Hikago fandom has been having an ongoing discussion about constructive criticism and the nature of critique in our small lovely fandom.

flonnebonne took me to task for my tendency to make openly negative comments about fics. I think she has a valid point, and ( I felt that my response would work better formulated as an open discussion, here. )

what a perfect month for me...the color pink and a good cause.

use:


smashbox pink power lip and eye kit, $46, sephora


bca pocket brush set, $15, sephora


bobbi brown pink ribbon collection, $40, nordstrom


essie pink is the link set, $20, nordstrom


ojon pink ribbon revitalizing mist, $26, nordstrom


lacoste touch of pink, $52, sephora


kitchenaid cook for the cure mixer, $300, amazon.com


kitchenaid cook for the cure measuring set, $10, amazon.com


cancer vixen kit, $30, bath and body works

Watched the "debate" with the family. Before it started I reserved "my friends" as my BINGO word. Zippy chose "earmark," Zebu's word was "maverick" and Wildebeest alternated words throughout the 90 minutes.

If it'd been a drinking game, I wouldn't be typing this right now. I'd be passed out on my desk, drooling on the keyboard. I lost count at 17 "my friends."

Zippy was ahead for a while with "earmark" but then fell behind and a few minutes into the program Zebu pointed out "Tom" would've been a good choice since McCain and Brokaw were chumming it up.

The menfolk in this household can try to spin the situation all they want, my friends, but I was clearly the official debate BINGO champ!

mark wants go give you a vespa!!!! so enter their contest! just hurry up because it ends soon! more dets, check out:

http://www.markgirl.com/earth

At first I thought this chick had it MADE. I mean, c'mon, Disney only has princesses--pfft! You think average kids are difficult when they hit 5? Try being a GOD.

Then I got to the part that says "until she reaches puberty, at which point she will lose her divine status."
Nice. You may have to wait a bit for me now that I'm stepping back here with the Women's Movement.

And then, in what is surely a meta on irony (even though I have no idea what that means but sounds wry), even though she is no longer divine, she is considered lethal to men, and thus is most likely to face hardship and deprivation as she makes her way through this culture as an umarried woman. ("I'm bringing spinster back!"--a slogan I read today.)

Oh, and to qualify as a goddess? Can't be afraid of the dark. Menstruation, age, loneliness, and poverty? Sure, go ahead and tremble.

A shoe of thorns.



Somehow, this really does it make it easier to picture Nephamael's cloak.

While volunteering at Big Girl's kindergarten class today, the teacher pulled me aside for a quick check-in since we will not be attending the class Open House tomorrow evening (which the school scheduled on Yom Kippur.* Grrr!)

What was not surprising was that she said they tested Big Girl and found that she was an advanced reading level. (Well, duh.) "Level seventeen," she said. I shrugged. Okay. I don't know what that means. "That's a third grade reading level," she explained. I nodded. No real surprise there. "That's never happened before." She concluded. THAT kind of surprised me -- she is a veteran teacher of over twenty years in the school. And this has never happened before? Fortunately, the reading assistant she has now was formerly a third and fourth grade teacher so we chatted a little and I found out that what she wants to do is bang-on. Great! (All I had to do was point out that the book she was using might have been the cause for my daughter's "lower comprehension" as it was a story about a puppy's Christmas. "We're Jewish," I explained. "She doesn't know what Christmas is.")

This can either be a real opportunity for the school vis-a-vis my kid or a real missed boat. Given the current rants I've had regarding the school, I don't know what to expect but I know what I can hope for.

To all that celebrate, have a reflective holiday and an poignant fast. May you be inscribed with blessings in the New Year.

For those who don't celebrate, have a lovely week & upcoming weekend!

* And for those who have no idea why this is annoying or insulting or both, Yom Kippur is considered the holiest holiday; one of the Big Three: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur & Pesach (Passover). In order to understand the magnitude, let's liken Rosh Hashanah to New Year, Yom Kippur to Christmas and Passover to Easter. How would you like it if your kid's school scheduled Open House on Christmas Eve? Yeah, right. [And it's not like they didn't know when it was. Despite what many folks think, these three holidays are printed in black-and-white on every calendar made in the U.S.]

My history teacher showed us this in class today.




I bought both of the books refereneced in it after school today.

Scary stuff...

Hey, 8th graders! Post your letters to Taz here.

Hey, eight graders. Post your letters to Taz here!

twinkie = cupcake.

This morning I watched federal court proceedings as they tried to seat a jury for a drug conspiracy trial. I had been kind of anxious about going - I've never sat in a courtroom before, I didn't know if I could use my laptop (short answer - no, too noisy), and even taking the bus was kind of intimidating (I rode the bus every day for years, but that was a long time ago).

Still, that kind of in-person research is different than reading, talking to people, watching a documentary, or watching the TV version. I got there early, so I got to see that one lawyer had brought shoes and socks for her client. And there were several security type people, maybe US Marshalls - huge guys with big hands who looked like Central Casting had sent them over for the part of "the heavy." Once the jurors were ushered in, the courtroom was super crowded. They brought in 157 jurors and probably 35 started out standing. And you know how you should appeal to the senses when you write? One not very appealing sense was that the room smelled like unwashed bodies and unbrushed teeth. One of my characters is pregnant, so I know she'll notice - your sense of smell is magnified during pregnancy. What I saw was different than what I had imagined or what I had heard from talking to lawyers, so I am very glad I went.

Oh, and let's see - if you want to get out of a four-week trial? Have airline tickets purchased. Work on commission. Be the sole childcare provider with no options. Own your own business. Have a wife who is due next week, or a husband who is undergoing major surgery. It took 2 hours just to find 51 people who could even sit for further questions.

Originally published at MSUFaL. You can comment here or there.

PS- LaT- I'm wearing your birthday present in this! :D

Took a break for dinner and conversation with the residents of the back room and news (which, quite frankly, did not sit well after a lovely dinner). Here are the final two books from the goodie box.




Phil Bildner's story of a boy excited that he is finally old enough to participate in the annual family football game is funny and wonderful and warm, sort of like the Thanksgiving dinner the family gathers to eat each year. Illustrations by C E Payne combine Norman Rockwell with Lane Smith (trust me, you will see this immediately).

And finally, another pop-up!




This is intended as a companion book to ONE RED DOT and BLUE 2. Here, readers are asked to find the yellow square within the pop-up. The paper engineering is intricate and frenetic in its movement, hallmarks of Adler's other books.

So, I'm finally getting around to this. You probably already know alot of these things but oh well.

Tagged by somanylocks 

The rules are: Once you have been tagged, you have to write a blog with 12 weird random things, facts, or habits about yourself. At the end, you choose 5 people to be tagged.
( click )
I tag: prongsieandlily , rebeccael , fabiola_maria , gorgonlover , and spiralsunwind . But you don't have to do it if you don't want to.

Here is an interesting variant of the Goldilocks story:




Goldilocks is advised by her father to take care out in the woods and not to rush headlong into places she does not belong. However, it is not too long before she does indeed rush into a place, one where she most definitely does not belong. She cleans out the bear's house and then cleans out their oatmeal (filed with disgusting things like bugs) and eats it all before taking a nap. Lesson learned, she returns home.




A young boy imagines all sorts of creatures lurking under the bed one night. Imagination can run wild, but in his case, there might be a bit more to the noise.