Memes, a forgotten book, and failures to be responsible or to write much
The Dewey meme, gacked from spiffikins. Perfect for a library assistant, no? *g*
With real name:
Debbie's Dewey Decimal Section:
747 Interior decoration
Debbie = 452295 = 452+295 = 747
Class:
700 Arts & Recreation
Contains:
Architecture, drawing, painting, music, sports.
What it says about you:
You're creative and fun, and you're good at motivating the people around you. You're attracted to things that are visually interesting. Other people might not always understand your taste or style, but it's yours.
Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com
With LJ/DW name:
aome's Dewey Decimal Section:
158 Applied psychology
aome = 1535 = 153+5 = 158
Class:
100 Philosophy & Psychology
Contains:
Books on metaphysics, logic, ethics and philosophy.
What it says about you:
You're a careful thinker, but your life can be complicated and hard for others to understand at times. You try to explain things and strive to express yourself.
Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com
The "everything must start with your middle initial" meme. I did this twice - once for my current middle name (my maiden name) and once for my original middle name (my mom's first name).
Animal..............Panther
Girl's name....... Patricia
Boy's name...... Peter
Color............... Purple
Food................ Pizza
Something you wear..... Pants
Drink............... Pink Lemonade
Place............... Patagonia
Restaurant....... Parkside Tavern, where we often eat when visiting hamsterwoman's family.
Reason to be late.....Procrastination
Job title............ Pediatrician
Animal..............Albatross
Girl's name....... Anya
Boy's name...... Andrew
Color............... Aquamarine
Food................ Artichoke
Something you wear..... Argyl socks
Drink............... Apple juice
Place............... Austria
Restaurant....... Aruffo's (the overpriced Italian place in our college town, where we used to make parents take us to, when they'd visit. *g* )
Reason to be late.....Accident
Job title............ Audiologist
For some reason, I found the "restaurant" question to be hardest. I actually had to look up Aruffo's because I couldn't remember the name!
And speaking of forgotten items - I forgot to report on another book I finished last week: The House With a Clock In its Walls by John Bellairs. I spotted it at the elementary Scholastic book fair last fall, and since the movie previews had looked somewhat interesting, I thought I'd give the book a go. Before I go into details, let me point out that this book made such a lack of impression on me, I completely forgot I had read it. :P The overview sounds promising, doesn't it? Orphan kid is sent to live with his uncle, who turns out to be a real wizard, and they're trying to figure out why a clock is ticking in the walls of the old house, and What It All Means. Lewis (the kid) finds out that some crazy - and malicious - wizard and his even scarier wife had previous owned the house where his uncle now lives. They're the ones who hid the incessantly-ticking clock. Meanwhile, Lewis is having a hard time fitting in, as a scholarly and - at least in the book - overweight kid, with no athletic ability at all. He's made fun of when the neighborhood kids play softball, but eventually the most popular of those boys teaches Lewis to hit and throw better when he (the boy, not Lewis) has a broken arm and can't play properly. You'd think this would mean that the boy might actually have a nice side to him, but he turns out to be just as much of a bully and a jerk, often calling Lewis fat names and making Lewis cry. Lewis is so desperate to keep his own sorta-friend that he promises to show Lewis the magic his uncle can do (create an eclipse) and, when that fails to properly impress the kid, offers to raise the dead. Himself. Without knowing it (initially), manages to resurrect the creepy wife who used to live in his house. The author makes a big deal of mentioning the wife's weird glasses, and how they're extra creepy, but there doesn't seem to be any other point to this. The sorta-friend dumps Lewis anyway, and I'm left baffled as to why he ever extended any hand of friendship to Lewis in the first place, since, aside from the baseball tutoring, he seemed like a total jerk. The creepy not-dead lady engages in a car chase with Lewis/uncle/lady neighbor - but for what purpose? What would she have done with them if she caught them? The uncle and his lady neighbor are wizards and yet don't seem to DO anything constructive with their talents (except at the end, when the lady neighbor vanquishes the creepy not-dead woman) - it doesn't seem like HP, where people use their magic constantly, in everyday ways.
And, at the end of all this, is the clock, which turned out to be in the wall behind the basement coal bin all this time. Supposedly it was going to bring about the apocalypse, the four horsemen and everything else that was ever mentioned in Revelations, but there was never an explanation as to why the evil couple wanted this to take so freakin' long. Why not have their clock go off three days after they created it, and then they could rule the remade universe right away?
So, anyway, I don't know how the movie was - if it made any more sense or was pulled off any better - but the book just felt pointless, with a lot of unexplained or seemingly senseless details, and a completely anticlimactic ending. I'm not sure I would have really liked this book even if I were a kid. Maybe the gothic nature would have grabbed me more and I wouldn't have noticed the nonsensical bits?
