September 2008
59 posts
Please recommend some excellent book-writing music
My iTunes selection is boring me senseless, but then unlike most people I only have a mere 928 songs. Anyway, I fear I can only listen to my book-themed mix CD a few more times (which is not to say it is not awesome, because it is) without going crazy. Any musos out there with suggestions of good new stuff to help me along?
Excellent book-writing tip #2: SCHMATTES
When I first started this freelancing lark nearly a year ago, several people recommended to me that I should treat writing like a regular workday: to wit, I should get up and get dressed and be at my desk by half nine or ten. While in regular freelance journalisming mode this is certainly a good policy, in my current book-writing crunch I find that while the getting up and being at my desk...
The politics of porridge
Being a lady who is quite firmly lodged in the basic tax bracket for the forseeable future, I have observed the current economic crisis from a certain bemused distance, due to the fact that you can’t get too quite as upset over banks failing when you don’t have any money in the bank.
However! Today the credit crunch got personal when I discovered that in the month of my absence from...
I am really sad
That a really lovely Friday evening - dinner with distant relatives in town from the States - was punctuated by a group of foul men who parked and climbed out of their van in order to stand in the street and shout horrible things at me as I fumbled for my keys.
I hate that women apparently have to choose between getting someone to escort them everywhere or enduring this kind of hateful treatment.
Brunch is saved! Oh, also democracy. →
(via suitep)
“I had my hair cut by the world’s only straight male hairdresser today! He...”
– Me, to Lauren.
One Night in Hunan
Nora’s vivid account of her traumatic encounter with chilies made me feel a) amused b) horrified and c) relieved that my inability to consume anything spicier than an onion bagel means that this will never happen to me.
noraleah:
Have you ever heard of a cook’s condition that is known in the business as “Hunan Hands”?
Neither had I. That is, until this morning at 3:30, when I, panicked...
Excellent book-writing tip #1: SOUP
If you drink it out of a mug then you practically never have to stop typing, and though concocting it requires a little bit of time (the tinned kind is ick), you need to take breaks occasionally and it is soothing to make, especially during the pureeing phase. So far this week I have made spinach and potato and romanesque cauliflower soups (obviously). By the end of this book I daresay that I will...
“I can’t believe they still don’t know about the debate. Don’t...”
– Seb
"It's not based on any particular data point," a... →
$700 billion.
Treasury Department unveils changes to Lincoln... →
(via tylerriewer)
Why are they still MAKING pennies? It costs more than a cent to manufacture them!
Blogging does funny things to a girl
Such as putting her in a foul mood because she discovered a brand new vegetable today (roman cauliflower) but cannot post a photograph of it for all of the world to admire because she is waiting to get her digital camera charger in the post.
It is QUITE a cauliflower, world.
In other news, I warn you that this blog will be mainly reduced to a catalogue of newly-discovered vegetables and things...
I awoke this morning in the throes of a dream in which I was dating an overkeen police officer who wore his uniform police jumper even in his off-hours and kept arresting people for minor infractions, like putting their feet on the seats on a train. As a result, when I woke up I felt profoundly irritated, caught in the midst of a serious dream ponderance about how I was going to let him down...
Oh, how far I've come
Those who have known me for some time will be aware of my longstanding fear of flying, which I have conquered over the past decade with a combination of cognitive behavioural therapy, Xanax, and determination to see places in the world that I couldn’t drive or take a train to from my native climes.
Ten years ago, I was not able to withstand an hour-long flight, much less a thirteen-hour...
The thirteen-hour flight back to London today was made less intolerable by a charming air steward who took a shine to (or took pity on) me and provided me with a constant stream of banter, extra drinks, and cake that he smuggled back from business class. I was finding it all very touching and sweet until I realised that he was providing the same cake-smuggling/drink/banter service for the woman...
I was quite excited
About the prospect of falling asleep to the sound of the waves outside my window, but they are unfortunately being drowned out by the chirp of the cockroaches*. They are LOUD. Mauritius is still lovely, however, particularly now that I have seen the sun.
