Teaser Tuesday #34

Source: Goodreads.

Lost in a Good Book, Japer Fforde

"I got a card from London saying they were fit and well," she replied, "but they said they needed a jar of piccalilli and a torque wrench."

The mammoth ignored her, sucked up the entire contents of the ornamental pond in one go and clumsily trampled the garden furniture to matchwood.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Zebulon

Happy Independence Day to all my US readers! For everyone else: Happy Thursday!

I'm kicking off my series of names from The Waltons with Grandpa, also known (occasionally) as Zeublon, or Zeb.

Actor Will Geer as Zebulon Walton
in Zeb's final episode. Will Geer died
before the next season began filming.
 Source.

Behind the Name says this spelling is a variant of Zebulun, the Biblical 10th son of Jacob and hence one of the 12 tribes of Israel. The name means "exaltation," so named because Leah (Jacob's unloved wife) hoped her husband would honor her for giving birth to six sons. (If you don't know the rest of Leah's story: Yeah, not so much.)

I personally favour the shortened version, Zeb, which is what Grandma Walton calls Grandpa on the rare occasion she doesn't call him "Old Fool" or some other cute nickname. The name has never ranked in the top 1000 in the US, which is a bummer.

Famous Zebuluns: Zebulun Pike, the guy for whom Pike's Peak is named.

Fictional Zebulun/Zebulons: Just Grandpa Walton, so far as I can tell.

My Zebuluns: Not so much.

Do you know any Zebuluns? Did I miss anyone obvious?

Sources:
Behind the Name
Baby Name Wizard

I Promised Myself I Would Stay Out of This. Oh, Well...

I’m not really into politics, public controversies make me itch, and heated disagreements in the comments sections all over the internet make me despair for the future of the human race. And don’t even get me started on most trending topics on Twitter.

And yet, for all that, I’ve decided to put my two cents into this little contretemps. You may have noticed that Texas has been in the news a bit this last week, which is of course due to our warm climate, abundant tourist spots, and friendly people. Oh, and maybe because of an abortion bill in the Texas Legislature.

There was a time, for about 30 seconds 10 days ago, when I thought that maybe Texas’ governing body was going to have a sensible discussion about this bill and its realities for Texas. I thought that just maybe some sort of agreement could be reached that perhaps neither side would regard as perfect, but that we could all move forward with. Maybe this time.

Texas Tribune's photo of the Texas
Capitol Rotunda during the debate/
filibuster on June 25.

Yeah. That nice fantasy didn’t last long. The debate has broken down to people trading insults—in person and on the internet—and it isn’t limited to protesters on both sides. Our legislators and our members of Congress are trading barbs on Twitter, and it’s not pretty. I don’t know how everyone else feels about this, but I was hoping for a bit more dignity from elected officials than using the same name-calling on social media that the protesters are using. (I don’t care who started it. I don’t even believe that someone “started it”. Everyone’s doing it, and the whole “I didn’t go negative first!” thing is hardly a good defence. You can always stop yourself.)

I imagine this will end the way the party in power in Texas wants it to end—the bill will become law, and we’ll all get to see what happens next. But there are unintended consequences of this debacle debate: Friends becoming not-friends (I can’t be the only one thinking of culling my Facebook list right now), some elected officials becoming superstars, others losing their seats in the next election over this one issue regardless of how much they’ve served their districts otherwise, and who knows what else. How long will those side effects stick around?

Seriously, I’m tired of our laws, of our nation, being a zero-sum game. Can we please get our act together? Maybe find a better way? Or at least refrain from showing off how horrible people can be just because they disagree?

(You'll notice I didn't give you my opinion here. That's because—and I know I'm in the minority here—I believe my readers can come to their own conclusions without a blogger ranting at them. Incidentally, that comment section down there? Keep it clean and civil, or be deleted.)

Teaser Tuesday #33

Image source: Goodreads.

Les Misérables, Victor Hugo

"Any man who has been a prisoner understands how to contract himself to fit the diameter of the escape."

"If you are sure of coming out of the coffin all right, I am sure of getting you out of the grave."




For some reason, I had this on my Goodreads list as Read. I don't know why; I can only presume I was having hallucinations the day when I added it to Goodreads. I've been chipping away at it slowly for the last several years, but it's not done yet.

