So I've noticed some new faces on the old blogaroo and I wanted to get to know you (or old followers) a smidgen better. If you wouldn't mind, answer a few questions for me?
1. What's the last book you read?
2. What time zone do you hail from? (I would just say, "Hometown," but I don't want to be a creeper.)
3. Guilty pleasure movie?
4. Are you also obsessed with Miranda Lambert's song "Mama's Broken Heart"? Oh, no? Welp, which song are you currently obsessed with?
5. Any other information you'd like to share?
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
M is for majestic
"You know, that dog of yours has a real majestic stance when he pees. You should get a picture of it sometime."
I shall try.
- Pops
I shall try.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
L is for look it up and share
Open your iTunes. (Or music storage program of choice.)
What artists do you have that start with L? Let's give each other some options to find some new music, eh? Or at the very least, some good options for the next L round of Scattegories.
That was actually a lot more than I would have guessed. Now let's see what song titles we can come up with, oui?
... oh man, I'm starting to get carpal tunnel here and we're just on the Le's! I'm giving up ... for now, anyway.
But please, share, share! Doesn't everyone always need ideas for new tunes?
What artists do you have that start with L? Let's give each other some options to find some new music, eh? Or at the very least, some good options for the next L round of Scattegories.
Lady Antebellum
Lady Gaga
The Last Goodnight
Laura Ixibor
Lenka
Leona Lewis
Leonard Cohen
Leroy Anderson
Leslie Carter
Lil John
Linkin Park
Little Big Town
Liz Callaway
LL Cool J
The Lonely Island (One of my all-time favorite songs is Jack Sparrow. Not even kidding.)
Lonestar
Los Mono
Los Straitjackets
Loudon Wainwright
The Lovemakers
Ludo
The Lumineers
Lyle Lovett
That was actually a lot more than I would have guessed. Now let's see what song titles we can come up with, oui?
Ladies' Choice from Hairspray
Lady Marmalade from Moulin Rogue
Lala (Ashlee Simpson - and no, I'm not ashamed)
The Land Race (John Williams, Far and Away soundtrack)
Last Call (Kanye)
Last Dollar (Tim McGraw)
The Last Thing I Do (Brooks and Dunn)
The Last Time (Rolling Stones)
Lay All Your Love on Me from Mamma Mia
Lean Back (Fat Joe - seriously)
Learn the Hard Way (Nickelback. Again, no, i'm not ashamed. i sincerely feel like Nickelback is like the Richard Nixon of our generation. No one admits to liking them or having bought their albums, but it wasn't a bunch of ghosts that made them best-sellers, nor was it magic that made Nixon president. Get over it, posers.)
Learn to Do it from Anastasia (I like movie soundtracks)
Learning How to Bend (Gary Allan)
Learning to Live Again (Garth Brooks)
Leave Out All The Rest (Linkin Park)
Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf (The Killers)
Leave the Pieces (The Wreckers)
Let it Be (The Beatles)
Let it Rock (Kevin Rudolf)
Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear (Elvis)
Let Me Entertain You (Robbie Williams)
... oh man, I'm starting to get carpal tunnel here and we're just on the Le's! I'm giving up ... for now, anyway.
But please, share, share! Doesn't everyone always need ideas for new tunes?
Friday, April 12, 2013
K is for existentialism (see what I did there?)
No friends, K is actually for Kafka and K, one of his more famous characters.
In high school, we had to read The Metamorphosis for AP English, and then the Cliff Notes version of The Trial. (Literally. We sometimes just read summaries of famous works, in the event they might become handy on the test. This has allowed me to pretend I've read way more classic works of literature than I actually have. Shhh, don't tell.)
The trial is about a man named Josef K., who goes by K almost the entire story. He is inexplicably arrested but not charged with a crime. He's subjected to a tribunal of some kind (I like to think of it as an arraignment), but no one tells him anything about what he has supposedly done. He's then released to his own recognizance (that part I'm interpreted liberally) and told to await further instructions. The story continues on like this for some time.
Now, the story isn't really just about the law or a trial (it's about life and how we can all sometimes feel like cogs in the greater machinery of modern society), but on some level it actually is about a trial. Kafka was a trained lawyer and it's hard to argue that (various levels of AP English analysis aside) he wasn't also delivering a very literal message with The Trial.
