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May 27th, 2012

05:53 pm
lovelyangel

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Ash

Ash by Malinda Lo

Ash could hear her breath in the dark: quick, frightened, like a rabbit fleeing from hunting hounds. She put her hands out in front of herself and felt only cold air. She took a tentative steptoward the door, shuffling forward until the tips of her fingers bumped against the wood. It was slightly wet. She flattened her palms against the door and then pressed her body to the oak.When she closed her eyes the quality of the dark did not change, and for a moment she stopped breathing, afraid that she could not tell if her eyes were open or shut. She touched her face, her eyelids, and the trembling movement of her eyes somehow reassured her: She was still real.Then she slid down to the ground, her face pressed against the door, her boots dragging roughly across the dirt floor. She gathered her knees to her chest to make herself as small as possible, andtried to ignore the weight of the darkness on her across the dirt floor. She gathered her knees to her chest to make herself as small as possible, and tried to ignore the weight of the darkness on her.

Ash was one of several cool things that Jan and Ann gave me for Christmas last year. I had started reading the book months ago but had to set it aside as my life turned upside down. And even though I’m having to work this weekend, I made an effort to take a time out to finish the book. Written for young adults, Ash is fast reading – although it did take a couple of hours of my time today. My mantra for 2012 is to do things differently than I did in 2011. This month I finished two books. I think that’s two more than I did all of last year. (o.O)

Ash is a wonderful fairy tale – sometimes dark, sometimes uplifting. I enjoyed the story a lot. Malinda Lo provided a strong, sympathetic heroine (perhaps INFP?), but I thought the supporting cast was a bit weak. I suppose one shouldn’t expect deep character development in a fairy tale. We were treated to many fairy tales within the story; Lo’s world-building was solid. However, I wished for a little more actual magic. The magic in this world was more often hinted at than shown.

I’m a sucker for a good romance, though. I was rooting for the romantic leads. This book would make a fine movie or anime. Because of time-stress I zipped through pretty quickly, but I’d like to re-read the book when I have more time. Maybe this is a goal for 2013.

Tags: art, living, photos

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04:25 pm
liralen

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Missing Girl
Hey friends...
I just wanted to tell you that in all of my time doing volunteer work for
missing kids organizations, this is the first time i've ever been in
direct contact with and asked by the family to help spread the word. I gave
this family my word that I would do all that I could.
So please, help me to raise awareness about this girl, Mickey Shunick?
She was en route close to a highway that runs from Louisiana into
California. Maybe you know people in & around those areas you could
pass this info onto to?
There are some good leads and it's quite possible that she can still be
alive, found and returned home. I am hopeful. Please know that I appreciate
any awareness you can raise. Let's hope for a positive outcome.
We hear all the time of the heartbreaking stories with horrific endings,
but you know what? Many many kids/teens are found alive and returned home,
so know that this may well have a happy ending.
Re-posting this info just once, could make all the difference!
Thank you!
Love & Hugs,

violets_r_blu

Please do contact her if you have any information.

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12:29 pm
lovelyangel

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The Return of Toonami

Deadman Wonderland • Promotional Illustration

I dislike dubbed anime... but I’ll put up with it on shows I don’t really care about and am not paying for. The only advantage to dubbed anime is that I can be doing other things (such as housecleaning) and have the shows playing in the background. Each Sunday morning I had been videotaping a two-hour block in Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. Bleach and Inuyasha I don’t care about and was watching simply to see what happens. For Durarara and Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood I was watching episodes I’d missed that lead up to the finales – which I’ve already seen for both series.

I had heard that Toonami Was Coming Back and would displace the anime in Adult Swim, but I did not get a schedule in advance. I didn’t reprogram my VCR so I ended up taping the wrong shows this morning. Toonami is showing two new to the U.S. series: Deadman Wonderland and the reboot of Casshern Sins. Inuyasha and Durarara are gone – doesn’t bother me in the slightest. Bleach and Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood continue. (Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2nd GIG also continue, but I hadn’t been watching those as I have them on DVD.) I’ve reprogrammed my VCR to do midnight to 2 am instead of the 4 am to 6 am block previously assigned.

Tags: anime

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12:16 pm
lillibet

[Link]

Memorial Day
Today at church the sermon was given by a member of our congregation, Lori Kenschaft. I could have written her opening words myself, about the ambivalence she has always felt about Memorial Day--on the one hand a glorification of war, on the other hand nothing more than the start of summer--but she went on to discuss how she has reclaimed it for herself by exploring its history as an African-American holiday.

Memorial Day was first celebrated on May 1, 1865, by tens of thousands of people--mostly recently freed former slaves, including 3000 black children recently enrolled in new schools--honoring specifically the prisoners of war who had died at a camp in Charleston, SC and more generally all the Union soldiers who had fought and died in the Civil War that was just ending.