I came back to it this time partly out of an acknowledgement that it is hard to claim to be a huge Les Mis fan and not have read the book. However, being as this is an old, well-known story that has spawned countless adaptations, I'm not at all in the club that says that you can't be a "real" fan of Les Mis unless you've read the book. I've been a "real" fan since I was about 10, I can promise you, and yet I'm still working my way through the book. If you want to be a fan of the movie/musical/soundtrack without ever fighting your way through Hugo's prose, go right ahead!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The Waltons

I've pretty much come to the end of my favourite names and my character names in my series about names. So, I've been wanting to jump into the many, many characters from one of my favourite TV shows of all time, The Waltons. But first (as is my wont), a little discussion.

This picture is a shot from the end of the theme song sequence, except it's flipped around
backwards. Back row, l to r: Zeb (Grandpa), Esther (Grandma), Erin, Olivia (Mama), Jim-Bob;
Front row, l to r: Jason, John Sr (Daddy), Mary Ellen, John-Boy, Elizabeth, Ben. All those names
coming soon to a blog near you. Source.

The Waltons was still in its original run when I was tiny, but I was much too young to remember it. And unlike its two-generations-earlier counterpart, Little House on the Prairie, it was never picked up for reruns by our local PBS. As a result, I've not seen that many episodes of this show that I love so much. But, it is one of those shows that's easy to slip in and out of, so apart from wondering about the timing of the episode I'm watching, I just go with it when I'm able to see the odd episode.

This is obviously John-Boy's story. Earl Hamner Jr. wrote it that way, since it was really his own life story. Sometimes, though, the "our world revolves around John-Boy" bit is too much for me, so I'm kind of glad that he was written out of the show for a while (even though it was for WWII), because some of the other characters got their chance to grow and become important. The seasons with a mostly-women cast are really quite powerful, showing how life on Walton's Mountain carried on without men, as indeed it had to do around the world during WWII.

Jason is my favourite Walton, maybe because he was a little bit different from the others. The family didn't fuss over him like John-Boy but he didn't make scenes, like Ben or Jim-Bob. He just got on with being the sweet older brother of the family, quietly making his mark. According to IMDB, Jason's being a musician was written into the show specifically for Jon Walmsley, the actor, because he was a musician himself (and still is).

The character who grew the most (IMO) during the series was the one with the most room to grow-- Elizabeth. Thank goodness this was before the era of artificially advancing children's ages on TV shows, so that Elizabeth really did get to grow up with the show. Sometimes it was forced (there's one Christmas episode when her young cousin asks her to play outside and she answers, "Maybe a few years ago, but I can't now, being a young lady." Even for the 1940s, that's a bit too much self-awareness spoken aloud), but mostly it could just be seen, little by little, as the barefooted cutie tomboy transformed into a proper southern 1940s young woman.

Ultimately, it's a show about a family that comes through one storm after another still standing, which for me makes it worth watching.

Did you watch The Waltons? Do you still watch it? Do you have a favourite character?

Sense and Sensibility

Source: Goodreads.

Somehow, I never read a Jane Austen in high school. The way people talked about them always gave me the impression they were dry and boring, and truthfully I was too busy rereading the Little House series for the 2865th time to notice that there were other books I could be reading.

Rereading is a joy, but it has really cramped my style without me even knowing it.

Anyway! So I've finally become acquainted with Ms. Austen, first with Pride and Prejudice (naturally!) and now it's Sense and Sensibility. And, I love it. Early though this book may have been for Ms. Austen, she obviously used her gifts well--the writing is lovely and the characters are so vivid that I was burning along wanting Elinor to forget social convention and tell them all where they could get off.

Seriously, didn't rich people in the 1800s have anything better to do than sit around and gossip? And be snidely horrible to each other? I mean, obviously we still do that now, but at least it's interrupted from time to time with things like work.

I loved it and am looking forward to reading all the rest of the things that Jane Austen wrote.

Moving Day

I'm not really moving today. Moving day is coming (in four weeks, yikes!), but we're not there yet. However, we are going to be leaving this apartment where we've lived for our first three years in Austin and moving across town to one a little bit closer to the action. We're pretty excited.

