Latest acquisitions (yard sale fever strikes again ~ 10 cent books are good. Very good...):

• A Guide to Field Identification: Birds of North America
• Lake Wobegon Days ~ Garrison Keillor
• Daughter of Fortune ~ Isabel Allende (I'm going to read it despite Oprah's seal of approval.)
• A Piece of My Heart:The stories of twenty six American women who served in Vietnam ~ Keith Walker (O.k., I have a question: why is it that when people write about men's experiences of war, they give the story some macho, manly title but when they talk about women's experiences, they give it some stupid title like this? Another example is a book I have about women in the Civil War, with the insipid title of Hearts of Fire. Good god.)
• Angela's Ashes ~ Frank McCourt
• Bloody Shame ~ Carolina Garcia ~ Aguilera

Latest Movie:
The Blair Witch Project ~ O.k. I can see why this thing caused such a stir when it first played at that film festival, especially since no one knew if it was 'for real' or not. As it was ~ it just left me wondering, "And?" Compared to the Lovecraftian dreams I have at times, this movie was nothing.

Reading:
Geek Love ~ Katherine Dunn. A very strange, twisted ~ and therefore good ~ novel. It is about a carnival family who save the family business by giving birth to their own freak show. Lil ingests drugs, pesticides, radioisotopes and anything else she can in order to make her kids more 'special'...

Ah, Kokopelli ~ play your flute for me. (Why do I always want to spell your name with a well placed 'c'? :::snicker:::) I want to hear your music on the wind...

I'm in one of those rare moods where it actually feels good to be a little out of sorts. I don't want to do anything, I don't want to eat, not sure if I want to talk to anyone, the house is a mess, the trash needs to be taken out, the yard needs to be mowed and I need a shower. All I want to do is sit, read and maybe kvetch a bit. I've already read the first quarter of Geek Love this morning...so two out of three isn't bad.

This is the second time I've started this entry ~ the power blipped just enough to turn the computer off before I could save what I wrote. Oh well.

I experienced a very strange phenomenon yesterday ~ an estate yard sale. Not auction ~ yard sale. There is something unsettling about living your entire life, only to have it sold for a dime and quarter a pop. All those memories, all those little instances in a human life...

Granted, it's just stuff. Ultimately, it really doesn't mean anything. Still...it made me think. Is it necessary for a person to be remembered here after they're gone? Or is it enough that the person was here? Is it important to the folks who have crossed over to be remembered ~ or is being forgotten more a fear for the living? Which is more important ~ living the life you have or being remembered?

Ah...questions...

(Note: The Song of Solomon, Chapter 2, verses 10-14. Also verse 16. Heh.)

A few things that caught my attention today (by way of the Explorator):

Now they think that it was a genetic mutation that made it possible for humans to speak.

When the Mongols became fearsome horsemen

Boy...I'm in sterling shape today, aren't I? Bleh. Maybe tomorrow will be better...if mundane chore day can be. It's the day for mainly for getting the cats' food and assorted stuff. I've got to go to school to take down the drawing I've been working on too. I still don't know how to do that one monster and I'd really like to go into more detail with all the sun motifs, circles and such. Maybe it'll help just to put the damn thing away for a while ~ I get tired of it hanging over my head all the time, murmuring, "I'm still here...finish me! Finish me! I'm not talking to you but finish me!"

I'll say it again. Bleh.