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I've found some suprising connections lately. Several years ago I saw a current friend of mine in a concert. A friend I met a few months ago wrote a commet in my book for my art show over a year ago. Three years ago I saw a painting of a girl who is currently my friend.
It's sort of weird to think about these connections I've had with friends before I even met them; I wonder who I'm interacting with now that might be a bigger part of my life someday.
I'm back in my posting slump, I've got a lot on my mind but nothing seems to be willing to lend itself to blogging.
A friend posted this on facebook and got me thinking about "Chick Lit" I will be honest and say that I mroe skimmed the article and had a hard following it other than that people didn't like the term and were calling for more equality and recignition between the sexes. I'm not here to talk about the article per say but about the thoughts that this article and it's title brought up.
For purposes of this discussion...or perhaps rant, I will define the term "chick lit" as books aimed at females, specifically those who are single and living vicariously through various forms of fiction, books that have rather implausible plots centering on romance and sex, etc. I could probably further this definition, but I think I'd better quit while I'm ahead.
I have read a lot of chick lit in my time, and I enjoyed them, they're generally easy to read and enjoyable. I have noticed some unpleasant side effects from reading chick lit: depression at the worlds of differences between my life and the plots of the books, irritability, etc. During college, due both to lack of time and accessibility of these books, my reading of these books became more infrequent and after reading Austenland at the urging of my roommate, I decided that I was going to stop reading chick lit, and I believe that by in large I've held to that; there are books that I still read that might be considered chick lit, however I've stayed away from the ones that top the best seller charts and fit my previously listed definition.
I've strayed from the point that I wanted to make. The above mentioned article has made me think; apparently there are those who are angered by the term chick lit, possibly insulted by it. I don't know their whole story, as I mentioned, I only skimmed the article but I have no qualms whatsoever about categorizing certian books as chick lit, when a book can be read in a few hours, has the plot and vocabulary of a sitcom and leaves the reader disgruntled with their life or perhaps lack of life then I see no reason why it should not be called chick lit. That's really all I meant to say, I'm sorry it took me this long to say it. Those are my thoughts.
I really enjoyed the Disney movie Tarzan when it came out several years ago, the characters, animation and music are all wonderful. A few years ago I heard that Disney was making a musical of a few Disney movies including Tarzan; I couldn't really see it going well and didn't think much more about it. A year or two after that I had a roommate who'd seen the show in New York and had the sound track and through listening to it with her I came to enjoy the extra songs that hadn't been in the movie. Recently I've been listening to the soundtrack of the musical and liking it more and more with every listen. This summer I found out that Tarzan would be performed locally and dreamed of going but figured that it wouldn't happen.
I got to go though, I recently saw Tarzan and I loved it; I don't have pictures however because they weren't allowed. I think a lot of the show's success is due to the fact that the music and lyrics are by Phil Collins. The story is modified from the movie but is still quite enjoyable.One of the coolest things of the performance was the flying/vine swinging that Tarzan and the gorillas did. They had multiple zip line type lines on various paths across the stage and over the audience and the actors could go across. My new fantasy dream job is to be a bungee gorilla for Tarzan.
I highly recommend Tarzan.
Last night I was watching tv and flipping through channels when I came across this performance of South Pacific. I first saw South Pacific in first or second grade; in my elementry school the sixth grade put on a musical every year. I liked South Pacific and so I watched the movie and I liked that as well. It's been a long time since I saw South Pacific and last night I found myself understanding much more than I did as a kid. One of the important themes of South Pacific is about racism and how wrong it is. The musical came out when segregation was a part of life in the United States, the setting was World War II when segregation was a part of life and when hundreds of Japanese Americans were put into internment camps to make sure that they wouldn't join forces with the Japanese. When I was little I couldn't understand why Nellie the Nurse couldn't marry Emile and why Joe Cable couldn't marry Liat, I didn't really know or understand about segregation and racial prejudice; as I grew older I learned about these things, I'm very glad for the ways the world has changed since the musical was made. I wonder how much South Pacific might have influenced that change. I don't know much about Rodgers and Hammerstein but it can't have been easy to get such a musical made in that time period. One song in the musical more than any other brings home the message of how wrong racial prejudice and segregation were and are. You've Got to be Taught. This isn't the whole song but I think it gives enough of the message.
I was reading Julie B. Beck's talk from the most recent general conference and I found this great quote from Eliza R. Snow:
“We want to be ladies in very deed, not according to the term of the word as the world judges, but fit companions of the Gods and Holy Ones. In an organized capacity we can assist each other in not only doing good but in refining ourselves, and whether few or many come forward and help to prosecute this great work, they will be those that will fill honorable positions in the Kingdom of God. . . . Women should be women and not babies that need petting and correction all the time. I know we like to be appreciated but if we do not get all the appreciation which we think is our due, what matters? We know the Lord has laid high responsibility upon us, and there is not a wish or desire that the Lord has implanted in our hearts in righteousness but will be realized, and the greatest good we can do to ourselves and each other is to refine and cultivate ourselves in everything that is good and ennobling to qualify us for those responsibilities.
