Air quotes

So I was talking to "Erika" earlier this term about air quotes. She uses them when she doubts someone's existence/thinks something is dumb (like "T.Tod" or "comps").

Well yesterday on my drive home from work I listened to All Things Considered with Michelle Norris on WUWM. The story was about "Black Friday" from the perspective of workers instead of shoppers. She talked to some young punk essayist about his collection called "The Customer is Always Wrong". When she said the words "retail clerk" I could practically hear the air quotes in her voice. She actually, earnestly said, "Wait, I thought the customer is always right?" Clearly Michelle has never worked "retail" because anyone who has would never have to ask that. The customer is always, always wrong, you just have to pretend they're right.


I am also going to suggest this song:
WAYUH (Simian Mobile Disco Remix) - The Rapture, which I recently found on my "computer". I listened to this song so much spring term freshman year. Maybe earlier? I really have no idea, but I do remember that it takes the best parts of WAYUH and ditched the worst (i.e. the bits that are actually by the Rapture).

In other news I am going to use hyperlinks. Fancy, eh?

Comment dit-on "me time"?

One thing I really value is having time to myself. I like to hunker down and watch a lot of movies, read crappy science fiction, and sleep a lot. This is how I get vitamin D deficiencies. The nearly-blackout curtains in my bedroom certainly don't help. Here I have no friends so I am never obligated to do anything but work and occasionally eat with my family. Other than being forced to go to church and hide my tattoo, living here is nearly ideal.


All things considered I was tremendously productive today. I finished that hat. I watched several mini-series (produced by the BBC, pre-20th C. period pieces duh). I wrote letters, but did not stamp or send them.

Things to do tomorrow:
1. Work
2. Find my netflix movie. I know it's somewhere in my things.
3. Get this art history nonsense sorted out.
4. Read "the Humanoid Touch" which looks promising.

Pre-20th C. Period Pieces

I have watched a lot of movies about dysfunctional families lately. James and the Giant Peach, Birds of America (which is sadly not based on any of the Lori Moore short stories), and Winter Passing.

Also The Buccaneers, but only sort of. That one is so funny to me. It is based on a novel written by my boo, Edith Wharton. And while I do love pre-20th century period pieces, this particular novel was never finished by Wharton. It was finished in 1993 by a scholar who studied her notes closely. Then (or possibly concurrently) it was made into a TV miniseries for BBC one and Masterpiece Theater. They HAVE DIFFERENT ENDINGS because Wharton didn't finish either. That seems preposterous to me that a publishing house would print something under the name of Edith Wharton that was not in fact totally written by her and also that the BBC would make a miniseries based on this book that is only sort of by Wharton as well.

Ok, let me finish The Last Tycoon. Don't worry, guys, I've read Fitzgerald's notes really closely and I think I know what he had in mind.

UPDATE: I have finished The Buccaneers. HOLY COW I am just itching to know what Wharton wrote and what some giddy scriptwriter wrote. There was a homo husband and lots of weeping and running away. People were shunned and some dude had a heart attack after picking up a clump of mud? It was bizarre. The gay bit was the best bit. There were some furtive glances earlier in the movie. Whose devised those??

Chapters

I don't understand how writers write entire chapters. When I think about events in my life, any story I could possibly want to tell, interesting or not, ends up being roughly a paragraph. My entire life story would essentially amount to an essay. And not a long one either. Somehow authors write about silly things which mysteriously turn into chapters. How does anyone have enough relevant insight to fill up a chapter? People obviously have enough to say, but I guess I just don't understand.

Writing is something I've always wanted to do, but have never done very well. I am a great editor, but an awful writer. I value concision. Writing should be brief and to the point, without frills and unnecessary details. I had a teacher in high school who had us remove all possible linking verbs and prepositions from our essays. She was very good, very sharp. She could write a book that would be full of meaningful content and lack every insignificant preposition. She seemed older than she was because she was so cold; and everyone was particularly shocked that she had recently married. She had an old maid vibe about her.

Some other things:

I am going against my doctor's orders and doing things other than sleeping in bed. That is, I write letters and use my computer whilst on my bed. I hope this doesn't affect my sleep cycle too much. That would be rotten if the six weeks wherein I intended to relax ended up damaging my psychological associations with my bed and therefore my ability to fall asleep.

I have started knitting a beret. It's funny and green. There are these gaps where I increased the stitching and I want to put some ribbon around it. At the store we have this really nice coral(ish) color that no one uses during the holiday season. I can steal enough for some hat-ribbon.