treats his characters with compassion and a wicked sense of humor.

And yes, I have a bit of a fictional-guy crush on Dresden.
And Murphy.

Turn Coat is the eleventh book in the series, and begins pulling together threads that have been arising since Book 1. I say "begins" because this story is nowhere near over.

In fact, this volume reminded me of nothing so much as "Empire Strikes Back": it makes it relatively clear where the lines lie, so to speak, but raises as many questions as it answers. It has a similar emotional punch, as well: I won't say this is the darkest of the Dresden Files, but it ends on a melancholy note,(Actually, at one point, I came as close as I ever have to throwing the book across the room in tears. But it was a false alarm.) and with a lot of darkness ahead.

Yup... this is pretty much how we all feel...

2009-04-10T16:34:00.000-07:00

Spring has finally come to Wisconsin. The trees have tiny green buds, and I heard rumors of a flower in bloom 6 blocks Northeast of here.

Quote of the Day

2009-03-29T19:49:00.001-07:00

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."
~Kung Fu Monkey

About that Mrs Clinton in Mexico story ...

2009-03-29T19:01:00.001-07:00

I don't buy it. It has several strong signs of being a false story.

In case you hadn't heard, the CNA reported this weekend that Hilary Clinton asked, at the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, who had painted the miraculous image.

But here's the problem: CNA is the only site reporting this story. No other US source is reporting it. Neither are any Mexican sources, except for one I found which was actually posting a verbatim translation of the CNA post.

Imagine that. Not one. Single. Source. is picking up a story about Hilary Clinton making a colossal fool of herself? Not Fox News? Not one conservative news outlet wants to gloat over a CLINTON making a massive mistake like that? Why would they turn a story like that down?

Meanwhile, it has spread like wildfire.

The Ethics of Blogging

2009-03-26T15:51:00.001-07:00

N.B.: This post is not directed at anyone in particular, in case you're wondering! I'm covering things I have seen on several blogs, on both sides of the political spectrum here. While I have only been actively blogging HERE for the last year or so, I've been reading them since the late nineties, and an active participant in the blogosphere for that time. Wow, I suddenly feel old: that's more than ten years! I'm not an expert, if there is such a thing, but I am familiar with blogging conventions and why they exist.

A lot of what I'm going to say here primarily applies to current events / issues bloggers, but I think it's useful to everyone.

Blogs are Publications

Yup, that's right. Legally speaking, blogs are as much a publication as is, say, the New York Times. Essays that are published on blogs, for example, can not be sold as first-run publications elsewhere: rather, they will always be re-prints. What does this mean, practically?

* It means that standards such as the rules regarding plagiarism apply. If you mention a news article, you need to cite that article with a link. Not doing so is actually plagiarism. So unless you went to Abu Dhabi to investiage that story about the Sheikh and his new four armed wife yourself, you need to provide a link to where you heard about it. Failing to do so is intellectual theft: you are stealing the work of other writers by taking their stories and not giving them the credit for it.

The degree to which you need to site secondary sourcing is up for debate. People usually do: if you hear about a story on, say, Bob Loblaw's Law Blog, and then follow HIS link to CNN.com, you would then thank the person who provided that link (Bob Loblaw) and link to THEIR post as well. Typically, this is only for the first place you saw it, otherwise the linkstravaganza could become as ridiculous as the word "linkstravaganza".

There are several reasons that this needs to happen on your blog.

1) As I stated, to not do so is intellectual theft.

2) Many blogs and news sites fund themselves (anything other than a small blog on something like Blogger gets very expensive to run!) BY their web traffic. It's only polite to steer traffic their way: to not do so can become quite literal theft. CNN pays reporters for their story. Bob Loblaw, because blogging is his profession, earns his money by collating those stories. If you take the contents of those stories and post them without crediting them and allowing for traffic, you are literally taking their work for free.

3) A blog is a conversation: in order for people to engage in the conversation, they need to have access to the available facts. If I'm going to understand where someone is coming from in a blog post, I need to know where they got their information.

In my field, there's a lot of debate over whether or not one should include a translation of passages you're using in an article. I've always argued that you should, for precisely this reason. In order for me to understand how you're using a passage, I need to see exactly what YOU think it means. Translation is not a science, it's an art, and two people can get two very different things out of the same line of Greek. Articles are the same way.

