Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

I can’t remember why, of all the books I put on my TBR list this year – and believe me THERE ARE A LOT, that I decided to buy this one. Maybe it was a review I read or heard, maybe the price was right but for whatever reason I did.

If I had to pick a theme in my books this year, it would be “atmospheric.” Not intentionally, of course, but I’m finding the thread running through my favorite reads of this year at least.

This novel, by Tom Franklin, isn’t a mystery or a thriller but at the same time it is. I’ve never read Franklin before but it’s a delicately woven narrative linking two characters and a difficult problem, in a tough time and place. It’s complicated and dense, like relationships are, but at the same time it’s engaging and thoughtful and pulls you along to the next page. Some of his descriptions are lovely but mostly it’s just about people and the things we do and how we punish each other.

So if that wasn’t obscure enough, I highly recommend it.

Kindle, my bizzle!

Xmas came early in the Wilder house.

I ordered a Kindle Fire for Spouse for Xmas and I did the preorder because I remember how previous Kindle rollouts have sometimes been delayed. This actually worked out well because the only thing on MY Xmas list was the Kindle Touch (wifi). So on the day his Fire showed up, I took my K3 to Target and did a trade-in (I got about $25 which was a bit less than I would have gotten if I’d done it online) and picked up my KTouch. (NB: You can also do this via Amazon. I used Target because I have access to an employee discount)

So. KINDLES ALL AROUND.

Spouse has been debating about a tablet, as the iPad/Xoom movement has been sweeping his workplace. I’ve got some iPad issues, not the least of which is the price tag, so we were talking about usage. He wants to be able to check work email and manipulate Office documents, plus use it for media purposes – which is what made me think the Kindle Fire might be perfect.

It’s a bit heavier than I would expect, having been spoiled by the Kindles, but the graphics are pretty sweet and the screen is very responsive. I got him a case that allows it to stand up and he hasn’t had any complaints about the touch keyboard. (I was a little worried on that point, I’ll admit) Today there was a free app (they do it every day and I kind of love that) called Enhanced Email which can be configured for his work account. There’s also an Office Pro app which allows you to create, edit and share Office docs and is compatible with Office 2010. With those few functions, he’s pretty much all set. The web browser seems to be pretty quick and Cloud access is definitely nice.

I don’t know that he’s gotten into the video yet but the Prime trial means he can watch Arrested Development streaming so I expect that to change soon.

As for me, the Kindle Touch is SWEET. I love the touch screen and I especially love that it allows me to turn the pages without moving my hand. Once you get used to touching the top of the screen for the menu functions (also like that on the Fire, btw) it’s a snap. Long touch something to add it to a collection or see other options, short touch to open it. Completely intuitive if you’ve been using the Kindle line.

The clarity of the screen is great, the ads are unobtrusive and only visible as either screensavers or on the menu screens. Page turns are also noticeably faster.

I’m adjusting to the size which is simultaneously great and crazy small. Like, I can’t believe how much smaller it is but I don’t feel as if I’ve lost anything but HOLY SHIT LOOK HOW SMALL IT IS. It’s pretty fantastic. I haven’t hooked it up for social networking but I WILL say that the touch screen made it hella easier to enter my securely ridiculous long wifi password.

Unrelated to the tech, I decided to change my collections on the new device to simplify things a bit more.

Definitely related: if you own a Kindle, you should definitely have Books on the Knob on your RSS feed. They do an amazing job of rounding up free/cheap books and the app of the day.

Back to unrelated: Anyone on G+ adopting Google Music yet? I dropped the app on my phone and I’m currently uploading my collection to the Cloud.

Further unrelated: I heard someone on NPR refer to 2012 as the Year of Dickens due to a number of adaptations in the works. Anyone want to (re)read some classics with me?

Thanksgiving prep

I could have sworn I posted my Cranberry Sauce recipe last year but I can’t find it. And then, whilst trolling the internet, I found a NEW recipe that I may have to make instead (or possibly in addition to).

Spicy Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients

• 3 to 4 jalapenos, finely chopped
• 8 cups cranberries
• 2 limes, zested and juiced
• 2 oranges, zested and juiced
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup water
• Salt and fresh ground black pepper

Directions

It’s cynical, but…

My conversations about Penn State today were probably a little different from that of most people. One of my vendors is from State College and grew up down the street from Joe Pa – trick or treated at his house, knew the family well enough to be conversational. He also went to high school with another person involved in this clusterfuck and has passing familiarity with some others. He was hoping that the people he knew had done what they thought was right and had just put their trust in the wrong people.

