stuff to consume

I love coming home from pub trivia to a house that smells like freshly-baked bread. Whole Foods’ 365 gluten-free sandwich bread mix is the best mix I’ve baked so far. It tastes like real bread, and by that I mean it has a sweet aftertaste that FunkyPlaid immediately picked up on when he tried it. Most gluten-free mixes have a powdery, slightly sour aftertaste. On another tactile note, I am testing out some new fragrances. Patchouli Garden’s vanilla sandalwood is enticing at first, but on my skin it evens out to what I can only term “old lady musk”, which is disappointing. Song of India’s sandalwood oil, on the other hand, is the perfect blend of woodsy sweetness. I am still undecided on the patchouli sandalwood. Erik...

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Posted on 16 Nov 2009 | 2 comments

winter is coming

George R. R. Martin‘s “A Song of Ice and Fire” is my favorite contemporary fantasy series, so I am both thrilled and concerned about the upcoming HBO adaptation. A friend pointed out the “Winter is Coming” news and rumors blog and now I am well and truly excited.

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Posted on 26 Aug 2009 | Comments Off

fifteen in fifteen

This sort of meme makes me both crazy and happy. The instructions are as follows: “Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15 friends, including me because I’m interested in seeing what books my friends choose.” The list is in order of how I thought of it, not how I read it. Reply in a comment if you so desire. (Thanks for the tag, Jen!) 1984 by George Orwell Brave New World by Aldous Huxley The Bridge by Iain Banks Justine by Lawrence Durrell Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Demian by Hermann Hesse Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham Watchmen by Alan Moore...

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Posted on 13 Jun 2009 | 1 comment

invisible pie

invisible pie

After writing like this for nearly eleven years, I have run out of titles, so I am recycling random things I hear that stick in my brain. Brain, brain, brain: offline life has become a morass of the brain. First it was grad school applications, then the short story that took over my subconscious, and now an impending civil service examination. Then there is the reading list: Enduring Love (Ian McEwan), Tricked (Alex Robinson), and more than a few others. Last night, we even watched a movie, “The Visitor”, so uncommon for us as we have devoted all our DVD time to “Battlestar Galactica” for months now. Aside from writing, I have lost the urge to think creatively, and have not picked up a puzzle in months, nor have I started one of the myriad...

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Posted on 5 Apr 2009 | 1 comment

podcast #7: sequels

After our “creative hiatus” of over two years, Matt is not rusty, but I sure am. In this episode, he is charming and funny, while I am bitter and annoying. My opinions on vampire novels are sure to alienate the whole family! Don’t miss this! Download Episode #7 | Subscribe with iTunes

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Posted on 19 Jan 2009 | 2 comments

the return of the huh

I am barely coherent at this point, but sure, I will throw some words together and at you while I sip my cookie tea. You heard me: cookie tea! And no actual cookies were harmed in the making of this tea, so it is gluten-free! Ah, tea-chnology. Various events over the past few days have turned parts of my life into a wobbly shopping-cart — you know the kind, one wonky wheel requiring an extra-tight grip to keep the whole thing moving forward. As a result, my knuckles are white but I am also chuckling vaguely to myself in the quieter moments, from a curious “huh, this is what my life is now” type of observation mode. I would be more specific, but I refuse to break my streak of obtusely referring to Major Life Drama from the pedestal (lighthouse?...

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Posted on 19 Dec 2008 | 2 comments

grateful for books

When I started this exercise, I thought I might have some trouble enumerating all the objects of my gratitude, since I had been so focused on the negative for so long.  Not so!  Today’s entry is another easy one: I am grateful for books.  I love words and stories, paper and ink, the sound of a new book’s spine as it is first opened, the smell of an old book’s pages.  I believe in literacy and libraries, in the power of the written word to inspire and to inflame.  I learned to read when I was 3 years old, and since then it has been my fondest hobby.  It is the greatest luck that I find myself with a career in libraries so I can live my passion every day. My beloved gave me Iain Banks’ Matter for my birthday, and I have been savoring it...

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Posted on 17 Jul 2008 | 1 comment

Libraries get their due in two very different books

Libraries get their due in two very different books“It’s National Library Week. USA TODAY’S Bob Minzesheimer examines two books about libraries — one mystical, the other more mundane.” (via monkeemind)

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Posted on 16 Apr 2008 | Comments Off