* Statements made in a blog are public statements, and carry the attendant legal liability. You can be sued for things you say in your blog about other people. You can lose your job for statements made in your blog (Most famously, Dooce.) Future employers will likely google you, and anything you post in a blog attached to your name can and will be used against you.

Be smart. Don't say anything on the web that you wouldn't say to someone's face.

* The Dark Side of the 'Net: You can get harassed in real life for what you say on the web. This is not right, and it's not cool. But it's true. So as always, be very careful about how much information you post about yourself on the web. I tend to not be too uptight about it, and people could probably piece an awful lot together about me.

*Then, there's the cool side! Bloggers also have the same privileges and legal protections as print journalists. They can also get some of the same perks! Do you blog a lot on Catholic issues? Do you do book reviews? Let some of your favorite authors or publishers know this. You may be able to get review copies of forthcoming books, or samples of products in exchange for reviews.

You also have the constitutional protections guaranteed the press. Unless you have an anonymous source hand you state secrets, this might not mean anything.
Then again, maybe it will.

Here endeth the rant.

Video & Random extravaganza!!

2009-03-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

Via neilgaiman.com:

Prague's Franz Kafka International Named World's Most Alienating Airport

Speaking of Neil Gaiman, have you seen his interview on The Colbert Report? I read this book the day it came out and loved it: I cant' wait until the Little One is old enough to read truly creepy Neil Gaiman books to:

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Neil Gaiman

comedycentral.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

NASA Name Contest

(Guilty secret: I'm glad I'm not the only one who found Tom Bombadil dumb. Then again, *gasp* **horrors** I'm not a Tolkien fan. I'd rather just read the Eddas. I know, I know...)

Meanwhile, I love our new Chancellor. Believe me, you won't hear academics say that very often: Cancellors / University Presidents are frequently the bugbears of the egghead set. But this one is smart and fairly savvy. We have to raise tuition this year: believe me, it's not for fun. But state budget crises mean out funding gets cut, and we have to make it up somewhere. (Someone will complain, inevitably, about administrator salaries. Cutting the top tier will NOT make up the 8 million we're losing this year alone.)
But families making less than 80,000 a year will be exempted from the tuition hike, thus alleviating a budget crunch while insulating the bottom twenty percent.

In more domestic news, it's Renovation Season here at Clematis Cottage. We just had the floors in what will be the nursery refinished (there was nasty, skanky old carpet in there. yay! It's gone!), and after 2 years of shop vaccing the basement, we're having the front of the house regraded. Well, not quite regraded: the yard as a whole is fine, but immediately in front has gotten sunken in with time. As will happen with a fifty year old house. Anyway, we hope that will alleviate the flooding. Living 3 blocks from a major lake, however, means it will probably never be perfectly dry: stupid block basements...

And in your Moment of Zen for the day, Stephen Colbert today won a contest NASA was holding to name the newest space statioN! The second runner up: Serenity.

Chicken Risotto

2009-03-19T19:05:00.000-07:00

I'm mostly posting this for my own notes, but I'll include a few of my top 10 foodie rants in there as well.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts, cooked and diced

3 Tbs butter (Yes, butter. Butter and only butter. Not margarine. Not some substitute like yogurt butter. Butter. Oh, and for the love of Mike, do not buy, much less eat, low fat butter. Seriously. Look at the ingredients some time: butter has 2. "Low Fat butter" has something like 15. *shudder*)

1 clove garlic
1 1/2 cups arborio rice

1 quart chicken broth
1 cup red wine (You may have heard this before, but never cook with wine you wouldn't drink. I've never quite understood why they sell bottles of what they call "cooking wine", but it's foul. I frequently use bottles that have been open too long to be properly drinkable, but not quite vinegar. Otherwise, Trader Joe's 3 buck Chuck is a good thing to keep around for the purpose. I used a cabernet for this one, but any dry red or white will work.)
1 tsp dill
1 pinch Saffron, soaked in a bit of the broth/wine mixture
1 lemon, cut into wedges.
2 cups shredded Parmesan
(This is rant number one. Parmesan is cheese. It comes in wheels or wedges. It does not come in its shredded form. It most DEFINITELY does not come in a green cardboard canister. Kraft does not in fact make any form of Parm. No, really. If you can't get your hands on the real thing, don't make this. )

