This is water, fishies

Wolverine/Todd I wish I could grow chops

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:04:29 -0600

Wolverine/Todd

I wish I could grow chops

Telling New Mexico: A New History (Marta Weigle, et al)

Sun, 19 May 2013 22:13:00 -0600

New Mexico is deserted (& a desert…), forgotten about, and poor; and has been “owned” by Natives, Spain, Mexico, the U.S. as a territory, and then as a state. And it is geographically intriguing (deserts, caverns, mountains, mesas, pueblos, Rio Grande). There are many gaps in these characteristics I wanted to fill in by reading a history book.

It was neat to learn attention-grabbing anecdotes about the state….

-the state flag is a Zia symbol from a Pueblo pot design,

-the Socorro magma body may erupt some day,

-the significance of Navajos and Mescaleros being shoved into Bosque Redondo during the Long Walk,

-Buffalo Soldiers = what Indians called black soldiers because of their short curly hair and their courage and fortitude,

-Blackdom = NM community built by and for black people fleeing the oppression of post-Civil War life in southern states, and

-NM was initially known as the Sunshine State but Florida stole the term…and then NM became The Land of Enchantment.

Aside from the trivia, I had a really hard time reading. It was a compilation of essays by ~30 different authors, which led to a very piecemeal history with no cohesiveness and too much overlap (I was reading about Po’pay in 11 different essays). History nonfiction is hard enough (for me) to read, without having to deal with getting used to different writing styles every couple of pages. It was also trying to do too much by covering geography, people, history, politics – so it ended up being scant. Looking for better books on NM geography or NM history.

wool cowl scarf for eric….row 1: knit 1, purl 1 every...

Sun, 19 May 2013 21:01:03 -0600

wool cowl scarf for eric….row 1: knit 1, purl 1 every other stitch; row 2: purl 1, knit 1 every other stitch. then repeat row 1, row 2, row 1, row 2, etccccc.

there is one section of rows from the beginning where i mistakenly added a stitch and then the knit and purl stitches aligned…but i opted not to embroider over mistake and now it’s a little spicy border

(need to learn how to make summer items…i was sweating even tryin this thing on)

This dog/rat is always glaring at me…

Sun, 19 May 2013 20:34:20 -0600

This dog/rat is always glaring at me…

Tesuque Pueblo flea market

Sun, 19 May 2013 10:57:07 -0600

Tesuque Pueblo flea market

Judith @ the art house

Sun, 19 May 2013 10:56:35 -0600

Judith @ the art house

my parents visited me in NM for 1 week, sleeping in my bed* (it...

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:46:00 -0600

my parents visited me in NM for 1 week, sleeping in my bed* (it was a little cramped..) and following me around :-D

*I slept on the couch while they slept in my bed…

santa fe family, co-workers, and chicago family @ swearing-in...

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:41:45 -0600

santa fe family, co-workers, and chicago family @ swearing-in ceremony in santa fe, nm

getting sworn in to state bar #2 (with my mom staring at me...

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:39:08 -0600

getting sworn in to state bar #2 (with my mom staring at me excitedly)

1st knitting/crocheting project: a baby blanket for the cutest...

Sat, 11 May 2013 19:40:08 -0600

1st knitting/crocheting project: a baby blanket for the cutest & chubbiest nephew on planet.

To embroider over my mistakes, or not to; a conundrum

Just heard an old homeless man sitting at my cafe say to a woman with muscular dystrophy in a...

Sun, 05 May 2013 13:11:18 -0600

Just heard an old homeless man sitting at my cafe say to a woman with muscular dystrophy in a wheelchair, “You look really nice in that dress today, Mary” and then started singing “You’re just too good to be true, can’t take my eyes off of yooou.”

"I don’t give a fuck if you don’t know what I’m talking about – it’s art. When you go see a painting..."

Sun, 05 May 2013 13:07:43 -0600

“I don’t give a fuck if you don’t know what I’m talking about – it’s art. When you go see a painting on the wall and it looks bugged out because you don’t know what the fuck he thinking, because he ain’t got no benches, no trees there, it’s just a splash. The nigga that did it know what the fuck it is.”

- Ghostface Killah on art, The Wu-Tang Manual

Reading My Client's Post-Miranda Admissions In The Police Report

Sun, 05 May 2013 13:06:13 -0600

whatthepublicdefender:

Submitted by Kirk.

