You may or may not have noticed that I've been playing around with the format of this site a little bit lately. After numerous failed attempts, I finally figured out how to put the sidebar on the left, and I changed my picture so that it was about 15 years more recent (although it is still outdated by about 5 years). Then I decided to update my profile page so that it actually, I don't know, said something about me. But, apparently, there is a 1200 character limit to Blogger profiles, so I'm giving it a post of its own. Then, if I figure out how, I will actually put a link to this page on the sidebar so that newcomers can read it. But of course, now that I've said that, I won't be able to figure out how.
A brief history of me:
I was born in Canada. I grew up in Ottawa, which is one of the greatest cities in the world to live in. Then I went to college in The Middle of Nowhere, Western New York, and met a lovely boy that I decided to marry.
I went to law school in Toronto, received my J.D., then my dad died later that same month. My husband and I moved to Ottawa to be closer to my family, and I spent my articling year (sortof an internship, for non-Canadians) working at a small criminal defense firm in Ottawa. There were aspects of the practice of law that I loved, but I didn't love the lifestyle. I want to be able to have a family and really be able to spend time with them. I want to have time to eat meals and sleep.
So, we moved to Pennsylvania to be closer to Jeremy's family, who are numerous and all concentrated within five minutes of one another in a suburb of Philadelphia. We're living with my in-laws right now and getting along swimmingly. You know, I don't think I've ever used that particular adverb before. I must be thinking of summer.
My husband found a job that he loves working with computers, and I found a job that I love working with coffee. Some days I wonder what all those diplomas on my wall are for, but in the end, I'd rather be happy than feel like I have a debt to pay to some pieces of paper.
My Family:
I grew up in a stable, Christian home, and I realize how blessed I am to have had that. My father died in 2004 of a massive stroke, but my mother still lives in the same house they lived in when I was born. My brother and his wife live in Ottawa, and my sister and her husband live in Vermont. None of us have made my mother a grandmother yet.
I've been married for almost five years (June 9, 2001), and I love my husband, Jeremy, very much. Parenthood is definitely a hope of ours, but timing and health insurance and several other factors need to coincide before that can happen. Please don't ask me if I'm pregnant; I refuse to answer that question. If I'm pregnant and I want you to know, I will tell you.
My Faith:
I am a Christian. I know that word carries a lot of baggage for different people, and it will probably mislead you if you try to use it to categorize me. But I insist on using the word "Christian" because it's what I am. I believe in grace as an incredible, necessary, and un-earnable gift, and that no one can save themselves. Out of gratitude for grace, I choose to live my life, as best I can, according to the moral code that I associate with the life of Christ and the Bible. I don't believe in forcing my faith on others, and I don't believe in legislating morality. If you ask me about my faith, I am usually glad to talk about it, and you will find the occasional rambling in this blog as I struggle with specific applications or interpretations of my faith. But in general, I don't think of this as a "Christian" blog, any more than I think of it as a "Women's Issues" blog or a "Law" blog or a "Barista" blog or a "Crochet" blog. My Christianity is a part of me, but it's not the only part of me. It's more like my breathing - it's a constant part of my life, but I only talk about it when it's acting up.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Celebrity Babies
This is not a celebrity gossip blog.
Unless I happen to find celebrity gossip interesting today.
Anyhow, since I blogged about Tom Cruise's plans for the birth of his baby yesterday, I thought I ought to mention that Katie Holmes gave birth yesterday, to a little girl that they named "Pickpocket". And because God loves irony, Brooke Shields gave birth on the same day, on the same floor of the same hospital, to a little girl that she named "Pickpocket who is allowed to take anti-depressants".
Links:
CBS News
Times Online
Unless I happen to find celebrity gossip interesting today.
Anyhow, since I blogged about Tom Cruise's plans for the birth of his baby yesterday, I thought I ought to mention that Katie Holmes gave birth yesterday, to a little girl that they named "Pickpocket". And because God loves irony, Brooke Shields gave birth on the same day, on the same floor of the same hospital, to a little girl that she named "Pickpocket who is allowed to take anti-depressants".
Links:
CBS News
Times Online
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Open Letter to Tom Cruise
Dear Mr. Cruise,
I heard on the news today that you planned on eating the placenta after your baby was born. So, I did a little bit of research, and found out that you had actually just made a joke about it, but everyone thought you were being serious.
I want to apologize on behalf of the internet for believing everything we hear. We really are pretty gullible, and rarely do we bother to read the full story behind the sensationalist sound bytes.
