I just absolutely love this picture, orange color and all.
Sanditon thus far is proving very strange, I'm still reading what Jane Austen herself wrote, but it just doesn't sound like her at all. They have Austen's notes and diary excerpts for sale at the bookstore downtown, hopefully I'll be able to get on that soon. I think there are two more existing fragments that I have yet to read, of course I'm on the lookout for the both of them but I'm starting to think I'll have to order them online.
Next on my reading list-
1. Middlemarch
2. Daniel Deronda
3. Bleakhouse
That's a great many pages to slog through right there but only three books. I desperately want to go book shopping. (I was going to say need but I caught myself.) I've got a list of books I want something like a mile long. Maybe I should concentrate just a little bit more on writing then reading... the writing might just provide me with the money I need to keep reading what I want.
October 4, 2008 -Reading and Writing-
October 3, 2008 -Of Kittens, a Dog, and a Laser Pointer-
And another leaf picture. I'm going picture taking tomorrow so I'll have some fun new stuff to put up that isn't so repetitive.
Picked up another Austen fragment, Sanditon this time, finished by an anonymous woman. Well, she's true to the Austen style in that much at least, I just hope she doesn't disappoint as much as the last one did.
Things are starting to look like I'm getting my own apartment again. I've applied for a job in Reedsburg that pays $11.35 an hour, and there's apartments right across the street that happen to be leasing. If I got the job we're moving in there.
Today was my boyfriend's day off, so we went to Robot World. I hadn't been there since I was about six, I had so much fun! They have an automatic lawn mower that just runs around all the time mowing the grass, it's so little and fun looking, it even refuels itself. At the gift shop we bought a cheap little laser pointer and took it over to my boyfriend's sister's house to play with the little kittens. They were adorable but didn't get into it very much, we had a lot of fun with the dog though. They have a great beast of a dog, German Shepard, Husky, and something else I can't quite discern that makes its head huge and blocky. He loved the pointer and galumphed after it for a good half hour, trying to pounce on it like a gargantuan fox.
FACT:
Small children are very good at scaring little animals, particularly when driving a Barbie jeep that for some unknown reason has a police siren and lights. This causes kittens to hide in small nooks and not come out even when you shine a laser pointer.
October 2, 2008 -Barack Button-
Another bee picture, I know, but they all just turned out so well.
Not much to say today. I got a cool "America's Next First Family" button with Michelle, Barack and their girls pictured on the front. Stuck that on my jacket. Highlight of my day, seriously.
October 1, 2008 -The Closing Campaign-
OCTOBER!
Adopt a Shelter Dog month
Gay and Lesbian History month
Photographer Appreciation month
And, furthermore, there's only a month left of the presidential campaign. People, you better believe that this election will fully determine whether our nation sinks or swims. We are headed straight for another depression, and no matter what we do to try and fix it, the damage has already been done. We need a leader who, in the next few years, is going to make responsible and intelligent decisions, someone who can prevent a complete plummet. The incredible debt that George Bush has sent us into now becomes our next president's responsibility, so let's just reason this out here.
John McCain is adamant about continuing the war that got us into this mess in the first place. Brilliant, let's just spend another trillion dollars so our men can die in a country we never should have gone to in the first place while here at home the price of basic needs start soaring through the roof. Our economy is in trouble and McCain wouldn't even acknowledge that simple fact until the stock market crashed. What can we expect of him as our president? Blissful ignorance as the middle class becomes extinct? And McCain's "lower taxes" bullshit that he feeds to the swing voters, who does he think he's kidding? Where do you think the money comes from that funds this pointless war? As long as we stay in Iraq our taxes stay the same, not to mention if the idiot actually gets his way and invades Iran. You might as well say goodbye to this country as you know it if that happens.
The War on Terrorism. If that's what this war was really about we wouldn't be overseas. What about the thousands of people shot every year in gang conflicts and territory wars? The mothers who have to bury their sons and daughters due to pointless violence? Maybe we should be worrying a little bit less about weapons in the middle east and a little bit more about weapons in the hands of criminals here at home. If it were up to me, nobody would be allowed to own a gun, nobody at all. That way, weapons can't fall into the wrong hands. Children teased at school don't go out and buy the guns they use to kill their classmates, they just find the key to their dad's gun cabinet. Terrorism abounds in this country, whether it be ignorant, close-minded sign bearers at a gay pride festival, or men dressed in white sheets burning a cross.
