Lepidopterotica

I didn't want to do the friends-only thing but circumstances render it necessary for a while.

If you would like to be added, leave me a comment here and tell me who you are and why you'd like me to add you.

Thanks.

1. Take no more than 15 minutes to produce a list of 15 books that have influenced you in style, ideas, relationships, language, or other ways that you find important, and/or books that have really stayed with you -- you keep thinking of that quote, you are always remembering that character, you are frequently reminded of that moment.... that kind of thing. This is not a favorites list.

Time starts now:

1) Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
2) The Belgariad - David Eddings
3) The Marat/Sade - Peter Weiss
4) The Empty Space - Peter Brook
5) The Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum
6) Watership Down - Richard Adams
7) Writing Down the Bones - Natalie Goldberg
8) Riverworld - Philip Jose Farmer
9) The Theatre and Its Double - Antonin Artaud
10) The Zoo Story - Edward Albee
11) A Fine and Private Place - Peter S. Beagle
12) Grania - Morgan Llewellyn
13) The Family Book Of Best-Loved Poems (various authors)
14) The Man In The Iron Mask - Alexandre Dumas
15) Tigana - Guy Gavriel Kay


I know I am forgetting books, but I have Dorgothy Gale, Long John Silver, Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'artagnan up there, so I haven't forgotten too much.

Also, yes, many of those are plays, but the instructions are "book", not "novel". So there.

Happy Birthday Greg! You have the same birthday as my Dad, but because we have compassion, Fang and I will not call you and sing in your ear as we did to him. Dad's going deaf so he thought it was charming. :P

My friend Cat is having money troubles. She is also an amazing writer. There is an auction community set up to help her (there's a link below), but also some of her books are available as ebooks for sale here:

http://www.catherynnemvalente.com/ebooks/

My favorite is The Grass-Cutting Sword.
A re-telling of the Japanese myth of Yamata-no-Orochi, this fragmented, metamorphosed folktale explores the strange landscape of primeval Japan, from the Heaven-Spanning Bridge to the hellish Root-Country, following the troubled trickster Susanoo-no-Mikoto, god of wind and storms, as he is banished from heaven and wanders the earth, lost in human form, in search of his demonic mother and charged with the defeat of an eight-headed serpent...

Buying the books helps Cat and also gives you good things to read.
Everybody wins.

Here's the auction community:

Help Catherynne M. Valente
adoptingcat

novella rough draft due Monday.
9 hour work days end Friday.

the future looks good.

Shellebot is writing.

You may leave a message at the beep.

Fang says, "She is a beautiful disaster."
He was talking about the cat.

beeeeeeeep.

Truer words never spoken. Or yowled, as the case may be.

Neil tells you why:

http://syndicated.livejournal.com/officialgaiman/525510.html

At work on Wednesday, walking to PAH I saw a man who wasn't there on the street corner.




Seeing him reminded me of this poem:

As I was going up the stair
I saw a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away...

When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldn’t see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door... (slam!)

Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away.

The name of the poem (I discovered after researching), is Antigonish and the author is Hughes Mearns. Antigonish is a town in Nova Scotia Canada, and the man who wasn't there was someone Mearns imagined (or saw) in a haunted house there.

For National Poetry Month, Media (the town where we live) had a "Poem In Your Pocket" event in which budding poets could go to local businesses and read their poems. The young poet would then get either a poem read back to him or her, a gift, or, in all cases, an eager audience.

Archer wrote his own poem (students had the option to write their own or read previously-published work), Under The Sea which I had posted here, and he read it nine times at different stores/businesses.

Here's Archer at Trader Joe's. The cashier brought him over to the phone on the wall and asked him to read his poem over the loudspeaker. Not shy at all, Archer read his poem to an entire grocery store!



He read it to the proprietor of Quincy's Gifts (a neat little curiosity shop that always makes me want to empty my wallet):



The employees at Ten Thousand Villages and the Coffee Beanery really considered the question "Do you have praise for it?" and gave him thoughtful answers (both of them said yes).