But at the same time, I really don't blame the internet for believing this story. Did you ever hear the story of the boy who cried wolf? You're developing quite the reputation for saying really ridiculous sounding things to the media, and you're usually not kidding. "Ha ha ha, no one gets to talk in the delivery room... oh. He was serious." "Ha ha ha, he was jumping on the couch... oh. He was serious."
I mean really, when you point and shout "Wolf!" can you blame us for believing you? The wolf was real every other time...
Sincerely,
Jule Ann.
I heard on the news today that you planned on eating the placenta after your baby was born. So, I did a little bit of research, and found out that you had actually just made a joke about it, but everyone thought you were being serious.
I want to apologize on behalf of the internet for believing everything we hear. We really are pretty gullible, and rarely do we bother to read the full story behind the sensationalist sound bytes.
But at the same time, I really don't blame the internet for believing this story. Did you ever hear the story of the boy who cried wolf? You're developing quite the reputation for saying really ridiculous sounding things to the media, and you're usually not kidding. "Ha ha ha, no one gets to talk in the delivery room... oh. He was serious." "Ha ha ha, he was jumping on the couch... oh. He was serious."
I mean really, when you point and shout "Wolf!" can you blame us for believing you? The wolf was real every other time...
Sincerely,
Jule Ann.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Easter
I started out tired on Easter morning, since I had gone to bed so late on Saturday night. We were, I admit, a little bit late for the "sunrise" service at 8:00, which I paid for dearly by missing my favourite Easter hymn, "Low in the Grave he Lay". How come we sing Christmas hymns for six weeks leading up to Christmas, but we only sing Easter songs one time, once a year? I guess it keeps me from getting sick of them, but I think I could handle a few more repetitions. We also sang "Because He Lives", which I think was written for the express purpose of making me cry. A whole verse about babies, and another whole verse about being ready to die? I couldn't make it through the last verse. I think that song will probably always remind me of my father. I guess it will be joining "His Eye is on the Sparrow", which reminds me of Grandma Silverbrandt, on the list of songs that I get too choked up to finish singing.
After the service was a really nice church breakfast that included the yummiest french toast casserole with a praline topping. Nothing redeems an early morning like a good breakfast. Oh yeah, and the resurrection of Christ. That's pretty redeeming, too.
This Sunday was the first time Jeremy and I went to a service in the actual sanctuary of our church. Because of a boiler issue, and facilitated by lower attendance numbers than when the sanctuary was built in the early 1900's, we have been meeting for our regular services in a big classroom in the one wing of the church that has heat. It was neat to be in the big sanctuary, which has much better acoustics and an overhead screen that is actually, well, overhead. But there was a certain appeal to the smaller, more intimate room. Either way, though, the church is the community, and we really love our community, whatever room we happen to be meeting in.
After church, there was a big family dinner at our house, our fourth family gathering in one week. It's a good thing I like Jeremy's extended family, eh? After dinner, I had to work, which I didn't really mind, because it's the first Sunday I've had to work, and I was still able to go to church and Easter dinner beforehand, so I wasn't going to miss out on any of the major Easter activities. We had a few busy points in the day, especially when 9 people came in all wanting frappuccinos at the same time, which takes time, because there were only two of us, and there are only two blenders, but it was generally a pretty slow day, and we even finished all of our closing stuff ten minutes early.
When I got home, I was going to go to a friend's Easter party, but instead, I got a phone call from my sister, with whom I ended up talking for an hour and forty-five minutes. It was really nice to talk to her, and in the end, it's probably better that we stayed home, since we'd had a busy weekend, and needed some down time. I also got to chat with my mom on instant messenger, and talked to Rachel on the phone for about an hour. I felt like a teenaged girl, with all the phone talking, but it was good to connect with people in a format other than print.
This was my first Easter with Jeremy's family, and it was very different from what I'm used to. It's funny, because I thought I would miss my childhood Christmas more, but we've done Christmas so many different ways over the years that I guess I never had the same ingrained idea of what I wanted Christmas to be like as I did for Easter. I guess a part of it, also, is that I was so pre-occupied with Passover this year that I didn't do any of my own Easter preparations, which probably would have helped the holiday feel more like what I'm used to. Next year, I'm totally buying plastic eggs and doing an egg hunt like I'm used to.
What was your Easter like growing up?