Eliza R. Snow, address to Lehi Ward Relief Society, Oct. 27, 1869, Lehi Ward, Alpine (Utah) Stake, in Relief Society, Minute Book, 1868–79, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, 26–27.
You can learn more about Eliza R. Snow here.Photo taken from here.
Little Wonders by Rob Thomas
This song and the movie it's from, Meet the Robinsons, fit in rather nicely with some things that I've been thinking about lately. I recently attended a workshop where the speaker was talking about the power of positive thinking, and our thoughts in general. Our thoughts are more important than we might realize, if we tell ourselves that we can't do something, than we can't, think about how many unnecessary limits we impose on ourselves through our thoughts. On the other hand, if we can tell ourselves something, and really truly believe it (which might take some repitition), then we can do it.
I've decided that I don't wnat to hold myself back anymore and so I'm going to be working on making myself believe that I can accomplish those things that I want to do.
You can do it too.
I seem to have had blogger's block of late; I couldn't remember what I meant to blog about when I started to do it, or what I was going to talk about seemed insignificant. Right now I have things boiling and a bubbling, waiting to get blogged, but life's been especially crazy of late and I've got a lot of things to do, hopefully they will get blogged shortly - stay tuned.
I really didn't intend to have multiple posts today, however I was inspired by my friend's post about her love of cooking and cookbooks. I too enjoy a good cook book, Sunday afternoons in my childhood, or just when I'm bored or hoping for inspiration now I flip through cook books; I also love to watch cooking shows. I thought it was interesting though, my friend said that she liked books without pictures so that she didn't have the pressure of making her creation look just like the picture in the book; I on the other hand really like pictures in a cook book, I like knowing what the thing I'm making should look like, at least in theory, furthermore if I'm just flipping through a cookbook I prefer to have pictures to look at. While I enjoy having pictures in cookbooks, I also have a file of recipes that are on 3X5 note cards; I think I'm okay with these because a good deal of these are things that I've had before, or that I've seen pictures of somewhere.
I don't own any cookbooks, like I said, I have a box of recipes I've copied and many of those come out of recipe books, but up until recently I don't recall any strong desire to own any cookbooks. One of my roommates had a copy of the Joy of Cooking, or some other quintessential cookbook that her mom sent with her to college and I remember not being very impressed by it, I'm not really sure why, perhaps because my mom hadn't used this book, or maybe it just didn't have enough personality for me. Anyway, back to cookbooks, I don't remember how old I was when I wanted to move on from just looking at and drooling over cookbooks to actually making things, it was probably between 8 and 10, having already mastered box macaroni and cheese and rammen I suppose I felt I was ready to move up in the world. I'm pretty sure I remember what I made first, my mom had this really old kids cookbook from when she was a kid and in looking through that I decided to make "dit-dot macaroni and cheese" (hot dog slices on top of mac 'n cheese). I think it turned out okay though slight substitutions had to be made; the recipe called for a can of cheese soup, I hadn't realized such a thing existed, I don't know if it still does or not, but we made white sauce and added cheese instead. The macaroni was a sucess and homemade mac n' cheese has become a staple in my life, to the point that I have the recipe memorized (it's not a very hard one anyway).
Back to cookbooks again (sorry for getting so side tracked), I have recently come across a cookbook that I really want: Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys by Lucinda Scalla Quinn. I'm trying to remember just what about this book I liked so much, but I'm drawing a blank. Ms. Scalla Quin has already gained my faith through her appearances in one of my favorite cooking shows, Everyday Foods, and I came across her recipe for homemade tomato sauce that I've come to love; as for the book itself it included some very nice basics, good pictures and anicdotes, so dispite the fact that I propably wouldn't eat a good deal of the recipes in the book, I really enjoyed it.
Okay, here we go, it's been too long since I blogged. It's not that I haven't had things to say, it's just that they don't seem so great when faced by the blank text box. I also don't really have any cool pictures and I feel like blogs are more interesting with more pictures.
I'm working on getting myself more organized, and dusting off ambitions that have been set down for a moment and consequently forgotten. I'm working on making the most of my time like I had to when I was in school...although I could have done a lot better at that even when I was in school. As inconvenience as it may be, we can't just sit back and watch our goals accomplish themselves (unless they are goals to sit, watch TV, etc. and become a vegetable.). However, life might be rather boring if we accomplished all of our goals at once and had smooth sailing the whole way.
When I left school I had a long list of books that professors or friends and classmates had recommended that I read, I hardly made a dent in the list while I was in school, but now I've been working on a lot of those books and rereading others. I'm quite happy to see how much I can be furthering my education all on my own, no degree needed. One reason I want to get more organized though, is that I find it harder to keep myself on task with my own deadlines, when there's not a grade, etc. pending.
No matter what our circumstances in life we can all make goals and we can always learn more.
