Apple Bonkers

I dare you to watch this movie and not smile

sakishler@aol.com — Tue, 13 May 2008 05:54:29 GMT

Weekend Assignment #215: Review a film. Any film. Got something interesting to say about Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery (1903)? I'd love to read it. Metropolis (1927)? Why not? A Night in Casablanca (1946)? Fine. The Seventh Seal (1957)? Er, okay! Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)? You'll get away with it. Speed Racer (2008)? Go for it. From Hollywood to Ballywood to Hong Kong, from Kubrick to Kurasawa, it's all on the W.A. marquee. But there's one catch: the film should not be on your personal list of favorites; nor should it be a film you despise.

Extra Credit: Is there a film due out this summer that you plan to go see? If so, what is it?

Yesterday was Mother's Day, and I got together with my mom, dad, and grandma for brunch and a movie. The movie my mom chose was Young@Heart. She thought it was something all four of us would enjoy, and she was right. I'm a bit hesitant to write much about it because I don't want to inadvertently give away anything that should be a surprise, but my desire to get more people to see it overrules my hesitation on that count.

The movie is a documentary about a Massachusetts-based chorus called Young@Heart. The average age in this chorus is 80. Their 58-year old choir director Bob has them learn, rehearse, and perform songs by James Brown, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Talking Heads, Coldplay, The Clash, The Ramones, Sinead O' Connor, Sonic Youth, and more. The film's director, Stephen Walker, caught them while they were on a tour of Europe and liked them so much he decided to travel to America so he could follow them around with a camera.

Some comments:
* My grandma said this was the best movie she's seen in "years and years."
* There was more than one moment watching this movie when I found myself beaming
and crying at exactly the same time.
* What a wonderful, wonderful thing it is that people can sing.
* Some of the best moments in this movie are shots of audience reactions at
Young@Heart's live performances.
* Something I find greatly unfortunate in this world is that there are so many people
who think they have to spend hundreds of dollars on tickets to see a
production starring celebrities earning millions of dollars in theaters with thousands
of seats to see a great performance. Here's Exhibit A in the case against
that terrible myth. Someday soon maybe I'll share Exhibits B-Z here too. . . a list
I could compile in my sleep. But I digress. Well, no, I don't really digress -
what I mean to say is: if Young@Heart ever comes to your city, go. Go to community
and college theater. Go to open mic nights. You'll gather some of the most
enduring memories of your life.
* I have nothing bad to say about this movie.

I think I've reached the point where I'm going to stop talking about this movie. I know this is a pretty vague movie review, but that's honestly because I don't want to spoil it.

Extra credit: I already have tickets for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I feel a bit odd about being an adult at the same time an Indiana Jones movie is opening. That's just never happened before. I already saw Iron Man and thought it was OK. If not for Robert Downey Jr., I would have found it really, really boring.

I'm sure I'll see more movies this summer, too. I like movies.

Catching Up

sakishler@aol.com — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:57:23 GMT

Weekend Assignment #214: Sooner or later, pretty much everyone makes one or more major changes in their lives, sometimes several at once. We leave home, go off to college, get married, get divorced, change jobs, change careers, have kids, move to another house or another state, etc., etc. These things can be very stressful, but we do them in the hope of being better off in some way. Tell us of one change you voluntarily made in your life at some point, that worked out really well.

Extra Credit: Tell us of a little tiny change that also went well!

This is actually last weekend's weekend assignment, but I gave myself a bit of an extension, without asking Karen's permission first. Since the most recent life change I initiated was becoming a graduate student, I've been a little bit busy. My first semester is wrapping up in the coming week, and the reason I didn't get to this assignment before last Thursday is because I was hard at work on a 17-page research paper for my "Information and Society" class that was due on midnight on Wednesday. I slept much less than usual last week! I held my breath when I turned in my paper on the American Library Association's response to the USA Patriot Act, because who ever knows how the professor is going to react to your paper? I was thrilled to find out on Friday that my paper earned all points possible for the assignment. I'm winding down the semester with a 97% in one class and a 99% in the other. It's working out well so far. I find the work and the reading interesting, I enjoy the virtual interaction with classmates dispersed across the country, I feel like my brain is engaged with something I care about . . . in a nutshell, I couldn't be happier that I made this decision.

Now I still have a long way to go before I can declare the whole thing "worked out really well." I still have to complete 36 more units, which is probably going to take me the next two years. And the ultimate goal is a career that brings personal fulfillment to me . . . that seems kind of far out there in the future too. But for now, I'm enjoying myself (although if I went back in time and said that to my Tuesday night self, who was producing much mental sweat in the process of trying to get her paper organized, she might shoot me).

As for a little tiny change that worked out well (and I'm defining "change" as "new discovery" and "worked out well" as "is making me happy"), I recently discovered http://www.singsnap.com, with which I can indulge my penchant for karaoke during study breaks. I certainly don't have the most robust voice in the world, but no one could ever accuse me of not having fun with it. Wanna listen to me sing along with myself?

Tomorrow, I plan to respond to this weekend's assignment by reviewing a movie all about singing!