We would wake up early and head down to Parliament Hill for a city-wide, ecumenical, sunrise service. The Salvation Army band would play, and I would always get chills when the trumpeter would play that little transition bit in my favourite Easter song where it goes from being a somber funeral dirge to a chipper celebration that "Up from the grave he arose!" Or maybe I just had chills from the fact that whoever designs Easter dresses for little girls obviously does not live in a climate where it is not unusual to still have snow on the ground on Easter morning.
We would then make our way back to the church for an Easter breakfast, although I remember once or twice going to a restaurant with church people, and I think we even skipped out altogether and went home on a few occasions. We must have gone back for the regular worship service at 10:30, but I think we found the time to do our Easter egg hunt before church some years. Funny that the details are so blurry on this point.
But we always had an Easter egg hunt. In fact, we kept having an Easter egg hunt up until a couple of years ago, when all of the kids were in our twenties and two of us were already married. We would leave the plastic eggs and decorated hard-boiled eggs (which we had made the day before) out on the dining room table in a basket, and we would wake up to find that the basket had been emptied. The plastic eggs would have been filled with candy and hidden around the house by my mom, along with a plastic-grass-filled basket of goodies for each of us. The hard-boiled eggs were hidden too, until one year when we failed to find all of the hard-boiled eggs, and after that, they just went straight into the fridge.
The rules varied from year to year, but usually, we had to wait until after the sunrise service, and we had to find our baskets before we could start collecting eggs. I think that was my mom's way of giving a head start to the youngest kids - if Benjie's basket was easier to find, then he could start finding eggs sooner. I also seem to recall being forbidden to take the "easy" eggs one year when we had the younger cousins staying with us for Easter, but I don't remember how "easiness" was qualified.
As we got older, my mom hid the eggs harder and harder. Our house also got more and more filled with stuff, so there were more hiding places every year, too. She would put them in the toes of shoes, in the pockets of coats, under couch cushions, under mugs in the cabinets, inside potted plants, in the freezer, inside light fixtures, sewn into the hems of curtains, poured into the concrete of the driveway. Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit. But only with that last one. She doesn't have a driveway.
The last time we did an Easter egg hunt, my mom hid about 60 plastic eggs, and we only found about 40 before giving up and wanting lunch. We found a few more throughout the day, one of which was mysteriously filled with varieties of candy that had only been in last year's eggs, but I think there are still about a dozen plastic eggs filled with candy lying around my mother's house. Every once in a while, she'll pull out a dusty teapot from a back shelf when company's coming, and she'll notice something plastic rolling around inside. One day, we'll go over to Grandma's house for an Easter egg hunt with our kids, and little Beren will find an egg filled with fossilized candies that he has never heard of before, and I will have to explain to him why he probably shouldn't eat them.
What are your favourite childhood Easter memories?
After the service was a really nice church breakfast that included the yummiest french toast casserole with a praline topping. Nothing redeems an early morning like a good breakfast. Oh yeah, and the resurrection of Christ. That's pretty redeeming, too.
This Sunday was the first time Jeremy and I went to a service in the actual sanctuary of our church. Because of a boiler issue, and facilitated by lower attendance numbers than when the sanctuary was built in the early 1900's, we have been meeting for our regular services in a big classroom in the one wing of the church that has heat. It was neat to be in the big sanctuary, which has much better acoustics and an overhead screen that is actually, well, overhead. But there was a certain appeal to the smaller, more intimate room. Either way, though, the church is the community, and we really love our community, whatever room we happen to be meeting in.
After church, there was a big family dinner at our house, our fourth family gathering in one week. It's a good thing I like Jeremy's extended family, eh? After dinner, I had to work, which I didn't really mind, because it's the first Sunday I've had to work, and I was still able to go to church and Easter dinner beforehand, so I wasn't going to miss out on any of the major Easter activities. We had a few busy points in the day, especially when 9 people came in all wanting frappuccinos at the same time, which takes time, because there were only two of us, and there are only two blenders, but it was generally a pretty slow day, and we even finished all of our closing stuff ten minutes early.
When I got home, I was going to go to a friend's Easter party, but instead, I got a phone call from my sister, with whom I ended up talking for an hour and forty-five minutes. It was really nice to talk to her, and in the end, it's probably better that we stayed home, since we'd had a busy weekend, and needed some down time. I also got to chat with my mom on instant messenger, and talked to Rachel on the phone for about an hour. I felt like a teenaged girl, with all the phone talking, but it was good to connect with people in a format other than print.
