Krishni has some oatmeal every day, and on the oatmeal packet is a trivia question. Today's was, How long did the Vietnam War last? I got it right. Because I am just so smart. Actually, it is a hard question. So I'm pretty proud of myself. That sound you hear is me patting myself on the back.
In other news I went to the grocery store last night. Now my cupboards and freezer are full again. I get this weird feeling of satisfaction after going to the grocery store. It makes me happy. Then I read. It was very pleasant.
Current song in my head:
"Tell Her About It" by Billy Joel
Three-day weekends are very much a double-edged sword. They're so fun and long and relaxing...then you have to go back to work. But at least I don't have to wait three months before the next day off (the gap between President's Day and Memorial Day is just killer!).
Word of the day:
Ennui
Oh, happy day! The office is closing at 3.
Current song in my head:
"Don't Tell Me" by Madonna
Another good Friday. Quiet office. Work to do, but nothing major. Three-day weekend coming up. Boss leaving in the early afternoon. Arrived at office early, so will be leaving early. Only mildly frightening thing is impending one-on-one with new director of department. But it should be okay. This weekend should be fun.
Current song in my head:
"But Not For Me" by the Gershwins
I swiped this from someone's post on the MBTV board about last night's Buffy. I agree of most of what she said...and deleted the parts I didn't.
"I liked the episode, but for me, it didn't have the gut wrenching impact of, say, "Becoming." [Barb's note: Which I just watched on Friday night and it killed me. That was Buffy at its peak.] I did like many individual moments, but some things just didn't add up for me.
The problems:
*Plotholes as big as that Portal. Did I miss something earlier this season in which it was made clear that Dawn was made of Buffy somehow? B/c if not, I'm totally not buying that whole rationale. It seems as if Joss had to trump up some reason for Buffy's blood to serve as an acceptable substitute for Dawn's, so he threw in that whole Buffy speech about "She was made from me." Bah. I mean, Dawn is the freaking Key? You can't just make that a cipher all of a sudden, when it's been such a huge deal all season.
*The whole "It always comes down to blood" bit just irritates me. As many have already ranted, the Key doesn't have to be human, does it? In fact, for centuries, it wasn't; the monks just put it into human form with Dawn. So why are there ancient rituals predicated around the Key being something that contains blood?
*Dagonsphere relegated to basement? WTF? Why weren't they using that long, long ago? Sheesh!
*Xander proposing to Anya. I don't want them to get married. This is not a show with married people in it! [Barb's note: I knew this was coming, but was hoping that Anya would get killed off.]
*Tara gets her brain back. Cop out! cop out! Why couldn't they just keep her nuts? That way we'd not have to endure the lack of chemistry that is the Willow/Tara relationship.
All that said, I did like many things:
*Spike. All his scenes. [Barb's note: Especially his scene with Buffy at her house. Choked me up more than Xander's proposal]
*Ripper! I loved him yelling at Buffy; 'bout damn time somebody talked back when she started snipping out orders. And word to whomever pointed out that he offed Ben in an almost gentle (but inexorable) manner. Just doing his job.
*The set up of Joel Grey as next year's Big Bad. Yahoo, can't wait for that one. My only question is, how did he fit his tail into that well-cut suit? You'd think there'd be an unsightly bulge problem.
*Strong Willow. Strong Xander. Ineffectual stupid gits of season five, begone! We've got the old mojo back."
I really did like this episode, except I continue to believe that Dawn should've jumped, not Buffy. Because you can have Buffy the Vampire Slayer without Dawn...but not without Buffy. I wasn't really affected emotionally by this...but I loved the end of Angel when you just saw Willow sitting there. That was brilliant.
Gettysburg graduation was this weekend--the fourth one I've been to. And most likely my last. It was cool going and seeing everyone, but I really don't think I'm going to go to another. Homecoming, sure. But not another graduation.
It brought back memories of all the previous ones. I think I looked back mostly fondly on graduation '99. It was great. I knew a lot of people graduating, and I was staying that summer, so I had my room to go to. That was probably the best summer, too. Last summer was neat, but summer '99 I didn't have to worry about the fact that I would be far away from my friends come August, I didn't have to worry about finding a job, I had another year of school to look forward to. Plus, we were all in Musselman and ate lunch together and hung out all the time. It was awesome. Last summer was too, but I think I'll look back on '99 as the better summer.
Anyway, on a different topic altogether, I was reading on MBTV on the Buffy forum and someone made a comment that it was the best show on television, but someone countered that The West Wing is. Which is funny, because that's a debate I've been having for a while, myself. Internally. I've come to the conclusion that Season 2-3 Buffy is superior, but now The West Wing is. I watched "Becoming" (both parts) on Friday night and it really hit me hard and is such an awesome episode and got me all sad that Buffy isn't that good anymore. But then, nobody on The West Wing has been in a situation like that (duh). I don't know. But I really don't think that people can say that Buffy now is better that The West Wing.