My response: “So, if it was HIS kid do you think he’d have done the same thing?” The answer was obvious – no.

“And if he’d KNOWN the kid, do you think he’d have done the same thing?” Probably not.

So I call bullshit. Period. There’s nothing about this situation that was right or okay.

That said, we shouldn’t be all that surprised.

Colleges, especially those with Division I sports teams, have a SHIT TON tied up in those sports teams. Gawker asked “What if the guy had been black?” As I told a friend today, his color would have a lot less to do with this than whether or not it was a winning program. He scoffed and I explained.

D1 schools use their sports teams as a number one marketing/recruiting tool. While it’s foreign to me, apparently a lot of people choose their college based on the sports teams. Not only that, the sports programs bring in scads of cash which leads to (a LOT of times) head coaches in successful and lucrative D1 teams making as much if not more than the president of the university.

In my personal experience, I’ve seen coaches that embezzled cash and blatantly broken NCAA rules not even get a slap on the wrist. Most of them won’t get shown the door and on the off chance they DO, it’s with a golden parachute. It’s not that far of a stretch to think that, in order to protect the reputation of a winning program, much worse things would be swept under the rug. Color is less important than The Program.

The politics of college sports is preposterous and I know it’s cynical but I wasn’t all that surprised to hear how this shook out. A grad assistant hoping to keep his or her job doesn’t rat out someone in the Program unless they want to find THEMSELVES out of work, sans aforementioned parachute. So yeah, they do the minimum and try to stay under the radar. I’m not saying it’s RIGHT, but college sports is one of the few places where the Old Boy’s network is alive, well and the only path to success for a stupidly large number of wildly underpaid people. The culture of that society can be intense.

What’s terrible is the extent of the damage that the accused has caused. The kids involved, the families and the entire community will be affected, outside of the college itself. Maybe now is the time we re-evaluate how our culture treats sports? I doubt it.

I’m glad the coach got fired. I’m more glad the president got fired. I’m sorry it didn’t happen years sooner.

Glee FAIL

I’ve been a bit lukewarm on the series since it resumed this fall and I’ve got to say that the First Time episode is chock full of What The MEH.

One. I am grossed out by the “girls have to want to have sex because it’s LURRRVE” rather than, yanno, to just FUCK. I would be less annoyed by this if it weren’t completely within Rachel Berry’s wheelhouse to be checking this off her To Do list but since she IS that girl, why can’t they let her BE that girl. Also? I NEVER met a dude who gave a DAMN why I wanted to have sex, he was on board from GO. So really, the character of Finn continues to be sixteen kinds of bullshit. Grr.

Sadly this has gone from a show that I really enjoyed watching to a show I find cumulatively more annoying, so it may be off my DVR list. Whatevs. More time for Gemma Teller.

Edited for OMFG YOU MUST BE KIDDING. “Losing something you can’t get back.” As though a FLAP OF SKIN decides your PERSONHOOD. WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK. I am done with this show. Between this and making the evil asshole the only person besides Kurt to be a ‘sympathetic’ atheist, I’m just…I can’t… I don’t even know. Ridiculous.

Sons of Anarchy

Holy fucking SHIT, yo.

I can’t… I don’t even.

I can’t believe I forgot this

One of the biggest things making me happy lately is The Cat Empire. They’re an Aussie band that play a mishmash of jazz-ska-reggae. Yeah. It’s the kind of shit that makes you want to MOVE. I’ve got four of their albums and I love them all. I am impatiently awaiting North American tour dates.

What is making me happy

1. I’m about to cut two hours of commute out of every workday. I get to wake up when it’s not dark. I’ll have time to WORK OUT before I leave for my job and a whole extra hour after work. I’m giddy with the potential in those two hours.

2. Books. I’m almost done with my 55 books I’m willing to talk about (my best estimate is that I’ve read about 100 books so far this year total) and I’ve found some that I thoroughly enjoyed and have recommended to others.

3. Yoga! I’ve got fun new yoga stuff around the corner.

4. Guitar! My class is almost over and I’ve learned A TON. I also picked up the free tabs app from Amazon the other day so I’ve got guitar notes for some of my all time favorite songs.

5. Google Plus. With the change away from Reader’s share function and the addition of business pages, I’ve got a lot more activity in my stream that is exactly the kind of stuff I want to read.