I see one of these in my
future. From garann on
stock.xchng.

My friend Jenni over at Talking Hairdryer, though, has just packed up her entire grown-up house, including a husband and three children, and is moving a couple of states. Seeing her document the saga on Facebook has made me grateful that 1) We're only moving across town, and 2) We haven't tried very hard to have a grown-up house. Three adults do not need nearly as much stuff as two adults and three children, thank goodness, and we frequently mutter that even what we have is too much stuff. In other words: Jenni rocks, me not so much.

Godspeed on your new adventure, Jenni.

However! Even though I count myself in the non-rocking club, I don't want to let this opportunity go by without making it into a green living post. Obviously, for the purist, a house move is always going to come with some offenses against Mother Earth, but I'm willing to live with that. Here, then is how we green up our moves:

1. Give stuff away. I've used Facebook, Freecycle, and the local thrift stores to unload all my excess stuff onto unsuspecting victims. I started to use Craigslist this time around, too, but within five seconds of me posting "I'm selling a juicer and breadmaker" on Facebook, I had a taker; no Craigslist required. As we get deeper into our stuff, though, I may still find a need.

Why this is green: Keeps things out of the landfill, gives your stuff a new lease on life, and keeps the recipient from having to get a new thing.

2. Use old newspaper to wrap stuff up. On our last move, we asked our friends if they had any stacks of newspaper sitting around the house waiting for a trip to the recycler, and if they did, we wanted to take it off their hands. I also collected used papers from my office. We ended up not having to get one single free newspaper from anywhere, which is what we'd done in the past. This time around-- well, I'll get to that in just a second.

Why this is green: No need for bubble wrap or similar protective things. In fact, anything fragile enough to need bubble wrap we wrapped up in clothes or towels, anyway. Gave the newspaper another use before it was recycled (and I suspect that some of the stuff we reused would have ended up in the landfill if we hadn't claimed it). No need to get new newspaper from the free racks.

3. Reuse cardboard boxes. U-Haul and their ilk will try to sell you new cardboard boxes, because they want all of your money. Once again, we asked our friends for help and met with quite a few grateful people who were only too happy to give us their boxes that they didn't want. I also got a few from my office, and we got some from the local grocery store. Ask around and get some free, still-useable boxes before you shell out the cash for new ones. Or, if you must shell out cash, look for a service like Ecobox, which sells used boxes.
This time around, we still have most of the boxes from last time. I know this is crazy, but we couldn't immediately find a good place to recycle our boxes and newspaper, so we shoved them into an outdoor, non-climate controlled closet on our balcony where we didn't want to put anything else anyway. So, we're all set.

Why this is green: Saves new materials being used. Keeps older, but still good, stuff in circulation instead of going to the landfill. And please recycle them if you can't find a new home for them when you're done.

4. Get the right moving truck/trailer/whatever to fit the size of your house, and fill it up. Insist that your moving service do the same. The jury is still out for us on what we'll do this time, and we may end up renting a Zipcar (well, Ziptruck) and making multiple trips. Which is not ideal, because that uses more gas, and we're not into that sort of thing. However, for cross-country moves, pack your truck to the gills. It will save you cash and gas if you get the smallest possible truck (which still may not be that small) and use every inch.

Why this is green: One full vehicle making one trip uses less fuel than multiple vehicles and multiple trips. Kind of like only running your dishwasher when it's full.

5. Pack a "first night" kit with all the things you'll need for snacking, eating, showering, sleeping, and getting dressed the next morning.

Why this is green: It's to save at least some of your sanity. Happy people = happier planet.

Are these tips the most obvious things the world has ever seen? Well, of course they are. But they also require some forward thinking and planning ahead, which is why I've written them all down, so you (and I) have them in advance.

What do you do when you move? Did I miss anything important?

Melodie

Well, according to my usual sources, I'm spelling this one wrong. Usually I find a list of variant spellings (see Emilie) but this time? Not so much. So I turned to some unusual sources.

