Some of you will remember that when Kingsley went missing Cooper started doing this adorable thing where he punched me in the face when he was hungry. At 5 o’clock in the morning. Well, he still occasionally does that when I do something silly like fall asleep before feeding him his midnight snack.
So, this morning, I just assumed that since he was purring and batting me in the face that he must be hungry and so I chose to ignore him. (Actually, I told him that we weren’t eating until the alarm went off, but since my cats don’t speak English that detail is both silly and irrelevant.)
When the alarm went off and I finally did get up he ran into the room, watched me go about my morning business and then led me into the kitchen. ” I know, I know,” I said to him, “You’re hungry.” Only instead of stopping by his food bowl and waiting patiently he kept on walking and sat on my yoga mat in the front room. I stared at him for minute, put food into his bowl (Lily, my other cat, actually was hungry) and then went to join him on the floor.
I’ve been doing yoga in the mornings and apparently Cooper has decided that this is new special Kate and Cooper time. Isn’t that adorable? So, now I have to wonder, is he hitting me in the face because he’s hungry or because he wants to weave through my legs while I’m in downward-facing dog?
Ah, the next Pretty Little Liars book. We left off with them at Alison’s funeral, Spencer jonesing for her sister’s boyfriend, Hanna ruling the school, Aria chasing her teacher and Emily coming to terms with who she is. Oh, and all of them freaking out about the fact that someone seems to know all their secrets (and knowing that the one person who *actually* knew all their secrets is dead.) So, this book is more of the same. The girls being terrible people. The girls doing awful things to people they care about and people that allegedly care about them doing awful things to them.
In this book, we’re taken back to the real beginning, the “Jenna thing” that is alluded to throughout the first book. Toby, who has been discussed, returns to town and freaks the girls out. Toby’s secrets become apparent. Some of the girls secrets are outed, too.
In short, this is more terrible people doing hateful things to each other. It was wonderful, like watching a soap opera without having to be home in the middle of the day or remembering to set your TiVo.
Despite the fact the most of my friends told me to read things that weren’t linguistic while I was on vacation, I picked this book up. I figured that, since Blount is a journalist and not a linguist, it wouldn’t be like real language reading. It would be fun. And, the subtitles promised, “the energies, gists and spirits of letters, words and combinations thereof; their roots, bones, innards, piths, pips and secret parts, tinctures, tonics and essences; with examples of the their usage foul and savory.”
That sounds fun, right? (Well, it sounds fun if you’re a nerd like me.)
And, the book isn’t bad. I just don’t feel like it is what I was promised. There are not a lot of “roots, bones, piths and secret parts”. There are some but not for every word. And, some of Blount’s “pith and innards” seems to be features of sounds or phonology that he points out to support his thesis that language isn’t arbitrary. But, a lot of language is arbitrary. It is actually a design feature. It has the flexibility that it has largely because of its arbitrary parts. But, whatever. I’m trying to not be a linguist, just someone who is interested in words here.
There were a lot of anecdotes in the book. Some of which were funny, some of which were just, well, anecdotal. And, often not having to do with the words but rather one instance of one word’s usage.
My friend Melissa recommended it to me. And, I looked for her review of it just now to see if she liked it. Because I have to say that my opinion of the book is coming down on the side of ‘boo’. Anecdotes about your life in words can be fun. But, believe me when I say (after reading 1 semester and 1 summer session’s worth of papers on etymologies) where words come from is sometimes surprising, often fun, every now and then shocking and always interesting. I expected so much from this book based on its title, and it just didn’t deliver.
It is 9:30 and I can already tell that it is going to be a scorcher today. I think I may have to abandon my furry compatriots and spend most of the afternoon someplace else working on German flashcards. I knew moving up to the 3rd floor of a building was going to mean being creative with where I spent my afternoon on the hot and humid days in Buffalo.
The good news is, I spend most of my afternoons on campus. Also, my cats spend most of their afternoons passed out, so I don’t feel particularly bad about leaving them to swelter in their new home.