This was my first Easter with Jeremy's family, and it was very different from what I'm used to. It's funny, because I thought I would miss my childhood Christmas more, but we've done Christmas so many different ways over the years that I guess I never had the same ingrained idea of what I wanted Christmas to be like as I did for Easter. I guess a part of it, also, is that I was so pre-occupied with Passover this year that I didn't do any of my own Easter preparations, which probably would have helped the holiday feel more like what I'm used to. Next year, I'm totally buying plastic eggs and doing an egg hunt like I'm used to.
What was your Easter like growing up?
We would wake up early and head down to Parliament Hill for a city-wide, ecumenical, sunrise service. The Salvation Army band would play, and I would always get chills when the trumpeter would play that little transition bit in my favourite Easter song where it goes from being a somber funeral dirge to a chipper celebration that "Up from the grave he arose!" Or maybe I just had chills from the fact that whoever designs Easter dresses for little girls obviously does not live in a climate where it is not unusual to still have snow on the ground on Easter morning.
We would then make our way back to the church for an Easter breakfast, although I remember once or twice going to a restaurant with church people, and I think we even skipped out altogether and went home on a few occasions. We must have gone back for the regular worship service at 10:30, but I think we found the time to do our Easter egg hunt before church some years. Funny that the details are so blurry on this point.
But we always had an Easter egg hunt. In fact, we kept having an Easter egg hunt up until a couple of years ago, when all of the kids were in our twenties and two of us were already married. We would leave the plastic eggs and decorated hard-boiled eggs (which we had made the day before) out on the dining room table in a basket, and we would wake up to find that the basket had been emptied. The plastic eggs would have been filled with candy and hidden around the house by my mom, along with a plastic-grass-filled basket of goodies for each of us. The hard-boiled eggs were hidden too, until one year when we failed to find all of the hard-boiled eggs, and after that, they just went straight into the fridge.
The rules varied from year to year, but usually, we had to wait until after the sunrise service, and we had to find our baskets before we could start collecting eggs. I think that was my mom's way of giving a head start to the youngest kids - if Benjie's basket was easier to find, then he could start finding eggs sooner. I also seem to recall being forbidden to take the "easy" eggs one year when we had the younger cousins staying with us for Easter, but I don't remember how "easiness" was qualified.
As we got older, my mom hid the eggs harder and harder. Our house also got more and more filled with stuff, so there were more hiding places every year, too. She would put them in the toes of shoes, in the pockets of coats, under couch cushions, under mugs in the cabinets, inside potted plants, in the freezer, inside light fixtures, sewn into the hems of curtains, poured into the concrete of the driveway. Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit. But only with that last one. She doesn't have a driveway.
The last time we did an Easter egg hunt, my mom hid about 60 plastic eggs, and we only found about 40 before giving up and wanting lunch. We found a few more throughout the day, one of which was mysteriously filled with varieties of candy that had only been in last year's eggs, but I think there are still about a dozen plastic eggs filled with candy lying around my mother's house. Every once in a while, she'll pull out a dusty teapot from a back shelf when company's coming, and she'll notice something plastic rolling around inside. One day, we'll go over to Grandma's house for an Easter egg hunt with our kids, and little Beren will find an egg filled with fossilized candies that he has never heard of before, and I will have to explain to him why he probably shouldn't eat them.
What are your favourite childhood Easter memories?
Sunday, April 16, 2006
A Very Full Day
Bank account opened: Check.
Speaking of checks, I got free checks because I work at Starbucks. That was pretty cool.
Worked for five hours, then headed to Jer's grandparents' house to dye eggs. After eggs, we played some backyard baseball, then headed to Target to purchase two identical black shirts for me to wear to work.
Came home, ate dinner, was pleased to discover that my purple dress from Dora's wedding still fit, curled my hair, and started towards Arcadia. Turned around, went home, got my glasses, then headed back to Arcadia.
It took us a while to find the right building, but we eventually got there just as the Overture was beginning. We really enjoyed the performance, even if the pick-up mikes didn't always pick up as much as their names would imply. Little Shop of Horrors is one of my favourite musicals, and the guy who played Seymour was fantastic. It was a little strange having a female voice for the plant, but she did a good job. If I wasn't so familiar with the play, it probably wouldn't have seemed so wrong to me, but I just kept wanting to hear a male voice.