Melodie
Variant of Melody, from the word melody, as in the lead part of the song that everyone remembers. Came to us from Greek via French and Latin. Melody first appeared in the top 1000 girls names in the US in 1942. It's currently the 173rd most popular girls name in the US, but hit its height of popularity (so far) in 1961, when it was #172. My chosen variant Melodie is not in the top 1000 in the US, but was sometime around the 1960s (the source is not very clear, unfortunately).

Famous Melodies: Bit of a problem area. Melodie Howe (author) is the only one I found, and yay, I've heard of her! Melody is slightly more popular with famous people, but I don't really recognise any of their names.

Fictional Melodies: Not so much. Melody, on the other hand... Melody Pond, Doctor Who; Melody, Out of My Mind.

This is kind of what Melodie looks
like in my head. From mokra on
stock.xchng.

My Melodies: I know a couple of Melodys, who I occasional see on Facebook. But Melodie? Nope, just my character, who is Sybil's youngest sister. Melodie is really quite cool, but since Sybil doesn't notice that much (older sisters-- we can be so thoughtless!), neither do the readers. But at least I know. Maybe Melodie will get her own story soon.

Do you know any Melodies or Melodys?


Sources:
Behind the Name
Think Baby Names
Baby Name Facts

Les Misérables: Yes, I Finally Watched It. And Then Watched It Again. And Again.

Well, this post is very late in coming, since I watched Les Miserables the last week of the semester when I was feeling pretty miserable and the movie was there to cheer me up. Yes, I know that's twisted, but whatever.

So! It was fantastic, it was glorious, I loved it, but alas, it was as I feared; the movie just couldn't hold up to seeing it live onstage. I'm a theatre nerd and always will be, so while as a movie it was fantastic, from a Les Mis fan point of view it wasn't the same.

Bwah hah hah! Source.

What did I like? (Please don't moan about spoilers. This story is 150 years old. If you aren't familiar with it at this point, I can't help you.)

1. Hugh Jackman. He was amazing. I didn't even know he could sing (although we have since rented the 1999 Oklahoma! with him as Curly, and I'll say it as often as possible: Wow) before the cast was announced for this movie, so I didn't have any particular expectations, but holy smokes.

2. Hadley Fraser. He had more screen time than I was expecting, but unfortunately that rather ginormous mustache kept me from recognizing him right away. He had something like three minutes of screen time and still poured in more emotion than some of the others did in the entire movie.

3. Colm Wilkinson. Enough said.

4. After the barricade, when all the dead were laid out, Javert pinning his medal onto Gavroche. I didn't even have time to recover from Enjolras falling dead out of the window before I stared sobbing again. That was a nice touch.

5. Samantha Barks. Not only is she spectacular on her own (tee hee), but they went and added in some bits from the book that aren't in the musical, which fleshed out Eponine even more. Perfect.

6. Enjolras. Not Aaron Tveit, necessarily, although he was great. Enjolras is just always going to be my favourite character, and the movie totally did him justice, methinks.

7. Eddie Redmayne. Normally, I'm not wild about Marius, but Eddie Redmayne made him very likable.  Although I have to say in the scene near the end when Valjean is explaining why he has to leave, Marius keeps smiling longer than is appropriate. Dude, serious face while Valjean is talking.

8. Speaking of Marius, he punched Thénardier at the end. I cheered.

9. Did I mention Hugh Jackman? I saw the interviews with him talking about not eating or drinking for 36 hours before shooting the opening scene, so he would look more or less like a corpse. It worked. Way to take one for the team, Hugh. And by "the team," I mean everyone who's ever loved Les Mis.

What didn't I like?

1. They moved the song order around. Gah. That didn't make the movie more interesting/mysterious; it made me more cranky.

2. Okay, I'll say it. Russell Crowe. I don't dislike him quite so fiercely as so many others in the Les Mis fandom do, but I'm a long way from liking him as Javert.

3. The Thénardiers had far too much screen time. What were they doing in the inn during "One Day More?" Just, no.

4. There was a long pause in the singing after "Do You Hear the People Sing" while they were building the barricade and speaking all their lines. When Javert finally burst out with "I can find out the truth!" in song, it was both a shock and a relief. For a movie that was panned by so many for being entirely in song, that was much too long of a gap.

5. Heaven looks suspiciously like 19th-century France.

Are you a Les Mis fan? Did you like the movie?

