Monthly Archives: August 2007

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Help

Should I take the distinct lack of anything new on the blogs and websites I usually read as a sign that I should give in and stop procrastinating working on the reviews I need to finish? I just can’t believe in that kind of sign, so someone please point me toward some time wasting endeavor of some kind. New blogs, quizzes, music, anything. Help me out people, don’t make me actually give in and buckle down.

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Goo-bye!

My sewing mojo has gone. It was here, and now it’s gone. While it was here I made a skirt for Zoe out of one of B’s old Hawaiian shirts (the need to make that skirt is what brought on the mojo), a little quilt for her, and a skirt for me. But the last two skirts I’ve made? Oh goodness. One was way too small, one was way too big- leading me to believe that the mojo is in fact, gone. It doesn’t help that I work firmly in the guerilla-make-it-up-as-you-go-along school of sewing. It might also have something to do with the fact that I just bought fabric- and I have the feeling that sewing might be like poker and horse racing are for me- I’m unbeatable unless money is involved.

However, I’ve learned some things about myself during this sewing blitz, including the following:

1. I’ve inherited my mom’s perfectionism, but none of her accuracy or attention to detail.

2. I will never be on Project Runway. I truly believe my horrendous technique would reduce Tim Gunn to tears.

3. If my life or the life of my loved ones were dependent on it, I still could not cut in a straight line.

Oh well, I will soldier on, and keep trying. Someday I will be able to make pretty, though flawed, things again, but until then I’ll just stand here and wave to my mojo as it flits away. Goo-bye!

PS. Which cartoon character was it that said Goo-bye? Was it some kind of little chicken? I can’t remember, and it’s driving me crazy.

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help please

I need to find girl characters in children’s books whose names start with the following letters:

F, I, K, O, U, V, X

It would be preferable if they were nice characters, but at this point I can’t be picky. They can be in anything from picture books to say, Little Women.
I’ll explain what I need them for once I’m done. :)

Thanks!

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Things on my mind today

This post was inspired by Zoe’s little videos.

Are Stephanie from Lazy Town and Deedee Doodle sisters? In my mind, the answer is yes.
The music on LazyTown reminds me of the music from the Josie and the Pussycat dolls movie. This is not a bad thing. Check out the linked video to see what I mean (the third one- Big Bang Rock- is really the best example, but Twenty times time is my favorite) , and to check out the crazy Icelandic aerobic madman (that phrase was coined by B, I have to give proper credit) – he’s the one doing one armed pushups with all the rest of his limbs off the ground, and throwing his body around in the air.
And lastly- any suggestions of pirate themed children’s music would be greatly appreciated. I ask mainly because if I have to listen to Zoe’s music, it might as well be swashbuckling. We already have the pirate songs from Lazy Town, the Backyardigans, the Wiggles, and one from Veggie Tales – that one is awesome- it’s called The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, and it reminds me of Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies. Mike- if you’re reading this, you’d like it. So any other suggestions?

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Han Hay!

I love you! I’m so glad you found my blog!

love,

han hay

Edited to add- I realize this post probably makes no sense to most of the people reading it, so I will endeavor to explain. In college, my group of friends was made up of people with the same names- 2 Jasons, 3 Daves, lots of Jennys, Jens, and Jennifers. I was the only Maryanne, and my best friend Meaghan was the only Meaghan (although there was a Megan who we called Little Megan, but she didn’t hang out with us all the time). So Meaghan and I felt a little left out, and one night in our 3 am delirium, inspired by one of our friends named Jason (the one who many times we called Hayson) we decided that we really did have the same name- she was Meag-han hay, and I was Mary-han hay. Pretty soon it was shortened, and everyone just called us both Han hay. My brother in law still does sometimes.
All that to say, Meaghan just found my blog, and I’m glad.

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Why books? Part 2

This is the follow up to the previous post, so if you haven’t read it yet, skip on down. I’ll be waiting here when you get back.

To continue:

6. Back a little farther, when I was five or so, my mom reads my sister and I Ozma of Oz as we lay in bed. It’s toward the end of the book, and my mom asks us where we think Ozma is… and I have no idea. It’s obvious that Mom knows, and I’m impressed and confused, and it’s a magical feeling to have no idea where the book is going. I learn that I don’t know everything, and that’s ok.
7. I get Little Women for Christmas the year I am 7. I sink right in and read it and love Jo and Laurie, and am utterly bewildered by Jo’s decision to not marry Laurie and even more baffled by her choice to marry an old man. I learn that people have the ability to make different decisions than I do. (Years later, when I watch the film version, I figure out that Jo didn’t marry an old man, they were the same age-ish, but to my seven year old mind, all professors were old.)
8. In ninth grade English I’m assigned Animal Farm. We have a choice of writing assignments, and I choose the one that no one else went with- the one I’m sure the teacher didn’t really think anyone would choose- to compare Animal Farm to the Communist Manifesto. I dive head first into the assignment and, if I do say so myself, kick butt on the paper. I learn both that there’s a ton of philosophies and viewpoints that I know nothing about, and that I can analyze and write.

9. Also in ninth grade, we read To Kill A Mockingbird. We get a creative writing assignment, and I write from Tom’s point of view in jail. My capacity for empathy increases as I learn that literature can show me everyone’s side.

10. We read the Great Gatsby in eleventh grade. From the moment I open it the prose sucks me in and I’m in love with the words. I read it seven times before we’re supposed to finish it for class. I write a version of Gatsby’s party for an assignment and work for days trying to capture the tone. I learn that books not only contain stories, but also beautiful beautiful words. I also fall head over heels in love with the 1920s.
11. In twelfth grade we’re assigned Native Son over Christmas break. I bring it with me on our vacation to Utah, and it’s a magical reading experience. The themes and connections were almost visual as I read, like threads going from passage to passage, and it’s so cohesive that it’s incredibly hard to figure out what to write a paper about, because it seems like there’s nothing more to be said. (I end up writing about Bigger having Communist tendencies even though he hates Communists- which, combined with experience 8 leads my daddy to tease me for years and years.) I learn how to stretch my thinking and how to see the connections in what I read.

12. My first year of college, I read The Taming of the Shrew for a Shakespeare class. I take my interpretation of the final section in a unconventional direction, and when I get the paper back I discover that other people did the same, but that I’m the only one who pulled it off- and the professor thinks I’m extremely skilled at interpretation. I switch my major from theater to literature.

There’s been tons since then as well, but that’s enough for now. I’ll just finish by saying that if I had to live without Harriet the Spy, Scout, Zooey Glass, Daisy Buchanan, Mina Harker, Claudine, Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin, Serge and Alba, Lance Scott, Phryne Fisher, or any of the other characters who are alive and well in my mind, I would be a far poorer person.

So, I ask again, what books have shaped who you are? What characters can’t you live without?