Month: May 2011

Monday various

  • The first four Harry Potter books condensed. Lovely. [via]
  • Geeks, Girls, and Media Misogyny: The Saga Continues:

    I can accept that questioning a actor or actress about their geek bona fides when part of their job involves selling their project to the public, including the geeky public, and especially when it’s a geeky project may seem like a good idea, except for one thing: it’s only women whose geek cred is called into question, time and again.

    If nothing else, arguing that sexy women can’t be geeks seems to be forgetting one simple thing: smart, geeky women are sexy.

  • Writers and Kitties. Does exactly what it says on the cat food tin. [via]
  • I think what I like most about this article from the New York Times about booksellers who are also authors is this revelation from author Jonathan Lethem:

    “I have the habit of accumulation,” he said. “When I first met my wife, my kitchen cabinets were full of books.

  • And finally, seriously Marie Claire? Seriously, “nutritionists”? Easily the most ridiculous is the woman who skips lunch and then eats an entire box of macaroons for dessert at night. There’s a lot of calorie counting going on in almost all of these, but very little healthy eating. [via]

In which my Sunday is spent mostly watching TV

I was going to join my weekly writing group, then go see Thor with them afterward, but our plans fell apart. Maybe next week. I spent the day mostly watching television, or at least it seems so in retrospect. I watched the last two episodes of Fringe — which was a lot of fun, if in the end a little disappointing — the latest episode of Doctor Who — which had its moments but…well, next week’s Neil Gaiman-penned episode looks really good — and a couple episodes of Supernatural and Misfits. Oh, and the most recent episode of How I Met Your Mother. I think that’s it. On paper, it sounds horribly unproductive, but it was a pleasant enough day off, lots of good weather all around. I went for a walk, and listened to the Selected Shorts reading of Dan Chaon’s “The Bees” — a haunting story that knocked the wind out of me even though I’d read it before. And I more or less finished the Sunday crossword.

So, maybe not the single most incredible or exciting Sunday — I’d have liked to have done more writing, more reading — but nevertheless enjoyable.

And a happy Mother’s Day, to mine and yours and all mothers.

A pleasant Saturday

Not a terribly exciting day, but one with gorgeous weather, and sometimes that’s really enough.

I cleaned a little, watched a little television, picked up a new propane tank for the backyard grill, and went out with my parents to celebrate Mother’s Day. It doesn’t sound like a lot on paper, but it was a pleasant enough day, and I enjoyed it.