The risotto process sounds complicated and intimidating, but it's really not. It requires watching, but not a lot of work. First, you melt the butter and saute the garlic in the bottom of a large skillet. Next, add the rice and toast it for a few minutes. While you're doing that, bring the broth and red wine in a boil together in a large saucepan. Next, add a ladle full of the broth to the rice, as well as the cubed chicken. Keep doing this every five minutes or so, waiting until the rice has soaked up all the liquid before you add more. Ever ladle or 2, squeeze the juice from one lemon wedge over the rice. The idea is that the starch of the rice is slowly combining with the broth to form a thick sauce, while the rice itself is slowly and steadily absorbing all the flavors of the liquids you're adding. Halfway through, add the saffron: you don't want to add it too soon or the delicate flavor will get cooked out and muted; add it too late and it will have too harsh an edge.

The risotto is done when the rice is al dente and has a thick, creamy sauce. This can take anywhere from 25 to 45 minutes, based on humidity, how long ago the rice was dried, the phase of the moon, yada yada yada.
Add the shredded cheese now, and enjoy! I especially like this with a green salad with a light vinaigrette.

HEY EVERYBODY!!

2009-03-19T08:53:00.001-07:00

Did you know there's a show on a major network right now, that's a retelling of one of the best known books of the Bible?
And that they're doing quite a good job of it?
And they've got Ian McShane? (Whom I would watch read the phone book, quite frankly. The phone book would be suddenly fascinating, filled with latent menace...)
WHY AREN'T YOU WATCHING??

"Kings", Sunday night, 8 pm Eastern. Get out there and view, people!

Back home again...

2009-03-14T17:22:00.000-07:00

In Indiana.
Sorry to those of you I didn't alert: this is a quick family visit, though, so not a lot of time for seeing others.

It's always an amazing drive at this time of year. In Wisconsin, it is still very much winter. The snow has melted, for the moment, but we can't be sure we won't get more until... well, never actually. But the odds are slim after May 5th. (There has been recorded snowfall in our neck of the woods in every month of the year, so it's never a safe bet.) The ground is still frozen solid, as is every bit of visible water. Things are still grey, and brown, and cold.

By the time you hit I-70, however, you can really see the change. Things are thawed. Birds are chirping. Bulbs are pushing their way up, and some have even started blooming. There's a green haze over all the trees as the first buds push their way out.

Believe me, after almost six months of winter, a trip like this is highly therapeutic.

Top Marginal Tax Rates for last 90 years

2009-03-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

(Image taken from John Cole.)

Lower under the proposed hike than Ronald Reagan.

Now, I'd agree with what many have suggested: the brackets are out of date. A household netting $250,000 per annum is doing very, very well for itself. But in all reality, if you live in Chicago, New York City, or much of California, you're not exactly rolling in dough. And government waste is clearly a massive, massive concern.

But let's keep things in perspective, shall we?

Anger, Privelege, and Lucan

2009-03-08T16:59:00.000-07:00

Wow, a massive piece of internet drama and I didn't even know it existed until Daniel Abraham posted about it.
(Those of you unfamiliar with and yet curious about said kablooey can find all the relevant information here.)
It was one of those funny coincidences, because I tripped over the entry immediately after having something of a realization on the way home. I apologize in advance, because I'm going to have to talk about my diss. a bit to get to that point. But what can I say: a common side effect of dissertating (scourge of the graduate student!) is that eventually, everything comes back to your dissertation.

Or, as I used to joke while taking Greek Survey, I frequently suffer from "Lucan is my boyfriend syndrome". Ya know that thing, when you're in an early relationship, and everything reminds you of your new Honey? Yeah. It's like that.

But in this case, I was thinking about a few particular scenes in the Pharsalia (Don't worry, no knowledge of texts obscure even to the Initiate of the Temple of Classicism is necessary for the purposes of this rant.) that involve Julius Caesar either getting angry (or not) at a group of people or being the object of that anger. I'm arguing that the subtext of these scenes is this: in the ancient world, there is a lot of social coding wired into ideas about anger. That is to say, the anger of subordinates towards their superiors is unseemly, inappropriate, or simply irrelevant. Thus Caesar's response to the mutiny of his men is "So? Yes, you are angry with me now. I don't particularly care. Either get in line, or get out of my way. If you are with me, you are Caesar's men. Without me, you are nothing. Either way, I'm still Caesar, bitches." He becomes angry with them in turn, primarily because they have no standing to become angry with him.