Teaser Tuesday #32

Source: Goodreads.

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, Michael Moss

Americans now eat as much as 33 pounds or more of cheese and pseudo-cheese products a year, triple the amount we consumed in the early 1970s.

This deployment of cheese as a food additive has proven to be a windfall for food companies, driving up sales of cheese as well as the products that now use it to increase their allure.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Don't Make Me Come Over There

Sometimes I feel like I spend half my life pleading with people to stop being jerks. Not actual jerks, necessarily, but to stop giving all their mental energy away in worrying about what other people are doing. You know, to live and let live, to mind one's own business, to save your indignation/interference/etc for moments when they are genuinely warranted, and not (for instance) when you don't like someone's shoes.

Seriously, don't be this guy. Source:
MTSOfan on Flickr.

I'm happy to excuse this behaviour in teens and people in their early 20s. They're still figuring out what their life is going to be about and may not have a mentor handy to gently tell them that their life shouldn't be about worrying about what everyone else is doing. It's people my own age doing it that makes me a bit crazy. (And believe me, I say this as someone who spends a lot of time thinking that other people are doing it wrong. I have to fight this impulse as much as anyone else, so let's journey on together, shall we?)

As an example, I'm going to talk about runners. Other people do it, too, but runners are my tribe. And in my years of running, I've lost count of how many times I've heard or read someone say, "Don't ever wear a race t-shirt to the race. You'll look like an ignorant newbie." To which I can only say, "Don't worry so much about what other people are wearing. You sound like everybody's fussy grandmother." There are genuine reasons for not wearing a new anything on race day, but the appearance of it? Don't sweat it. Ignore those people.

Or, heaven help me, doing anything outside of someone's definition of "normal." I can't tell you how many times well-meaning friends have urged Chad and I to buy a car (or, when we had one, to buy a second one) because that's what you're "supposed to do." I don't know why "supposed to"s should run my life, and I suspect the people saying it don't really know, either. So let's not fuss, okay?

I'm sure you all have dozens of similar examples to add to the rantiness. What do you think? Can't we all just get along?

Win The Jane Austen Collection on Kindle!

From The Masquerade Crew blog:

Doma House Publishing presents to you this version of The Complete Works of Jane Austen, which has been designed and formatted specifically for your Amazon Kindle. Unlike other e-book editions, the text and chapters are perfectly set up to match the layout and feel of a physical copy, rather then being haphazardly thrown together for a quick release. 

This edition covers everything including her major works, minor works, unfinished works, and scraps. Also, you can easily navigate through chapters using the linked Table of Contents found at the start of this edition. 

And, it's a giveaway. Yipee! Go to the giveaway post for the usual tweeting, following, and (if you hurry) blogging opportunities to gain entries. Or, just do it here: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Find this book on Amazon.

TBR Challenge: Making Time

Source.

Making Time: Lillian Moller Gilbreth, a Life Beyond "Cheaper by the Dozen", Jane Lancaster

I'm finally getting to a book on my 2013 TBR Challenge list! This is pretty exciting for me, and it was a great start, because the book was fascinating.

First, some background of my own journey with the Gilbreths: I read Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on their Toes in high school and loved them. (I also liked the original movie from the 50s, but I'm still angry that the 2003 remake dared use the same title, the jerks. They kept nothing of the original.) So, when I heard there was a book all about "Mother," I was eager to get my eyes on it.

I realised as I read this that my timing of the Gilbreths' story was off-- most of the children were old enough to be my grandparents' parents, while for some reason as a teenager I thought they were contemporaries with my grandparents. Apparently, everything before 1950 all happened at once, in my teenage mind. Lillian Moller was born 100 years before I was, and I know nothing about my family at that time. So I'm kind of sad about that, now that I think of it.

Anyway, the book. I think for those who aren't interested in knowing more about the behind-the-scenes look at Lillian's life, it may be dry or unbearably long. I was fascinated, though, and progressively more amazed at all the things that the Gilbreths had influence in developing-- the modern kitchen layout, ergonomic office furniture, space shuttles-- I can't believe I've never heard of their influence over so many things, but presumably that's because I'm not an engineering type.

