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...previously...
Styx
Through the 12-way mirror
Racking it up
Why IHOP Sucks
Minority
Report
Sharpening Ockham's
Razor
A 'Ho By Any Other
Name
Chaos in the Classroom
I Was a Teenage BBS'er
Requiem for a Fish
My Dirty Little Secret
The Beauty of Honor
Love of a Good Truck
Random
Musings of an Aging Blonde
A
Solid Foundation
Running
on Empty
Flesh and Blood
Of
a Certain Age
IM
Envy
Perspective
Mater Mea
Fever
Slam
past week's archives
..
published...
Indiebride: When
Wedding Dresses Attack
Cultureflux: The Reluctant Artist
.. thinking...
When
will I know that I've become what I said I wanted
to grow up to be?
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Monday, August 30
Back from the beach 
Isn't vacation just the best? Stories to come ...
posted on 11:59 AM
Better Read Than Dead
Thursday, August 12
I don’t trust people who don’t love bookstores.
Call me crazy, old fashioned, whatever. I just can’t relate.
I used to think it was just me. That I was just weird for asking to be dropped off at a bookstore, not the mall when I was a kid. For finding a corner of the store and camping out with a stack of books. For needing to have a bunch of books by the bed that I was reading simultaneously. Im infected, and there just ain’t no cure.
Granted, I admit that I may indeed BE weird. But now the beauty of my affliction is that I’m not the only one. A secret society of bookstore lovers is out there, and Im thinking of starting a club. Or a support group. Whichever is cheaper.
Sneer all you want at the Big Superstores, and bemoan the loss of the smaller family run bookstore. I’m withya. But ya gotta give props where it’s due – the advent of these literary cathedrals has brought people like me out into the mainstream, blinking as if seeing the sun for the first time. And being a little proud of our geekiness.
Yeah, I know that was a little over the top. I was having a moment. Let me be.
Anyhow, I grew up in a family that loved books so much that we were constantly running out of space for them. Between Dad’s mysteries, Mom’s tomes on all things ancient and the various effluvia of adolescent angst that I was reading, bookshelves were a precious commodity in our house. Since the thought of throwing any of them out was tantamount to sacrilege, once denied shelf space, books would find homes like water finds the cracks in cement. Piles, boxes, attics-full and basements heavy with words. There’s an entire dormer above my parent’s garage filled with my college philosophy books and my father’s old medical journals. It’s never ending.
So when I met my husband, and I recognized the slightly musty scent of a fellow bookstore lover, I knew he was my soulmate. The first time we spent a Friday nite at the bookstore instead of at the latest club, I knew I had to marry him. So long as there was room for all the books.
Over the years we’ve been together, we have fallen into this unusual pattern on a Friday or Saturday nite. It’s Book Date nite. We will drive to a bookstore, kiss at the front door, and go our separate ways. He would park himself in sci-fi and fantasy, I will check out the newest releases, and eventually get sucked into the literature section. And then the computers section. And then the chick lit section. And, whatever else strikes my fancy. Laden with books, never less than 4 or 5, I will go to sci-fi where Miki would have carved us out a space and his own stack of 10-12 and we will read.
Dorky? Yup. Solitary? No way.
Not only is there a quiet comfort in sharing the same weird behavior as another individual, but theres this deep sense of togetherness amid the soft sound of page turning that’s impossible to quantify.
At a certain point, an hour, maybe an hour and a half in, we will look at each other and know it’s time. Off to the café for a cherry Italian soda and a table upon which to sort the purchases from the ones for next time. This one’s a keeper, that one – didn’t you already read it? That sort of thing.
In 10 days, we’re off to the beach for a whole week, and I already have the book date lined up. At least 3-4 books a person must be procured in order to feel comfortable knowing that the reading needs will be covered. Hell, we must have taken 12 books on our 2 week honeymoon, and we still managed to run out of stuff to read, although he made me bring the WHOLE Ring series and I was about to committ sapuku after the Hobbitt. And before you jump on me for being unromantic on our honeymoon, I have two words for you. Hot Tub. So back off, skippy.