Knowing That I Loved My Books - Prospero, Act I, scene ii, The Tempest, William Shakespeare

sakishler@aol.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:24:03 GMT

Weekend Assignment #213: While it may be difficult to choose your favorite book of all time, there's probably a certain genre or category of books you prefer over other kinds. Do you love a mystery, or would you rather read about dragons? Are you thirsty for a good vampire tale, or is science fiction more your style? Do you mostly stick with the classics, or look for the latest spy novel? Are you a biography buff? Do a lot of your books have the word "Dummies" in the title? Do you like to read about real-world politics, science, history or sports, or would you rather escape the real world with a good romance? Tell us! And while you're at it, tell us your second favorite category of books.

Extra Credit: Do you ever loan out books to friends or family?

Oh boy, what a delicious question for an English major and budding librarian!

I would actually find it much more difficult to choose a favorite genre or category than a favorite book of all time, a question I can easily answer, and will get to later in this entry. My tastes in fiction to do not tend to lean toward one genre or another. I like a good story, period. For me, that mostly means the story contains characters that I can remember and care about (The Da Vinci Code failed for me on this front, while the Harry Potter series is a smashing success . . . sometimes I still lie awake worrying about my Hagrid! (Yes, I'm exaggerating because I like the effect)). Anything that can make me laugh is also always welcome here. A quick survey of my fiction shelves may give a good idea of my literary tastes. Here's a list of authors who appear three or more times in my personal library, and of course this leaves out a lot of "ones and twosies":

Douglas Adams, Jane Austen (I'm only missing Mansfield Park to complete my collection; I ought to fix that), Peter Carey, Henry James, Steve Martin, L.M. Montgomery, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, John Steinbeck, Kurt Vonnegut, and (of course) William Shakespeare. My father built a shelf for me one Christmas containing a 1901 book set of all of his works: the plays, the sonnets, the longer poems, everything . . . and the quote that is the title of the entry is carved in the wood. These books aren't very practical to use, as trying to separate the pages from one another pretty much doesn't do anything but tear them, but it's a fun thing to have. If I actually want to read Shakespeare, I have the Riverside Shakespeare from my college days and various paperbacks I have accumulated over the years.

Now, as far as my non-fiction preferences, I like reading about anything that interests me, which includes almost (but not entirely) everything. My non-fiction shelves are pretty much arranged by category (I was born to be a librarian!), and those categories include, but are not limited to:

* Vegetarian cookbooks, which I really need to use more often.
* Books about writers
* Books about writing
* Books about the theater
* Scripts
* Books about cats
* Books about religion
* Books about philosophy
* Short stories (yes, these are really fiction but for space's sake they ended up here)
* Biographies (examples: I own biographies of Dr. Seuss and Sarah Bernhardt)
* Travel books (I have a slew of Lonely Planet and Rough Guides . . . which I
really enjoy reading even if I don't get to every place in them. I also have that book
1,000 Places to See Before You Die. At age 33, I've seen about 80 of them,
I think, which means maybe I'll get to about 24% of them if I live to be 100.
* Books about music (mostly rock music)
* Poetry
* Some left-wing political stuff that I probably would have gotten in trouble for
owning if I'd been around for the McCarthy era
* Literary anthologies I've saved from college (yes, mostly fiction)
* Computer books on things like HTML, Java, MS Word, Perl, UNIX, desktop
publishing, etc., sit in a shelf at the bottom of my computer desk
* French, Spanish, and Chinese Dictionaries
* Various reference works (dictionaries, special encyclopedias, etc.)

Now, as for the "favorite book of all time" question: it is Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. I remember reading somewhere, perhaps it was a book called History of Literature that it "contains almost everything a novel can hold," and indeed it is even more immense than its +1200 page length would suggest. Everything a novel can hold can include flaws, yes, and this book's had its share of attacks for its plot contrivances, sentimentality, and overly drawn characters. But this is a book with power, one that has inspired people from all classes to become things, following in Jean Valjean's footsteps on his path to being a good person. Is there anything greater than that a novel can do? This is a piece of art that presents, before its readers, the magnitude of compassion toward all men, women, and children, especially in a world that is hard.

I also enjoy Les Miserables as a treasure box, where I'll find scores of personalities, mundane places made amazing (like the sewers of Paris), French history, glimpses into religious life, and so much more. Abridged adaptations often leave out the long passages on things like the battle at Waterloo, argot, etc, but even in these digressions I tend to find new ideas every time I look at them. This book is a gift.

Yes, I love the "world's most popular musical," but it can't match the experience (or should I say multitude of experiences) of reading the book. In case you haven't noticed, I recommend it.

PS I got so wrapped up in thinking about Les Miserables that I almost forgot about the extra credit! I never actually offer to lend out my books, but when I asked, I never say no. This frequently results in my never seeing the book again, but if it's a good book, I suppose it's a donation toward a worthy cause. :)

It's Poetry in Motion!

sakishler@aol.com — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:24:22 GMT

Weekend Assignment #212: It's National Poetry Month in the United States, but poetry itself is a worldwide phenomenon, existing in many styles. Let's celebrate the form. How? By writing a poem, of course! It can be silly or serious, haiku, limerick, rhymed verse, blank verse, free verse, two lines long or fifty, or anything in between. All I ask is that it be a new, original poem, not something you wrote in high school and trot out occasionally.

