Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Linkies

This would be great if we could do this same thing in our library:

http://zoomii.com/

A Hunter Blog.

It's Lesbian Pulp Fiction Wednesday


I got this book free at work and knew it was to be my next subway read. It's original publication date was 1950 and is credited to be the first pulp to address a lesbian relationship. It's author, Tereska Torres, fictionalized her experiences in the French women's barracks during WWII. It sold 4 million copies when it was published and it was denounced as "obscene" by the House Senate Committee on Current Pornographic Materials in 1952, but never actually banned.

There is a very intersting interview with the author at the end which took place in 2004. The first sentence of the novel reads: "When the war began, I was in my last year of school at the convent of St. Celestine." Good times...

Here are some links if you care to learn more:

http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=155861494X
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1888785

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

More Links to Remember

Technology-Related:

TechCrunch

App2You

Life Hacker


Social Networking:

Badoo

Plazes

Jaiku

Flock

Wixi

Shopping:

Everything Below $29.99

Music:

Pandora Radio

Last FM

Free Online TV:

Joost

Online Education/Training Applications:

Litmos

Book Restaurant Reservations Online:

Tablefinder (but in England, perhaps)

Finding Cool Websites:

Stumble Upon

I Kilt a Firefly


I feel horrible. I killed a firefly because I thought it was a Boxelder bug. Stupid. I know. He was walking around the backsplash in my kitchen and I guess he got in Sunday night when I had the back door open during the rain. I was sitting outside and a flurry of Fireflys came into my back yard, it was like magic. There are few bugs that I get in a twist over and Fireflys top that list. I was one of those kids that never put them in a jar or smashed them on my arm to see the glow. I just let them be, flying haphazardly around without grace but purposeful. I realized it was a Firefly when I was squashing him he lit up. I was instantly filled with regret. It reminded me of the moment in the D.H. Lawrence's poem "The Snake",

And immediately I regretted it.
I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!
I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education.

Moving on.

I was reading The New York Times Book Review this morning on the train and was very interested in the Andre Dubus III review of his novel "The Garden of Last Days." It's a follow-up to his novel "House of Sand and Fog," a novel that I read (and saw the film) and renamed it, "House of Death and Sorrow." Don't get me wrong, I like this novelist (loved his father, after much hardship of getting him crammed-down my throat in grad school), but the comments this book got from the reviewer reminded me of many of the comments I got on my first thesis from my committee. It reminded me that writing is damn difficult, even for a guy like Dubus III. I particularly loved the last line of the review, "Journalism needs only to tell us what happened; fiction, which deals in hypotheticals, has a higher threshold of truth." Exactly.

The other review that caught my eye was "Notes on a Life" by Eleanor Coppola. Fancying myself a bit of a life documentarian (of my life, naturally), it was interesting to discover how her work reads. I saw the documetary "Hearts of Darkness" and found it riviting, in fits and starts, and a bit long in other portions, but interesting overall. In reading reviews I find writing lessons litered throughout the texts (sometimes reading book reviews is more valuable than reading the actual book being reviewed), in this review, Sarah Kerr writes, " Coppola is an observer, and her method here has changed less than you might expect. But a life is no easy thing to pull into focus." That line made me pause and consider what I'm writing now (a memoir, but of course) and how I struggle to pull into focus the last three years of my life (which is my time-frame). Next chapter up: my time at mighty South Dakota State University. Watch-out, here I come, but I promise to steer clear of the Fireflys, they're my thwarted friends, after all.

Today's links: http://www.blogher.com/
http://www.chickchatradio.com/index.php/main/about/

Daily Coyote

Monday, June 23, 2008

Links to Fun Interactive Sites


Yes, that is a baby stroller. Cool,eh?

http://www.nikon.com/about/feelnikon/universcale/index.htmSee scale as never before.

http://snowflakes.barkleyus.com/Make a snowflake.

http://www.reasonablyclever.com/mini/Make your image in plastic.

http://musicovery.com/index3.php?ct=usCool interactive radio (and you can buy tunes there as well).

http://www.neave.com/television/Most likely the coolest website I've ever seen. You click on the screen and it turns the channel of at TV, but the channels (programs) are so random. Perfect for my ex-husband.

http://www.zefrank.com/byokal/kal2.htmlBuild your own kaleidoscope. Very fun.

http://www.beonlineb.com/click_around.htmlCreate your own music video.

http://www.mrpicassohead.com/create.html?skin=originalCreat your own drawing.

http://www.deathonline.net/movies/mm/autopsy.cfmIt's an interactive autopsy.

http://www.freedocumentaries.org/

Friday, June 20, 2008

The Heart of the Matter


Lately I have dealt with two what I would consider ethical issues and for those of you who read my blog I'd love it if you could comment or reply to these. I want to know if I'm being unreasonable here because sometimes I tend to over-react.