I am really glad we went, though. I love theatre, and I will usually enjoy an okay live performance more than a good movie. Besides, I love supporting student productions, because they were once so much a part of my own life.
Headed to Cosi after the show for s'mores. It was fun to cook them ourselves at our table, and good ending to our night, even if Jeremy seemed to get the hang of roasting over a bunsen burner much quicker than I did. Why oh why did I have to forget my camera?
Came home and watched this week's episode of Lost, which had finally finished downloading (I had to work on Wednesday and Jeremy forgot to tape it for us). I felt very cheated that the download didn't include the "next week on Lost" preview at the end, however. I look forward to that almost as much as the actual show. Anyone want to tell me what the preview showed? I have some comments on the episode, but I'll stick them at the end, so that those who might be waiting to wade through a TiVo backlog won't hate me.
All in all, a very full day. Hard to believe we squeezed so many activities into 15 hours. Tomorrow will be almost as busy, so I should probably be thinking about bed. Seriously, why am I not in bed?
Lost spoilers below:
1. Kudos to Jon, who totally called that Eko and Charlie were building a church.
2. I don't like Bernard. What does Rose see in him?
3. I don't think Sayid appeared once in this episode, although Jack mentioned him briefly to Kate. Wonder what he's up to?
4. I liked Rose's comment about the difference between an errand and a fool's errand. I'm starting to believe the whole "type the code and push execute" thing really is just a mind game. It's driving Locke crazy, and the look on Henry's face seems to indicate that he is pleased with this outcome.
5. I knew Michael would be back! My personal theory is that he has become one of the others, but he will pretend that everything is normal so that he can infiltrate them à la Ethan. Because there is another pregnant woman to steal, now, and we all know how much the others love the pregnant women.
Speaking of checks, I got free checks because I work at Starbucks. That was pretty cool.
Worked for five hours, then headed to Jer's grandparents' house to dye eggs. After eggs, we played some backyard baseball, then headed to Target to purchase two identical black shirts for me to wear to work.
Came home, ate dinner, was pleased to discover that my purple dress from Dora's wedding still fit, curled my hair, and started towards Arcadia. Turned around, went home, got my glasses, then headed back to Arcadia.
It took us a while to find the right building, but we eventually got there just as the Overture was beginning. We really enjoyed the performance, even if the pick-up mikes didn't always pick up as much as their names would imply. Little Shop of Horrors is one of my favourite musicals, and the guy who played Seymour was fantastic. It was a little strange having a female voice for the plant, but she did a good job. If I wasn't so familiar with the play, it probably wouldn't have seemed so wrong to me, but I just kept wanting to hear a male voice.
I am really glad we went, though. I love theatre, and I will usually enjoy an okay live performance more than a good movie. Besides, I love supporting student productions, because they were once so much a part of my own life.
Headed to Cosi after the show for s'mores. It was fun to cook them ourselves at our table, and good ending to our night, even if Jeremy seemed to get the hang of roasting over a bunsen burner much quicker than I did. Why oh why did I have to forget my camera?
Came home and watched this week's episode of Lost, which had finally finished downloading (I had to work on Wednesday and Jeremy forgot to tape it for us). I felt very cheated that the download didn't include the "next week on Lost" preview at the end, however. I look forward to that almost as much as the actual show. Anyone want to tell me what the preview showed? I have some comments on the episode, but I'll stick them at the end, so that those who might be waiting to wade through a TiVo backlog won't hate me.
All in all, a very full day. Hard to believe we squeezed so many activities into 15 hours. Tomorrow will be almost as busy, so I should probably be thinking about bed. Seriously, why am I not in bed?
Lost spoilers below:
1. Kudos to Jon, who totally called that Eko and Charlie were building a church.
2. I don't like Bernard. What does Rose see in him?
3. I don't think Sayid appeared once in this episode, although Jack mentioned him briefly to Kate. Wonder what he's up to?
4. I liked Rose's comment about the difference between an errand and a fool's errand. I'm starting to believe the whole "type the code and push execute" thing really is just a mind game. It's driving Locke crazy, and the look on Henry's face seems to indicate that he is pleased with this outcome.
5. I knew Michael would be back! My personal theory is that he has become one of the others, but he will pretend that everything is normal so that he can infiltrate them à la Ethan. Because there is another pregnant woman to steal, now, and we all know how much the others love the pregnant women.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Money and Dates
Today, Jeremy got his first paycheck, and I got my first full paycheck. It's a good feeling to actually have income.