Extra Credit: Do you have a favorite poet?

First of all, a huge thanks to Karen for prompting me to do a bit of creative writing today, an interest and (I hope) talent I all too often neglect, and work, school, and theater are all well and good, but are no excuses not to be writing. I had no idea what was going to come out when I sat down to write a new poem today. There were no ideas in my head clamoring to get out. So, after staring at a blank page for several minutes, here's what ended up happening:

I'm getting paid to throw mirrors away
I'm doing this work very well.
I quietly walk through this city all day
With nothing to pitch, buy, or sell.

So many people rush by on the street,
Their eyes all on goals I can't see.
As they focus their minds on invisible things,
I'm thankful they don't notice me.

Soon their reflections will all disappear
And they won't know who they have to blame.
All I need for reward is the dough I take home.
Why would I dare also want fame?

My boss says it's all for the good of the whole
We're making a friendlier town.
Neighbors will look at each other again -
or might they all mostly look down?

I only make one mistake on this job
But I make it over and over again:
When I'm handling mirrors that must be destroyed,
I'm tempted to see who I am.

Now, as for my favorite poet? Well, as someone who majored in English and meant it, there may just be too many possible answers to this question. John Keats was a wonderful poet, almost impossibly wonderful, how could such things as his poems come out of a regular old human being? Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, Emily Dickinson, Samuel Coleridge, Robert Frost, Ezra Pound, Dylan Thomas . . . well, suffice it to say, I like a lot of poets.

The true honest answer, to the question, though (and I hope it's not cheating that I have two favorite poets - well, if you can count a rock band as one poet) is: my very favorite poets are Shakespeare and The Beatles. You could probably ask me a million "Do you have a favorite _____?" questions and my answer would be Shakespeare and The Beatles.

I never fail to feel a sensation down my spine when I read or hear these words, no matter how often it's been:

What a piece of work is a man!
How noble in reason!
How infinite in faculty!
in form, in moving, how express and admirable!
in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god!
the beauty of the world!
the paragon of animals!

And as for The Beatles, the lyrics of songs like Strawberry Fields Forever, The Fool on the Hill, It's All Too Much, and many, many others, are always popping into my head, refining my perspectives and echoing the ideas and impressions I gain with the chords they strike.

Since I slipped popular music into this assignment, somehow I feel obliged to also give a nod to Paul Simon, whom I have an immense appreciation for as a songwriter and highly poetical lyricist. In honor of National Poetry Week, here's a link to Paul and Art singing Richard Cory, a direct marriage of a classic American poem and contemporary music.

On a final note, I started to sing the poem I wrote today to myself, to see what kind of tune would come out, and I found it sounded a lot like Billy Joel's "Innocent Man." Odd, because I probably haven't heard that song in four years or more, and I'm not particularly big on Billy Joel in general.

How Does Your Garden Grow (that is, if it grows at all)?

sakishler@aol.com — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:28:40 GMT

Weekend Assignment #211: How are your gardening skills? Do you plant flowers and trees and even shrubberies, or do you settle for weeds and concrete? Do houseplants die in your care, or grow and prosper?

Extra Credit: Is there someone you know who is better at this gardening stuff than you are?

Living in an apartment complex where none of the outdoor space is actually available for my private personal use, this is a bit hard to know. I'd probably do okay with houseplants if the cat didn't eat them. I do have a plant at work that seems to still be going strong for the five or so years I've had it, thriving even after transport from one office space to another. I just water it a few times a week, that's all. Doesn't appear to be a particularly demanding plant.

As for the extra credit, ha ha ha, that's got to be the easiest extra credit for me to earn in the history of ever. As the offspring of the people who founded this community gardening organization , and a horticulture teacher, I sure as heck do know people who are better at this gardening stuff than I am. How many times has my dad answered the phone saying that mom's out working in the garden, or vice versa? With this pedigree, I'm a little embarrassed that I know as little about gardening as I do. But, hey, there's still the future. I did help out at the Community Gardens as Appleseeds table at the Whole Foods Earth Day event yesterday, giving away sunflower seeds to children and telling them how to plant them, so there's something I did for the cause.

Extending the weekend just a bit is never a bad thing. . .

sakishler@aol.com — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:00:56 GMT

Weekend Assignment #210: It's been 40 years since the Mountaintop speech, and even longer since the great speeches of John F Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and others. Are the days of great oratory behind us, or have you drawn inspiration from some recent public speaker? If so, what was the speech? Do you remember any actual quotes from it?

Extra Credit: Have you ever given a speech, other than in a classroom?

All right, well, I didn't get to the weekend assignment until Monday night, but I'll hope I'll be forgiven. Over the weekend, I gave a presentation (it was for school, so I don't think I can use it for extra credit, even though it wasn't in a classroom), finished and turned in a paper and a 24-slide PowerPoint file, attended a party thrown by Californians for Humane Farms to celebrate their initiative qualifying for the November ballot, rehearsed for the New Play Reading event taking place tomorrow night, and was, out of the blue, served a "termination of tenancy" notice by my property manager because for some unknown reason she thought I did something that I wasn't at all aware I did until she told me I'd done it, and that's because I hadn't. She rescinded the notice pretty much immediately, but this is the latest in an unpleasant series of incidents that are beginning to make me rather unhappy. So, for all these reasons, I didn't find the time or, mostly, the energy to complete the weekend assignment until now.