Issue #1:Someone hits my new car, rear-ends it, and at the time of the accident admits guilt in person, calls his mother and also admits guilt to her. The accident happens on private property so all the police do is note the damage. Also, there were not any witnesses. When it comes time to report the accident the kid says my car "flew" into his and he was at a stand-still. HE LIES. It's my word against his and even though he admitted guilt at the time (and, um, my car was rear-ended) nothing can be done. He lies, benefits, I tell the truth and am out the $500 deductible to fix my car. Do I take him to Civil court to recover my costs or just chalk it up to bad luck and I guess the simple fact that I don't get to own a vehicle without someone damaging, destroying or stealing it?

Issue #2:I forget to deauthorize my iTunes account on my iMac at SDSU (my old job) before I move out here. Somehow a gift certificate is purchased using this account (I had the "remember my password on this computer" enabled on that machine, dummy) and was sent to the general email account all of us in reference used (that's about ten or so people). A former co-worker of mine opened the email and clicked on the "Redeem Now" button and redeemed the gift certificate (oh, it was for $100). Now said co-worker said when they opened the email it "just downloaded automatically" but that isn't how iTunes works, you must hit the "Redeem Now" button to redeem (I even called iTunes to verify and know people who work at Apple to confirm that there isn't/wasn't another way). Because this gift certificate was redeemed I have no way of cancelling the order. And apparently there is no way for that money to get gifted back to me. Now my bank won't credit my acct (they did initially but after the investigation they cannot prove fraud since the gift certificate was redeemed). The individual who redeemed the gift certificate refuses to reimburse me as it wasn't their "fault." So, that makes me $100 poorer and them $100 richer. What do you do in that instance? Should I even have expected a reimbursement? I think yes, what do you think? I guess if it was me on the other side, downloading the gift certificate, I'd volunteer to reimburse because I use iTunes and would eventually use the money anyway (although not budgeted, I realize) and because I shouldn't have downloaded the thing in the first place since it wasn't addressed to me by name (the to and from lines both had my name on them). I think it's the right thing to do. Simply put.

Weigh in all.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Links

http://www.iliketotallyloveit.com/
http://psychcentral.com/
http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page
http://answers.yahoo.com/
http://popsugar.com/
http://www.thenest.com/
http://www.geni.com
http://www.mapjack.com
http://www.nextag.com/
http://www.picnik.com/
http://www.pixelgirlpresents.com/
http://beta.searchme.com/
http://www.urbandictionary.com/
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/index.php
http://www.modernfeed.com/welcome.htm
http://www.imeem.com/
http://www.kongregate.com/
http://ffffound.com/
http://www.someecards.com/
http://www.gaiaonline.com/
http://www.carbonrally.com/
http://www.colourlovers.com/
http://digitalvaults.org/
http://www.opensourcefood.com/

Monday, June 2, 2008

This is Planet Earth...


I came, I went, I saw. It was a great time. The picture above shows our boys Duran Duran in this weird line-up they did, which was admittedly three parts cheesy, one part pretty damn cool. Notice Simon, what's that, yeah, you are correct sir, he's playing a guitar (not in this actual shot, but believe me, it happened). Odd. I know.

AnyWHO it was a great time, my friends, and despite my advanced years I danced like Molly Ringwald in "The Breakfast Club" and have absolutely no regrets. You know what, girls just wana have fun. So there.

I am here to urge you to go to some of these reunion shows (not New Kids on the Block though, that is just wrong since they blew in the day anyway) because they can be a riot. Also, Duran Duran, I discovered, are really good musicians and sounded great live. The only downside: Simon Lebon has no rhythm. He dances like GWBush in that footage with the African dudes. NOT cool Simon. Follow John Taylor's lead, that boy and his bass guitar have rhythm. Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT, do that pointing thing you do during "A View to A Kill" or that criss-crossed arms move during "Wild Boys" (two songs I could happily live without, but were wildly popular).