| Giving Thanks |
[26 Nov 2009|03:40pm] |
Harvest festivals resonate strongly for me: the tradition of feasting well and making merry once the last of the preparations have been made for winter. The sense of building up a blaze of joy and thanks to carry us through a long night. The celebration that comes at the end of long work and preparation, the moment when you feel secure you've done what you can to shore up against what is to come.
The moments when you count your blessings and are thankful for everyone.
I am so thankful to my family: just for being themselves, but also for the support they've given Andy and me over the past year, whether a shoulder to lean on or a way to pay our bills. I am especially thankful to my mom for planning my wedding so well, to my Poppy for always being a kind and strong support, to my dad for always giving me whatever help he could. I also give thanks for my wacky, complex, beloved brothers who enrich my life with theirs.
I am so thankful to my friends: just for being themselves, but also for their remarkable talents and generosity. As always, I offer especial thanks to my dear ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cadhla, copperwise, crowley, void_dragon, and worshipper. These wonderful, amazing people are so often the building blocks of my sanity and heart-health. My life would be diminished without each of them.
I am so thankful to every one of you who helped me by supporting my cyber-funded projects or commissioning something from me to keep Andy and I afloat this summer. Your generosity literally means the world to us. I know that graduate school has prevented me from fulfilling some of my obligations to you, but I will. I most certainly will.
I am grateful to be in graduate school, pursuing my academic dreams. I am grateful to have been published in this past year. I am grateful that both my husband and myself are employed. I am grateful we have two beautiful, mostly healthy cats. I am grateful for all of this and so much more.
Most of all, I am grateful for my husband Andrew. He has been one of my best friends for thirteen years: we've been through transcendent joys and sorrows deep as the abyss. We've quarreled terribly, stopped talking to each other several times, written mad poetry to each other, and loved without caution.
And that was all before we married.
He has been a part of my life for nearly half my years on this Earth - I am so ridiculously grateful to look forward to that proportion changing, until I can tell our future children that more of our lives have been lived together than apart. He is my starfall knight, my welcome wolf at the door, my comfort beyond question.
(I love you, Andy, my darling.)
So, yes. Be grateful for all you have today, everyone! Let gratitude and light and love lead you through the months to come.
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| A Virus Walks Into A Bar... |
[26 Nov 2009|09:49am] |
Science comedy from youtube. I'm thankful I have friends who get this. Happy Thanksgiving Day, all.
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[26 Nov 2009|12:03am] |
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Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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| Big Blue Marble Fun |
[25 Nov 2009|06:19pm] |
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Remember how I said I was at an event in Philadelphia last week? It went swimmingly, I thought. And now I have corroboration. Jennifer Sheffield has posted a report: bigbluemarblebooks.blogspot.com/2009/11/ya-fusion-or-our-differences-unite-us.html. Makes me wonder, rather, what I must have looked like when Catherine said she outlined all her books, several times. In different colors. Rather the way hers did when I said I just jumped in and let the devil take the hindmost, I suspect.
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| Lo, Malinda: Ash |
[25 Nov 2009|04:01pm] |
 Ash (2009)
Written by: Malinda Lo
Genre: YA/Fairy Tale/Fantasy
Pages: 264 (Hardcover)
As I mentioned before, I learned about this book via John Scalzi's The Big Idea column at his site Whatever. The premise grabbed my attention right away, and you know I can't resist a pretty cover. My image here doesn't do it much justice, so if you want a larger one, just click in the "Big Idea" link.
At any rate, when I saw it at the store, I had to have it. And when I sat down to read it, I absolutely HAD to finish it that day. So I did.
The premise: in unfairly simple terms, Ash is a lesbian re-telling of Cinderella. But that's an unfairly simply description. Sure, you've got the Cinderella myth, but rather than falling for the typical Prince Charming, Ash finds herself attracted to the King's Huntress, and she'd do anything to stay with her. Even if it means bargaining with the fairy, a risk that could very well make her lose everything.
Review style: it's kind of a hard book to spoil, isn't it? I mean, anyone who knows the general Cinderella tale knows where the book is going, but the trick is, because it's a re-telling, you're on ground that's familiar but not, and you tend to forget it's a re-telling you're reading. At any rate, there's spoilers, but nothing that doesn't correlate to the actual fairy tale.
( ASH: spoilers )
My Rating
Worth the Cash: note I'm giving this rating to a hardcover. I always feel that carries more weight than if the book were a paperback, for obvious reasons. At any rate, this is a very enjoyable read that I tore through in a day, but the prose isn't light so much as it reflects a certain fairy tale quality, perfect for a re-telling of the Cinderella story. Ash is a likable heroine you can empathize with, and even though she makes mistakes, the mistakes are her own and she works to fix things the best she can. The love story itself needed a little bit more development between the first meeting and the admission of love, but I did like the characters together, and I liked that Ash was attracted to a person instead of the wealth and power a partner could bring her, which signifies not only the difference between Kaisa the Huntress and Prince Charming, but also between Kaisa and Sidhean. One of the most important messages of the book: loves doesn't ask for anything in return, and love will love you for who you are, not who you aren't. What a simple lesson, and what an easy one to forget. Malinda Lo is definitely on my watch list, and I look forward to her next offering, whatever it may be and whenever it might arrive.
Cover Commentary: you can't tell by my little thumbnail, but in the black background, there's a kind of light feather effect that almost looks like grass, which makes sense. Ash spends plenty of time grieving, curled up either at her mother's grave. And even if she's not there, the posture speaks volumes about the character. The ballgown is a nice touch, and the title is well-placed. It's just a lovely little hardcover, and I'm glad I've got it. :)
Next up: Indigo Springs by A.M. Dellamonica
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| What’s Cooking? |
[25 Nov 2009|12:36pm] |
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Originally published at Diana Dru Botsford. You can comment here or there. 
