There is something about snowfall that brings out the kid in me. I love how the sky turns a violety color at night, with the clouds reflecting back the city lights. I love the peace and quiet that the blanket of white brings with it. It's almost as if time iteslf slows down to accomodate for the icy roads and chilly air. I love it!
I hope the snow sticks, although I know that 36 degrees is far too warm for that to happen. Maybe the temperature will drop drastically tonight and we'll continue to see the little flakes floating gently down. I don't know why it excites me so, but that it does. Mmmm!
This weekend I celebrated not only Thanksgiving but Christmas as well (at least, the first of many. I fully subscribe to the Twelve Days of Christmas feeling!) On Thursday we went to Jake's for dinner and I was able to successfully avoid the traditional meal of which I am not so fond. Bring on the french onion soup and caesar salad! On Friday, Cheryl and I decided to do the thing, you know, where you get up at 5 am and hit the stores for good deals. I bought a ton of Christmas presents (I only need 3 more). We refueled with high-fat fried food at Red Robin and then saw Happy Feet (which was adorable) and did some MORE shopping. Around 9 pm, I headed home to make all the pies for the next day's family Christmas, which we celebrated a month early this year since my cousin is shipping out with the Navy next week. I feel like I need another 4 day weekend to recover from this one.
This season both energizes and calms me. I love the twinkling lights glittering through the snow (when there IS snow). I love the smell of pine trees and apple cider and gingerbread cookies. I love baking and entertaining friends and dressing up, but in the cold weather, I am also more likely to want to go to sleep early and drink hot cocoa at home instead of traipsing around to party after party.
I've been listening to Christmas music non stop since Thursday. Do you think I'll tire of it before the day actually GETS here?
Monday, November 27, 2006
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
I've Got (Gum)Balls
I've figured out (some of) what makes Heroes so captivating: Although it is a television drama, the themes running through the show are so relatable to "normal" life. I think that's ultimately what makes great fiction. You have to stretch the truth and the powers of believability, but still have ideas and issues that the audience connects to. Mind reading, radioactivity, the ability to fly...these push our ability to suspend disbelief, but the desire to do good for the world, the quest for truth and knowledge, love and loss are all themes to which we can all relate.
Part of my obsession with Heroes also stems from the fact that, I'm sorry to say, I've been disappointed in Lost lately.
On a whole other note, people have been telling me for 15 years now that I should write an advice column, and I've finally heeded their urgings. Here's a little tidbit to the guy who asked me why women love shopping and makeup so much:
Part of it is the gatherer instinct that came to us from cave person days (which you men were off slaying beasts for dinner, we gathered the prettiest berries and plumpest nuts that we could find). Part of it is a desire to reinvent ourselves from day to day, and different clothing styles and changing our hair or makeup helps us to do so. One day, I can rock the biker look with black leather pants and a clingy black t-shirt, smoky black makeup and a Greek Fisherman's cap, and then next day I can look demure in white knee socks, a gray pleated skirt and a white button down shirt. I get to play up different facets of my personality, depending on how I feel. Guys tend to be so much more boring. "Ooh...Time to get dressed for work. I'll put on pants, a shirt and a tie: striped today though, so I'm REALLY changing it up!"
Here's the secret that you can use to turn her shopping habit to your advantage: Let her run with it. Encourage it even. Not only will she think she's got the most undertanding man ever, but she'll bring out the different facets of her personality, and you'll get to experience the thrill of dating 12 different women while still staying true.
Part of my obsession with Heroes also stems from the fact that, I'm sorry to say, I've been disappointed in Lost lately.
On a whole other note, people have been telling me for 15 years now that I should write an advice column, and I've finally heeded their urgings. Here's a little tidbit to the guy who asked me why women love shopping and makeup so much:
Part of it is the gatherer instinct that came to us from cave person days (which you men were off slaying beasts for dinner, we gathered the prettiest berries and plumpest nuts that we could find). Part of it is a desire to reinvent ourselves from day to day, and different clothing styles and changing our hair or makeup helps us to do so. One day, I can rock the biker look with black leather pants and a clingy black t-shirt, smoky black makeup and a Greek Fisherman's cap, and then next day I can look demure in white knee socks, a gray pleated skirt and a white button down shirt. I get to play up different facets of my personality, depending on how I feel. Guys tend to be so much more boring. "Ooh...Time to get dressed for work. I'll put on pants, a shirt and a tie: striped today though, so I'm REALLY changing it up!"
Here's the secret that you can use to turn her shopping habit to your advantage: Let her run with it. Encourage it even. Not only will she think she's got the most undertanding man ever, but she'll bring out the different facets of her personality, and you'll get to experience the thrill of dating 12 different women while still staying true.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Questions about Heroes
Okay, I don't want this blog to devolve into a reacap of my favorite tv show, but there's something about the themes running through Heroes that just makes me think.