Archer inspiring thought at Ten Thousand Villages:


We talked about the fish in his poem, and how the idea of whether or not to praise something that created land could be analogous to whether or not to praise or believe in God. He said he hadn't thought about that when he wrote the poem (he just wrote it), but that he understood why his poem could make people think about it.

At the end of Archer's Poetry Adventure, he said to me, "Wow, poetry can really make a difference."

Do Americans Think EMRs Will Cut Or Increase Health Care Costs?

As someone who implements an EMR, I can tell you that in the case of Epic, costs are initially increased and ultimately (6-12 months later) cut.

Sure, the hospital has to pay for the software, for the computers to run it and for the network to connect it all, but they don't have to pay for the supplies to create paper charts (folders, special tabs, special stickers, 2-hole punches, etc.), the space to store the charts, special 'Telephone Call' message pads, customized billing sheets, prescription pads, radiology and lab order sheets ... the list goes on. Also, the practices save a lot of time because no one has to find a chart, fetch a chart or wait for someone else to do those things to make a medical decision.

So unless you work for a prescription pad manufacturer or a medical dictation service, the EMR is an improvement for your time and your budget.

If you live in Philadelphia and you want to talk on your cell phone while driving, better get a hands-free kit. The City Council voted 17-0 for the ban, which was sponsored by (this is funny if you know who their Dads were) Bill Green and Frank Rizzo.

There is a free issue of Heliotrope Magazine available as a pdf download - it's a tribute to Michael Moorcock. Stories and articles inside are from contributors including Neil Gaiman, Bryan Talbot, Lou Anders and Catherynne M. Valente (aka yuki_onna).

Also, if you missed it, Archer Castle's first original poem is available online here.

Today at Media Elementary School they had a Poetry Cafe. Each class has Poetry Cafe during their library time for the week. The library is set up with "cafe tables" with snacks, drinks and flowers where the kids sit and listen to their peers read poems. Each kid gets a chance to read either an original poem or a poem that he or she enjoys by another author.

Archer read an original poem called "Under The Sea". He and most of his peers are already very good readers. Archer also is very expressive when he reads.

Archer's poem:

Under the Sea

Once there was a fish with eyes as black as coal.
Its scales were as gray as the moon.
Its fins were very graceful.
Its body created land.
Do you give praise for it?

copyright Archer A. K. Castle, 2009.

Happy Birthday Jillbot!

Happy Birthday Pie!

The NFL schedule just came out.
The Eagles' bye week is Oct 4, 2009.

Also on Oct 4, 2009, H and I will be getting married.
How very nice of the NFL to accommodate us!

Little robots trying to find their way in the big city ...

Tweenbots.

If you live in New York, definitely check out that link. You might see one for real!

Yesterday, Jason was supposed to have Archer but Jason's car was acting funny so he asked if I'd mind picking him up to ensure that he got to school today. Or, he said, we could play it by ear.

"OknoproblemI'llpickhimupafterworkbye!"

We have the Bean back!
The world is a much brighter place.

Friday night H went to Guys' Game Night and I stayed home to make jewelry. I had three earrings done (I don't have friends with three ears, I just finished a pair and one of the next pair) when I got two creepy crank calls on my cell phone. I called H to tell him I was turning my cell phone off and to call me at home if he needed me and he said, "My Aunt Helen is dying, Mom, Dad and Amy are on their way to the hospital." This was expected, but it had only been expected for a few days. She was 65 years old and didn't have any serious health problems, but a bout of pneumonia changed that.

He wasn't in a state to drive (rum'll do that to you), so I picked him up and we went to the hospital, which was on Hurffville Cross Keys* road in NJ. The hospital had a threat of violence earlier so it was on lockdown when we got there. We had to walk around to the Emergency entrance because all the other entrances were locked. The guard searched our bags and wanded us and we headed over to the Surgery ICU, where they told us that Aunt Helen wasn't there. The woman who answered the intercom was very unhelpful, but luckily we found a helpful nurse in the hallway who knew who and where Helen was. She directed us to the medical ICU where we found H's family and Aunt Helen.

I'm not going to go into detail, but she was unable to move or speak, and there were mixed views regarding her ability to hear. We ended up leaving at 2:00 am, she died at 4:15 am.

