brainylady

Grey Saturday

I'm not quite ready to do any schoolwork yet today. I need a bit more coffee, but we're out of cream, so I'm working up the energy to go to the corner store. I'm sitting at my computer, Bill is sitting a few feet away at his computer, and Bea is curled up on her glamorous carpeted pedestal behind me. It's nice.

I'm actually writing my Xmas form letter. Do you write a holiday form letter? Does anyone send you holiday form letters? I've done it for a few years, partly because it's kind of a funny, grown-up thing to do, but also because my relatives and friends are far flung and it's the easiest way to keep everyone up to speed. For the last few years I've sent a photo with every letter, but I don't have time to deal with that this year. (Last year's photo was great: it was a self-portrait of Bill and I in a cable car in Singapore. A poster advertising Butterfly Park was behind us, but our heads were unintentionally blocking part of it, so it read Butt Park. Hee hee.) Anyway, it's good to force myself to sort out the year that is coming to an end. What did I do? It feels a bit like it's been two years in one. I'm so immersed right now in being a grad student here in Ontario, yet it was just four months ago that I was scuba diving in Malaysia, and a month before that that I was working in Taipei. Hey, by the way, I haven't forgotten that I promised to share Malaysia photos. Since I have a presentation to prepare for and a paper to write this weekend, I'll probably get those photos ready. :)

Look what I found yesterday, via a link from Susan and then some poking around: the Alison charm bracelet! Isn't it sweet? Dear Santa, I've been a very good girl this year...

Mariko shared some links this week to handmade goodies -- does she know about the Donut Hoes? Hey, Mariko, check out the yummy donut earmuffs!

Shere Hite writes on gender-specific toys in today's Independent: "Think about those toys you are buying."

Apparently the Miss World competition is taking place tonight in China, begging the question "Who cares?" Or, as this headline phrases it, "Have the days of beauty queens and world peace faded from their polished former glory forever?"

Here are a couple of language links:

A new edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations has been published along with the results of a poll that shows the ten most popular quotes in Britain. I must confess, I'd never heard the number one quote, which is "It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph" ("Burke tops poll of favorite quotes"). Timely, though, isn't it?

"Blog" is Merriam-Webster's word of the year, as its definition was requested more than any other word's from M-W's online dictionary ("'Blog' tops words of the year").

It's been ages since I did a quiz:


Oscar Wilde: The Portrait of Dorian Gray. You are a
horror novel from the world of dandies, rich
pretty boys, art and aesthetics, and
intellectual debates between ethical people and
decadent pleasure-seekers. You value beauty and
pleasure but realize their dangers, as well.

Which literature classic are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Have a great weekend! If you do nothing else, go to Cari's blog for her current post: Thirteen Ways of Looking at Clapotis. Go now. Thank me later.