6. @ellenbarkin on twitter

7. The Walking Dead continues to kick ass, but I’m practically jumping OUT OF MY SKIN about tonight’s Sons of Anarchy.

8. Last night’s Castle was as Castle ever is – cheeky, clever fun. I can’t wait until I start my new job so that I can watch all of prime time TV during, you know, PRIME TIME.

9. Homeland is epic. Not only are Damien Lewis and Claire Danes amazing, the writing is tight and the storytelling is intense. I am loving this show.

10. Fairy tale TV. I was a huge fan of Grimm’s and Hans Christian Andersen growing up so both Grimm and Once Upon a Time are hitting all the right notes, albeit in very different ways. I found myself *looking forward* to OUaT this week. That hasn’t happened with a network show in a while.

Googlecentric

I guess most of the internet is pissed off about the changes with Google Reader, Gmail, Reader app and the Google Plus app. Surprisingly (?) I’m the minority.

I haven’t had any problems with the new GReader app, other than adapting to the lack of arrow navigation. It’s not like sweeping is revolutionary though, so that’s not really a thing. They saved the ability to share function and my DroidX lets me choose where to share it (email, Plus, Tweetdeck, etc.). Since I had a pretty small Reader community, the share to Plus is what I was hoping for and I’m happy with the functionality.

As to the changes to Reader and Gmail… from what I can see they’re largely cosmetic. None of the changes fundamentally impact how I use the tools so I’m kind of at a loss over the hullabaloo.

My only bitch about the Plus app is that my widget function is gone. Truthfully though, that’s not a huge loss since the app has one button functionality as well. No steps really lost. *shrug*

Possibly because I live so much in the Googleverse I’m just not fazed since I use their products ALL THE TIME. The changes have been largely intuitive to adapt and haven’t created any inconvenience. All told, I’m still happy with my Google experience.

Halloween Reading

If you’re looking for something to read that suits the season, I’m going to reiterate my hearty endorsement of Mira Grant’s Feed and Deadline. Feed is the first in the trilogy and while it is a trilogy, each book is a solid standalone story. Suspenseful (Feed was literally heart-pounding), engaging and thought-provoking. Not your typical zombie read. Both books are $7.99.

So you’re not into zombies? Chelsea Cain’s ‘Heart’ series is excellent crime fiction with a wicked awesome villain and a fucked up protagonist. All of the best and worst things that can happen to characters are up in these books. Heartsick, the first in the series, is just $4.99.

These are all great books which make great weekend reads.

Techpocalypse Now

I know the fiction, film and tv world are chock full of zombie apocalypse these days but this week I had a random conversation with a coworker. Said coworker is not especially chatty, so I was surprised when he hit me up in the break room. I was MORE surprised when the conversation somehow went from football to porn to legal prostitution and then to techpocalypse. When I play it back in my head now, it STILL doesn’t make much sense.

At any rate, he was all lamenting that people these days wouldn’t be able to take care of themselves if all the tech vanished, yadda yadda. I was all, DUDE. PEOPLE MY AGE DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW TO COOK, this problem is OLD. So he goes on a fantasyland trip about ‘If there were no limits, in what time and place would you want to live?’

His vote: 1400s North America so he could “live off the land with the natives.”

Me: 21st century.

Him: WHA?

Me: Yeah, when you give me that choice, I’m pretty much ALWAYS going to choose the time when women stop being chattel. So I’m choosing the future EVERY TIME.

Him. WHOA. I never even THOUGHT of that.

Me: Yeah. That’s because you’re a white dude. It never needed to cross your mind. I’m all about not being property just because of my genitalia.

Both of us: Marvel at the back of his head on the floor since I BLEW HIS MIND.

Sometimes shit really just makes me go WHAT THE FUCK.

Not a conundrum

Lit is one of those books I’ve had on my wishlist/reading list for ages. I’ve heard fantastic things about it and raves from people of all walks of life. As a result I was pretty happy to find it at the library for lending on my Kindle. I blasted through Juliet, Naked and started Lit.

I read Cherry some years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I read it for the same reasons I wanted to read Lit – universally great reviews. For me, Lit has been much slower going. And then I ground to a halt. One, life is to short to read things I don’t find compelling. Two, I just cannot get into the subject no matter how lovely the writing. It turns out that having had my own binge drinking experiences in high school and college, I don’t find it all that interesting to read about those experiences of others.