Anyway . . .

Reading the other blog entries in response to this assignment, it seems that I am not alone am finding this a challenging one. I'm not sure if that really means that oratory is dead, or it just means that speeches are hard to remember, or what. I also watch very little television, so whatever public figures say, I'm far more likely to read in print than catch on the TV. I'm glad we have YouTube these days, so I can go back and listen to speeches I missed, like Barack Obama's March 18 speech on race relations, which I tried to listen to on the radio that morning, but didn't because he started late, and I had to start work. I've been meaning to YouTube it ever since, but haven't found a good time to spend 40 minutes doing so. So I'm actually listening to it right now. Thanks, Karen, for prompting that. Am I impressed by it? Well, he seems to be saying things that are true . . . obviously true. He's saying things that he needs to say. I find it worthwhile. Do find it electrifying or inspirational? I can't say I do.

I also must say I was exceedingly unimpressed by the last time I heard our current President make a speech on the radio . . . in fact, I was so unimpressed I was moved to comment on how unimpressed I was on this blog, just a few entries back.

I'm not sure I actually followed the specifications of this assignment, but heck, at least it got me to write on my blog, right? As far as the extra credit goes, I've given many, many
"please turn off your cell phones; there will be one 15-intermission" kinds of speeches, but I think that's not the sort of thing we have in mind here. I make 30-second announcements to a roomful of Realtors quite regularly. And Madame Pernelle from Tartuffe and Elizabeth from Six Degrees of Separation gave speeches that couldn't have happened without my help, because at the time, I was playing them.

As far as the last weekend assignment, well, the only thing that was true about that was that I attempting to unclutter my apartment recently. Oh, and that I have friends that have laughed at me millions of times.

Weekend Asssignment for April Fool's

sakishler@aol.com — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 06:19:36 GMT

"Weekend Assignment #209: Tell us a story about yourself, something that is plausible but definitely, outrageously false, while containing a kernel of truth. Since we don't want to create any work for Snopes.com, begin your tale with the words, "This is not true," and don't say anything defamatory about any companies, products, celebrities or politicians."

This is not true:
I was attempting to "unclutter" the apartment not too long ago, and came across an old video tape I don't remember ever actually owning, but I doubt someone actually broke into my place and left it there. It is labelled "Alice and the Squirrels" in green felt pen. It looks like a child's handwriting, but not mine. I would've played it for myself to figure out what on earth it was, but I no longer have a working VCR, just a cheap DVD player. If I get around to it, I will get a friend who still has VHS-playing capabilities to play it, and I'll pray that nothing terribly shocking or embarassing is on it. It could be some bad skit I made when I was 12, or worse. So, I have to pick a friend carefully. Not that the people I can think of to ask to do this haven't already laughed at me 20 million times.

Spring

sakishler@aol.com — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 01:32:09 GMT

In case you didn't notice, after Wednesday my intention to do a daily post, um, stopped. After evaluating how my week went, I've decided to go a little easier on myself. I think I'll post at least once a week, and more if it's not going to kill me. I had a team presentation due for school on Saturday morning, and we spent many hours meeting to prepare in the days preceding, and I'm happy to report we got a perfect score, which I think is definitely worth skipping a few blogging opportunities.

So, since Karen is keeping up with the weekend assignments, posting at least once a week should be easy:

"Weekend Assignment #208: Meteorologists define spring in the Northern Hemisphere as beginning March 1st; others define it according to the vernal equinox, the return of warm weather, or the appearance of a groundhog's shadow. What does spring mean to you, and what, if anything, do you intend to do about it?"

I have unusual preferences, in regards to weather and seasons. I love rain, I love overcast skies, and I think bare trees are really beautiful. I'm sad to see winter go. Admittedly I might feel differently about this if I lived somewhere that actually saw real winters. Shoveling snow never sounded very much fun to me. On the other side of the coin, though, I've not been above feeling rather envious when hearing tales from others of "needing" to stay home from school or work because of snow. That's an experience I've never had.

But the winter I experience, I love. I love wearing my overcoat and my scarves and for some reason most things romantic that ever happen to me happen to me in winter.

But okay, this weekend assignment isn't about winter, it's about spring. And while it's no winter, I do find a lot to like about spring. Baby animals, blossoming trees (the crabapple tree I used to spend a lot of time in in my parents' backyard blooms beautifully in spring . . . my grandma was telling me how pretty it looked from her window during our "Happy Easter" call today, the smell of freshly mowed lawns, people spending more time in parks and having picnics . . . and yeah, I can appreciate blue skies without clouds too. I think spring ending is even more sad to me than winter ending, though, because than that ushers in summer, and I really really don't do well in severe heat. The sun is not gentle with skin like mine, and it's hard to sleep in the heat, and it's energy-sucking. I don't like feeling like I have no energy to get anything done . . . because I really like to feel like I'm accomplishing things.