People, please, research your candidates this year and make a well informed choice. The youth of this country depend on you to secure a future worth looking forward too. I remember the devastation I felt at 14 years of age, not old enough to vote, hearing that George Bush was once again our nation's president. And now, this man that I didn't vote for and never would have voted for has racked up debt so bad that I will be paying for it the rest of my life. This year, be a true patriot and choose the man that's best for this country and our future.
September 30, 2008 -Aspirations-
I love the detail you see here, all the different blades of grass and different plants surrounding the leaf, the little drops of water standing out against the yellow surface. I liked the contrast of the yellow leaf against the still green grass, like summer and autumn colliding into each other. Image quality seems consistently better from my first picture post thus far.
I bought the '09 Writer's Market today. Together with an ACT study book, a Conn Iggulden novel about Genghis Khan, and a book titled How to Read Novels Like a Professor, the purchase put me out eighty bucks. Yeah. I think I might take the other two back, I need the Writer's Market and the ACT study guide, but I need money more than I need to learn about Genghis Khan or how to read. I think I've got the reading down anyway.
So, studying for the ACT. I've decided I'm going to go to four year college after all. Which means taking the ACT of course, which I never did in High school, mainly because I'm an idiot. I'm not really worried about the test, the reason I bought the book was for the math section. I don't do so well in that particular study area.
What I'm undertaking here is a good eight years of school, probably more. I'm going to be a Veterinarian, something I've wanted to do since I was just a little girl, but something I never really thought was feasible, due to money and my not so fantastic grades. I'm starting small though, and I'll get there eventually. God that is so much time though... eight years. And I might specialize in exotic animals like lions and tigers and bears and whatnot, I'd like to work as a veterinarian in a zoo. I am going to owe so much money at the end of all this.
September 29, 2008 -Joan attempts Jane-
Image quality seems a lot better today, yesterday's picture was really disappointing because it's all about the detail, which you really can't see. This flower was all alone on the trellis, there wasn't a single other bloom.
Last night I finished reading Joan Aiken's incredibly disappointing continuation of Jane Austen's The Watsons. I know that the woman is just trying to help you better understand the times and customs, but in doing so she absolutely murders any attempt to sound like Jane Austen. I mean, she talks about Napoleon Bonaparte and his relations with Russia, Jane Austen would never have written about such a thing, her stories were about the people in them, not events happening hundreds of miles away, every Austen fan knows that, it's trademark. And the way that she felt it necessary to explain the ingredients or components of anything and everything that we, as people of the modern era, probably have never heard of before. You can always tell when an author is awkwardly weaseling something into a paragraph just for the sake of the reader, making the characters ridiculously explain what is perfectly clear to them. It's extremely distracting. And some of the things Aiken had the young women doing, unheard of. You have to remember we're talking Victorian England here. She wrote about an elopement in passing, nobody seemed to think it was that big of a deal, and then all of the sudden a different sister becomes the disgrace of the family because she's living above an apothecary's shop. I'm afraid that's just not the way things would have went. The romance was incredibly unsatisfactory, and far-fetched even for an Austen novel. I disliked the fact that Aiken had the heroine's romantic interest writing her a letter, rare was the Victorian gentleman who would have done such a thing before becoming engaged to his female correspondent.
And so, in summary, as an avid Jane Austen reader and fan, I hardly feel that any sort of justice has been done to this remarkable woman whom I consider to be one of my greatest teachers.
September 28, 2008 -A Bee and some Tea-
I have decided that, starting today, I am going to include a picture with every post. A quality picture, something interesting, something you want to see. And no, I'm not going to jack pictures off of google or anything like that, these will all be pictures taken by me.
I'm starting off with this little guy in spirit of the toad incident and because I think it's probably one of the best pictures I've ever taken. (Click for much better image quality.) I caught the bee on a cold day so I could take as many pictures as I wanted without having to worry about being stung.
I've been browsing the web today for teaware. I really want to get into gongfu brewing but I don't have a gaiwan, I really want the green lotus one on Tao of Tea's website. I need a matcha set too, and they can be really pricey. The tins that they put their limited edition teas in at Tao of Tea are incredibly tempting, as are the storage tins for sale by Rishi. I need more teapots horribly, I really like the Japanese Fukugatas, but they can be hard to find. I have yet to try Gunpowder green, Dragonwell, or Puerh, and I've heard nothing but top notch ratings for all three. I've got a long shopping list for the next time I have the money to blow on my tea obsession.