After AP English, I kind of forgot about The Trial, though the images of The Metamorphosis can be hard to erase. But then, during my first year of law school, I signed up for a class called "Storytelling and the Law." (Supposedly, it was about the narrative forms lawyers employ to effectively connect with and represent our clients. I would still like to take that class, because the class my peers and I actually took involved a lot of introspective essays entitled "Who am I?", watching documentaries about the communication styles of domesticated animals, and bringing poems lyrics to class to interpret them. Due to my resistance to sharing feelings, my grade was ... not good. But at least now I know what Spencer wants when he goes into puppy play pose!)
But one thing that actually stuck with me from "Storytelling and the Law"was my professor's belief that the law is inherently a violent construction. That there is no "right" or "wrong," and people who engage with the law (litigants, defendants, victims) inevitably end up worse off than they were to begin with. As such, a lawyer's primary function is to minimize the additional damage that the justice system is about to inflict.
I don't particularly agree with that vision of the law. In fact, sometimes I think it's the clients themselves who are making the law so violent, with lawyers, mediators, commissioners, and judges all shielding themselves from the shrapnel. But my vehement disagreement has softened somewhat since law school. The justice system can be a scary thing, even when (and sometimes especially when) you're a lawyer.
But much like Kafka himself (who had a tendency not to finish projects), I'm not entirely sure where I am going with all this, other than to ask -- what do you all think? About the law, about existentialism, or even about Cliff Notes?
In high school, we had to read The Metamorphosis for AP English, and then the Cliff Notes version of The Trial. (Literally. We sometimes just read summaries of famous works, in the event they might become handy on the test. This has allowed me to pretend I've read way more classic works of literature than I actually have. Shhh, don't tell.)
The trial is about a man named Josef K., who goes by K almost the entire story. He is inexplicably arrested but not charged with a crime. He's subjected to a tribunal of some kind (I like to think of it as an arraignment), but no one tells him anything about what he has supposedly done. He's then released to his own recognizance (that part I'm interpreted liberally) and told to await further instructions. The story continues on like this for some time.
Now, the story isn't really just about the law or a trial (it's about life and how we can all sometimes feel like cogs in the greater machinery of modern society), but on some level it actually is about a trial. Kafka was a trained lawyer and it's hard to argue that (various levels of AP English analysis aside) he wasn't also delivering a very literal message with The Trial.
After AP English, I kind of forgot about The Trial, though the images of The Metamorphosis can be hard to erase. But then, during my first year of law school, I signed up for a class called "Storytelling and the Law." (Supposedly, it was about the narrative forms lawyers employ to effectively connect with and represent our clients. I would still like to take that class, because the class my peers and I actually took involved a lot of introspective essays entitled "Who am I?", watching documentaries about the communication styles of domesticated animals, and bringing poems lyrics to class to interpret them. Due to my resistance to sharing feelings, my grade was ... not good. But at least now I know what Spencer wants when he goes into puppy play pose!)
But one thing that actually stuck with me from "Storytelling and the Law"was my professor's belief that the law is inherently a violent construction. That there is no "right" or "wrong," and people who engage with the law (litigants, defendants, victims) inevitably end up worse off than they were to begin with. As such, a lawyer's primary function is to minimize the additional damage that the justice system is about to inflict.
I don't particularly agree with that vision of the law. In fact, sometimes I think it's the clients themselves who are making the law so violent, with lawyers, mediators, commissioners, and judges all shielding themselves from the shrapnel. But my vehement disagreement has softened somewhat since law school. The justice system can be a scary thing, even when (and sometimes especially when) you're a lawyer.
But much like Kafka himself (who had a tendency not to finish projects), I'm not entirely sure where I am going with all this, other than to ask -- what do you all think? About the law, about existentialism, or even about Cliff Notes?
Thursday, April 11, 2013
J is for just can't quite take this too seriously
Hello friends! I know I should have a fantastic J post, but I don't. And since I've now been "reported" (Sorry Officer Kripke, I'll never do it again!) for failure to complete the A to Z blog hop, I suppose it doesn't really matter.
So here is J, the letter that I already feel gets too much credit in the world!
PS, if anyone is going to be in the Provo-area anytime soon (including for a particular writing conference, hmmm?), you should check out J Ddawgs, a thoroughly delightful hotdog place.
So here is J, the letter that I already feel gets too much credit in the world!
PS, if anyone is going to be in the Provo-area anytime soon (including for a particular writing conference, hmmm?), you should check out J Ddawgs, a thoroughly delightful hotdog place.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
I is for I don't think that means what you think it means
Ever seen an endorsement for a book that reads something like this ...?
