The Littlest Penguin

Amazon vs the store down the street

Thursday, February 4th, 2010 | books, internet | 4 Comments

I don’t have anything terribly intelligent or informed to add to discussion over the Amazon.com vs Macmillan price debacle. In fact, I love, love, love Amazon. But I also understand the importance of supporting local businesses and I understand why authors whose books were yanked from the world’s biggest book marketplace (even temporarily) would be pissed off right now. In fact, Charles Stross removed Amazon from his “buy my books” area all together. Which led to a fairly delightful discovery for me. Now Stross’ links direct you to IndieBound, a site that (among other things) can help you find local bookstores carrying the title you want. You can go get the book yourself or order online from their participants. I wonder if the site can tell you if they serve good coffee, too.

square peg

Friday, July 25th, 2008 | books, musings, rants | 11 Comments

I went to a friend’s book club meeting tonight. Which is not the wonderful intro to this post I’m searching for, but I’m a little off my game tonight. I badly needed a trip to the chiropractor today, but things conspired against me leaving work early to go and now I’m developing a headache. Ah well. Tomorrow I’ll get it all fixed.

Anyway. Book club meeting.

Edie invited me Monday night, which was kind of short warning, but it sounded like something worth trying. Lately I’ve been feeling treated a little too much like ‘one of the guys.’ Seriously. It’s bad when someone who’s known me for more than a year doesn’t believe I own a skirt, much less ever wear one. And another one of my friends wrestles with me like he would his little brother. It’s been forever since someone not on Facebook flirted with me. (And the Facebook dude was an isolated and brief incident.) So I turned down an invitation to learn how to play Warmachine, made a quick purchase of Eat, Pray, Love at Barnes and Noble, read what I could, and went to book club.

And quickly realized I have nothing in common with Edie’s nice book club friends. They were all businesswomen, most of them were wives and mothers. When I get nervous I tend to try to impress people so they like me, and the only way I know how to do that is to show that I can contribute something intelligent to the conversation. But that kind of backfired on me tonight. The way many of them talked about religions and faith was uninformed and I was self-conscious of myself around them. (And almost the whole evening centered around talk of religions and faith, or of husbands.) One of them said I must be really conservative because I knew so much about speaking in tongues! (I know nothing about that, just one weird little fact I dropped without thinking!) Some of them were well-traveled and that put me a little at ease, though not totally. I’m always afraid I sound like I’m bragging when I talk about my trips, even when it makes sense to mention them in a conversation. I just…

I dunno. I don’t fit with the guys. I don’t fit with the girls. Where the hell do I fit? What kind of niche does a theology-debating, ethics-reading, globe-trotting, food-loving, tomboy, gamer girl, sci-fi, steampunk, archives ninja-penguin fit into, anyway?

Tags: book club, books, Eat Pray Love

Marvelous Mondays

Monday, April 21st, 2008 | books, fun stuff, movies, nephew | No Comments

Ok, funky. I can’t say I quite get the new WordPress back-end design. Oh well. I’ll get used to it eventually.

I just got finished replying to an email from my friend and former GM. We might meet up for some fun when he’s in town next month. It’d be good to see him again. Which reminds me that I need to email a few other people I haven’t seen or heard from in a while. Oh, and Season is thinking about a visit this way, too.

Saturday we organized a picnic, which ended up being in Robb and Edie’s back yard. It was a pretty decent day, though some clouds rolled in and chilled those of us determined to wear shorts. A little later some of us got together and saw Forbidden Kingdom. It was a silly kung-fu flick, but the premise was fun and the costumes and sets were fantastic. Then we came back to my house to eat desert and play Game Cube games ’til it was late.

The end of April is just around the corner. Wow. They canceled classes today for Marvelous Monday. There was a sort of China – Japan mashup theme. We closed the library for about an hour and ate brunch in the cafeteria. Emily challenged me to eat my biscuit and gravy with chopsticks, which is actually really easy. And they had some sort of Japanese extreme challenge competition going on the television screens. Brunch was otherwise very American except for the lo-mein eating contest a few students participated in at the end. (Food competitions make me a little ill. I’m glad I wasn’t able to see through the crowd.)

I worked through lunch today, which probably wasn’t wise. But brunch was at almost 11, and it was heavy. I’ve also been in knots about a few things, so stress and a slight overdose of caffeine weren’t helping me get hungry again. Instead I worked on my book ordering and responded to a situation between me and an alumni-donor in the archives. Confrontation between us was somewhat inevitable, but I hope I responded diplomatically. I also went searching for some photos for a former president’s memoirs. Found one, but the second is being elusive.

Gibson actually talked to me a little bit on the phone the other day. Usually he just shakes his head “no.” But I got an “oh wow!” and something resembling “hi.” Less than a month before the trip south to see everyone.

Kevin recommended another fantastic book to me – Glasshouse by Charles Stross. Actually, this is one of the best ones K’s recommended. I was up til nearly 1am Thursday night/Friday morning finishing it. Then I lent it to one of the math professors, who read it in two days. Mary has it now, and there is another math prof next in line. Yes, it’s that good. Go read it. Now.

And now I’m going to get ice cream, play Zelda while my laundry finishes, and go to bed.

Tags: Glasshouse, Marvellous Monday, picnic

the new glasses

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 | Just Coffee, books, friends, games, pictures | 7 Comments

Here are the new glasses. They were ready by Friday – woot!

Friday night there was a lot going on at Just Coffee. Beth had asked some of her friends to come play a set, and Andrew read some poetry. I intended to only be there for a little bit because Tony was on a date and Jared and Sheri were spending time with his mom, but Dusty and Robin came and we spent the rest of the evening chatting.