The insights into Lillian's early life were revealing, too-- she rejected the society woman life of the early 1900s for a more strenuous lifestyle. I found her work ethic and drive to be inspiring-- she really took here life's work to heart and didn't waste her time. I wonder if living in the era before television helped, or if she would be just as interested in working today and the TV wouldn't bother her. On the other hand, how much faster could she have worked with the help of a laptop with wi-fi?

I definitely enjoyed the book & recommend it to people who enjoy this sort of in-depth look at one person's life-- and if you're already a fan of the Gilbreths, that will help!

The Garden

I planted my container garden at the beginning of spring break, then promptly forgot to water more than a couple of times during March and April, so that my poor lettuce started looking like this:

Sorry, lettuce.

I've started watering it again, and everything is moving along just fine. The carrots are growing, the lettuce is still alive, herbs are all doing well, and the tomatoes are flourishing everywhere I planted them, and a few places I didn't.

Okay, everything isn't exactly fine.

I have tomatoes everywhere. I have tomatoes in pots where no tomatoes were planted, and in pots where they couldn't possibly have cross-pollinated. I don't know how this happened, but the result is: I am up to my eyes in tomato plants. (See that shiny thing in the upper left-hand corner of the dead lettuce picture? Tomato.)

I've pinched them off in pots where other things are growing and left them alone in pots where I only discovered them after they'd choked out the previous tenants. So if these things all produce tomatoes, I see a lot of salsa in my future. If not-- well, I guess I'll feel pretty dumb.

Do you garden? How is it going? Do you need some tomatoes?

It's Not Working

This would normally be a Sunday post, but since tomorrow is Mother's Day and apart from phoning my Mummy and both my Grannies, I'll be hiding in my apartment from all the happy mums with their happy children (mostly I'm okay with the infertility thing, no really, I am, but there have been more than the usual number of twists of the knife on the interwebs lately and so I'm feeling a bit bitter about Mother's Day this year), and not blogging about anything.

And I'll be putting the finishing touches on this ridiculous paper so I can be DONE with my first year of grad school which has dragged on so long I'm beginning to suspect I'm in Groundhog Day. Seriously, this:

Is a bit dramatic, even for me, but it's pretty much how I'm feeling this weekend.


Anyway, I did have something to say today, believe it or not! I ran across this quote on Twitter a few days ago: "[When] people say, 'I'm to busy to commit to ministry,' they're actually saying, 'I won't give up what it takes to commit to ministry.'"

For the record, I know this statement was not directed at me personally. But it comes right after Chad & I chose to once again pass up the chance to get involved in the children's ministry at church. And the only reason we passed on this is because I'm struggling-- a lot-- to keep up with grad school and still do my job. And while I readily admit this is my own problem, adding on another responsibility that I would take very seriously and which would add at least another 5 hours of work to my week (that's a bare minimum-- most of the time, I spend more like 10 hours per week children's ministry prep) is a terrible idea.

So, yes, person on Twitter: What I'm saying is, "I won't give up grad school to commit to ministry right now." But see, there's the kicker. Grad school will only last for a season, and it has come more or less on the heels of a season of being involved in children's ministry for 10 years at two different churches. And statements like that do nothing for getting me-- and a lot of others, I should imagine-- excited about jumping right back into a ministry once my seasons change.

I miss children's ministry. I loved it enough to keep at it for 10 years despite hearing at least once a month from some misguided idiot, "Why are you doing this? You don't even have kids!" I loved it enough to stay up late and wake up early to make sure I was prepared for class. I loved it enough to call my co-teachers on Sunday nights and say, "I don't think x is working for this class. Can we meet and talk about it?" I loved it enough to host all-night slumber parties for giggling girls who were in my class. When I gave it up, I didn't do so lightly.

I've always believed that if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it well. The fact that I don't have children of my own makes me even more determined not to just phone it in, because 1) These parents have entrusted their children to me, even if only for a short time, and 2) If parents can put in the effort involved to get kids up and scrubbed and dressed and in a reasonably good mood on a Sunday morning, I owe them at least that much effort in return.

Someday, this season of struggling to figure out how to be good at grad school and at life at the same time will pass. Someday, I'll be ready to jump into a ministry again. But until then? People using Twitter to guilt the universe into doing something is really not going to work, except make me reluctant to rejoin the work I once loved.