So I think what I've learned about myself by writing this, is that spring is no winter, but it's good, and I'm very hopeful that I'll accomplish things this spring, and I hope we don't get any horrible heat waves this summer.

So according to George Bush . . .

sakishler@aol.com — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:58:05 GMT

our country is safer now than it was before he took office and the Iraqi people are all happy and we have to stay in Iraq until we find Osama Bin Laden.

Back in 2000, someone told me they voted for this guy "for my own good." If this is for mine, or anyone's good, I'd hate to see what my bad was.

Short Cheat Entry Because I'm Swamped With School Stuff

sakishler@aol.com — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 05:24:48 GMT

I'm playing a character called Acedia in "The Sloth Pit," so now I know what acedia is. It's still a pretty name.

Hooray!

sakishler@aol.com — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 05:30:56 GMT

It appears I have figured out a way to act while I'm in school, by participating in a staged reading in a festival of new 20-minute plays (the one I'm going to perform is called "The Sloth Pit") - this is great, because it's only two or three rehearsals, and one performance, instead of six weeks of rehearsals and then sixteen performances.

More details shall appear when I know them!

Short Story in The New Yorker

sakishler@aol.com — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 04:27:32 GMT

So, again I am at a loss for words tonight, and although LJ's "Writer's Block" feature urges users to describe a perfect world, I don't much feel like doing that. I think my feelings about that can be summed up in four words: peace, love, tolerance, and equality.

Instead, I'll say that I read an interesting piece of short fiction in The New Yorker today called "Raj, Bohemian." This New Yorker is a few weeks old. Last year I was pretty good to keeping up with my New Yorkers (it's my favorite backstage reading), but this year, not so much. Being a new graduate student has something to do with that. So, the stacks are piling up, and I grabbed one for something to read on the bus to a very nice dim sum gathering at Vegi Garden in Sunnyvale, which doesn't seem to have a Web site I can link to. Anyway, that's a tangent. The story is written by Hari Kunzu, who according to the contributor page has written three novels, and his style really grabbed me. Even when I do read my New Yorkers regularly, I rarely get past two or three paragraphs of the fiction. It's an awfully cynical story, in which the young narrator starts to notice something odd about his friends sharing with him a particular brand of vodka, or having him listen to a new band, or recommending a certain massage parlor for his noticeable stress. One character in the story actually utters the phrase "monetize her social networks." We keep our friends in our lives for many, many reasons - I like to think that monetary gain doesn't make the list.

Walkability Workshop

sakishler@aol.com — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:39:10 GMT

So, I walked past the Mountain View Community Center this morning on my way to pick up kitty litter at Walgreen's, and there were signs declaring the "Walkability Workshop (Walk this Way)."

Naturally I wondered what in the world a walkability workshop was. Were they teaching people how to walk? Generally that comes before learning how to read so you can understand signs . . .

On the way back from Walgreen's and past the Community Center again, there was a large group of walkers on the sidewalk with me. I heard one of them say to someone in a car who was pulling into a driveway "We're trying to get people out of their cars!" They were probably participating in the workshop. I wondered why they didn't say anything to me - I was already out there walking!

Anyway, I just Googled the thing and this explains it:

Community Events

Walkability Workshop
Mountain View community members are invited to an interactive workshop that will examine how development, planning, traffic, and safety impact pedestrian and bike access to stores, parks and public transit. Sat., March 15, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. For more information, call Mountain View Walkability E-mail mvwalkability@gmail.com. Mountain View Community Center, 201 S. Rengstoff Ave. - Room 3, Mountain View

sakishler@aol.com — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 05:30:16 GMT

Karen should be happy to know that I intend to keep up with her weekend assignments! This is #207 but for me it's #1. Well, #2. Somewhere in the archives another weekend assignment post dwells, although that one wasn't Karen's.

Weekend Assignment #207: Are you a news junkie, or not so much? Do you seek out news on tv, radio, in newspapers or online, or are you sick of the endless rehashing of the same issues? I realize it's all a continuum, from "I never watch the news" to "I keep it on all day, and read several newspapers" (or whatever). Maybe you vacillate, depending on what's going on in the world or your own life. What's your current level of interest?

I think it's very important to be an informed citizen. I don't always want to listen to the news. Sometimes it upsets me. Sometimes it bores mes. But I do want to keep a pulse on what's going on in the area, the state, the nation, the world.

My main source of news is the radio, usually KGO, which is my alarm clock in the morning and often on in the car. I'd say my second source of news is the Web. I used to get the newspaper delivered, but that began to overwhelm my apartment, where I don't have an efficient way to recycle (and damned if I'm not going to find some way to recycle them). My TV is rarely used, and only for Jeopardy, Ebert & Roeper, and Frasier reruns. And yes, I do vacillate, pretty much depending on how packed my schedule is. I'm pretty much always interested though. Because my goal in life is to know absolutely everything. :)

Currently my information retrieval class is having some discussion on how customizable your information is every day, your RSS feed can bring you only what you want it too, you can make your AOL homepage display entertainment news only, etc. On the way to the sports section in the paper (I use the sports section in my example because a lot of people get the paper mostly for that - although I sure didn't) you may stumble across something in the business section you find enlightening, that wouldn't come to you if you subsribed to an "all sports" publication.