Tomorrow morning, we will open a bank account so we can send checks to our increasingly impatient loan companies. I hope we're in time to avert any major credit crises.
Tomorrow night, we have a date. I want to do something that I can dress up for. I don't know what it is about the traditional "dinner and a movie" date that I dislike so much, but it just never seems worth it to me. It makes sense when you're single and trying to establish a relationship, but spending $60 on something we could have done at home for $5 just seems like a waste. Plus, no one dresses up to go to the movies anymore.
I would love to go see a play, but it's so expensive, too. A friend sent me an email offering half-price tickets to the Shakespeare festival, but they're not for Saturday night. I'd like to go see Shakespeare, but if I can get half price tickets, it seems like I should wait until I can use them.
Hmm, I just got out the local guide, and we could see Little Shop of Horrors at a local university tomorrow. It seems a little expensive ($16) for a university performance, but it's still cheaper than a full-price Shakespeare ticket and 45 minutes closer to home. I know most people don't dress up to go to university plays, but I don't think I'd look completely out of place, either. Jer says it's a good idea, so I think we'll do that.
Speaking of dressing up, we have decided to have a semi-formal garden party for our five-year anniversary. I love an excuse to dress up, although to see me in my everyday thrift store attire, you would probably never guess it of me. More plans to be released later, but it will be the first Saturday in June and it will involve a piñata. I can't believe I didn't think of a piñata for my wedding. If you plan on being in the Philadelphia area for that weekend, let me know, and I'll see about getting you an invite and directions.
P.S. A special thank you to those of you who have been clicking on my ads. I am 1/6 of the way to actually getting a check!
Tomorrow morning, we will open a bank account so we can send checks to our increasingly impatient loan companies. I hope we're in time to avert any major credit crises.
Tomorrow night, we have a date. I want to do something that I can dress up for. I don't know what it is about the traditional "dinner and a movie" date that I dislike so much, but it just never seems worth it to me. It makes sense when you're single and trying to establish a relationship, but spending $60 on something we could have done at home for $5 just seems like a waste. Plus, no one dresses up to go to the movies anymore.
I would love to go see a play, but it's so expensive, too. A friend sent me an email offering half-price tickets to the Shakespeare festival, but they're not for Saturday night. I'd like to go see Shakespeare, but if I can get half price tickets, it seems like I should wait until I can use them.
Hmm, I just got out the local guide, and we could see Little Shop of Horrors at a local university tomorrow. It seems a little expensive ($16) for a university performance, but it's still cheaper than a full-price Shakespeare ticket and 45 minutes closer to home. I know most people don't dress up to go to university plays, but I don't think I'd look completely out of place, either. Jer says it's a good idea, so I think we'll do that.
Speaking of dressing up, we have decided to have a semi-formal garden party for our five-year anniversary. I love an excuse to dress up, although to see me in my everyday thrift store attire, you would probably never guess it of me. More plans to be released later, but it will be the first Saturday in June and it will involve a piñata. I can't believe I didn't think of a piñata for my wedding. If you plan on being in the Philadelphia area for that weekend, let me know, and I'll see about getting you an invite and directions.
P.S. A special thank you to those of you who have been clicking on my ads. I am 1/6 of the way to actually getting a check!
Some barely formulated thoughts about blogging
Blogging is a conversation. It's just a disjointed and time-delayed conversation where you can only hear one or two lines at a time of an international conference call. But if you read enough blogs (which I don't, but I'm working on it), you start to notice common threads and inter-blog influences, and it all starts to come together a little bit. Everyone is talking about what interests them personally, but where those interests overlap, one blog sparks another blogger's imagination and the topic threads its way over to a new blog.
I'm going to call this idea "topical memes", because it needs a name. (Although I bet it already has one, but I'm feeling too lazy for research at the moment.) It's like those quizzes and surveys that make the rounds of people's blogs, but with more creative license. The basic purpose of memes, as far as I can tell, is to get people sharing specific things. And there is something to be said for the framework provided by a survey, because it forces you to think about things you might not otherwise think about, and to formulate answers to questions that you might otherwise avoid. But, honestly, after reading about a dozen or so sets of answers to the same quiz, I start to lose interest.