Z is for Zzzz

When I was first old enough to have friends in college-- at about age 14-- I used to marvel at how much they could sleep when they came home. It was like they transformed from normal humans into bizarrely somnambulant beings when they made that leap to college. I didn't even know what to think about that.

If I'm studying like this,
I'm guaranteed to be asleep
in less than 5 minutes.
I've had to change to a
standing desk. From
hvaldez1 on stock.xchng.

Now that I've done college in three different spurts, I do understand: College involves a fair amount of work, late night is a good time to get things done, and some of this sleepiness is self-inflicted from spending time on non-school things and putting in some heavy-duty procrastination. Even the best of students still falls victim to procrastinating, even the hardest workers who also have jobs and are not entirely in control of their schedule-- it happens. And to some extent, why shouldn't it? We've set up our university system so that those who wish can take a heavy courseload, lock themselves in their rooms, and graduate early, while the less-in-a-hurry among us can make some friends and have some fun along the way. And the ones who only want to have fun end up crashing out and having to take a serious look at their life path, which can be a good thing.

Grad school is more of the same x100 (at least in the beginning; it gets more intense as you go on, I've heard), which means there's less time for partying and that procrastination is for those with a death wish. And yet, here I am at the end of the A to Z Challenge, having gotten by with some help from my friends, and still slogging through the stack of work that's due this week. My plan for this weekend is to turn 35 gracefully and then sleep for three days.

On the upside, I'm rarely bored.

Did you survive A to Z? Are you ready for all the blogs you read to return to regular programming? Could you pass me the tea, please, because I'm now mainlining caffeine?

Guest Post: Y is for Youthful

Today's guest post fits oh-so-beautifully into the grad school theme, for all that it was written by my undergraduate cousin. Amanda is a returning guest blogger, and is occasionally known as "Baby Cousin" here at Cheekyness (yes, even though she's nearly-22 and quite a bit taller than I!).

A few weeks ago, I went to Build-A-Bear with my friend Hermes. He saw that BAB was offering new “ponies” from My Little Pony, and he just HAD to go and build one (Yes, he’s a bronie). Thus, he invited me along, and we departed on a trip to the mall. This mall was close to Indianapolis, and once we made it, it. Was. Awesome. I’d never built my own bear before, and it was so fun picking out a bear and clothing, and just hanging with Hermes.

So, Indianapolis. I don’t get to regularly venture out of Greenfield or Muncie, where I go to school. Indy is more reserved for trips to the zoo, or Gen Con. But on the way there, we saw a billboard for this indoor trampoline park! They have dodge ball competitions, or you pay by the hour to just jump with friends or goof off. Hermes says we HAVE to do it, and I agree. Then we start talking about stuff in general that we’ve never done before. Hermes mentions that he’s never gone to the casino, despite turning 21 last month.

From Su: This family is all about
the musicals. Okay, so only about
half of us are. Whatever. Source.

This gets me thinking—I have a car, and as a student, I’m not rich, but I do have some “play money,” as my mom calls it; enough money to go out to eat with my boyfriend a few times a month, or to do whatever with. And it hits me—I haven’t really made any plans to go and DO anything recently. Maybe a big part of it is school taking over my life, but I need to take a step back and be YOUTHFUL! And not just 2am trips to Steak n Shake; but take pictures, and go out and do things with friends.

The next week, Hermes and I made plans to go to the casino, and hopefully at the end of the week, I’ll make a trip up to Chicago’s Broadway with my boyfriend to see Big Fish the Musical. And a trip to the indoor trampoline park is in the works. My lesson in this blog post? Be youthful. Go and do something in your city you’ve never done before.

It might just be awesome.

Guest Post: X is for My Generation

Today's guest blogger is that guy who lives in my house. He's been seen round Cheekyness during the A to Z Challenge before: He's the brains behind last year's X and Z posts. (He's a bit disgruntled that I won't let him have Z this time around.) This is also Chadwick's X post for today, and you can visit him at Occasional Scholar.

Time Magazine cover from June
9, 1997. Not long after the
youngest Gen X-ers entered
adulthood. Source: Time.