Saturday we exposed Tony to gratuitous amounts of Muppet movie joy. (Apparently his mom wasn’t cool with Muppets when he was a kid.) There was Muppet Classic Theater, Muppet Treasure Island, and the classic Muppet Movie. We broke the movies up with pizza, Kubb, and a dinner break. Half the people we know were invited (and showed up) and much fun seemed to be had by all.

Today I went to Sahib for lunch with Tony, Robin and Dusty. And it was really tasty. Then I took a nap and cleaned the apartment before Nick invited me over for lamb meatballs… also really tasty. And now I’m updating Ye Olde Blogg before bed. There’s a Session meeting tomorrow, so I guess I’ve got to be rested and ready for that. Also, coffee should be made ready.

Return trip, part 2

Sunday, November 25th, 2007 | books, family | 1 Comment

Home. And a day later the cats have finally forgiven me for being away so long.

Wes borrowed the apartment for a couple of nights while I was away and I returned to gifts of chocolate and a glazed ceramic Celtic cross on the dinner table. I was sorry I wasn’t in town to hang out with him, but it sounded like a retreat away from people might have done Wes some good as well. And he loves Paddington. (Who wouldn’t? He snuggles and purrs so sweetly.)

Thanksgiving in Florida was really nice. My uncle Pete and his family came in from Alabama and we upheld a long-standing tradition of seafood (shrimp) at the holiday dinner, though the smoked pork and chicken aren’t traditional. No oysters, though those are usually present. Apparently this isn’t a safe year for Gulf oyster eating. Grandpa Bill, Granma, and Uncle Rick came too. My poor aunt Betsy was laid up recovering from surgery. I didn’t take my camera, so no pictures are available right now, but Amy should upload hers soon. On the Monday previous to Thanksgiving we had family photos taken at the beach. I did some fishing with Dad, Amy and Jared at the inlet. I was the only one who caught anything, but nothing I hooked was a keeper – I wasn’t fighting the moray eel to get my hook back and the little croaker I caught fit nicely in the palm of my hand. Oh, and Community’s pie fellowship… tasty.

Kevin showed me a different, slightly longer route from here to Durham. I like it better – it skips the narrow, curvy mountain pass between here and Boone, NC, and takes you a prettier way through Virginia. It’s a few miles longer but takes about the same amount of time because you’re able to go highway speeds the whole way.

I’ve had to put down Blessed Unrest for a while so I can work on some books in preparation for my ordination in two weeks on January 9. I’m about halfway through Rogers’ Presbyterian Creeds: A Guide to the Book of Confessions. Sounds riveting, doesn’t it? It’s kind of neat if you’re into Church history. The Book of Confessions itself is next. I’m not looking forward to the Book of Order, so I’m saving it for last. Not that I think I have to read the whole thing, but becoming familiar with it is a necessity now.

Klara

Saturday, August 18th, 2007 | books, musings, quotes | No Comments

Klara laughed for no reason. Maybe she laughed for no reason and maybe because she’d noticed her husband had a limp. The others thought she was laughing with relief, laughing in the spirit of a swirling day, and it made them all smile benignly. They thought she was laughing in the aftermath of checking on planes that were late and hearing complaints from the caterer and finding the right receptacles for all the goddamn flowers. And finally just unwinding on a walk, they thought. Laughing in ragged relief. They thought they knew the mystery of living in her skin.

Don DeLillo, Underworld, p.498

This book is kicking my butt.

Monday, September 11th, 2006 | books | 6 Comments

But I will win.

Blue Like Jazz

Wednesday, August 16th, 2006 | books, theology | 6 Comments

Winter has a habit of blogging about the books she’s reading. I haven’t read very much since I graduated, and you didn’t want to hear about the books I read before I graduated. (Basics of Archival Administration just really wasn’t all that much fun.) Anyway. I accidentlly stole Blue Like Jazz from Kevin during our trip to Chicago and I’ve finally settled down and gotten a fair amount read. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a book whose subtitle is “Non-religious thoughts on Christian Spirituality.” And all kinds of cheesy-alarms were going off in my head because of how vastly popular this book seemed to be. But its turning out to be alright. It’s written as a spiritual auto-biography and has some funny parts, some serious parts, and a few things that have been profound thoughts in simple language. Its funny the timeing of me reading this, since a friend has recently been asking me questions about the Ekklesia Project, life, the universe, and everything. Not 3 days previous to our conversation I read this line, which is by far the best line in the book (so far):

Between songs, though, he told a story that helped me resolve some things about God. . . . He told it like it was true, so I guess it was true, although it could have been a lie.

The definition of truth is something that has bothered scholars and laymen for centuries. We all seem to know what we mean by it, but ask us to define it, to put it into words, and things get sticky. Does truth have just one definition? I’d venture to say it doesn’t. Truth can be provable fact, it can be our honest interpretation of events, but I think that something can be fiction and also be true. Think of your favorite fiction story or movie and ask yourself why you love it. Is it because something about it spoke to you? Helped you understand something about humanity? About God? Then, I would submit, there was something true about that story, even though it was total fiction. Or music. Lots of people are moved by music. And I’m probably not saying anything that the regular readers of my blog haven’t heard before. But I think that opening myself up to truth from sources that may be fiction has enabled me to both understand some very hard things and to enjoy some books that more literally-minded people might be upset about. Nietzche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra, for example. Or Siddhartha by Herman Hesse (fantastic book, by the way).