It is truly becoming an option to "just see what you want to see" (nowhere man, can you see me at all?) This can be a rather disturbing thought. Still, I think we can and should use the tools of the Internet age to broaden our minds and experiences, not narrow them.

Extra Credit: Is there a particular news story you have been following recently?
This actually hasn't been in the news much, and I hope it will increase in visibility, but I'm very interested in following the campaign from Californians for Humane Farms.

This'll Just Be Off the Top of My Head. . .

sakishler@aol.com — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 04:09:20 GMT

. . . because so far, at least, I'm committed to keeping this daily blog thing rolling, but I have no idea what to say tonight. LJ has a suggestion I write about Eliot Spitzer and his decision to resign, but I don't really have any opinion at all about that. Maybe I don't care because he's the governor of a state I don't live in. Maybe that's a poor reason not to care. All this is to me is just one more example of how deeply flawed the human race is. I don't really need one more example of that. I was convinced a long time ago.

Sigh, the paragon of animals and the quintessence of dust. What complicated creatures we are. How hard it is to evaluate the human race.

Final Jeopardy Confused Me!

sakishler@aol.com — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 04:41:55 GMT

So, if you are flying due south from Miami, what two South American countries will you fly across? For the Final Jeopardy "question," you had to provide one or two of them. Like two of the three contestants, I guessed Venezuela, which is way off. Mr. Trebek noted that people have a tendency not to think of South America as being quite east of North America, which of course is clear if you look at a world map. But yeah, if I were drawing a map, say, in Pictionary, I would draw the continents one on top of the other. Of course, the 60-second timer does not encourage geographic accuracy.

Anyway, turns out the two countries you would fly across are Ecuador and Peru. And that confused me because I looked at a bunch of world maps and to me it totally, totally, looked like you would fly across Colombia, but may or not hit Ecuador. I guess it's (almost) the opposite, though. I went on the Jeopardy.com discussion board, and was quite pleased to discover I wasn't the only one who was thinking "No way! Alex is wrong!" (of course deep down I knew that Jeopardy could never be wrong and I had to be the one who was wrong).

According to a poster,

"Miami is at 80 degrees 13 minutes W. Columbia's westernmost point is at roughly 79 degrees 8 minutes W. It's certainly close though."

Certainly close, indeed.

And Suddenly She Feels Like Blogging

sakishler@aol.com — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 05:15:01 GMT

Why? I don't know. This week I've been assigned a lot of reading on libraries and Web 2.0 and I'm kind of getting the message that a good library science student should be actively blogging and spending a lot of time on Facebook. I'm not sure that's a very good message to get, but I'm going to run with it. Right now my plan is to post here every night . . . now that I've set that down in writing, it seems more real, and like a promise I have to keep. We'll see how it goes.

What's on my mind lately? School, mostly. I'm really finding it interesting stuff all around, and so far I feel like my tuition is money well spent. I like taking my classes online. Some people tell me that they don't think they'd have the discipline, that they "need a classroom," it's much harder to get to know your classmates this way, etc.

I do have the discipline, at least so far, as I'm a very deadline-driven person and I don't like saving all tasks until the last minute. Since my job is rather deadline-driven and I have to prioritize and juggle a lot there, I can see that it's making me a better student. Working only four days a week is helping a lot, too, and fringe benefits of that include my ability to actually take a bike ride at 10 am on a Monday! This whole plan is also good for my health.

The hardest thing about this is answering when people ask me if I am going to be in a play soon, or especially when directors ask me if I am going to audition for their next projects. I can't drop theater activities entirely from my life, and once I've complete my Master's program I plan to dive in to acting again with both feet, but right now . . . it's hard to let these chances pass by. I'm thinking that I could probably handle two classes, four work days a week, and full theatrical participation and still do all right, but I don't want to do all right. I want to excel.

Maybe I can take one-day acting classes here and there, and look out for things like extra work in films that would only take a day or so, and that way satisfy the acting bug without making months-long commitments to projects.

I don't want to have to choose among the things I love.

Does Anyone Want to Explain to Me What In The World This Means?

sakishler@aol.com — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:19:11 GMT

"Thy teeth are like a flock of ewes, Which are come up from the washing; Whereof every one hath twins, And none is bereaved among them."

Yes, It Has Been A While

sakishler@aol.com — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 02:52:57 GMT

Wow, the interface has totally changed since the last time I posted here.

I don't seem to have much to say, but I just felt like checking in and posting. Which is a feeling I haven't had in some time. I am waiting for my laundry to dry so that I can then head off to an election night party. I've never been to an election night party. Well, except maybe in high school when my history teacher ran for town council and lost. I say "except maybe" because I'm not 100% that counted as a party.

I guess my biggest news is: for those who don't already know, I am now officially a graduate student in SJSU's Library and Information Science program. Starting on week 3 and am still having fun with it. Whee!