Read Sally's book! She's the bomb!
Read Bob's book! He's so great, and there's no way he wrote something bad!
I want to read BOOK by Katie because there's no way it's not as awesome as she is!
...
...
...
Here's the thing. I understand the reasoning behind such endorsements. If I am ever published, I plan the shill the hell out of myself, and enlist all my friends and family in the same. I suspect some of those endorsements will sound like, "Buy my friend Ru's book! She's so funny/has shiny hair/pays her taxes, you won't regret it."
On some level, that sort of positive word-of-mouth is inevitable.
But friends, being a good person does not mean you produced a good book. This goes back to my previous post about authors who think any criticism of their work is a criticism of them.
Good people write bad books. Bad people write good books. People who reject traditional notions of morality write good, bad, and mediocre books.
So let's save the Good Person = Good Book false equivalency for siblings and elderly relatives, ok?
Read Sally's book! She's the bomb!
Read Bob's book! He's so great, and there's no way he wrote something bad!
I want to read BOOK by Katie because there's no way it's not as awesome as she is!
...
...
...
Here's the thing. I understand the reasoning behind such endorsements. If I am ever published, I plan the shill the hell out of myself, and enlist all my friends and family in the same. I suspect some of those endorsements will sound like, "Buy my friend Ru's book! She's so funny/has shiny hair/pays her taxes, you won't regret it."
On some level, that sort of positive word-of-mouth is inevitable.
But friends, being a good person does not mean you produced a good book. This goes back to my previous post about authors who think any criticism of their work is a criticism of them.
Good people write bad books. Bad people write good books. People who reject traditional notions of morality write good, bad, and mediocre books.
So let's save the Good Person = Good Book false equivalency for siblings and elderly relatives, ok?
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
H is for ... "Have you heard about ...?"
One funny thing, one hopeful thing.
I may be the last person on the planet to find this little gem, but if you're into Jane Austen, check out The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, an online adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. (Lizzie's a grad student! Jane's a fashion intern! Darcy runs a digital media company! Kitty is actually a cat!)
The girl playing Lizzie can be ... a bit much, initially. But she grows on you. Stick it out for a couple episodes, you'll see what I mean.
Now for the hopeful thing.
Many of you may read Robin Ambrose's blog and may have already heard about this, but David Farland's son Ben was recently in a long boarding accident that left him severely injured. The family doesn't have any medical insurance and Ben's medical bills may reach into the million dollar range.
Robin and some other writers are organizing a book bomb for Ben. Basically, a book bomb is when everyone buys a book during the same 24 hour period, hopefully driving that book into Amazon or Barnes and Noble's Top 100 Best-Seller List for that day. More people are then able to see the book, and they buy it too.
Ben's dad David has written a lot of great books, but the two books we're focusing on tomorrow are Million Dollar Outlines (nonfiction about writing craft) and Nightingale (young adult fantasy). From noon on Wednesday, April 10th, until noon on Thursday, April 11th, if you could buy one or both of these books, it would really help Ben and his family. And I've heard they're awesome, so that's a win-win!
See Robin's blog for more details.
I may be the last person on the planet to find this little gem, but if you're into Jane Austen, check out The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, an online adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. (Lizzie's a grad student! Jane's a fashion intern! Darcy runs a digital media company! Kitty is actually a cat!)
The girl playing Lizzie can be ... a bit much, initially. But she grows on you. Stick it out for a couple episodes, you'll see what I mean.
Now for the hopeful thing.
Many of you may read Robin Ambrose's blog and may have already heard about this, but David Farland's son Ben was recently in a long boarding accident that left him severely injured. The family doesn't have any medical insurance and Ben's medical bills may reach into the million dollar range.
Robin and some other writers are organizing a book bomb for Ben. Basically, a book bomb is when everyone buys a book during the same 24 hour period, hopefully driving that book into Amazon or Barnes and Noble's Top 100 Best-Seller List for that day. More people are then able to see the book, and they buy it too.
Ben's dad David has written a lot of great books, but the two books we're focusing on tomorrow are Million Dollar Outlines (nonfiction about writing craft) and Nightingale (young adult fantasy). From noon on Wednesday, April 10th, until noon on Thursday, April 11th, if you could buy one or both of these books, it would really help Ben and his family. And I've heard they're awesome, so that's a win-win!
See Robin's blog for more details.
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