Caveat, here: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. It was a terrible film but long before the film it was a website and then a book. My husband pointed it out to me and Tucker Max’s stories fucking slayed me. This one especially. Yes, Tucker Max is a misogynist douchebag but a funny story is a funny fucking story. (Literally)

This is all apropos of getting the email from my library that Charlaine Harris’s #10 (Dead in the Family) is available. I didn’t want to buy it because 1) hardcover price, 2) the series has been getting repetitive and 3) my friend Mo said it wasn’t that great. Free, though, means I’ll try to read damn near anything.

That said, I’m ditching a literary confessional for a trashy vampire book. My inner English major tells me I should be ashamed but I can’t muster it. I’m down with a little bit of brain candy now and then.

Weekend Update

Oh Internet. You’re so QUIET all weekend, I think it’s why I feel compelled to fill you up!

I’ve been absolute shit at keeping up with my 2011 films list so I’ll do some bullets.

• Jane Eyre – I really enjoyed the latest adaptation though I WAS surprised at some of the deleted scenes.
• Red State – We watched it last night and it kind of blew my mind. It’s like it started as one movie and then became this other thing without losing any of the awesome. Also, at a key part, I was able to shout “I think it’s the Cloverfield monster!” and crack my husband up.
• The Adjustment Bureau was underwhelming. On the other hand, when you make a movie about shadowy figures who control society you’re going to draw inevitable comparisons to either the Matrix or Dark City. This was Dark City Lite and I don’t mean it in a good way.

Enlighten Up, Yoga Bitch

I’m sick and my husband is going out of town so I’m writing a post for your Friday enjoyment.

Earlier this week I wrote a post about the book Yoga Bitch and a friend commented to ask if I’d watched the film Enlighten Up. I have and there are some striking similarities between the two. They aren’t the same story by any means but I think they both begin with a flawed premise.

In life, if you go looking for A Thing to give your existence meaning I suspect you will inevitably be let down. It’s too much pressure, both on the Thing and on yourself. You’re attaching expectations to an Unknown Thing and it’s also putting pressure on yourself to 1) identify with and 2) attach oneself to that Thing. It’s a bit like hearing from everyone you know that The Alchemist is an amazing and lifechanging book and then reading it and finding it only mildly interesting and/or a little pedantic and thinking that maybe there’s something you’re missing out on. Why no, I’m not speaking from personal experience at all.

I got to yoga by being lazy. It’s a story I tell with some regularity, especially as almost everyone says “I can’t do yoga.” I don’t enjoy running. While I have been known to engage in running as a form of exercise, it’s not fun. In point of fact, I think running should be reserved almost exclusively for eluding a weapon-wielding psychopath although that rather undercuts my argument since without practice you wouldn’t get all that far but I digress.

So I don’t enjoy running. I also don’t enjoy aerobics classes. That’s why, in 2001, I picked up a yoga book on the clearance shelf at the local Barnes and Noble. I was 26,  married just over a year, had settled into our house after moving twice within 12 months and working a stressful job in outside sales. The odd hours of my job were not conducive to taking regular classes and I thought I’d see what this yoga thing was all about. I took the book home, tried some of the stretches and thought ‘Hey, this isn’t so hard.’ Some of the stretches were familiar from when I played sports in school. When I looked at the suggested routines at the end of the book, I thought perhaps I’d benefit from some live instruction.

Let me be clear: I was not looking for salvation. I wasn’t looking for enlightenment. I wasn’t looking for inner peace. Mostly I was looking for a way to work out that didn’t involve a gym (I’d tried that unsuccessfully) or rollerblading with my dog (epic disaster). I’d heard yoga was good for you and helped with relaxation. I’ve always had issues with quieting my brain and figured this couldn’t hurt, right? I was nervous though because I’ve always been a fidgeter. Ask anyone who ever sat in a meeting next to me or watch any of my sales videos. FIDGETER. I was not hopeful about my ability to fit into a zen environment.

My first class was at the only yoga studio in my city. It was the basement of a dentist’s office, complete with industrial carpeting  and cleaning crew noises overhead. The class was taught by the woman I found out later owned the studio and it was like a reintroduction to my body. It was stringing together movements and muscle actions that I’d never used before and I loved it. It was physical and I could see how it could be made more aerobic if I practiced on my own. WIN.

As I practiced more often and took more classes, yoga seemed more logical. My studio didn’t partake in chanting, which suited me just fine – not even an Om. Then I had the magical class – the class which, once having had it, means you never look back. During the class I was so focused on every single thing that I was doing – each muscle motion and the depth of each breath – that I literally didn’t notice the passage of time. I came out of savasana not just refreshed but energized and motivated. NOW I understood why people do this. It’s moving meditation.