Anger, as William Harris writes, is the prerogative of Gods, Heroes, and Kings. Apollo can be angry with Agamemnon when he refuses to return Chryseis, but Chryses can not. Apollo is Agamemnon's superior. Chryses , however, is a subordinate by several steps. Thus when Thersites dares to express the anger of the men to the Kings of the Greeks, he gets a good thwomping for it.

Anger is only "permissible" when it is felt by superiors towards inferiors.

And suddenly, I got to thinking. About accusations of "Hypersensitivity" and the rage that the anger expressed by People of Color brings out in normally rational and reasonable White folk. I mean, think about it. It really is out of all proportion. Looking back at That Cartoon the New York Post ran a few weeks back, I was truly stunned by the backlash from the right. It's one thing to hear that someone is offended by something and disagree, or even think that offense is unwarranted. It's another thing to start howling to the moon about "race baiting" and claim that White folk are going to be driven to the ends of the earth.

When someone says to me, "That thing you said really upset me," my first reaction is generally, "Oh, crap! How can we fix this? How do we mend this relationship?" I would then try and establish where the offense originated from, and how it happened in the first place. It wouldn't be "How dare you accuse me of being offensive!"

At its base, this knee-jerk, rage reaction is the voice of privilege. It is a denial that the person voicing anger has the right to the anger they are expressing. So people in priveleged positions accuse other people of "Hypersensitivty" or "Race/Gender Obsession", which is, after all, simply a convenient way of denying their emotion or its relevance. When you accuse someone of hypersensitivity you are, in effect, saying "I don't care what you think, and your feelings on the issue are irrelevant." Which is jesssst about the most privileged thing I can imagine anyone saying.

This lady is amazing!

2009-03-05T12:28:00.000-08:00

Clara, a 91 year old great grandmother, here shares the recipes she used to make during the Great Depression, as well as stories of what it was like to live through those times.

Spiritual Autobiography

2009-02-28T10:06:00.000-08:00

This is my one hundredth post here on A Quiet Corner, so I figured it's as good a time as any to talk a bit about where I stand, religiously. (Plus, the morning sickness which had vanished for the last week came raging back this morning, so lying still and typing on my laptop is about the best I can do. Add that to Lent beginning at Sundown tomorrow night and the timing syncs up rather well.)

I was raised Methodist. I love the church I grew up in. In fact, one of my earliest memories of Bloomington, where we moved when I was six, was meeting Ross Marrs. He was the head Minister at First United Methodist Church, one of the oldest buildings in the city. He was also one of the most amazing men I've ever met. He grew up during the Depression in West Virginia, so to say he had the homey touch was an understatement. But he was also possessed of an amazing intellect.

Not that this is what I remember of him. No, what I remember is tottering downstairs in my long child's nightgown. He was sitting in the living room (the forbidden, white room!) talking with my parents. I took one look at him, climbed up on the couch next to hi, put my arms around his big belly, and laid my head on his chest. He didn't even pause in talking, just looked down, smiled, patted me on the head, and kept talking.
No, I don't primarily remember his intellect, or his humor, although those were both considerable. I remember that his love of Christ was so immense and so overpowering that it flowed out of him. He could win souls merely by walking into the room.

But the Methodist tradition also gave me a firm backing in the Social Gospel, a sense of social justice and fairness. Overall, this is a very good thing. But when I became a teenager...
Well, it was the early nineties. Remember who the spokesmen for the Christian community were then? There was no talk back then of loving the sinner and hating the sin, and Ralph Reed (may the rumors that we're related prove untrue, please-God) and Pat Robertson were actively fighting funding for AIDS research because Those People deserved to die.
And while I love the Methodist church as my cradle, it's a faith that at times lacks poetry. It's a Sunday church, that was weak, at times, on what one should do the rest of the week. We had amazing, amazing pastors, but a congregation that, it seemed at the time, had trouble really pulling together.

Of course, I was 14. Christ himself might have shown up and I probably would have yawned. But I also missed a sense of ceremony that PRotestant churches, in general, lack. Paganism seemed to have a lot of that. Not to mention Drama. With a capitol D.

I know a lot of people who left Christianity for paganism, and then returned, feel a grace sense of shame about that. I don't. Don't get me wrong, I have a list of things I'm sorry I have done. But that's not exactly one of them.
I wasn't in rebellion. I wasn't trying to get away from God, or the Truth. I just got on the wrong track in following them.