In other words, Two tried hard to get food poisoning today. Did he take responsibility for his role in this problem? Of course not!
OMG, the things this kid argues about.
MiniPlu had a short gig yesterday babysitting kids while their Girl Scout moms had a meeting. Apparently there was a ton of food - a local TexMex chain for the adults, and Taco Bell for the kids - so people were given leftovers to bring home. MiniPlu nabbed a salad for herself, and Taco Bell burritos for Two, because she knows he likes them, so they both had lunch already prepared and we all got to sleep in a couple of extra minutes this morning.
Except.
The numbskull didn't refrigerate his burritos. He tossed them straight into his lunchbox, which then went back to its usual place on top of the fridge. Which meant this morning I threw them out. I didn't have time to make his usual pasta (it's parboiled 3-min pasta, but it still would have taken time for water to boil) so I just reheated some leftovers from last night - a dish he likes, btw - and put that into his Thermos. And you should hear how much he complained that *I'm* the one who wasted food by throwing it out, rather than HIM wasting food by not refrigerating it. He claims I should have told him to do it (refrigerate them), because he didn't know, but he certainly knows all OTHER foods have to be refrigerated after being cooked - in fact, he was kind enough to put away dinner leftovers last week, when Will went to bed early and I wasn't home. And he was also arguing that it was FINE, thankyouverymuch, and I should have let him eat it. Because that's what I want: to nurse a kid through food poisoning. And, no, Two, you cannot necessarily SEE or smell foods that have gone bad - this is why people get food poisoning. They had no idea the bacteria was in there.
Argh.
Other recent responsibility fails: my FIL printed out a tax form, which accidentally fell on the floor rather than staying on the printer's paper tray. Two just happened to be clearing up papers, and picked up the form. My FIL was, of course, baffled that his form didn't print - especially as I'd *heard* the printer working - so I suspected Two had accidentally picked it up. Which he denied. Until I found the paper in his pile. And even then, he couldn't bring himself to say, "Oops, I must not have seen that. Sorry." No - he insisted he didn't pick up the form, even though it was RIGHT THERE.
I could go on with other examples but ... you know what? I don't need to get that cranky. :P
Ugh. I'm at an emotionally fraught scene right now, writing-wise, and for all my efforts, I think I only managed about 100 words today. Meh. On the other hand, I've managed to write something EVERY day this week, which I haven't done for ages. It's slooooow progress, but at least it's moving forward. One day I might even finish! :P
With real name:
Debbie's Dewey Decimal Section:
747 Interior decoration
Debbie = 452295 = 452+295 = 747
Class:
700 Arts & Recreation
Contains:
Architecture, drawing, painting, music, sports.
What it says about you:
You're creative and fun, and you're good at motivating the people around you. You're attracted to things that are visually interesting. Other people might not always understand your taste or style, but it's yours.
Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com
With LJ/DW name:
aome's Dewey Decimal Section:
158 Applied psychology
aome = 1535 = 153+5 = 158
Class:
100 Philosophy & Psychology
Contains:
Books on metaphysics, logic, ethics and philosophy.
What it says about you:
You're a careful thinker, but your life can be complicated and hard for others to understand at times. You try to explain things and strive to express yourself.
Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com
The "everything must start with your middle initial" meme. I did this twice - once for my current middle name (my maiden name) and once for my original middle name (my mom's first name).
Animal..............Panther
Girl's name....... Patricia
Boy's name...... Peter
Color............... Purple
Food................ Pizza
Something you wear..... Pants
Drink............... Pink Lemonade
Place............... Patagonia
Restaurant....... Parkside Tavern, where we often eat when visiting hamsterwoman's family.
Reason to be late.....Procrastination
Job title............ Pediatrician
Animal..............Albatross
Girl's name....... Anya
Boy's name...... Andrew
Color............... Aquamarine
Food................ Artichoke
Something you wear..... Argyl socks
Drink............... Apple juice
Place............... Austria
Restaurant....... Aruffo's (the overpriced Italian place in our college town, where we used to make parents take us to, when they'd visit. *g* )
Reason to be late.....Accident
Job title............ Audiologist
For some reason, I found the "restaurant" question to be hardest. I actually had to look up Aruffo's because I couldn't remember the name!