Last night's episode dealt more with the Heroes' emerging talents and special skills. From what I can tell so far, for each person, these weren't skills that they were born with, but something that appeared without warning or reason. The radioactive man lost two days of consciousness and then had all these talents, as well as two parallel cuts on his neck. The cop who can read minds was able to do so BEFORE he lost his two days, but he too has parallel cuts on his neck.
The question then becomes: Are these Heroes being injected with something to make their DNA mutate, thereby causing skills and talents to emerge? Or are these skills simply something that lay dormant inside them until "the world needs them?"
And is the cheerleader's dad good or evil? Does he really in fact love his indestructible Claire? He seems to genuinely care about her...but he also takes the Heroes and "studies" them. Who knows what that really means.
And was Claire born with these talents, or did they emerge only recently? Is Syler the one who's giving these people special skills, or is he simply killing them? And WHY is he killing them (if it is indeed him that is doing the killing. All we know is that the murderer wears a wrist watch and stays in the shadows so we never fully see his face. I used to think that Claire's dad was Syler, but I don't think so now.
And back to the whole talent thing. Mohinder's mother told him that he had had a sister who died when he was just 2 years old, and that his sister had been special, although she didn't elaborate on what she meant by special. Does that mean that she doesn't think that Mohinder is special? Or that Chandra (Mohinder's father) didn't think so? And since the bulk of Chandra's research dealt with genetics and the evolution of special talents, does that mean that Mohinder, although brilliant, was not special in the way that Chandra wanted him to be?
By the way, Mohinder is hot. Just had to throw that in there, even though he DOES need a bit of a trim in the back (he's creeping up on mullet territory).
And this takes me back to some of the questions I posed in my last blog: Do special people always know they are special? Did Martin Luther King Jr know that he would sacrifice his life for a cause, but that he would be immortal because of it?
And Jesus, too, for that matter, although I am not delving into religious territory.
Do the people who are meant for something greater KNOW this, or do they simply find themselves among circumstances that contribute to their status as heroes? And since we create our realities, if we wanted to manifest conditions in which we could have the chance to shine, we certainly could, right? So it must first begin with a desire to DO something, and then be followed up with ACTION?
Have any of you ever had the sense that you were meant for something greater?
Last night's episode dealt more with the Heroes' emerging talents and special skills. From what I can tell so far, for each person, these weren't skills that they were born with, but something that appeared without warning or reason. The radioactive man lost two days of consciousness and then had all these talents, as well as two parallel cuts on his neck. The cop who can read minds was able to do so BEFORE he lost his two days, but he too has parallel cuts on his neck.
The question then becomes: Are these Heroes being injected with something to make their DNA mutate, thereby causing skills and talents to emerge? Or are these skills simply something that lay dormant inside them until "the world needs them?"
And is the cheerleader's dad good or evil? Does he really in fact love his indestructible Claire? He seems to genuinely care about her...but he also takes the Heroes and "studies" them. Who knows what that really means.
And was Claire born with these talents, or did they emerge only recently? Is Syler the one who's giving these people special skills, or is he simply killing them? And WHY is he killing them (if it is indeed him that is doing the killing. All we know is that the murderer wears a wrist watch and stays in the shadows so we never fully see his face. I used to think that Claire's dad was Syler, but I don't think so now.
And back to the whole talent thing. Mohinder's mother told him that he had had a sister who died when he was just 2 years old, and that his sister had been special, although she didn't elaborate on what she meant by special. Does that mean that she doesn't think that Mohinder is special? Or that Chandra (Mohinder's father) didn't think so? And since the bulk of Chandra's research dealt with genetics and the evolution of special talents, does that mean that Mohinder, although brilliant, was not special in the way that Chandra wanted him to be?
By the way, Mohinder is hot. Just had to throw that in there, even though he DOES need a bit of a trim in the back (he's creeping up on mullet territory).
And this takes me back to some of the questions I posed in my last blog: Do special people always know they are special? Did Martin Luther King Jr know that he would sacrifice his life for a cause, but that he would be immortal because of it?
And Jesus, too, for that matter, although I am not delving into religious territory.
Do the people who are meant for something greater KNOW this, or do they simply find themselves among circumstances that contribute to their status as heroes? And since we create our realities, if we wanted to manifest conditions in which we could have the chance to shine, we certainly could, right? So it must first begin with a desire to DO something, and then be followed up with ACTION?
Have any of you ever had the sense that you were meant for something greater?
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Mink and Worm
Such a dirty name for such a delectable drink. Coconut milk, fresh-squeezed lime, lime zest and a little seltzer. Mmmm.