Les Misérables (Victor Hugo)

Sat, 04 May 2013 14:53:19 -0600

I’m still in the afterglow of being completely immersed in a really long and artful novel, reminiscing on sweet moments, laughing at the silly jokes, reeling from life-changing courses, dark characters, and powerful portrayals. This booook!!!!!!!! I decided to finally read it after seeing my friend Mil (a person whose book taste I can NOT decipher) totally immersed; it ended up being a perfect decision.

Jean Valjean is now my new favorite protagonist of all times (a close second being Philip Carey from Of Human Bondage). He is the most pitiful and the most beautiful character. Valjean, imprisoned with hard labor for 19 years after stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s starving children. “English statistics show that in London starvation is the immediate cause of four out of five thefts. Jean Valjean entered the galleys sobbing and trembling; he left hardened. He entered in despair; he left sullen. What happened within this soul?…Through suffering upon suffering he gradually came to the conclusion that life is a war and that in that war he was the vanquished.” But Valjean did not stay down & out after getting out of prison; he met Bishop Myriel, which changed the course of his life. I will never forget the scene where Valjean, still beastly under the effects of his unjust jail sentence, steals Bishop Myriel’s silverware and escapes into night. He is then caught by town police and brought back to Myriel’s so he may return the silverware. But Myriel says to Valjean, oh but you forgot the silver candlesticks silly man, and Myriel tells police that the silverware was a gift to Valjean (when it in fact was theft). He then tells Valjean that this is the chance for him to turn around and become a good man, because he has received a good deed, and Myriel believed in Valjean. Valjean faces seeeeerious inner turmoil about going from cruel animal to kind human, but eventually does, and makes this his purpose in life. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH.

Ohhh the characters.

Grandfather Gillenormand: his deep love of a child, his gruff exterior, yet soft and emotional interior.

Fantine: unfortunate of unfortunates, spiral of despair, loss of any innocence.

Eponine!!!!: her destituteness, her love for Marius, the way she prevents her father and his goons from robbing Marius’ lover, the way she takes a bullet for him and says she was “a little bit in love” with him (the way she is really beautiful in the movie, wowza).

Cosette: I could do without her…she was thankless, naïve, ‘passive’, ignorant, superficial, she didn’t know what all had been sacrificed for her!!! (“She had Marius. The young man came, the good old man [Valjean] faded away; such is life.”)

The lingo of this book was perfect: trembling, pressing hands, longing, coquetry, vile characters, shudders, recoiling in horror – so Pride and Prejudice, so Victorian, love it. My one grumble is that the there were too many digressions by Hugo. At the beginning of each new section, there would be some long digression on convents, or sewers, or political poetry, which completely disturbed the telling of the underlying story. There was no weaving of these strange detours, but just large chunks of interruption, and then a return to the story. *I’m not actually sure what part of this has to do with Hugo’s writing style (which I’m unfamiliar with) or to do with the fact that I read “The only complete and unabridged paperback edition.”* (Either way, future readers, no need to read this complete and unabridged version, the abridged version is prolly long enough…) I can overlook the fact that at least 1/3 of the pages were devoted to digressions, just as I can overlook the fact that David Foster Wallace intersperses obsessive and over-the-top detail in his writing – the rest of the writing is so worth it. I attribute it to genius ramblings.

I ended the book by crying almost uncontrollably for the last 30 minutes; I couldn’t see pages at times. It was a good cry. For me, this was a story of moral philosophy, a moral guide, the good, the bad, the misfortunate. “…So long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless.”

I immediately watched the musical movie the next day…everything happened so dang fast and all the characters were so undeveloped. I guess that’s to be expected when epic, long, involved masterpieces become movies. I need to see the live musical now, to complete my obsession.

"A convict may leave prison behind but not his sentence…a soul for a piece of bread."

Sat, 04 May 2013 13:33:08 -0600

“A convict may leave prison behind but not his sentence…a soul for a piece of bread.”

- Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

My brother, bein a parent

Sat, 04 May 2013 11:25:00 -0600

My brother, bein a parent

but the tigers come at nighhttttttt, with their voices soft as...

Fri, 03 May 2013 21:25:38 -0600

but the tigers come at nighhttttttt, with their voices soft as thunderrrrrrrr, as they tear your hope aparrrrrt, as they turn your dream to shhhhhhaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMEEEE

More Chicago….Mimi :]

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:19:25 -0600

More Chicago….Mimi :]

More Chicago…my parents, Eric

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:18:49 -0600

More Chicago…my parents, Eric

More Chicago..being yelled at by Cass while trying to...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:18:07 -0600

More Chicago..being yelled at by Cass while trying to last-minute talk to Cole