And speaking of forgotten items - I forgot to report on another book I finished last week: The House With a Clock In its Walls by John Bellairs. I spotted it at the elementary Scholastic book fair last fall, and since the movie previews had looked somewhat interesting, I thought I'd give the book a go. Before I go into details, let me point out that this book made such a lack of impression on me, I completely forgot I had read it. :P The overview sounds promising, doesn't it? Orphan kid is sent to live with his uncle, who turns out to be a real wizard, and they're trying to figure out why a clock is ticking in the walls of the old house, and What It All Means. Lewis (the kid) finds out that some crazy - and malicious - wizard and his even scarier wife had previous owned the house where his uncle now lives. They're the ones who hid the incessantly-ticking clock. Meanwhile, Lewis is having a hard time fitting in, as a scholarly and - at least in the book - overweight kid, with no athletic ability at all. He's made fun of when the neighborhood kids play softball, but eventually the most popular of those boys teaches Lewis to hit and throw better when he (the boy, not Lewis) has a broken arm and can't play properly. You'd think this would mean that the boy might actually have a nice side to him, but he turns out to be just as much of a bully and a jerk, often calling Lewis fat names and making Lewis cry. Lewis is so desperate to keep his own sorta-friend that he promises to show Lewis the magic his uncle can do (create an eclipse) and, when that fails to properly impress the kid, offers to raise the dead. Himself. Without knowing it (initially), manages to resurrect the creepy wife who used to live in his house. The author makes a big deal of mentioning the wife's weird glasses, and how they're extra creepy, but there doesn't seem to be any other point to this. The sorta-friend dumps Lewis anyway, and I'm left baffled as to why he ever extended any hand of friendship to Lewis in the first place, since, aside from the baseball tutoring, he seemed like a total jerk. The creepy not-dead lady engages in a car chase with Lewis/uncle/lady neighbor - but for what purpose? What would she have done with them if she caught them? The uncle and his lady neighbor are wizards and yet don't seem to DO anything constructive with their talents (except at the end, when the lady neighbor vanquishes the creepy not-dead woman) - it doesn't seem like HP, where people use their magic constantly, in everyday ways.
And, at the end of all this, is the clock, which turned out to be in the wall behind the basement coal bin all this time. Supposedly it was going to bring about the apocalypse, the four horsemen and everything else that was ever mentioned in Revelations, but there was never an explanation as to why the evil couple wanted this to take so freakin' long. Why not have their clock go off three days after they created it, and then they could rule the remade universe right away?
So, anyway, I don't know how the movie was - if it made any more sense or was pulled off any better - but the book just felt pointless, with a lot of unexplained or seemingly senseless details, and a completely anticlimactic ending. I'm not sure I would have really liked this book even if I were a kid. Maybe the gothic nature would have grabbed me more and I wouldn't have noticed the nonsensical bits?
In other words, Two tried hard to get food poisoning today. Did he take responsibility for his role in this problem? Of course not!
OMG, the things this kid argues about.
MiniPlu had a short gig yesterday babysitting kids while their Girl Scout moms had a meeting. Apparently there was a ton of food - a local TexMex chain for the adults, and Taco Bell for the kids - so people were given leftovers to bring home. MiniPlu nabbed a salad for herself, and Taco Bell burritos for Two, because she knows he likes them, so they both had lunch already prepared and we all got to sleep in a couple of extra minutes this morning.
Except.
The numbskull didn't refrigerate his burritos. He tossed them straight into his lunchbox, which then went back to its usual place on top of the fridge. Which meant this morning I threw them out. I didn't have time to make his usual pasta (it's parboiled 3-min pasta, but it still would have taken time for water to boil) so I just reheated some leftovers from last night - a dish he likes, btw - and put that into his Thermos. And you should hear how much he complained that *I'm* the one who wasted food by throwing it out, rather than HIM wasting food by not refrigerating it. He claims I should have told him to do it (refrigerate them), because he didn't know, but he certainly knows all OTHER foods have to be refrigerated after being cooked - in fact, he was kind enough to put away dinner leftovers last week, when Will went to bed early and I wasn't home. And he was also arguing that it was FINE, thankyouverymuch, and I should have let him eat it. Because that's what I want: to nurse a kid through food poisoning. And, no, Two, you cannot necessarily SEE or smell foods that have gone bad - this is why people get food poisoning. They had no idea the bacteria was in there.
Argh.
Other recent responsibility fails: my FIL printed out a tax form, which accidentally fell on the floor rather than staying on the printer's paper tray. Two just happened to be clearing up papers, and picked up the form. My FIL was, of course, baffled that his form didn't print - especially as I'd *heard* the printer working - so I suspected Two had accidentally picked it up. Which he denied. Until I found the paper in his pile. And even then, he couldn't bring himself to say, "Oops, I must not have seen that. Sorry." No - he insisted he didn't pick up the form, even though it was RIGHT THERE.
I could go on with other examples but ... you know what? I don't need to get that cranky. :P
Ugh. I'm at an emotionally fraught scene right now, writing-wise, and for all my efforts, I think I only managed about 100 words today. Meh. On the other hand, I've managed to write something EVERY day this week, which I haven't done for ages. It's slooooow progress, but at least it's moving forward. One day I might even finish! :P