alix ([info]alightningseed) wrote,
@ 2006-01-17 21:30:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend  Next Entry
preguntas
Sometimes, ljay is great for helping me to find things out. Today may be one of those times! I am thinking about several areas of interest.

LEARNING: I have been thinking a lot lately about how when I was in elementary school, I often wished I knew everything. I know now that that is really hard, and have been wishing more that I could just remember everything I do learn.
1) I have been missing classes and lectures and resources, so I have been reading more non fiction. I would like to recommend to you the author Sarah Vowell, who is also a contributor to This American Life and McSweeney's. I just read her book Assassination Vacation, which is a funny and personable account of her obsession with presidential assassinations. I wonder, could you recommend some books to me? Please!
2) Also, if you are in college, I really would like it if you would send me any papers you have recently written, for fall semester finals or whatever. My email address is gogo.alix@gmail.com. Seriously.
3) Also, do you suggest any magazine subscriptions? I have subscribed to The Nation so far. And am on a budget.

FRIENDZ: One of my five very simple New Year's resolutions was to "keep in touch." It is real hard. However, I was wondering if anyone is a member of any of these online systems? Let's interweb.
1) Netflix
2) Audioscrobbler
3) Skype

MEXICAN FOODS: Later this week a few friends and my roomate and I will be making enchiladas and maybe a pinata. Does anyone know where to find any of the following important Mexican items in the US (most helpfully, Burlington VT)?
1) Enchilada sauce recipe
2) A tortilla press
3) Mexican hot chocolate blocks

(Life is pretty cool, except washing dirt is a little boring and I wonder what I'm going to be when I grow up?)

(25 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]ex_centuries305
2006-01-18 03:09 am UTC (link)
i'm on audioscrobs!

my username on there = "daile" (how creative, i know, right?)

haha. what's yours?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]alightningseed
2006-01-18 10:50 pm UTC (link)
yay, i love sharing music ideas so easily! mine is gogoalix. i added you!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]kittyfoyle
2006-01-18 03:30 am UTC (link)
Alix! I am nearly finished with Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, which is a nonfiction novel and is very good indeed. I love it. Also, a few weeks ago I read another nonfiction book, America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines by Gail Collins. It is a condensed but excellent account of women's history in the US. And I will check into the Vowell book once I get through my next literary endeavor, a new book about the most famous/infamous black actor in early Hollywood, Stepin Fetchit.

(Reply to this)


[info]kittyfoyle
2006-01-18 03:31 am UTC (link)
Also, I'm on Netflix!

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]alightningseed
2006-01-18 10:51 pm UTC (link)
Oh Claudia I should have known you were on Netflix! I'll never get to the end of my queue with you suggesting films.
I saw Capote and have In Cold Blood on hold; I'm so excited to read it. Thanks for the other suggestions!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]electricmonk
2006-01-18 04:33 am UTC (link)
The books I've been heartily recommending to everyone lately are The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, and The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. So good.
I forget things too. I'm afraid to graduate because I think I'll go dumb.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]electricmonk
2006-01-18 04:50 am UTC (link)
Hey, and here I thought I was clever, trying to italicize book titles. Oops.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]evilbearhunter
2006-01-18 02:14 pm UTC (link)
I second The Things They Carried. I also recommend The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, but it's not a particularly "smart" book. It's literary fantasy.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]alightningseed
2006-01-18 10:58 pm UTC (link)
I loved the Eyre Affair, and all of the Thursday Nexts! What a clever author.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]alightningseed
2006-01-18 10:52 pm UTC (link)
I love Middlesex! I've read Milan Kundera before but not that one, I know I need to look it up though. Thank you and thanks for the validation -- it is so weird not to be in a structured learning environment anymore, but I am sure you will be fine!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]akismarain
2006-01-18 04:31 pm UTC (link)
Books! Of course.

I've also been reading almost exclusively non-fiction. The whole not-being-in-school thing.

Some good ones:

Kurt Vonnegut's new book, Man Without a Country (could read it in like, 30 mins, but worth it)

Guns, Germs, and Steel (you've probably read it) by Jared Diamond
Collapse (also by Jared Diamond)
Unequal Protection (can't remember author)
The World is Flat (again, can't remember author)
and of course Story of B, by Daniel Quinn

Hope you haven't read /all/ of those, since you read a lot :D

Is it very cold up there?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]look_closer
2006-01-18 04:58 pm UTC (link)
yes i LOVE jared diamond. i am reading collapse right now too!

also, alix, i'm fairly sure you have read ishmael, but if you haven't, you should. AND beyond civilization, also by daniel quinn. the man might honestly be a genius.