I was watching the show Heroes last night (had missed it on Monday and taped it...yes, I am old school and don't have DVR). I must say that the show simultaneously fascinates me and scares the shit out of me. I'm not going to go into all the details of it if you aren't familiar with the premise, but it's this idea that there are some people with "mutant" DNA who have special abilities (think X Men, but they don't look any different from the rest of us). It seems that it is just recently that these special "heroes" have realized their extraordinary abilities and now have to decide what to do with them.
It made me start thinking about quantum mechanics and the idea that we shape our realities...that the universe is nothing more than energy vibrating at various frequencies, and we control the frequency of our vibration, thus drawing things (events, people) of similar vibration to us. If we are co-creators of our realities, then what's to stop us from believing that we are more powerful than humans are "supposed" to be? Is it just this belief in ourselves and our abilities that then allows these abilities to manifest? Anyone who has seen Criss Angel, the badass version of illusionist/magician David Blaine, knows that there are some things he can do that are "impossible." Only, if he can do these things, they are clearly NOT impossible. Is it just his strong concentration and belief in his ability to, say, walk on water while people swim around him and below him that allows him to accomplish this "magical illusion?" Or it is something far simpler, like clear, pencil thin stilts on the soles of his shoes that no one in the water or filming frombelow actually notices? He can't fly, mind you: He has to take the steps to walk, and he's clearly concentrating very hard. I wonder what would happen if something broke his concentration?
But I digress. At what point did Criss (or David, for that matter) start realizing they had extraordinary capabilities? And should they feel obligated to be some sort of "hero" and "save the cheerleader, save the world?" The credits are quick to point out that the stunts these men do are "illusions" and conducted by a professional and thus should not be attempted at home. But Criss pulls a Tesla (if you've seen the movie, "The Prestige" you know what I am talking about) and lights up an ordinary lightbulb (unscrewed from a hardware store lamp fixture) simply by holding it in his hand. Then, he levitates the light bulb and makes it spin around and has a bystander run his hand in the air all round the bulb. Remarkable. And again, I wonder if there are just some people who have extraordinary abilities but aren't yet aware?
Talk to most "intuitives," or psychics, and they will say that they have had their abilities ever since they can remember and learning to control them was the big lesson. Does that mean that the rest of us are simply out of luck? Or can we too reshape the fabric of our realities and manifest some "super powers?"
I was watching the show Heroes last night (had missed it on Monday and taped it...yes, I am old school and don't have DVR). I must say that the show simultaneously fascinates me and scares the shit out of me. I'm not going to go into all the details of it if you aren't familiar with the premise, but it's this idea that there are some people with "mutant" DNA who have special abilities (think X Men, but they don't look any different from the rest of us). It seems that it is just recently that these special "heroes" have realized their extraordinary abilities and now have to decide what to do with them.
It made me start thinking about quantum mechanics and the idea that we shape our realities...that the universe is nothing more than energy vibrating at various frequencies, and we control the frequency of our vibration, thus drawing things (events, people) of similar vibration to us. If we are co-creators of our realities, then what's to stop us from believing that we are more powerful than humans are "supposed" to be? Is it just this belief in ourselves and our abilities that then allows these abilities to manifest? Anyone who has seen Criss Angel, the badass version of illusionist/magician David Blaine, knows that there are some things he can do that are "impossible." Only, if he can do these things, they are clearly NOT impossible. Is it just his strong concentration and belief in his ability to, say, walk on water while people swim around him and below him that allows him to accomplish this "magical illusion?" Or it is something far simpler, like clear, pencil thin stilts on the soles of his shoes that no one in the water or filming frombelow actually notices? He can't fly, mind you: He has to take the steps to walk, and he's clearly concentrating very hard. I wonder what would happen if something broke his concentration?
But I digress. At what point did Criss (or David, for that matter) start realizing they had extraordinary capabilities? And should they feel obligated to be some sort of "hero" and "save the cheerleader, save the world?" The credits are quick to point out that the stunts these men do are "illusions" and conducted by a professional and thus should not be attempted at home. But Criss pulls a Tesla (if you've seen the movie, "The Prestige" you know what I am talking about) and lights up an ordinary lightbulb (unscrewed from a hardware store lamp fixture) simply by holding it in his hand. Then, he levitates the light bulb and makes it spin around and has a bystander run his hand in the air all round the bulb. Remarkable. And again, I wonder if there are just some people who have extraordinary abilities but aren't yet aware?
Talk to most "intuitives," or psychics, and they will say that they have had their abilities ever since they can remember and learning to control them was the big lesson. Does that mean that the rest of us are simply out of luck? Or can we too reshape the fabric of our realities and manifest some "super powers?"
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