Update!

So, the news of Renee:

1. Getting stitches out tomorr--oh, yeah--later today. This is good!
2. I finished Kingmakers. Watch for my review of this book club selection.
3. I'm on the LAST chapter of my Accounting book, which I hope to complete, uh, later today.
4. In the last week, I've been contacted by two Accounting placement agencies. They found my resume on Monster.com. A little clue that perhaps I should have posted my res on Monster first, you think?
5. I've found the joys of Freecycle. This is a forum in which you give stuff away (ie, free). Areas/neighborhoods/cities have their own "branch," for example, Arlington, Virginia has its own site that's for people who live in Arlington. You wouldn't believe the stuff that's offered. It can be real random stuff (eg, unopened cans of Similac, fabric swatches, left-over cleaning products, etc.) - maybe stuff that one really can't sell, wants to get rid of, yet doesn't want to throw out. Or stuff that might sell, but you just don't have the time/patience to go the Craig's List route. You send an OFFER email to the listserv, then interested parties contact you directly to arrange pickup (they have to pick up the item(s) from you). It's actually karmic & keeps stuff out of the waste stream. So far, I've had really positive experiences.

Progress Report

Ok people, here's my progress (re everything):

1. Got my foot surgery done on Friday & am recoop'ing fine. Many thanks to all (drs nurses, staff) who made the thing go as smoothly, comfortably and painless as possible. Honorable mention to Rachel, the RN who did my IV insertion - the insertion was pain-free, expertly done and the resulting mark is tiny. It's an art. Loved the efficiency of the whole process (surgery, from prep to finish), prep info calls & reminders, the warmed blankets provided before & during the procedure and the hot tea in post-op.

Further thanks to all who have called, emailed, Facebooked good wishes for my recovery.

Number one thanks to my DH Jeff who shepherded me home, has been great moral support & ordered pizza for lunch yesterday (he'd get that last one). Super luv!

2. I'm starting chapter 25 in my Accounting book. After that, only one more chapter!

3. I'm on p162 of Kingmakers, a book club selection that is rather challenging - Middle East history with all the dizzying number of players involved. I march on.

4. Was contacted by an Accounting placement firm earlier this week (after they saw my resume on Monster.com - yeah!) & had a chance to meet with them. This is a hopeful development. Also, it was nice to be contacted by an actual human being, instead of an auto-generated email response. Wish me luck that something comes up.

5. I'm in a very good mood. Not really a novel development, but helps immeasurable with my energy levels.

That's all for now folks.

Some more "progress"

You know you want it. Well, here it is:

-Finished chapters 16 & 17 in Accounting.
-Applied for a Commerce Dept position.
-Reached p156 in Milagro Beanfield War, which I'm determined to finish, after a reading hiatus of a year. Clearly, I'm a masochist.
-Bought new shoe laces for DH Jeff's hiking boots.

Now I must:
-Go to the gym
-Shop for groceries
-Fold laundry
-Keep my chin up
-Ignore all news, esp. about Savior Obama

Argh.

Realizations

So, I've been unemployed now for half a year & have discovered:

1. I suck at time management
2. I'm getting good at crossword puzzles. Also, obsessed.

Nevertheless, I'm gearing up for my re-entry (again) into the world of academics (accounting). Before I start classes in July, I have vowed to complete my entire accounting textbook so I have a leg up (did I mention this?). So, my gentle readers, I will keep you informed of my progress. Also, this serves as motivation to re-engage with blogging.

Ok, with that in mind, I'm reading chapter 15 (of 26) today: Long-Term Liabilities. And, as long as the weather holds out, I'll be reading poolside. Wahoo!

Catch of the Day

For those of you who are enthusiastic bibliophiles, but don't necessarily have the room for an ever-increasing library, there's an online book-swap service that I just started using: Paperbackswap.com. Here's how it works:

1) you list books you want to get rid of;
2) another member orders it from you;
3) you send it to them;
4) they report on the site when they've received it; and
5) you get a credit for a book of your choice.