Current song in my head:
"A Kiss is a Terrible Think to Waste" from Whistle Down the Wind
Last night's West Wing has thrown me into the same mood I was in the day after "The Body" (Buffy episode) aired. Quiet. Subdued. And wanting to spend all day discussing it on MBTV instead of doing work. Luckily I've gotten through my insanely busy period of work and am in a quieter place now.
I don't know what it was about last night's episode that did this to me. But it was excellent. If you're not watching The West Wing, you should be.
On the radio this morning, the deejays were discussing what television characters they would invite if they were going to have a dinner party. The question was asked, If you were going to have a party and could invite five television characters, who would you invite? Here are mine:
1. Josh Lyman from The West Wing
2. Sam Seaborn from The West Wing
3. Willow Rosenberg from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
4. Xander Harris from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
5. Chandler Bing from Friends
The bonus being that since Willow is gay, I would have four guys to choose from! Yay! Anyway, who would yours be?
Current song in my head:
"Red Red Wine" by UB40
So I get home from work yesterday and I go to get my mail. I saw that both my Newsweek and my US News and World Report had come (I like it more when they don't come on the same day). But anyway, I glance at the covers, and the Newsweek has written, in very large letters (we're talking probably a good 4") "EVIL". And what did I do? I burst out laughing. It still amuses me. I must be evil myself to find that so amusing. But then again, I already knew that.
You know what's weird? Well, a lot of things are. But what I'm talking about now is the fact that British paper is a different size than American. It's maybe a half inch longer, and a tiny bit narrower. I remember this from when I was getting stuff from the University of Essex. It's annoying because it just doesn't fit into American folders. But anyway.
Current song in my head:
"One Week" by the Barenaked Ladies
Today has been a good day. It's Friday. I got work done this morning. Went out to a nice, long lunch and someone else paid. I'll do a little more work, then I have a meeting at 3. It's sunny outside. Tomorrow I get to see my mommy and daddy. My biggest problem right now is figuring out which movie I want to rent tonight.
Current song in my head:
"Thank You" by Dido
Warning: Rant ahead.
Last night I was reading Newsweek, and the cover story was about the upcoming movie Pearl Harbor. There was an article about the movie, an article about what actually happened at Pearl Harbor, and of course there had to be an article by Tom Brokaw because God forbid that something be written about World War II or the people involved with it and Tom Brokaw not be included.
This article brought up my feelings about the so-called "greatest generation." Before I go any farther, let me point out that one of my grandfathers worked in communications during WWII, Korea and Vietnam, my other grandfather spent his entire career in a steel company undoubtedly helping the war effort, and I love and respect both of them a lot.
That having been said, I want to smack people when they refer to my grandparents' generation as "the greatest generation." How can generations be judged against each other? Each has been born into a unique set of circumstances, with problems and opportunities to deal with. The mere concept of saying that one is better than another is stupid.
It also pisses me off that while people keeping saying "the greatest generation," what they mean is "the greatest American generation."
Anyway, even saying that we were comparing generations (which we can't; it's horrible to judge as a group; not only is it horrible, but it's impossible), why is that certain generation better than the one that fought the American Revolution? Or the American Civil War? We revere the generation of my grandparents' because they're still alive, but rapidly dying. We revere them because they lived through the Great Depression and fought in World War II, the last great war (if any war can be great).
In some ways, they almost had it easier in fighting WWII. It was a clear-cut war. Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito-these were not good men. They were clearly doing very bad things. The Americans went off to fight, knowing that the country was fully supporting them. And no, the United States did not save the world. We helped. We helped a lot. But if the United Kingdom had fallen to Germany during the Battle of Britain, and if the Soviet Union hadn't been able to stave off the Axis powers on the eastern front, the world would be a very different place.
And what about previous generations of Americans? Those who fought in the Revolution and Civil War were ravaging their own country by fighting. Both had to deal with deep moral questions regarding their participation in the war. Both had to deal with the fact that they were essentially fighting their "brothers." The decision to go to war for them wasn't easy (though there was a lot of propaganda and far too many of them [here I'm talking about the Civil War] felt that they were entirely right, most of them did feel some sort of pain at having to fight their former countrymen [that wound up being about both the Revolution and the Civil War; yay me!]).
And how about the later generation, the baby boomers? They fought in Vietnam, a war that was morally ambiguous at best. A war which was not supported at home. They had to deal with the Cold War. As for that "greatest generation," who do we think started the Cold War and Vietnam? I'm not saying that they're evil (or even eeevil), but in addition to "saving the world," they helped create a much longer war, one that put the entire world in jeopardy.