Class: A Guide Through the American Status System (1983), by Paul Fussell, describes a group of people who want to pull away from class, status and money in society and labels them X. Douglas Coupland wrote the fictional work Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture (1991) and called it that because his characters fit the description in Fussell's book. The media labeled America's youth Generation X, because they saw the elements of Coupland's characters in them. But things changed.

Forbes says we might be in trouble. Edutopia says we're a sentence fragment that needs to be handled with care. US News tries to delve into the complexities of identifying ourselves along generational lines. An opinion piece talks about the impact of my generation becoming politically influential at the same time as the next one (and we're smaller than they are). Beliefs drive our lives for good or ill. Trying to quiet our minds with all the many voices of media blaring every moment (including this drivel I am writing), then trying to live with intention in the midst of a reactionary society, is a challenge when we are making the best of choices. What choices are we making?

W is for Web

One of my classes this semester is Online Publishing, which has turned out to not be what I thought it was going to be about. I can't really remember at this point what it was that I was expecting, but I've managed to learn things about HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that I probably could have lived without knowing.

A screenshot of my most recent assignment. Despite
all my complaints, I am pretty happy with it.
And my prof was very complimentary. But I'm not
giving you a live link; I don't like it that much.

I kid! I know I live in the 21st century and should embrace that it's important to know these things. But now that it's the end of the semester, I have to build a website by next Thursday and I'm not excited about it. So far, I've turned on a movie or a soundtrack or something while slogging through our smaller assignments, but this next assignment may require an entire Netflix queue. So help me.

Have you ever built a website? Any last words before I lock myself into a room with a five-gallon bucket of hot tea, a DVD of Les Misérables, and a computer that I'll soon be shouting at?

Oh, and BTW: Yesterday I won Camp NaNoWriMo. This has been one of those weeks when I needed to write for therapeutic purposes, and I managed to bang out 11K words (my goal was 10K) in three days.

Guest Post: V is for Valour

Today's post is by returning guest blogger Paula.

Val-or: Noun: Boldness or determination in facing great danger, especially in battle; heroic courage; bravery. Origin: 1350-1400 Middle England

Hello! My name is Paula and I am back to guest blog for Su! I chose this letter for multiple reasons, but the first one is this: I am currently OBSESSED with the BBC America show Merlin. Though the show no longer runs, the lessons that I have learned from the two seasons I have watched so far are really helping me get through college. The last few days of school are coming my way and I am getting really anxious. The amounts of assignments I have coming up are alarming, but there is one thing I can keep in mind: Valour means to go bold or go home, if you want to put it into modern terms. And that was exactly what I am going to do. And that is what I think you should do, too. I have no idea what is going on in your life, but I know that, if you are going through a tough time, thinking like a Knight of Camelot might just get you somewhere.

From cakeykate on stock.xchng.

Now, you might not be facing a fire-breathing dragon or a high-powered Warlock, but you might have to face another long day at work or school. You might have to pay those bills you’re struggling to pay or you might just have to face that in-law. Whatever your battle is, take it in strides and think like a Knight. I can almost guarantee you that those knights were not the bravest when they looked their competition straight in the eye, but they had an honour to withhold, and they were going to do just that. You might not have an honour to withhold, but you do have something to prove to yourself. You can do it, you will make it, and that person may be there tomorrow but it doesn’t mean you have to listen to EVERYTHING they say. (Unless that person is your boss, and if that’s the case, well…carry on.) The Knights of Camelot were noble men, but what doesn’t make you noble, the fact that you don’t wear a symbol on your chest? You can be completely noble to yourself every single day; all you have to do is take a deep breath and go.

I have to take my own advice here, which is why I am sharing this with you, but I wanted to let you know that you can make it, too. No matter what your “dragon” is, you get to face it with an Excalibur of your own. Personally, my Excalibur is going to be my books and my mind and my (awful) time management. What is your Excalibur? Who are your fellow Knights? Are you more of a Lancelot or a Percival? Either way, remember, you’re doing this task; you’re facing this “dragon” with valour and dignity, pride and accomplishment. You’ve already been knighted, now all you have to do is face the dragon.

Good luck, my fellow Knights.
~Paula ☺