Oh, my. I was so obsessed with this series. I am so not at the moment. Cheeseburgers make everything better.
Awwwww.
I am in such a bad mood today (an unexplained one at that). I’ll spare you all listening to me until later when I’m not so grumpy.
(But I did get a picture, and I’ll post it when I scan it.)
That I end up feeling more exhausted after a weekend off work than I do after a week at work? Wait… don’t answer that.
It is because I do things like I did this weekend.
Firstly, you know those weddings in movies? Like this one?
(found here; actually kind of like the one I went to)
You know – with the big tent in the backyard of an amazing house, 400+ guests and six bars, each with a different food theme (one was sushi, another panini, another mexican, and then there was the one with the crab dip… yum). And an open bar. And grilled fruit. And a giant cake. And a live band. Whew.
So, yeah. Went to that. I realize that’s not a huge thing for other folks, but my own wedding was attended by 50 people, and our DJ brought her music library on vinyl and has dreads and is Norwegian, and we did everything ourselves. I have no personal reference for this sort of thing.
It was nice, though, to see Molly get married, and I can’t wait until I can cross-post photos from other people (I left my phone and camera at home, purely by accident). I think Jamie won the lottery. I think if he’d actually won the lottery but hadn’t gotten to marry Molly, he wouldn’t have been nearly as happy. I think if he got to do both things, he wouldn’t have been any happier. I was afraid he might split in two, he was smiling so hugely. Molly was lovely and exuberant and also the happiest person on the planet (it was a singularity) and I am thrilled to have gotten to see all that (really, the reception was just icing on the cake, though the dancing with coworkers was delightful and it was nice to break loose and be social for once).
Whew.
Then secondly, I dressed up in my sari and newly-purchased Indian jewelry, and wandered around in the woods with my SCA friends, and that will also be crosslinked when Alec gets me photos (if not, I’ll write a good description and you can use your imagination). That was much more low-key, as it was deep in the woods away from electricity and plumbing (but near the nicest port-o-let I’ve ever seen), and included roasting sausages over a campfire, and singing of silly songs, and eating of many foods. And the husband has the most beautifully-colored bruise on one thigh where he got thwacked while getting back into heavy-fighting. Anyone know of a good way to armor oneself under a pair of tights? I’m open to suggestions.
Today is more low-key. My saris came in the mail! And some bindis, one of which I gifted to a (male) coworker (it’s sparkly and mint green). I *heart* sarishop.com.
How was your weekend?
p.s. While searching for photos that conveyed the Father of the Bride-esque atmosphere, I found these two photos of fathers of the bride:
I imagine there are some good stories behind them.
Moved on to new verbs! Hooray! I can conjugate them both politely and casually, and also super-politely. So not only can I talk about things in the present, I can also talk about talking about them (oooh – meta). Such as “naan se kahie” (continuing the bread theme). I have a useful skill, let me tell you what.
(That is all. Oh, come on. It’s Friday!)
Firstly, Sari Shop has made me decidedly non-rich. However, I will have two new and lovely saris to play with, so this is not such a bad thing.
These are they:
The second is a 9-yard sari, for learning the complex drapes in Chantal Boulanger’s book (I have a 6-yard, but aside from the dhotis, half of the book involves 9-yard drapes, which I cannot do at the moment, unless I cut up a bedsheet). The first is totally out of character for me, color-wise, but is so beautiful I couldn’t pass it up. I am planning on learning to block-print fabric myself in the future, and the printed designs are very inspiring.
So. The things I am thankful for are (1) the grandmother-in-law, whose lovely Easter gift resulted in these sari purchases (I had all but forgotten it in the bottom of my purse, but am glad I did so I didn’t spend it until today!), and (2) the SCA. Allow me to elaborate on (2). I have not, as of yet, figured out a way/place to wear these lovely saris in public. However, there is a party on Sunday which I plan to attend that requires garb, and it seems as though it would be a fantastic first place to wear the sari out (it’s a shame to buy a sari and then never wear it, no? like buying one and then making curtains out of it, which is fine and good, but makes me cringe a little…). I mean, none of us really ever wear our other garb out in public, except for Halloween (I mean, really – where are you going to wear full Elizabethan, plus a ruff and bum roll, except maybe at the Renaissance Festival?). I totally would, but I cannot find an appropriate occasion. Hooray party.
Now, off to find more books on medieval Rajasthan.
Wooo! 20! I feel like I have accomplished something today! (Note to self – brainstorm accomplishment for tomorrow)
I knit, because it can be really beautiful:
[The creator of the awesomeness says: “This is a small prototype of what I’ll be showing at the 2009 Maker Faire, May 30-31st in San Mateo. Come find my booth!MUSIC:Ratatat, “Imperials” from their album LP3 (on tour now!)”]
Vodpod videos no longer available.
I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal about e-books and how they will change the way the world (or more immediately, America) reads and discusses books, and I realized something about myself.
I hate the idea of e-books.