I’ve been under the radar lately… as far as blogging is concerned. Between the writing, editing, plotting, and let’s not forget the teaching (which has its own universe of writing, editing, plotting, etc.), I’ve been a tad busy. On top of that, I’m considering how I want to revamp this blog, revamp it with a focus (or dare I say, platform) where what I have to say isn’t just an echo of what a gazillion other bloggers have to say.
More on that later.
In the meantime, Thanksgiving is only a day a way and here’s what’s cooking in my kitchen.
Prosciutto with Persimmons
Johnnycakes with Peekytoe Crab
Cider-Glazed Turkey
Boston Brown Bread Stuffing with Bacon and Tarragon
Yukon Gold Potato and Wild Mushroom Gratin
Roasted Yam Puree
Sauteed Green Beans with Crisp Garlic
Cranberry Chutney
Cornmeal Pound Cake with Rosemary Syrup, Poached Apples, and Candied Rosemary
Caramel-Pumpkin Pie with Mincemeat Ice Cream
Yes, I’m a glutton when it comes to cooking.
Actually, I guess I’m a glutton when it comes to pretty much everything. Life’s Too Short to do otherwise.
Happy Holiday!
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| Stuffing the Turkey |
[25 Nov 2009|01:24pm] |
 The following is my favorite part in Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford. It gives the phrase "stuffing the turkey" a whole new meaning. Oh, those Puritans. Have a great holiday!!!
And after ye time of ye writig of these things
befell a very sadd accidents of the like foule nature
in this govermente, this very year, which I shall
now relate. Ther was a youth whose name was
Thomas Granger; he was servant to an honest man
of Duxbery, being aboute 16. or 17. years of age.
(His father & mother lived at the same time at
Sityate.) He was this year detected of buggery (and
indicted for ye same) with a mare, a cowe, tow goats,
five sheep, 2. calves, and a turkey. Horrible [249] it is
to mention, but ye truth of ye historie requires
it. He was first discovered by one yt accidentally
saw his lewd practise towards the mare. (I forbear
perticulers.) Being upon it examined and comitted,
in ye end he not only confest ye, fact with that beast
at that time, but sundrie times before, and at sev-
erall times with all ye rest of ye forenamed in his
indictmente; and this his free-confession was not only
in private to ye magistrats, (though at first he strived
to deney it,) but to sundrie, both ministers & others,
and afterwards, upon his indictmente, to ye whole
court & jury; and confirmed it at his execution.
And wheras some of ye sheep could not so well be
knowne by his description of them, others with them
were brought before him, and he declared which were
they, and which were not. And accordingly he was
cast by ye jury, and condemned, and after executed
about ye 8. of Septr, 1642. A very sade spectakle
it was; for first the mare, and then ye cowe, and
ye rest of ye lesser catle, were kild before his face,
according to ye law, Levit: 20. 15. and then he him
selfe was executed. The catle were all cast into a
great & large pitte that was digged of purposs for
them, and no use made of any part of them.
Upon ye examenation of this person, and also of a
former that had made some sodomiticall attempts upon
another, it being demanded of them how they came
first to ye knowledge and practice of such wickednes,
the one confessed he had long used it in old England;
and this youth last spoaken of said he was taught it
by an other that had heard of such things from some
in England when he was ther, and they kept catle
togeather. By which it appears how one wicked per-
son may infecte many; and what care all ought to
have what servants they bring into their families.
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| Biggest Loser |
[25 Nov 2009|12:57pm] |
So somehow I've gotten completely sucked into this show. Could it be the hot soap opera star hostess? The verbally abusive, pop-psychoanalytic trainers? The near-constant crying, during which it's quite visually obvious that this is how Jillian Michaels gets her jollies, as she perches like a gargoyle atop the squat press?
See, and yet I couldn't help screaming at the television when Danny lost 16 pounds last night. Because that's my man, right there.
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| Barry Malzberg on ASTOUNDING |
[25 Nov 2009|10:38am] |
Listen to an expert on his passions.
Thanks to film creator Eric Solstein.
Posted by Paul DiFi.
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| Happy Thanksgiving! |
[25 Nov 2009|09:28am] |
I was debating how best to wish the +1 community a happy thanksgiving. The holiday, for all its commercialism, has been subsumed in many ways into the larger and crasser consumerism surrounding christmas. Last night, Cynthia and I were driving through Bay Ridge and noticed that some places were already selling wreathes and Christmas trees! And as anyone who has set foot into a store knows all too well, Christmas carols are already testing the patience of surly shoppers like me.
So rather than buck this trend, I'm going to embrace it . . . Dylan-style!
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| [cancer] I may be some time |
[25 Nov 2009|05:07am] |
calendula_witch and shelly_rae are about to take me to hospital. Admission at 6 am, surgery at 7:30, not sure when the actual prep time begins. Ah, epidurals. For what it's worth, I did sleep okay last night.
I could write a lot about fear, panic, irrationality, love, friendship, medicine, cancer, parents, children, caring, sharing. But not now. Now I go to face the knife.
As previously stated, this blog will be going dark for a while. For surgical and post-op updates, watch calendula_witch's blog, or my Twitter feed at @jay_lake, both of which will be updated by calendula_witch. I expect shelly_rae will be updating her Twitter feed as well, @ShellyRaeClift. This blog will be dark for days once I go in.
Anyway, I guess this is good-bye. Or more to the point, see you later.
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