Running up that hill

This is full blown 80's epic glory. Let's learn the choreography.

Thank you. Thank you.

Those who have known me awhile may have heard me recount my childhood fantasy of an Entenmann's truck overturning and spilling its goods all over the highway, causing a mass free for all!!! In the words of John Vanderslice- keep the dream alive:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24707718/?GT1=43001

Dubliners

So while in Ireland I did read Dubliners. By all accounts it is a brilliant book. It reminded me of reading Winesburg, Ohio (except with real places). I loved reading about streets I was walking on or hearing people talk about trips to Galway and the Aran Islands. But reading Dubliners colored the way I saw the world, and not necessarily in a good way. Life itself has waves of emotion. But this was one story after the next of those bitter, disappointed, jaded waves that leave you feeling wrecked but alive; bruised but without broken bones. Hurt enough to get a nod of pity but not the real thing. It felt like some of the short stories in my life. But those short stories (some much longer than others) are interspersed with others stories- perhaps not happy but at least hilarious. And weaved throughout them is some kind of belief that there is something good in this universe. Without those it leaves a kind've dull aching in your chest that you just hope to God doesn't indicate internal bleeding or something...or do you really care at all? Remember- nobody else does.
I need a drink.

Dames and Dragons

I have a dream: to make my own dress for a Renaissance Fair, and then volunteer there. I don't really know how to sew yet, but have until the summer to learn and make a dress. If anyone so cares (or dares) to join me, please do. (The actual fair is yet to be decided on...I am currently looking into one in the catskills).

Sailor's Grave

My recent sea themed reading voyages (Life of Pi, Moby Dick, The Old Man and the Sea), reminded me of a song my dad always sang to me when I was little. I found the words so thought I'd share. But like any good sailor, I only sing when there's rum around.

The Mermaid

Twas Friday morn when we set sail
And we were not far from the land
When the captain, he spied a lovely mermaid
With a comb and a glass in her hand

O the ocean's waves will roll
And the stormy winds will blow
While we poor sailors go skipping to the top
And the landlubbers lie down below (below, below)
And the landlubbers lie down below

And up spoke the captain of our gallant ship
And a well-spoken man was he
I have me a wife in Salem by the sea
And tonight she a widow will be

And up spoke the cookie of our gallant ship
And a red hot cookie was he
Saying I care much more for my pots and my pans
Than I do for the bottom of the sea

Then up spoke the cabinboy, of our gallant ship
And a nasty little lad was he.
I'm not quite sure I can spell "mermaid"
But I'm going to the bottom of the sea.

Then three times around went our gallant ship
And three times around went she
Three times around went our gallant ship
And she sank to the bottom of the sea

Well if you liked that enough to read the whole thing, click this link and you can hear it: http://www.thebards.net/music/lyrics/The_Mermaid_Song.shtml

Finis

"Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee" (p.550).
After three and a half months aboard the Pequod, I thought I would conquer Moby Dick. But it was indeed he who conquered me.

Under the Sea

This juvenile boxfish was found on a recent expedition into the "coral triangle" bordered by the Phillipines, Malaysia and Indonesia. They went three miles below the surface and discovered this crazy creature. Woah.