Brief Update

sakishler@aol.com — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:30:48 GMT

Meelo is doing OK. Since I switched him over a urinary tract health diet, he hasn't had any of those alarming incidents. The vet checked his urine and said it was crystal-free but the pH was still too high. So I'm just going to keep an eye on him, I guess.

Otherwise, I'm taking a break from theatrical activities (well, except for Santa Clara Players Board activities, and then, I've volunteered for a South Bay Scene Night tomorrow, a cool program allowing playwrights to hear actors read from their new scripts . . .but that's just one night). I feel like it's a good idea to pay attention to some other areas of my life right now.

My break is planned to go until the end of this calendar year but I just saw an audition notice that looks tempting. Um, I guess I'll find out a little more about the play and the decide if I want to audition. It doesn't go up until 2008, but rehearsals would start in November. Which, if I got cast, so much for the rest of my break . . .

But it's only an audition after all. I guess I'll sleep on it.

Meelo

sakishler@aol.com — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 04:58:19 GMT

So, I'm still supposed to talk about any fun things that have been happening, but at the moment my thoughts are consumed by my cat Meelo, who has sufficiently frightened me into taking him into the 24-hour vet clinic twice in the past three weeks, the latest trip being last night.

Short explanation - he's been demonstrating problems getting the pee out. In male cats, this could mean blockage, which could mean death within hours, so you can imagine why I've been concerned. At both vet trips, techs "expressed his bladder" (don't know exactly how they do that), and the urine came out quite easily, so the good news is that he hasn't been blocked. The bad news is that he does have some sort of urinary tract disorder, and I'm probably going to need to watch him and treat him for this from now on, no end in sight. I can only pray that it never leads to actual blockage.

So I have to give a cat pills. Give a cat pills. Give Meelo pills.

I've been a wildlife rescue volunteer for the past eight years. I've force fed many an animal by now. But this is Meelo we're talking about.

His pill for tonight has not yet been successfully downed. Nowhere close.

Poor Meelo. If only he could tell me, "Don't worry. I'm going to be okay." If only he could tell me what he was feeling so I needn't be so alarmed. How he hates these trips to the vet.

Meelo has been a serious constant in my life for the seven years he has been in my life. He's my only roommate, my comfort in times of personal upheaval, and I hate to seem him any way in pain.

Why can I only think of songs that say time goes by slowly?

sakishler@aol.com — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 05:53:42 GMT

All right. It's been three and half months since I posted. So much for that "once a month" thing I had going, eh?

Somebody asked me to post about all the fun things that have happened in the last three and a half months. I'm sure I could think of at least one fun and interesting thing that happened to me each of those months, but it appears that I'll have to think about it a bit harder than I thought, because frankly, at the moment I do not know what to say.

But I will think about it. And then I'll post once more.

So if I'm going to keep up this once-a-month post thing. . .

sakishler@aol.com — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 01:56:58 GMT

I guess I'd better post something now, before it's April! March, I hardly knew ye.

I haven't been feeling particularly inspired to blog of late. There's nothing wrong with that, I guess - I've been writing a bit of fiction, which - if I have to choose between blogging and fiction, fiction is probably the more productive choice - and concentrating on my life in the theatre world, which is always good. I expect some fun things will be happening on that front in the not-too-far-away future.

In general, I feel awfully content with my life right now. I can't site any particular reason for my happiness - no big job news, no big relationship news, no big anything. I'm just living simply and I'm having fun.

And from time to time I shall feel like blogging. I suspect the urge to hit me at least once a month.

My Vegetarian Ethic

sakishler@aol.com — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 02:05:07 GMT

Last night, I got together with friends from the South Bay Vegetarian Society at Fresh Choice, a salad bar/buffet chain that has locations in Washington, Texas, and Northern California. Fresh Choice isn't a meat-free eating establishment, but it has a reputation of being friendly to veg*ns (that's Internet shorthand for "vegetarians and vegans"), often labeling selections if they are vegetarian or vegan (although sometimes their labeling system puzzles me . . . for example, they take pains to list all the ingredients of a soup, and it appears to be completely free of animal products, yet the label goes on to call it "vegetarian" instead of "vegan" . . . must make a mental note to e-mail them about that).

Anyway, conversation turned to the delicate feelings that sometimes arise in either party in "mixed company" (i.e., vegetarians and meateaters, particularly when dining together). I've had this quite a lot on my mind today.

My choice not to eat meat comes from strong ethical convictions, but it is not my intention to condemn others in the process of adhering to my personal moral code. The people I love most in the world are not vegetarian.

That said, if you were to ask me whether I think the world would be a better place if more people consumed less animal products, I could only answer "yes." There is scarcely anything I believe more.

One friend at the dinner last night told us of a challenge she had set for herself and recently completed: she invited 100 people to be a vegan for one day. Some of the people she asked were friends, and some were strangers she had struck up conversations with on plane trips, etc. In the case of a friend of ours who is a vegetarian but consumes a lot of dairy, she raised the bar and invited her to be vegan for a month. She said that the people she asked usually responded politely, if not completely enthusiastically. One woman told her that she wasn't on board with the whole "Animal Holocaust" movement and was more concerned about the environment. Of course, this provided my friend a window to discuss what a significant impact our food choices have on the environment.