Here's an example of a topical meme. Not too long ago, Kate blogged about her hair. Inspired by her post, I blogged about my hair, twice. Shortly thereafter, Mollie wrote a post on her blog that started out thus: "All of my LJ friends are talking about hair, so I must as well." That made me feel all warm and fuzzy, because it meant that, across the philotic threads of our internet connections, we were actually having a conversation about our hair. True, the same thing could have been accomplished by sending around a survey that asked about your current hairstyle, but this way each writer was able to add her own style and flair to the topic, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the other hair posts, whereas I usually scroll past surveys until I am so bored for content that I will go back and read them.
A while back, when I first posted my blog roll, I thought it would be nice to link back to other blogs occasionally, to share with my readers what I had been reading. The more I thought about the idea, the more I liked it, but I didn't want to just randomly tell you, "Check out this blog." That would be like saying, "Read this book." Maybe you will, but you're much more likely to read it if I tell you a little bit about the book and why I liked it. And, maybe I'm flattering myself here, but I think you might even get more out of it if I shared a little bit about how it impacted me personally. So, I decided to do just that. If I read a blog entry that gets me thinking, I will share my thoughts as well as the link.
Then I realized that the two ideas were actually one and the same. My desire to link back to other blogs and share my thoughts on other bloggers' entries was really a demonstration of a topical meme.
As the title of this entry implies, I haven't entirely thought through this topic yet. But I am enjoying contemplating it, and how it might work. I welcome your comments on this, as always. I really enjoy getting comments of all kinds, so if you have a thought to share, please feel free to share whatever's on your mind. And for those of you who have blogs of your own, I encourage you to actively practice topical meming (look, Ma, I verbified a noun!). Keep the conversation going!
I'm going to call this idea "topical memes", because it needs a name. (Although I bet it already has one, but I'm feeling too lazy for research at the moment.) It's like those quizzes and surveys that make the rounds of people's blogs, but with more creative license. The basic purpose of memes, as far as I can tell, is to get people sharing specific things. And there is something to be said for the framework provided by a survey, because it forces you to think about things you might not otherwise think about, and to formulate answers to questions that you might otherwise avoid. But, honestly, after reading about a dozen or so sets of answers to the same quiz, I start to lose interest.
Here's an example of a topical meme. Not too long ago, Kate blogged about her hair. Inspired by her post, I blogged about my hair, twice. Shortly thereafter, Mollie wrote a post on her blog that started out thus: "All of my LJ friends are talking about hair, so I must as well." That made me feel all warm and fuzzy, because it meant that, across the philotic threads of our internet connections, we were actually having a conversation about our hair. True, the same thing could have been accomplished by sending around a survey that asked about your current hairstyle, but this way each writer was able to add her own style and flair to the topic, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the other hair posts, whereas I usually scroll past surveys until I am so bored for content that I will go back and read them.
A while back, when I first posted my blog roll, I thought it would be nice to link back to other blogs occasionally, to share with my readers what I had been reading. The more I thought about the idea, the more I liked it, but I didn't want to just randomly tell you, "Check out this blog." That would be like saying, "Read this book." Maybe you will, but you're much more likely to read it if I tell you a little bit about the book and why I liked it. And, maybe I'm flattering myself here, but I think you might even get more out of it if I shared a little bit about how it impacted me personally. So, I decided to do just that. If I read a blog entry that gets me thinking, I will share my thoughts as well as the link.
Then I realized that the two ideas were actually one and the same. My desire to link back to other blogs and share my thoughts on other bloggers' entries was really a demonstration of a topical meme.
As the title of this entry implies, I haven't entirely thought through this topic yet. But I am enjoying contemplating it, and how it might work. I welcome your comments on this, as always. I really enjoy getting comments of all kinds, so if you have a thought to share, please feel free to share whatever's on your mind. And for those of you who have blogs of your own, I encourage you to actively practice topical meming (look, Ma, I verbified a noun!). Keep the conversation going!
Thursday, April 13, 2006
My Charoset Recipe
As promised, here is the recipe I use for charoset, which is one of the elements in the Passover Seder. It's a Jule Ann original recipe, because I liked aspects of several different recipes I found, and wanted to combine them all in one place. I'm gonna have to guess at the amounts, though, because I never really measure. I just make sure I have about 2 apples for every 3 people, and go from there.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 package of dates
- 1 cup grape juice
- 6 apples
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- water
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Directions:
1. Put dates and grape juice in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until dates soften and fall apart to make a paste.
2. While dates are cooking, peel, core, and chop apples finely. Keep the chopped apples in a mixture of vinegar and enough water to cover in order to reduce discolouration.