There are no membership fees - your only cost is postage for the books you send. When you order a book, the other member pays the postage.

Cool huh? So far, the members who have received my books are good about reporting the receipt. I've ordered a couple of books, but have not received them yet. I'll let you know how that works out.

A big Bravo Zulu goes to...

DH Jeff for completing a novel for NaNoWriMo the second year in a row! This is especially praise-worthy & awesome because he wrote most of it in the past week. Wow!

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a contest - for bragging rights really - in which one endeavors to write a 50,000-word novel during November. Yes, that's right, a novel in a month. The benefit (besides bragging rights) is that one then has the first draft of a novel.

It's very cool. I have yet to participate in this because I'm just not that disciplined and have the attention span of a five-year-old. So I'm very proud of Jeff for having done this a second time - AND, he has also written a screen play for a similar contest.

Bad year for authors

Just found out via AOL that Michael Crichton died of cancer at age 66. Yikes!

Tony Hillerman, writer of Navajo crime mysteries, died recently (obit, remembrance via WaPo) as well.

Bummer.

Book review: Kitchen Confidential

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, by celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, lives up to its title. Bourdain dishes on his eventful rise through the cooking world, all the stuff that happens behind the scenes in kitchens, his successes and failures, his "adventures." He also regales the reader with the story of how he was attracted to the business - the joy of excellent food.

This is a very entertaining and edifying read. Bourdain is an articulate and compelling writer; his stories, especially of the people he's encountered along the way, are truly absorbing. Although he pulls no punches, Bourdain gives credit where credit is due, and is humble when talking about his heroes and those who have impressed him along the way. He's also self-deprecating and honest about his not-so-savory personal history, namely his shocking (to me at least) amount of drug abuse. I would recommend this book to foodies in general, anyone with curiosity about the culinary industry and anyone contemplating a career as a professional chef.

Book Review: Aftermath, Inc.

Aftermath, Inc.: Cleaning Up After CSI Goes Home, by Gil Reavill, is not for the faint of heart or the weak-stomached. Reavill, who is a crime story writer for Maxim, decided to do a story about a real-life company who does “bioremediation”; that is, clean-up and removal of the biological mess of violent crimes, suicides, long-unnoticed natural deaths. High Ick Factor but the story is told with humor, respect for those who do this work, and a good dose of self-deprecation (Reavill has a very weak stomach). Although the author strays a bit in his narrative at times, he tells an engrossing (heh) and edifying tale.

More: I was tickled to learn that the bibliography listed several books I've read:

Corpse by Jennifer Snyder Sachs
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner by Michael Baden, MD
and how cool is this:
Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation by Barry A.J. Fisher - my forensics textbook!

Ah, Mondays...the perfect day for fisking

A while ago, I wrote a review of the book Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich, PhD, both here and on Goodreads.com. The premise is that Dr. Ehrenreich (an upper middle class academic) tries to see how "the other half" lives: she works in low-wage, low-skilled jobs in places around the country, then reports on her experiences. Wow - I've received so many wonderful comments on my Goodreads review. The most "inspiring" are the ones that excoriate me for being such an awful person (meaning: I have all the wrong views). You'll see what I mean below. Since this guy voiced his opinion of my "work," I feel very comfortable in quoting him verbatim on my blog.

Reader "David" quotes my words about the appropriate time to have kids: "[when folks have] attained sufficient financial stability." My statement doesn't sound out of the question. I mean come on.

He goes on to opine:

"Major assumption - that they ever will. When being poor is a temporary state, as with grad school, this might be a reasonable thing to say. However, the point is that for many people, being poor is a lifetime prospect. And you've just said they don't deserve to breed."

So...
1. I'm being unreasonable for stating that people who are considering having kids should have enough money to not only to sustain themselves, but also sustain the proposed kids.

