Goal #22

Goal #22: fun, fun, fun!

E is in town for a few more days, and we are going to live it up!  (Also, I am going to try to blog.)

Recap of goal #21: I have three articles of clothing that still need to be swapped out, but with E's help, I identified the likely candidates for extinction.  Now I just need to narrow down the list.

Goal #21

Goal #21: arrange for the new purchases.

I bought some new clothes over the weekend, and I have a rule about that: for every piece that comes in, one has to go out. In addition to that, I ordered my bike rack for my new car (which is not here yet either), and I need to figure out where I'm going to store that.  And I may also shortly purchase a new bike, just a cheapo cruiser to ride around town. That I can probably just leave in my garage. If someone steals it, I'll be out $50. No big loss.

Recap of goal #20: a near-complete miss.  I think I managed to read about 3 pages, which did not double my progress (although given my lack thereof, I can see how you might think it would have).

Random Links

Happy the dog is safe; can understand about 1/3 of what the owner says.

This is generally how I behave in the mornings as well.

Art in honey.

Is LA the new NYC?

It's never too late to get an education.

A recap of my little friend's accomplishments.

Goal #20

Goal #20: double my number of pages read.

K, E, and I started a postal book club a few months ago.  We gave ourselves 2 months to read our first book.  I'm on page 53.  Even if I can double the number of pages read, I'll still only be halfway there, but it's better than being 1/4 of the way there!

Recap of goal #19: records are organized!  Now I just need to keep listening through them.

What I'm Reading Now -- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

I caught up on my podcasts again recently, so I decided to listen to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, which I've had stored in my iTunes for ages.  I first learned about it on Books on the Nightstand, and shortly thereafter picked it up at the library and tucked it away for later.  Now it's later.

Things I think I will like about this book: it's set in England, it's about walking, and I don't really know much else about it.

Let's see what I learn.

What I Watched -- Brick by Chance and Fortune: The Story of Brick in St. Louis

Who would watch this movie?  Could anything possibly sound more boring?

Here's the answer: I would watch it!  And it wasn't a bit boring.

I discovered it when searching the SLCL catalog for Pokey LaFarge music.  (He does some of the music in the movie).  But if you're into architecture, history, maps, development, and my fair city, this movie is in your wheelhouse.  It was basically made for me! If it sounds like it was made for you too, the whole thing is available on YouTube.


The title and subtitle pretty much tell it all -- watching this, you'll learn the history of brick making and building with brick in St. Louis.  You'll learn about kinds of bricks, different neighborhoods, and what happened to the brick industry.  But it's awesome.

The whole premise of this doc reminds me of something Alain de Botton said in one of his productions: "A good building needs to be more than just structurally sound.  It's appearance must also in some way cohere with both its place and its time."

Bottom line: brick buildings in St. Louis cohere with their place and time.  They tell a story that's worth knowing.

What I Watched -- Obvious Child

E recommended Obvious Child to me, and of course I'm going to watch anything which is in any way related to Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (the first, second, third)!

Obvious Child is the amusing tale of a directionless twenty-something out-of-work stand-up comedian who gets pregnant during a drunken one night stand.  (The twenty-something is played by Jenny Slate, who voices Marcel.)  What I liked best about the film was that it takes an honest look at abortion, not a judgmental one.

Bottom line: manages to be funny about a serious topic.

Goal #19

Goal #19: records.

One of the few productive things I managed to accomplish this past weekend around my apartment was to start sorting through the record collection I inherited.  I've divided them into categories: classical, opera, rock/pop, jazz/blues, holiday, showtunes/soundtracks, and one category which in my head I am calling "I have no earthly idea."

This week, I hope to organize within the categories, probably alphabetically.  (I do have a job at a bookstore, after all.)  I will not get through the "no earthly idea" group in a week, I don't think.  But I can keep working on that one later.

Recap of goal #18: I think I have had some success beating my "too much work" drum.  I am still getting assignments, as the business must continue to go on, but they fewer and more defined, and my desk is slightly cleaner than it was this time last week.

Happy Mother's Day!

What I Watched -- Crimes and Misdemeanors -and- Hannah and Her Sisters

Oh, Woody Allen, you're just so...you. Maybe whiny is the word I'm looking for.  It's the PC word, anyway.  You can each pick whatever work you would like for yourself.

C said I should watch Hannah and Her Sisters because I have two of them myself.  It is his opinion that Crimes and Misdemeanors is one of Woody Allen's better movies, so if I were going to watch any, I had to watch that one.  And that's how I ended up watching them both.

I watched Hannah first.  While it is true that I have two sisters, I certainly hope things aren't as messed up for us as we get older as they are for Hannah, Lee, and Holly.  Or really anybody in the movie.  My favorite storyline, albeit a minor one, is probably that of their parents, played by Maureen O'Sullivan and Lloyd Nolan.  One thing I do have to say for Hannah is that it displays quite a cast, starring many of Allen's stalwarts: Michael Caine, Mia Farrow, Barbara Hershey, Carrie Fisher, Dianne West, and on and on.

And then Crimes, which is just as messed up, but in a different way.  Although really, what can you expect from a guy as messed up as Woody Allen?  I mean, he's in a long-term relationship with someone who stars in many of the movies he makes, and then he runs off and marries her adopted daughter.  Actually, no, he doesn't even have the decency to run off and do it.  He's just living his life as he always was, except now with his ex's daughter.  Weird and messed up.

Though I haven't taken in a huge percentage of Woody Allen's filmography, for my money, his best movie is Midnight in Paris.

Random Links

The end of an era.

A new kind of ad campaign.

The "hobo shower" has taken on a new dimension.  Literally.

You can't make this stuff up.

The Derpy Dog Championship.

In Case You're Feeling Charitable

Today is the day: 24 Hours of Giving in St. Louis!

Goal #18

Goal #18: continue beating my "too much work" drum.

I have attempted to make it clear to my boss a few times over the last couple of weeks that I have too much work to do.  I'm not sure whether I have succeeded.  He says he understands, says things like "you're entitled to have a life," but then just keeps dumping work on me.

I have a busy week this week.  My evenings after work are more full than I would like.  I suppose the benefit of this is that I'm going to leave work.  I won't be there until 9:30 or 10 every night.  And stuff probably won't get done.  Clients will be angry (angrier than they already are).  But maybe that's what needs to happen before I get taken seriously.

Recap of goal #17: I rowed 3 times last week!  One of them shouldn't really count because mostly C and I just talked and caught up, but it was definite progress.