I, who was never able to sit and meditate, suddenly understood the point of TRYING. That’s not to say I started a meditation practice – I didn’t – but I got the idea of focusing inward with practice. Truthfully, in all these years I’ve never been in a class where people are looking around at their classmates (though I guess it probably happens) because virtually everyone is trying so hard to be balanced and graceful that they can’t spare a glance for the person who is UTTERLY CONVINCED that they are the most clumsy yogi ever and replete with the knowledge that they will somehow knock down the entire room domino-style. That said, I now fully understood the concept of using yoga to still the mind – its primary purpose according to Patanjali.

So the more I practiced, the stronger I got and while not every class was in that zen brainspace I still enjoyed it. I didn’t get enlightened, I didn’t find god but I got what I needed. In fact I loved it so much that I wanted to be able to share it with people and I got certified to teach.

Yoga helped me get through a hellacious year where my dad was ill with terminal cancer. It helped me get through the year after his death which turned out to be almost worse than the year he was sick. Most importantly, it’s a space I can always go back to – in a hotel room, in a park, in my house and virtually anywhere I can stretch my legs. With music (I’m a fan) or without. Props or not. Decidedly not in matching designer yoga clothing. Because yoga isn’t about what it looks like or what you THINK it’s going to be, it’s only about what you do.

That old adage from schoolteachers about ‘getting out of it what you put in’ is entirely true of yoga. If you put in more muscle work, you will get more muscle strength. If you put in more concentration, your concentration will improve. In classes geared for 80 year olds, I manage to work up a sweat because yoga taught me how to change the way my body works and how I utilize my muscles. Through yoga, I was able to help 80 year old ladies better understand the geography of their muscles and how to use them.

That is what I love about yoga. No one can tell how much or how little you’re working just by looking at you. You can adjust your workout in mid-workout or in mid-pose. No one is looking at you. We all have our own shit to sort out and work through and sometimes it happens in Warrior II. Sometimes it happens in a class where you infuse your breath with intention.

I once took a Tibetan Yoga class and while much of it was forgettable, the thing which was transformative was the breath. We were to breathe in imagining we were taking in something that we needed. Our exhale was to think of someone we knew who needed something and send the exhale of that thing out to that person. Chock full of woo woo? Hell yeah. But I left that class FEELING like I did something. I was lighter and felt brighter. Do I know that it’s woo woo? Hell yeah. Was some of my euphoria probably from increased oxygen intake? Hell yeah. But in that class I did not cheat on a single breath. I didn’t shorten an inhale or exhale by trying too hard or reaching too far. And sometimes, imagery is what gets it done. Look at sports psychology, for fuck’s sake. It’s SCIENCE. It works.

Some people bring their religious practice into yoga. It can absolutely be done and pretty much any yoga instructor can help you do it. I’ve had students dedicate their practice to Christ or use a prayer mantra to maintain their breath. Yoga is a tool that can be used in a multitude of ways.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you’re looking for a global panacea, you are destined to fail. This may be a newsflash but we’re more complicated than that. I can’t say that this works for me so it will DEFINITELY work for you. The problem of Yoga Bitch was that she was looking for something that no one thing could give her. The protag in Enlighten Up got sold a bill of goods that ‘yoga will do X, Y, Z for you.” We’re individuals. We’re thinking individuals. What thinking individuals should instinctively know is shit’s not that easy.

I’m not trying to convert you to the cult of yoga because there isn’t ONE yoga. I push back EVERY time I hear an instructor say “this is the right way to do x.” We are all different structurally and there are things that my body will never be able to do. I embrace that and don’t stop trying, I just stop expecting a magical yoga fairy to loosen my ligaments or change the shape of my pelvic girdle. For me, yoga is about accepting where you are and just trying to be better. At what is up to each individual.

Ideally everyone picks and chooses the things that the want or need or like to use and everyone has a different result – with one caveat. I’ve never seen anyone leave a yoga class that wasn’t smiling. The key is not to expect a revelation, otherwise you’ll always be disappointed. I felt bad for the narrators of the book and the film because they had this idea that yoga could change their lives. The only thing that can change your life is you. Yoga is just a tool that can help you do it.

Juliet, Naked

Rather than repeat myself, a link to my review on Goodreads.