Lori talked about the ways that extending the respect and honor of Memorial Day first to those who fought on both sides of the Civil War may have helped the country to restore a sense of unity, but pushed under the rug important differences and contributed to the idea of war as honorable no matter what the reasons for fighting. She talked about the terrible difficulties of black Americans over the next eighty years and connected that to the present day with a few words about the racial injustices of the War on Drugs and the shameful statistics of our prison system.

And then she read from the writings of a black UU minister, Rev. Mark D. Morrison-Reed. He wrote about the differences between the Jewish remembrance of their time of slavery--the suffering acknowledged and liberation celebrated in ritual each year--and the lack of a central moment of remembrance of the history of slavery and oppression for Africans and their African-American descendents, and for the terrible spiritual burden that all Americans continue to bear from that time.

Patriotism is a difficult subject for liberals these days, myself among them. The proudly held right to criticize and protest the excesses and injustices of our country, the ways that we fail to live up to our ideals and to treat our own citizens with dignity and humanity, the importance of remembering not only our glorious moments, but also the shameful ones that have deeper lessons for our future--all of those can make it hard to be simply proud. And yet I am very proud to be an American, to have as my birthright a part in this grand experiment, and to shoulder my part of our history, personal and collective, bright and dark.

I am grateful to Lori for giving me new things to think about this Memorial Day, new ways of connecting this holiday to past, present and future. I hope that all of you have a great weekend, full of friends and family, fresh air and cool drinks. And I hope that each of you takes a moment to think about where we are as a country, where we have been, where we are headed, what you honor and what you feel the need to challenge.

As our postlude, the wonderful Ken Seitz performed our National Anthem. It is our custom to sit during this closing of our time of worship (a word that comes from the concept of worth, of those things that we value highly), but raised by a devout patriot and veteran, I rose to my feet. I was not the first to rise and quickly the entire congregation stood together, honoring our country. I felt proud.

This entry was originally posted at http://lillibet.dreamwidth.org/604333.html. You can comment either place! There are

comments over there now.

Tags: church, holidays

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10:04 am
bruhinb

[Link]

Panorama 1238

Panorama 1238
Originally uploaded by bruhinb

Via Flickr:
21st Street and Benjamin Franklin ParkwayPhiladelphia, PACopyright © 2012, Bob Bruhin. All rights reserved.
(via bruhinb.deviantart.com/art/Panorama-1238-304654034)

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08:26 am
bruhinb

[Link]

Panorama 1237

Panorama 1237
Originally uploaded by bruhinb

Via Flickr:
21st Street and Benjamin Franklin ParkwayPhiladelphia, PACopyright © 2012, Bob Bruhin. All rights reserved.(via bruhinb.deviantart.com/art/Panorama-1237-304642687)

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12:00 am
qotdrss

[Link]

Tallulah Bankhead

http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Tallulah_Bankhead

"Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it."

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05:27 am
dglenn

[Link]

QotD

( C.S. Lewis on the perfect church service )

deadjournal journalfen dreamwidth scribbld insanejournal

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02:07 am
lovelyangel

[Link]

A Day Off (Saturday)

Sand and Stone Garden Wall
Portland Japanese Garden

I had expected Saturday to be mostly a personal day but partially a work day. However, events conspired to prevent me to do any work for the office. I'll have to be extra diligent and work more on Sunday.

Friday night when I got home from SMYRC I realized I’d left my poetry book and my transition stories in the staff room. Things sometimes disappear or get lost at SMYRC, so I wanted to retrieve my books as soon as possible. I made plans to go to SMYRC when they opened at 4 pm on Saturday.

However, I spent an unplanned 2 1/2 hours with my ex who dropped in to visit. My ex, both kids, and I went out for coffee, picked up a few goods at Trader Joes, and returned home so that I could transfer, adjust, and print photos for my ex. I didn’t get to leave for my own errands until about 4:40 pm. I picked up clothes from the dry cleaners, drove in to Portland, dropped off an assortment of items at my office, went to SMYRC and retrieved my writings, drove back to Beaverton, shopped for groceries at WinCo, and returned home all within 1 hour and 40 minutes – 1 hour and 5 minutes of which was actual driving time, according to Ava’s computer. At 6:20 pm I arrived home to unload groceries, fix dinner, and watch anime.

Running errands was nice, as the temperature was between 65°F and 68°F during that time. With Ava’s windows open and anime music roaring through the speakers, I had a delightful if too brief a time outdoors. And I would not have guessed that the sunny day would turn into torrential downpour that evening.

Tags: living, photos, smyrc

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07:14 am
apod

[Link]

At the Edge of NGC 891

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap120526.html

At the Edge of NGC 891