Even though my friend had filled her 100-person quota, she decided to demonstrate the process to us at dinner last night, and it was very interesting to observe. She asked a woman none of us knew to take a group picture of us, and as she did so this is how the conversation went, more or less:

"Could you take a picture of my group?"

"Okay, sure."

"Thanks . . . this group, it's a vegetarian group, and, also, I wonder if you might be willing to try a vegan diet for one day. That means no meat, no chicken, no fish, no dairy, no eggs. Do you think you might be able to try that?"

The woman giggled a bit and then took the picture.

My friend: "Thanks so much. So, is this 'vegan day' something you might be willing to try?"

The woman giggled some more. "Maybe I could try that. Maybe next week."

My friend: "Great! Good luck next week." And the woman was on her way.

The woman was probably understandably slightly taken aback by the conversation, but it was a solidly polite exchange. And my friend pointed out that even if the woman doesn't attempt a "vegan day," she'd been given anecdote fodder (her encounter with the "weirdo woman" at Fresh Choice), that could lead to some thoughtful conversation in her own social circle about diet choices.

I think considering where your food comes from and what impact your choices have on animals, the planet, and other people merits serious thought. I recently read and discussed the book The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter (by Peter Singer and James Mason), which of course has a lot to do with why I have been thinking about this so hard lately.

I am not a vegan – throughout my 15-year history as a vegetarian, dairy and eggs have been a pretty substantial part of my diet (and I'll be the first to admit cheese tastes awfully good, although I'm beginning to come around to the idea that after I've given it up for a while I won't miss it, just like I don't miss meat now). I am leaning toward veganism more and more, and my home kitchen is now virtually animal-product free.

I do tend to eat out a lot, however (living alone and having a packed schedule tends to make the home cooking happen not-so-much), and that can be very difficult. I am fortunate to know about four or five pure vegan restaurants in the South Bay (although my favorite went out of business in October), but none of them are near enough to work to patronize on my lunch break, and mainstream restaurants that offer vegetarian dishes usually pile them with cheese (I’m just getting into the habit of asking waitstaff to "hold the cheese," though).

It can also be hard to deal with in social settings, such as when co-workers have a meal together, etc. I find most people want to be considerate and accommodating, and take pains to ensure that I have something meatless to eat in a dining situation, and I am truly moved by the effort they make on my behalf. So the idea of saying, I'm sorry, I actually don't eat eggs, either," or something like that, makes me uncomfortable. I don't want to reject the kindness of those who went out of their way because of my unusual requirements.

The Way We Eat is divided into three sections: the authors interview a family on the "Standard American Diet" (meat and potatoes), a vegan family, and a "conscientious omnivorous" family. While the authors clearly champion the vegan diet, it is interesting that they make a lot of good points about how meateaters can also make more environmentally sound and humane food decisions. It requires effort and research, and it isn't always the most convenient or least expensive option, but I happen to believe this is an important enough part of life on earth that people should bear the inconvenience of making the right food choices.

I went to visit my parents this morning, and I helped my mother make some really good flaxseed and whole wheat oatmeal pancakes, topped with apples from the tree in the backyard (talk about environmental efficiency – can't get more locally grown than that). They weren't vegan pancakes, but when I asked my mom where she got the eggs, she said they came from the chickens next door. I have often watched the chickens next door and fully intact (I think "de-beaking" is one of the most shudder-worthy of farming practices). So, I am very proud right now of my parents' actions as "conscientious omnivores."

Wow, that was long. And I think slightly meandering. And I still feel like I'm not saying all that I have to say about this. But perhaps the rest can wait for the future. After all, like I said, this turned out to be long!

The First Monthly Post of 2007

sakishler@aol.com — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 04:15:30 GMT

It hit me today that if I don't post on my LJ today, I'll be breaking a consistent track record of posting once a month (I'd like it to be more than that, but, you know, this much, at least, at minimum . . .)

Work has been utterly exhausting. I feel depleted tonight. I only pray it gets less hectic soon. It probably will. January is historically the craziest month at my office.

But then no month at the office isn't crazy.

Life outside the office has also been whizzing by this month, but other than the flat tire at an unfortunate time, it's been fun. Even the flat tire thing had its fun aspect when my situation caused a houseful of eight young men living near San Jose State University to come to my aid. Other than that, I've been able to check out a cool M.C. Escher/op art exhibit at the museum, see Dreamgirls, enjoy a Morrissey/Smiths tribute band concert (can't think of the actual band's name right now and don't feel inclined to Google it right now) at which I ran into an old friend from high school, perform in a Chinese New Years program in which I got to be in a skit spoofing fashion models (I would never have guessed how fun that was going to be!), and begin rehearsing for a small comedic part in Prelude to a Kiss, which opens at Northside Theatre in San Jose February 15. (Not that it has anything to do with our performance, but the play is also being revived on Broadway soon, with John Mahoney from Frasier playing the Old Man).

Me, I am not playing the Old Man. But I am playing a character that was originally written for a man.

And pretty soon, I can see that this whole post will degenerate into nonsensical rambling. Which might be never forgotten. Can you Persephone?