This morning, though, Cooper got me up at 5:59. (He’s like the weather, he always wakes me up on a 9.) I fed him and it was quiet and a little cool out and I thought about going for a jog. I should have. This may become the summer of listening to my cats. How much stuff could I have gotten done before it started really getting hot if I had those three extra hours? We’ll see if he does it again tomorrow. He probably will, only earlier. Yesterday, he woke me at 6:59. (I went ahead and got up yesterday because 7 seemed reasonable on Sunday. Or, maybe all the moving has me delirious.)
As, you may know, It is the World Cup. I like to think of this as a month long holiday that happens every four years where all of the world stops and wonders, “Who will be the next champion?”
Now that we’re out of the group stage, past the round of 16 and into the quarters a lot of people, myself included, have found ourselves without a team to cheer on from here on in (Go, USA!). Honestly, my bracket has been completely destroyed. I was just listening to a piece on NPR about who to follow now. And, the guy suggested that instead of looking for a team to root for, you can look for a team to root against. In general, I like this suggestion because I’m a snarky human being. However, my favorite team to root against is also out. (Sorry, England.)
But, I unexpectedly found a new team to support while watching my team (Go USA!). Ghana is a lot of fun to watch (unless they’re playing the US.) They’ve knocked us out of two World Cups (boo!). Also, they’ve never won a World Cup (only seven countries have ever won the World Cup: (West) Germany, England, Uruguay, Brazil, Italy, Argentina and France). How awesome would it be to watch a first time winner at the first Championship held on the African Subcontinent? Go, Ghana!
This man, Valentin Abe, has built a hatchery in Haiti. He then shares his fish with local fisherman (who can’t fish anymore because their lakes have been overfished) to farm the fish. This is just a great idea.
So, I did something that seems totally crazy today. In between not getting up off the couch and not getting my work done, I created a profile on an internet dating site.
I don’t think anything will come of it, but I had some fun looking at profiles and sending people a first introductory email. We’ll see what happens.
So, usually when you put together a mix CD, you try to have a theme. Or, at least I do. I try to put together a cohesive unit of music that say something (often to someone) about a topic. Not to get all Rob Gordon here (although, its probably too late for that) but music moves you, it speaks to your soul, or maybe just your head, but there is something about the power of music that is amazing. I’m not a musician, I can’t write songs or play an instrument (well), so my only opportunities to use music to let someone know something, to influence how they feel through the power of song is a mix tape. And, this mix seems to be about love and unhappiness. I wonder what that says about me?
NPR is freaking amazing, in case you didn’t already know that. I am a devotee. I have driveway moments all the time. Back when I lived in Iowa City, I was listening to a music show that was broadcast from the station at the University of Northern Iowa. I remember I was driving home from work, actually. And this song came on about religion. No, spirituality. No, life.
So, the song was just a guy with his guitar (and maybe a backup mandolin) in the studio singing this song about the miracle that is living. The song is about how when you’re little, you’re told about all these amazing things that happened back in the day and you think, “Gosh, why doesn’t anything cool like that happen now?” I mean, Joshua and the army of Israel brought down the walls of Jericho with their trumpets. Moses parted a sea. But, the older you get you come to realize that the world is full of things that are incredible and improbable and how wonderful that is.
And, to think, if I hadn’t been going home from work at that moment, I might never have heard the song at all.
Album: Million Year Mind
Singer/Songwriter: Peter Mayer
Song: Holy Now
I have to tell you, if it weren’t for my sister (and the good people of iTunes and their free tune a week), I would be sonically stuck in 2005. But, that being said, the song that I’m going to talk about in this post Beth probably clued me into around 2005.
I figured, even though I missed that week or so in the middle because of the *shudders* sinus infection, I stay get back on the blogging train and finish out my mix CD. After thinking about “Divorce Song” yesterday, another song about love gone wrong popped into my head. Back in 2004, my sister clued me into a band called Low Millions with their song “Eleanor” off their album Ex-Girlfriends.
So, this is another catchy tune with resignation. I won’t call you baby anymore and I can’t relate to what you say I’ve done and, I wish you’d release me from your spell. Because I wish this wouldn’t end, but you seem to want it to and I want to make you happy so…alright.
More recently, my sister has fueled a love of the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Duffy and Lady GaGa. But, its nice to go digging through the archives for catchy tunes about bad breakups.
Album: Ex-Girlfriends
Band: Low Millions
Song: Eleanor