2. Is David saying that people having little money now have no possibility of earning more, no matter what, and

3. Furthermore, that even if they barely have enough income or don't have enough income to support themselves, it's fine that they go ahead and reproduce anyway,

4. Because they're only dumb animals anyway, so just humor them?

5. Is he saying that people who currently earn under a certain amount are too stupid to improve their earning potential and/or use contraception to delay having kids they can't currently afford?

6. Isn't he being a little paternalistic by suggesting that the poor dumbasses are so stupid and hopeless that we (Government, taxpayers, the smart ones) must simply allow them to reproduce sans responsibility and subsidize their lives indefinitely? Noblesse oblige much?

"And Ehernreich clearly states why she avoids major cities - the populations filling the low-wage jobs are almost entirely racial minorities, where she would be conspicuous."

Right. Uh-huh.

1. When I first came to DC, I did temp jobs before I got a permanent job. Starting at the bottom - clerical work, answering phones, etc - I made maybe $14k a year. Even when I got a permanent job, it didn't really pay that much.

2. And come on, Dr. Ehrenreich would (and probably did) stick out anyway. It's very difficult to remove all the education, socialization, attitudes of your upbringing and yes, economic class to be thoroughly convincing anywhere as someone you're not.

3. The author really didn't try THAT hard to do a balanced study or she would have lived/worked in some big cities. Also, as I mentioned in my review that she put a lot of other caveats in her study: that she wouldn't share quarters and pool resources, that she would only rent crummy cars (yeh, because as you know, dear readers, "The Poor" are also too stupid to buy modestly priced, fuel efficient, used cars), etc., etc.

4. And just for fun, David, why not spell the author's name correctly [meow]?

"I would _love_ for the poor everywhere (and everyone else) to have good public transportation to use, but that requires public funds that conservatives never want to give. Many poor today need a car."

Bonehead, I'm a conservative and take public transportation (subway & buses) every single blessed day. Neither my husband nor I own a car. Some employers even subsidize public transportation - for all employees no matter what their salary level. And furthermore, it's not all us conservatives' fault about poor public transportation access - there's plenty of blame to go around (I may post more on this particular issue later).

Whew! I could go on, but you get the picture.

Book Review: Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, is a tragic tale of a man, Gregor, who wakes up one morning transformed into human-sized cockroach. Before this, he is the capable breadwinner of his aging parents and younger sister, setting them (and him) up in a nice roomy apartment. After the transformation, there is a brief period of sympathy from his family which rapidly turns to disgust, which prompts them to isolate him in his room. Because the family no longer has their sponsor, they are compelled to take in some unpleasant boarders. The situation declines accordingly in light of the fact that Gregor is unable to reverse the unfortunate species shift.

This is my first reading of Kafka. It was a mercifully short read at 55 pages. How long can one read about the disintegration of a once-productive life? The benefactor becomes a prisoner both in body and soul, losing his liberty on multiple levels, and an outcaste, losing his place in the hearts of his family members. He has no clue as to why this has happened to him and even worse, is incapable of doing anything to change the situation. Gregor was both a sympathetic and doomed figure, and even though his family couldn’t actually do anything to change him back, they became very unlikeable by the end of the story.

Book Review: Predator

Predator, by Patricia Cornwell, will not disappoint Scarpetta fans: it is chock-full of her regular characters with all their attendant idiosyncrasies (neuroses) and conflicts. And, of course, there are the deranged scumbags that keep the good guys on their toes until the last word.

In this story, there’s a convicted serial killer who’s participating in a neurological study, run by Benton Wesley, who reveals some details of an unsolved case. Is he telling the truth or fabricating details of a crime to toy with the forensic psychologist? Then there’s the mysterious woman whom Lucy encounters in a bar. What’s her story? The unexplained disappearance of two women and their young charges rounds out this compelling forensic mystery.