I can’t say that I hate e-books, because I’ve never actually used one, but the concept is so repugnant to me that I don’t really care to try. I’m not a luddite by any stretch of the imagination. I read several dozen blogs on a weekly basis, I twitter, I’ve got an active Facebook account, and I send the occasional text message (I don’t like to, but not because I’m not a fan of the technology; I feel that whatever needs to be said can actually be said, not reduced to a code of 10 characters that I have to decipher while waiting at a stoplight). I have an iPod. I don’t have an iPhone, but only because I like my current cellular provider, which is not AT&T, and I don’t want to unlock one since I break everything eventually and the iPhone would be no exception (I find that my life is no poorer for not having one). I really want a GPS system for the car. I get lost a lot.
But I hate the idea of e-books.
I remember very clearly my first experience of reading a book. Sure, I read picture books with my parents and the occasional big board book, but when I was in kindergarten I really learned to read and took home these battered, taped-together books with lots of words and fewer and fewer pictures. I was so proud of those. I probably felt the same when I read my first book without pictures (this memory is not so vivid). I remember how library books smelled and how excited I was for the Scholastic book fair (okay, so half of it was for crazy neon pencil erasers, but it was exciting).
E-books give me none of these feelings.
I am also a big proponent of book preservation. I think that somewhere along the line, with the ability to mass-produce quantities of cheap printed material, we’ve forgotten how exquisite a book can be. I have some hand-bound books from the 17th century that are still in pretty decent condition, while a lot of my modern paperbacks are crumbling. I wonder what will happen to the libraries full of rare books when e-books become the standard. Will books become an expensive luxury item again? Will people actually start to put time and effort into building them? Can I expect to pay a month’s salary for a book with gilded covers and vellum pages, hand-printed on a press in Europe? Or will books just stop being made, like Polaroid film?
I don’t really want to carry an electronic tablet to read my books on. I want to stuff a book in my bag and look at the potato chip stains I made the last time I read it and remember that, because the book has character in a way an electronic device can never have (and for those of you who say, “but… sustainability!” I respond that used books are just as good and readable as new ones, and you’ll never really run out of things to read).
I also don’t want to have to refer to a thing with a battery in it when I’m miles away from civilization and want something to pass the time. Books never run out of power.
[Housekeeping note: if your comments never appear, shoot me an email; some of them are getting stuck in spam, and have been deleted unbeknownst to me]
Because knitters are COOL.
[Photo from here.]
(seriously)
Like these knitters (link found via Design*Sponge)
[I love you, Knitch, but this place looks like the Anthropologie of yarn stores.]
And we’re always busy with something, so likewise are never bored (except when we forget our knitting because we don’t think we’ll need it and then sit in traffic for two hours with nothing to do except sing along with the radio and get angry because people are cutting in the line of cars).
No, really.
Although some people (probably kids, or, as a coworker pointed out, idiots) broke into our house last night by forcing open a window and though they went through all the drawers, closets, couch cushions, etc, they only took a Maglite flashlight and my husband’s Lobster Johnson tool belt.
Seriously? The Lobster Johnson tool belt? Weird.
[photo from here]
That is, Bollywood Movie Review, #3 (or What I Write About When I Can’t Think of Anything Else or I’m Reviewing It So You Don’t Have To Watch It But You Totally Should Anyway).
[If you actually intend to watch it, this contains many spoilers and subjective opinion, so quit while you’re ahead, unless you don’t care.]
So. Today’s installment is Koi…Mil Gaya, for which I have a strange affinity. And I totally get it but it is strange (see, I have a similar affinity for any movie that features a person who can be described as “special needs,” something I believe stems from various experiences in life volunteering to work with special-needs-type people, but I digress). Anyway. Rohit becomes totally normal and hot eventually so I don’t feel bad.
Right. I saw Krrish back at Christmastime. My father-in-law had purchased it through a coworker who had gone to visit his family in Pakistan, and I think he paid maybe 90 rupees for it? Maybe? Not a lot. It was the best 90 rupees anyone has spent. It kept my husband and I entertained for not one, but two whole evenings! And then the FIL informed us that his coworker’s 6-year-old son really loves it. I am not at all surprised; I am perpetually 5, so I am in the correct age bracket, apparently.
I then became curious about Koi…Mil Gaya. I had heard it had won Hrithik (I like how we’re on first-name terms now, despite never meeting, don’t you?) a Filmfare award for best actor, and so has to be pretty good, right (all cheesy commercial spinoffs aside)?
I must say I was not disappointed. I started to watch it with a friend, who couldn’t make it past the part where grown-up Rohit tries to apologize to Nisha (Preity Zinta) for playing a trick on her (though I don’t find tricky youngsters as charming as I think I’m supposed to; my actual age might figure in to this somewhat). I took it home and watched the rest by myself, while the husband worked on something useful in the other room and shook his head at me periodically.
I don’t understand why they couldn’t watch all of it… I mean, it has a small Sikh boy who sings everything! And love between a person of below-average intelligence and a person of average intelligence! And dancing! And basketball! And a vaudevillian villain (say that five times fast)! And flying children! And a only slightly creepy alien with a suspiciously baritone voice (he gets lots cuter as the film progresses). And a scene that reminds me of ET, with the bike and a hoodie and flying and everything! What is there not to love? (Did I mention the really interesting costume changes? This is the one thing I did not like so much – Rohit wears the most awful clothes ever, once his brain is fixed.)
And now when I see other Hindi films and someone says “jadoo,” I giggle to myself.
knitters = angry mob 