But as I grew older, I knew that what I was looking for wasn't there, either. I met a couple of really good people in Paganism. But the vast majority were selfish and self-centered asses. Of course, the vast majority of people I've met of most faiths are selfish and self-centered asses, so I'm not sure it's a natively Pagan flaw.

So then the question became: where next? And in many ways, that's where I am now. I contemplated Catholicism for a few years, but I can't reconcile myself to it. For one, I disagree strongly with one or two key Catholic theological positions (which I won't go into here), and I will not commit myself to obedience to an institution that I believe is wrong. I won't be a cafeteria Catholic.

Then, I can't remember how, I picked up a book by Frederica Mathewes-Green. Then I attended Sacred Liturgy at St. Ignatius Orthodox Church here in Madison. And I fell in love. I like the way the Orthodox church thinks. More than that, I love how they love. I love the Liturgy, the chanting, the incense, the icons. I love Father Patrick, who is one of the more shy public speakers I have ever seen but one of the most moving.
I would have presented myself for the catechumenate already, but it's not just me any more. We have to make a decision as a family, so I don't get to just jump wherever I want. But that's a good thing, especially in this case. Especially with a decision this important.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

2009-02-24T12:55:00.000-08:00

As I enter week 11 and am finally able to MOVE and EAT again, I'll be spending my time catching up on the rat's nest that has become my house while I've been so poorly.

Of course, "I promise I'll be productive now time" frequently becomes "Oh, I just have to blog about ______ time", so you may be hearing from me more now.

But in the meantime, I wanted to draw your attention to the blue box on the right hand side of your screen. That's my google reader feed: I follow about a bajillion blogs, and Google Reader gives me the option of sharing items I find interesting. If you haven't had a chance, I recommend checking it out.

Notice I said interesting. Not correct, true, or admirable. So a share is not an endorsement.

A Quiet Corner

Because Andrew just posted it...

In Remembrance

I have seen the third circle of hell.

Deep thought for the day

Fame Monsters

Metonymy, Domine

Back. Alive. Barely.

IT'S FRIDAY!!!

Got some dark desire?Want to play with fire?Why not let it rip? Live a little bit!

Video Month, Day 9

Day 8, in honor of their reunion!

As you relax at your Labor Day barbecue, remember that the forces of evil are always hard at work, and the poor imps *never even get a day off*.

Random updates

Mom Hacks

Weekend video

Pratchett quote of the day

Happy Mid Year

You make your own what?

Laundry!

What retail stores still don't get about their target market.

Speed post during naptime!

Now We Are Six (Months)

*pops head up from dissertation*

Things I didn't know before

Happy six week birthday, baby!

Baby Torture!

NaBloPoMo!

Sorry for the silence of late...

The fall of Richmond, through different eyes

An open letter to John C. Wright (reposted from elsewhere)

Update

So THAT'S where my cake went...

Never a dull moment...

The power of henna

The best laid plans...

Online sale alert!

Blogging around the block

New Rules (Monday Snark!)

Pansies!

Recipes: Banana Bread

Oh, dear, it has has been awhile.

Random post!

Twitter grows up

Now THIS sounds like a Wisconsin story

Oh, Japan...

I'm not used to seeing a story like this so far north...

Random links

Lagaan

And since we could all use kitten therapy these days!

The only thing worse

Quote of the Day

A request

In Flanders Field

Memorial Day Random Post

Quote of the Day

Meh.

Hooray for the UK!

Cool Stuff on the Internet Sunday

Star Trek

Liz thinks..

Cool things on the internet Sunday

Childrens want to be free!

For Red

A post! With content!

HA!

Another view of Lake Mendota

Spring in Wisconsin

I promised belly shots...

Weekend Update

What an amazing universe...

A cure for dysblogatosis

Cats and Dogs

Posted without comment

Things that Have to be Shared

Is It Thursday Already?

Stolen from Julie at Happy Catholic

A varia post

REVIEW: Turn Coat, by Jim Butcher

Yup... this is pretty much how we all feel...

Got some dark desire?
Want to play with fire?
Why not let it rip? Live a little bit!

As you relax at your Labor Day barbecue, remember that the forces of evil are always hard at work, and the poor imps never even get a day off.

pops head up from dissertation