also, lynn white is a very interesting author, and so is bill mckibben.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]akismarain
2006-01-18 05:07 pm UTC (link)
indeed :D the whole group of them - ishmael, my ishmael, beyond civilization, and the ultimate - story of B - all highly reccommended reading for anyone who wants to live a healthy happy life :D Marissa if you haven't read story of B - dooooo it.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]alightningseed
2006-01-18 10:55 pm UTC (link)
I have read Ishmael, but only just last month. I wish I had read it in high school, I feel like it would have been more moving then? I don't know, but I did still enjoy it. Thanks for the other author endorsements!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]alightningseed
2006-01-18 10:54 pm UTC (link)
It's freezing here! Except it took a break and poured all day today which sucks cause I walk to work. Oh well.
I haven't read any of those! I've been meaning to read Guns, Germs and Steel though, and I will look up his other books and your other suggestions, thanksss.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]akismarain
2006-01-18 04:38 pm UTC (link)
Also, I have netflix (my email is jessica_jacobs@ksg.harvard.edu) and i signed up for audioscrobbler as akisma, but I don't get it yet. I tried to edit some tags and it just kept trying to load :/

(Reply to this)


[info]look_closer
2006-01-18 06:05 pm UTC (link)
oh oh and also, diane ackerman! especially, for nonfiction, the natural history of love and the natural history of sex. it rules when poets write historical non-fiction: beautiful prose AND interesting reads.

and perhaps, for some gender theory, sexing the body by Anne Fausto-Sterling

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]alightningseed
2006-01-18 10:56 pm UTC (link)
Thanksss!

(Reply to this) (Parent)
mex hc
(Anonymous)
2006-01-18 11:06 pm UTC (link)
i'm sorry this isn't helpful because i don't know where to get mexican hot chocolate blocks but i was wondering if you could tell me when you find out! i love that stuff.
sarah
p.s. putting cinnamon in hot chocolate doesn't work.

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: mex hc
[info]alightningseed
2006-01-19 02:26 am UTC (link)
I know! Cinnamon doesn't do the trick. Lake Champlain chocolates here in Burlington makes an "Aztec" hot chocolate which I am thinking of trying in lieu of the real thing. If it is good I will send you some!

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: mex hc
(Anonymous)
2006-01-22 10:33 pm UTC (link)
yay! my school mascot is the aztecs! weird how politically incorrect stuff is here sometimes. they hate columbus day though.
sarah

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]therosssays
2006-01-19 12:14 am UTC (link)
Learning:
I've read two books recently. Both were probably a 6 to a 7 on the "how good is this book" scale. The Truth (with jokes) by Al Franken and Our Endangered Values by Jimmy Carter. The Truth was alot better than Lies and the Lying Liars. Franken didn't have as many over the top stupid jokes and most of the humor came from simply being witty. Our Endangered Values was a little jesus freakey for me, honestly, being an atheist. But at least Carter is the "let he who is without sin throw the first stone" type of Jesus freak and not the "burn faggot burn" kind.
If you really want my crappy finals from last year, I've probably got them somewheres. I also just realized that I've been out of college for a year. Speaking of college, any other college graduates commute 35 miles each way for less than 20k?
If you want the best news magazine in the world, the answer is the economist. It's a little bit dry at times, but there honestly doesn't exist better news. The Financial Times is also good at news, but you can get most of their stuff online from google news.

Friendz:
Do I qualify as out of touch with youth culture when I only know what one of those things is? I've got AIM. How's that? You still got that, right? I's love to keep in touch.

Mexican Food:
I'm horrible at mexican food. I enjoy Taco Bell. Though, I will say that throwing your buritto on a george foreman grill (which is like 10 bucks) is aproximately several billion times better than putting it in the microwave.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]alightningseed
2006-01-19 02:30 am UTC (link)
I've read Lies, etc., and liked it pretty well, so I will be glad to try a book even better than that!
I really want the Economist, real bad, but it is like 100 dollars a year, for real. That is a lot. I think I'm going to go read it at the library whenever I get the chance.
hahaha, audioscrobbler is a thing that tracks the music you listen to, shows you what your friends are listening to, and makes recommendations based on those. Netflix, surely you've heard of it, is an online movie rental program, and you can add friends to get recommendations and see what other people are watching. Skype is like instant messenger, sort of, except it uses your microphone so you can talk and listen without a phone, for free! I set it up so I can talk to Shawn when he's in France, but it is so cool I want to talk to other people.
I like the burrito idea -- I have tried putting frozen foods (burritos, sandwich pockets, pot pies) in the microwave and then the toaster oven for a few minutes, and that helps crisp them up too.
Thanks Ross!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]copyleftpenguin
2006-01-23 11:34 pm UTC (link)
Washing dirt may be a little boring now... Just wait until you discover an ancient spacecraft or a new species of dinosaur. Borng? Hardly!!!! :)

(Reply to this)


(Anonymous)
2006-01-25 03:22 pm UTC (link)
I have a tortilla press! It is small but useful . . . call me if you still need it!

(Reply to this)

(25 comments) - (Post a new comment)

Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…