I’m a long-time Cornwell fan and although I always enjoy her stories, this was an especially good one. The tensions between Dr. Scarpetta and her cohorts are wonderfully aggravating as they all try – with plenty of distraction - to get to the bottom of the mystery. On a personal note, the segments that discuss firearms examination and ballistics were especially interesting because I had just had instruction on these areas in class. Regardless, I think anyone who enjoys the Scarpetta storylines will thoroughly enjoy Predator.

Book Review: The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, is just a wonderful book. Jeff’s Aunt Joan had recommended it to me awhile ago and since then, numerous others have recommended it to me as well. I finally had a chance to read it and was blown away. I said it before when I reviewed A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini’s second novel: he’s a very effective and engaging story-teller. What’s more, Hosseini is really good at characterization: his characters are layered, faceted, flawed, compelling, nasty, selfish, brutal, redeeming, sympathetic and sometimes lovable. Furthermore, he gives us glimpses into elements of Afghani culture that we wouldn’t have known about otherwise.

To wit, The Kite Runner revolves around a certain defining kite flying competition and the events that occur therein. It deals with the relationships between both master and servant, and two best friends at the same time. It’s a story about the lack of courage and loyalty, and yet the possibility of redemption for nearly unforgivable wrongs. Hosseini draws you in and the 400 pages just fly by. If you haven’t already done so, go read it!

And a big Bravo Zulu* goes out to...

...my DH Jeff! That's right, folks: he finished his 50,000-word novel for the NaNoWriMo contest late last night & ahead of the deadline (November 30)!!! While I don't think you can access the novel from the site, I bet Jeff would share it with you if you asked nicely. :) This is quite an accomplishment - a whole novel in a month!


*Ok, once I worked for a Navy guy.

Book Review: Princess

Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia, by Jean Sasson is the life story of a Saudi princess as told to an American journalist. It details the dysfunction, hypocrisy and imposed inertia of the royal family in general, and depravity of some members in particular. Most of all, it describes the gilded but treacherous cage in which royal women are forced to live, and the vulnerability of all Saudi & foreign worker women in the Kingdom.

On a personal note, if I thought the Saudis were a bunch of troglodyte degenerates before, this book only reinforced that impression. There are some passages in the book that I’ll never forget although I’d just as soon purge those scenes from my brain. Princess “Sultana” (through Sasson) tells a compelling story and there’s plenty of sympathy to be had there. Some criticize Sultana’s narrative, though, saying that Saudi Arabia isn’t like that anymore and her story doesn’t apply to all Saudi women, blah, blah, blah. I say she was just telling her own story as a royal woman living under those specific rules. She also states that if change is going to happen, it would be provoked by middle class women, thus declaring that there are differences in society dynamics. Definitely worth a read – to get an idea of this particular Saudi’s life – and to better appreciate one’s own.

Post Thanksgiving Slump

Well, we held Thanksgiving at our place for around nine people (including ourselves) and I think we pulled it off pretty well. Yeah, I’ll have to work on the stuffing (turned out kinda soupy if tasty), but on the whole, everything turned out great and folks seemed to have a good time.

Sooo…Friday and Saturday we proceeded to do a slow, measured clean-up. We’re pretty much back to normal except for the roasting pan which I’ve been purposely avoiding. Remember when we just bought the aluminum version which we could just fold up and throw away? Yeah, now we’re all sophisticated and have an actual “non-stick” roasting pan. I suspect it’ll become more non-stick after soaking it in hot, soapy water – for a while.

For the last two days, we – DH Jeff and I – have been clicking-clacking away at our laptops, him at the NaNoWriMo contest (write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November) and me at my 10-page paper on Postpartum Depression/Psychosis (yeah, the same one I’ve been plodding through for the past month or two). Neither of us had bathed or left the apartment since Thursday. Yesterday, I finished the first draft of my paper, decided I needed to be somewhere besides the apartment and eat something other than leftovers. I convinced DH Jeff to go get sushi with me…which prompted showers. Halleluiah!