Okay, I think I'm done. That's long enough, but I've had this building up for a long time. Feel free to post a rebuttal in my Discuss! feature. I like my grandparents' generation, but are they the greatest ever (and the mere fact that it does imply "ever" right there makes the whole thing ludicrous)? I don't think so.
Current song in my head:
"South Side" by Moby (with Gwen Stefani)
I am so happy. I am done proofing Autism and checking changes for Hand. That means I now actually have time to catch up on all the admin crap that's been on my to-do list for weeks. It's so lovely. And hopefully I won't have to do anything with those books, so I can really catch up on stuff. Yay! I feel oddly free now. Of course, I'll probably spend a lot of the afternoon socializing. We've been doing a lot of that lately. I'm certainly not complaining.
Oh, I heard that D.C. now has the third worst traffic in the country. We used to be number two, but San Francisco beat us out. Heh. San Francisco now not only has a worse housing market, but worse traffic too.
Current song in my head:
"Survivor" by Destiny's Child
For some reason, this season makes me think of my youth (because I'm so old, right?). How green the trees are, everything, it just brings me back to particularly 4th and 5th grades-right after I moved to Connecticut. Back when I would play that I lived in the woods in a little cottage. I was influenced a lot by The Ordinary Princess, I think, because that's where I wanted to live. In the little cottage she and her prince built (what was his name? I can't remember! Can anyone help me out?). In a lot of ways, that still sounds appealing. Just off, in the woods, peaceful, quiet, with my prince. Even in high school, I remember sitting and looking out at the hills and imagining frolicking around among the trees and creeks…This may have also been influenced by my interest in history, because in my scenario, it's also the 1770's.
Of course, that involves having a Prince Charming. And I would definitely like one. Is it wrong that after 22 years, I want to have a guy look at me and tell me he loves me, and have him not mean it as a friend? I don't think so. Heck, right now I'd be happy for a few dates. I don't need True Love…yet. I just don't want to wind up alone. I look around at work and see a lot of women who are much older and they're still single…and I don't want that. I want marriage and children. I mean, this is long term, but still. It scares me. I probably will die alone and my body will be found weeks later, after having been eaten by wild dogs.
However, on a more positive note, I want to share what we did at work yesterday afternoon: We sat around with rubber bands, trying to shoot a beach ball off the side of my cubicle. I was doing this with my boss. More reasons that I love where I work.
Current song in my head:
"I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" by Elton John
I've been quieter of late than in the past, looks like. It's because of May sweeps and actually having things to do at work, if you can imagine. Though I am taking time out to say hello to everyone out there! This week has been party week in Publications here at AOTA--we've had a party every day except today. Great fun. Nothing like getting out of work for food and socialization.
I love this time of year. Everything is so green, it's astounding. I love sitting outside at lunch, in my little courtyard with trees overhead and the fountains bubbling. It's so peaceful. Sometimes it's easy to forget that there's a major major road not 100 yards away. And driving home from work, along Dale Drive, where there's a tree cover and everything is so beautiful. Lovely. And it's not quite too hot, so it's still pleasant to be outside. I think that's the word for life right now: pleasant. And it's made even more pleasant by the fact that my apartment complex finally turned on the air conditioning. Yay!
I'm looking forward to lunch with Dr. Lambert and seeing my sister. I'm looking forward to spending the weekend with friends. I'm looking forward to possible future outings with Wimberly and Suzanne. I'm looking forward to going home for Mother's Day. I'm looking forward to Kathy's wedding and Gettysburg commencement. I'm looking forward to the book marketing meeting next Friday. I'm looking forward to having Memorial Day off. I'm looking forward to...life. And summer. And life in the summer.
And props to Steve for being concerned about my headache. It's the little things like that that show true friendship. And yes, I did take something for it.
Current song in my head:
"Dr. Jones" by Aqua
I'm tired. Reeeeally tired. Which is weird, because this morning I was completely full of energy. I have absolutely no reason to be tired. I've been getting plenty of sleep and it's not like I'm doing anything after work (or during work, or before work) that requires energy. It's not good. I could so use a nap. Maybe it's the effect of sitting outside in the sun during lunch. I don't know why that would make me tired. It's like all those novels from the 18th and 19th centuries where women constantly have to rest after doing insanely non-tiring things like cutting roses (Mansfield Park, I'm looking in your direction). Got me. Maybe I'll scope out the fitness center in my apartment complex after work. Ooh, exciting. I'll pretend I'm on a secret mission and do it all James Bond-like . . . or not. I'm not quite that big a freak.
Current song in my head:
"In the Heat of the Night" by Aqua