*My lovely hostess called them ‘cockroaches’ but they may be some other crickety/cicada-like insect that got lost in translation.
Il pleut. Il pleut.
Well, here I am in Maurius, where it has been pleut-ing ever since I hopped off the flight. And thus I am blogging because it is really the only thing to do other that sit in the hotel lounge looking miserable, which is an activity that is being dominated by a host of stormy-faced honeymooning couples. Oh, Mauritius, I was expecting sunshine!
“The two experimented with full bangs, side-swept bangs, clips, curls, twists and...”
– The Upshot on Palin and Her Updo - NYTimes.com
I assume in the interest of non-sexism we will also hear about who’s grooming McCain.
This is how much I love London
When I got on the Central Line today for the first time since I got back, I settled back into my seat and sighed happily to myself and thought, ‘mm, Tube.’
I have been thinking more about the 9/11 cake
And maybe I regret my (thoughtful, not gustatory) scoffing. On some level, sure, it is tacky, but perhaps it is only natural that the person who created it, being moved by the anniversary, felt it was fitting to express his or her feelings through the art form at which he or she is most adept. Who am I to judge simply because that art happens to be executed in frosting and fondant and vanilla...
Usually I like flying to Gatwick because it is slightly less hectic than Heathrow, but it took me 90 minutes to get through the line at passport control yesterday morning. “I guess this is kind of like being at Ellis Island,” I texted Lauren, looking over the assembled crowd of international misery. “I think they’re going to change my last name to help me...
Two things
1) Sorry, Russ, but
https://www.overseasvotefoundation.org/overseas/home.htm
Not to harp on, but make sure you are registered, dear expat readers.
2) Today my grandmother told me a great story about how my mom met my dad. “She found out he was a physicist,” she said, “and slipped a math problem under his door.” Isn’t that adorable? I’m almost 100% certain it...
“Election Jean is too angry. What happened to Cafe Jean?
I had your site...”
– A concerned reader.
I hope that my trip to Mauritius next week, where I can’t watch Chuck Norris commenting on CNN, will help me de-rage a bit.
Well, this is awkward
The power supply cord to my (Apple) laptop has irrevocably split, which means from tomorrow until Friday, when I get back to London, I will have no option but to do my writing longhand. In a notebook! How very amusingly retro. I guess I will also have to blog via smoke signal.
I want a sailory hat too
I have just spent a perfectly charming hour and a half watching old Super 8 films from my dad’s childhood. There is something remarkable about seeing one’s predecessors on film: suddenly things make sense, like my grandpa’s goofy smile that even now, aged ninety, he still pulls in moments of levity, and my disproportionate legs (that’s why I don’t wear trousers - they...
“Do love and science mix?
There’s now good evidence to justify my fling...”
– Jean Hannah Edelstein: Do love and science mix? | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
DAD-ALIKE! Best sub-head ever!
“For some, a favourite book is a real deal-breaker, the test of whether a...”
– Finding love between the covers - The Irish Times - Fri, Sep 05, 2008
Oh, hilarious. I fear I will be quoted on this (and accordingly, single) for the rest of my life.
I genuinely want to think about something other...
But I am unhelpfully going on a jaunt to Our Nation’s Capital tomorrow, for the first time in 16 years.
OK, OK. I knew I said that I wasn't going to make...
And I have principles.
But I can’t take it anymore. Every time the camera pans past him, I am overcome by fresh mirth at the thought that someone, somewhere, perhaps an optimistic junior aide with big political ambitions, must have actually been given the remit of cleaning him up.
“We have a very special assignment for you: you have twelve hours, Tiffany, and you must make this boy...
To compare
noraleah:
mattlehrer:
0:00:00 general - soldier, congressman, senator, names he’s been called, momma’s boy 0:00:55 grandfather and father serving 0:02:00 his service 0:04:00 congress; more POW! 0:04:43 maverick! surge! 0:06:00 patriot! kids are patriots! hanoi hilton again. 0:07:30 Fin
This compares McCain’s bio video to my previous post. I think I nailed the proportions. They dedicated...
