books and movies -- lists

Begun: 11. January 2008
Last update: 30. May 2008

Listing new books read:

Books

01. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
02. Fables: Wolves by Bill Willingham
03. The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter
04. The Ape Who Guards the Balance by Elizabeth Peters
05. Lady of the Forest by Jennifer Roberson
06. Watership Down by Richard Adams
07. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
08. Morality Play by Barry Unsworth
09. Finder by Emma Bull
10. Long Hot Summoning by Tanya Huff
11. Dragonfly In Amber by Diana Gabaldon
12. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
13. The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett
14. Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
15. Mort by Terry Pratchett
16. Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
17. Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
18. Dead Sexy (Garnet Lacey, Book 2) by Tate Hallaway
19. From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
20. Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) by Stephenie Meyer
21. The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar

currently reading: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

cold pool

Of intimacy ...

Intimacy is a cold swimming pool. I dread it, and there's no comfortable way to ease into it. Either you dive in and get it over with, or you stand there and dread the cold. And getting out of it is just as bad. And sometimes you get swimmer's ear.

Intimacy and swimming pools.

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

I am more me

Type summary here.

Everyone's doing this: Belief-o-Matic

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Neo-Paganism (99%)
3. Secular Humanism (80%)
4. New Age-ism (79%)
5. Liberal Quakerism (75%)
6. Mahayana Buddhism (74%)
7. Theravada Buddhism (70%)
8. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestantism (62%)
9. Reform Judaism (60%)
10. New Thought (55%)
11. Scientology (53%)
12. Hinduism (52%)
13. Nontheism (49%)
14. Taoism (46%)
15. Sikhism (45%)
16. Jainism (44%)
17. Orthodox Quakerism (41%)
18. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (40%)
19. Bahá'í Faith (38%)
20. Orthodox Judaism (23%)
21. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormonism) (21%)
22. Islam (20%)
23. Mainline to Conservative Christianity/Protestantism (14%)
24. Seventh Day Adventism (14%)
25. Jehovah's Witness (12%)
26. Eastern Orthodox (11%)
27. Roman Catholicism (11%)

I thought Secular Humanism would be at the top of the list, but my ambivalence involving the notion of deity is probably revealed by my answers to a lot of the multi-check questions.

Unitarian Universalism -- The United Church of *Shrug*

As for the Quakers bit ... Yeah, I'm not sure. It was probably the fact that on the "good deeds and compassion" question, I rated my answer as "high." But, on a second round there are other answers I would've listed as "high" that I didn't. Oh, well. I can always re-take the silly thing.

[edit: Re-taken, with no great changes, really. Secular Humanism, New Age, and Liberal Quakers have played musical chairs a bit. Roman Catholicism is still last, in spite of--or maybe because of--its being my introduction to world religion. I also altered the titles, because they were bothering me; some of them are still bothering me. Faiths deserve nouns--not adjectives being treated as nouns.]

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

right of way?

30. December 2007

Dead of night, empty road, Raleigh, NC. Company: Me, H, B, and J. I start crossing the street.

J: "Push the button, Ri!"

No, I'm pretty sick of you already, and I'm not going to listen to you now.

Me: "Why should I? No one is coming."

J: "Because you're jay-walking..."

Hi, I'm from a real city. We jay-walk all the time. It's not a felony. It's not even a misdemeanor. It might the most minor traffic violation anyone can commit. And it's a moot point when there's no on-coming traffic.

Me: "No one is coming, and I do this all the time."

J: "You can get a ticket for that here."

H: "She's from Boston."

J: "Well, here you wait for traffic."

Of which there is none. There aren't any cops either to hand out this hypothetical ticket. Where are they? Oh, right. Looking for drunk drivers.

Me: "You do know that pedestrians have the right of way, right?"

J: "No they don't. Not here."

Me: "Umm, I'm pretty sure they do..."

In point of fact, the NC Driver's Handbook is a piece of shit when it comes to discussing what pedestrians can or can't do. It's a 150-word section in a book that spends 50% of its pages discussing the point system for revoking one's license. There's nothing about jay-walking or anything else. Basically the message one gets as a pedestrian is: Good luck! Don't get hit!

People in NC aren't encouraged to walk, apparently (as well as obviously, judging the obesity level within the state).

To read this woefully vague scrap of tripe: Driver's Handbook.

Enjoy!

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...