Call us weird, call us deviant, call us introverts. But whatever you do, don’t call us more than 10 miles from a bookstore with a nice comfy corner. Without a vial of epinephrine or a good magazine to tide us over, that is.
posted on 4:49 PM
Not Georgia O'Keefe
Wednesday, August 11
Just a really close up shot of a Petunia taken with my new 4-freaking-megapixel-smaller-than-shit camera. Eeowwwwza. Can you SEE those fuzzies on the leaves! Im in love. Im so in love.
Oh, did I mention I got a new digital camera? Yeah.. Well... here's the story.
So I have been stalking this camera for some time now. We bought a nice Fuji 2 megapixel camera on our honeymoon nearly 3 years ago, but the size and shape of it is sorta awkward and on at least 2 occasions when I took it with me somewhere, it decided to stop working and had to be rebuilt from the inside out.
Not exactly confidence inspiring, ya know?
So I started to covet Michelle's cute little credit card camera. Whenever she pull it out of her bag, and blithely would shoot pictures and throw it right back inside, I would go green with envy. Yea, my camera usually takes good shots but I cant do THAT with it, I would pout.
Miki ignored my hints. Alot.
So one day I outright sent him the specs. "Do you really need a new camera?" was all he said.
Harumph. So much for subtle.
Last week he was out of town for business. And I was bad. Very bad. But in my own defense, its not my fault that the Penn Camera across the street from my office HAPPENED to have one of these little babies left... and I HAPPENED to go that way for lunch one day... and the rest is Credit Card History.
So I am now the proud owner of a Pentax Optio S4i. And Im trying hard not to love it more than my family.
Of course when he finally came home, I forgot to mention the new camera for.. oh.. well.. several days.... so on saturday, I brought him a yummy lunch home and then decided he couldn't kick my ass if he was eating smoked turkey, bacon and cheese.
You could tell he was having a HusbandMoment and trying hard to weigh all the options before he finally spoke the magic words: "If its the one you wanted, and it makes you happy, that's great."
And who says you can't train a man?
::ducking while taking great 4 megapixel pictures:::
posted on 6:03 PM
Yes, I have a problem. A decision needs to be made... And I need you, my gentle readers (all 2 of you) to give me the straight dope.
Dontcha feel all tingly now? No. Well, shit.
Anyhow.
I am redesigning my company's website (currently seen at www.zenflea.com) and Im having a crisis. I redesigned it, built the whole damn thing out, and then.. suddenly. Nothing. I couldnt launch it. Dont know why. It didnt feel.... right.
So I had I brain fart yesterday, and I changed direction entirely. And now I just dont know what to do. They both speak to different audiences, different styles.
Which means... its your turn! Weigh in, zenflea-ers. Which do you you prefer and why?
The Redesigned One
The Brain Fart
posted on 12:42 PM
Us and Them
Wednesday, July 28
Is it just me, or are there better speakers/writers in the Democratic party than in the.. ya know.. other one?
Or maybe we just have more people who know how to pronounce nuclear correctly.
posted on 1:36 PM
Well, gee. Now I feel
SO much safer, don't you?
Our Security Level
{people to read}
... dooce.com
... blurbomat
... the angry dome
... wonkette
... ratbastard
... form and dysfucntional
... curious lee
... allura
... SB: Adventures in dangerous art
... terrapin gardens
... hungry couch
... Eschaton
... Somewhere in the digital forest
... Yourish.com
... not a dollarshort
... davezilla
... asparagirl
... megnut
... evhead
... cut on the bias
{places to go}
ART AND DESIGN
... cultureflux
... VisualJournalism
... Arts Journal
... artdaily
... an exquisite corpse
... the undesigners
... art and revolution
... MOMA
... Freer/Sackler Gallery
... Cooper Hewitt Museum
... Visual Thesaurus
PHOTOGRAPHY
... mirror project
... photographica
... Here is New York
GEEK STUFF
... boxes and arrows
... eleganthack.com
... this is broken
FUN AND GAMES
... zefrank
... Tha Shizzolator
... Two Truths and a Lie
... Headline Haiku's
... Theory Cards
... Binary Decoder Ring
... The Onion
NEWS
AND OPINION
... NPR
... Washington
Post
... Salon
...
Nerve
OTHER
..
Starting a socrates cafe
...
going
bridal
...
snark
hunting
... indie
bride