So that's why we spent Saturday on the couch watching movies and pretty much doing nothing because we were too emotionally drained to do anything useful. We watched Road House and Clue. Sam Elliott is hot. 80s hair is funny.

Sunday we walked down State Street to go to breakfast - we were almost the only people there. After breakfast we came home, read for a while (I am reading Louis XIV by Ian Dunlop), then it was time to get his car and drive to Mom and Dad Houser's for Easter.

Easter this year was rather subdued because Mom H. didn't have time and energy to put out the myriad of chickies and bunnies and make us all easter baskets and do all the stuff she usually does. I feel bad saying this (because of the reason for it), but it was a wonderful Easter. We just sat around and talked and enjoyed each other's company and we didn't have anything to open or carry out to the car except leftovers. I had a great time.

Also it was Dad H's birthday and he has recently revived his interest in woodworking. He's really good at it - he makes birds that look like real birds, the detail on the feathers is amazing. So he got a lot of woodworking stuff for his b-day.

If you wish to express condolences, don't express them to me (I didn't know Aunt Helen), but you can express them to her family members, roughhouser and glamour_junkie.

And that was our weekend
*It's ok to laugh at the name "Hurffville". We did.

Barack Obama is hosting a Seder tonight ... the first Seder ever held in the White House! Ok, that's not true, there was a Seder there when Clinton was President, but Clinton himself did not attend, let alone host.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21050.html

Times are changing. This gesture made me feel proud to be an American. I know it's only a gesture and not a policy change, but sometimes gestures to acknowlege people and their culture really matter.

At the end of this hockey season, they're tearing down the Philadelphia Spectrum.

This weekend Houser, Fang and I saw the Philadelphia Phantoms defeat the Norfolk Admirals at the Spectrum. Shutout 3-0. The Phantoms were wearing special commemorative Spectrum jerseys. It was the most exciting hockey game I have ever seen live - they were on fire. There were two fights, one in the center of the ice.

Fang had a great time until the end when we discovered that the Phantoms were moving to Hershey. "Hershey Phantoms," he said, "that doesn't sound right."
"It doesn't," said Houser. "At least they're not moving to Jersey."
"If they moved to New Jersey they wouldn't be able to skate left."

The great Fangzini also got a souvenir bottle of Spectrum ice to save forever.
Sigh. I saw my first concert in the Spectrum - Billy Joel, the Innocent Man tour.
Very, very sad.

Today we got a letter from school. Fang has been selected for "enriched math" - aka pull-out math lessons for gifted kids.

I am so proud of him.
Not surprised, but definitely proud.

elisem made a pendant entitled Nine Things About Oracles. She names her jewelry (many people do, but she comes up with more creative names than most).

Many writers were inspired by this title to write their own interpretation of "Nine Things About Oracles" and elisem links to all of the poetry and prose here.

There are some amazing poems in that list, deep, dark, full of lush imagery.
And then there's me. "Nine Things About Oracles" sounded to me like a Facebook or LJ meme as answered by Cassandra. So that's what I wrote. For those of you who are not familiar with the Greek Myth, the first three lines of the Wikipedia entry will give you enough info for:


9 Things About Me: A Meme.

I posted this earlier, but without context.
I think that in context it's funnier.

For context, go here.

9 Things About Me: A Meme

Post this on your journal and tag nine other people.

1. I like men who are unpredictable. I think. So far I haven't met one.

2. The beads and fringe adornining my shop are mere affectation, what people expect.
I like clean, modern lines.
I crave IKEA furniture.

3. I don't own pets because I know when they're going to die.

4. My favorite beverages are peppermint tea, grapefruit juice and Red Bull.
Red Bull tastes nothing like the sweat of the minotaur.

5. I am pagan, white, Greek, and cursed.

6. I only read my own tea-leaves when the moon is full.

7. My father played charades with me when I was little. He pretended not to be King.

8. In person, Apollo smells of sour goat's milk.

9. None of this is true.

tagged: sybil, akashwani, dione, mimir, and all my girls from delphi