Book Review: Edith's Diary

Edith’s Diary by Patricia Highsmith was a kind of hand-me-down of sorts (the best way to acquire books), from a now-deceased uncle who said that “I would like her style.” It was actually later that I discovered (like “duh”) that she was the author of Strangers on a Train upon which the Hitchcock movie was based, as well as the Talented Mr. Ripley series of books. The former ended up as a book club selection & we also watched the movie for comparison. I’m still working through the latter. Highsmith has (“had,” I guess, because she’s dead now) the very interesting talent of making a sociopath, well, sympathetic. Thomas Ripley only murders people because he “had to,” but with everyone else, he’s the perfect gentleman. But I digress.

Edith’s Diary is a stand-alone novel about a couple and their young son who transplant from New York to a small town in Pennsylvania. The situation has a veneer of normalcy but the reader starts to question that veneer pretty quickly. Then the reader finds him/herself in the midst of a slow corrosion. The book moves slowly at parts, but doesn’t allow you to become bored. Well, let’s just say that I realize that Highsmith also crafts characters that very effectively get under your skin.

You know you've arrived when...

...you start getting flamed. In this case, it wasn't on this blog, but rather, on Goodreads.com about my review of the book Nickel and Dimed. Read the same review here.

Basically this chick thought I was heinous because I opined that unless people (working poor in this case) fully considered all the costs associated with having and raising children and could actually provide for them, they shouldn't have any. Besides the obvious issues of survival, to have children thoughtlessly (or should I say "to get pregnant thoughtlessly"?) effectively limits children's chances at success and conveys the idea that poverty and dependency is the norm and inevitable. She thought I was a bad person for saying so.

Her reaction is so typical of the left, that everyone should have absolute freedom to do as they wish, with no thought to the consequences. Liberals talk in terms of ''rights'' but not responsibilities. Like ''reproductive rights'' - in this case, to have kids when you can barely support yourself, then rely on public (read: tax payer supported) social programs - Medicaid, food stamps, etc., to ensure the basics. Stick someone else with the bill ('cause let's face it, your taking from the pot is likely to be a lot more than what you, the working poor, put into it...just sayin'). Doesn't that sound childish and irresponsible (of both the breeders and the ones advocating the behavior)?

That's one of the differences between liberal and conservative worldviews: we conservatives believe that you and no one else is responsible for what you choose to do - and thus you should bear the consequences, good or bad.

One last shot: reproduction isn't a right, it's a biological urge. We as human beings have the unique capacity to consciously plan our reproduction until our personal conditions are more optimal and we all should understand the obligation to do that. Flamer girl just doesn't get that.

Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, tells the story of two Afghan women whose lives intersect forcibly through their marriage to the same abusive man. It reveals, through their lives and experiences, the turbulent, harsh and often chaotic history of Afghanistan.

What is immediately apparent is that Hosseini is a wonderful story-telller. You start reading, then suddenly realize you're half-way through the book. He pulls you in right away and makes you care about his characters; they provoke some sort of response right off the bat. What I appreciated, though, was that Hosseini's characters were rather nuanced, not easy stereotypes. Even the “villains” have their soft spots, which you can at least acknowledge, yet still revile them.

A Thousand Splendid Suns was a thoroughly enjoyable read. I didn’t compare the book to Hosseini’s first story, The Kite Runner, because I haven’t read it yet. Folks who have read both, however, say this is even better than Kite Runner. Hmmm…I’ll have to find that out for myself. In closing I’ll say that unlike some stories I've read which are set in Afghanistan, this leaves the reader with a sense of optimism.

Book Review: Memoirs of a Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden, tells the enchanting and bittersweet tale of a girl sold into a slavery that ultimately gives her a sense of purpose, her own beauty and strength. It’s also about a culture that is all but extinct in its native country; through this poignant fiction the reader gets a sense of that history through the author‘s obviously extensive research. Mostly, though, Memoirs is just such a beautifully written story and Golden does an uncanny job of portraying the sensibilities of the young apprentice as she navigates the treacherous and demanding, yet exquisite life of a geisha.