3. Add cinnamon and honey to the date paste and stir well. Drain apples, and mix date paste, apples, and walnuts thoroughly.
4. Serve with matzah (and horseradish, if you're crazy like us).
Anyhow, the seder tonight went great. We had six last minute additions, so we scrambled to make sure we had enough hard-boiled eggs and everything, but then about six people didn't end up coming, so we probably could have just stuck with our original numbers. The highlight of the night for me - on top of such pleasures as everyone really enjoying it, having just enough soup and too many matzah balls, and the Passover brownies being absolutely delicious - was when I was cooking the charoset, and the date mixture started to fill the kitchen with a sweet, datey-grapey smell. I've been making this recipe for five years now, and I only make it once a year, so it's not an everyday smell. I always enjoy it, but this year was the first time that the smell really triggered all kinds of memories for me. It smelled like last year's Passover and the years before that. New traditions are great, but when new traditions start to make the transition into comfortable, regular traditions, it's an amazing feeling. I hope that, one day, my children will come home from school and smell that datey-grapey smell and have memories of all their childhood Passovers wash over them and try to sneak bites of apple when I'm not looking.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 package of dates
- 1 cup grape juice
- 6 apples
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- water
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Directions:
1. Put dates and grape juice in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until dates soften and fall apart to make a paste.
2. While dates are cooking, peel, core, and chop apples finely. Keep the chopped apples in a mixture of vinegar and enough water to cover in order to reduce discolouration.
3. Add cinnamon and honey to the date paste and stir well. Drain apples, and mix date paste, apples, and walnuts thoroughly.
4. Serve with matzah (and horseradish, if you're crazy like us).
Anyhow, the seder tonight went great. We had six last minute additions, so we scrambled to make sure we had enough hard-boiled eggs and everything, but then about six people didn't end up coming, so we probably could have just stuck with our original numbers. The highlight of the night for me - on top of such pleasures as everyone really enjoying it, having just enough soup and too many matzah balls, and the Passover brownies being absolutely delicious - was when I was cooking the charoset, and the date mixture started to fill the kitchen with a sweet, datey-grapey smell. I've been making this recipe for five years now, and I only make it once a year, so it's not an everyday smell. I always enjoy it, but this year was the first time that the smell really triggered all kinds of memories for me. It smelled like last year's Passover and the years before that. New traditions are great, but when new traditions start to make the transition into comfortable, regular traditions, it's an amazing feeling. I hope that, one day, my children will come home from school and smell that datey-grapey smell and have memories of all their childhood Passovers wash over them and try to sneak bites of apple when I'm not looking.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
I want one of those foot soaker massager thingies
There really is no feeling like coming home good and tired and knowing that, doggone it, you EARNED every inch of this tired.
I just got off a six-hour shift at Starbucks. It was good, but it went late, because we had a whole bunch of people come in wanting Frappuccinos about 10 minutes before closing, so it took us a bit longer to do all the closing stuff we have to do before going home.
Before going in to Starbucks, I worked my first-ever day as a substitute teacher. It went really well, and I actually (dare I say it?) had fun. I hope I get another call soon.
Quote of the day:
"I would really respect you if you didn't make us do this assignment."
"I don't care..."
"YESSS!!"
"...If you respect me."
"Oh."
I have tomorrow off, which is good, because I still have a fair amount of preparation to do for the messianic Passover Seder we are hosting at our church tomorrow evening. I'm doing a scaled down meal this year, so it shouldn't take me as long to cook as it did last year, but I'm still a little worried about a) a Passover brownies recipe I have never tried before and b) how to pre-make matzah ball soup without the matzah balls turning to mush.
(Aside: Our church has some heating issues, so I've decided not to use the kitchen, which is two floors down from the room we're eating in and unheated. So I need to bring the soup with me, and keep it hot in crockpots. I've already made the chicken and broth, and I'm hoping to make the soup in the morning, cook the matzah balls in it, then drain them off and add them back in to the broth in the crockpots right before the Seder starts. They'll still have to sit in the broth for a while that way, but not as long. If anyone has any experience with this, I would really appreciate your advice!)
If I get the chance tomorrow, I will post my charoset recipe, and I can also post my Haggadah if anyone is interested. Please comment here or email me at juleannwakeman at gmail dot com if you want a printable copy emailed to you.
You know what? I think I'm ready for bed. Good night!
I just got off a six-hour shift at Starbucks. It was good, but it went late, because we had a whole bunch of people come in wanting Frappuccinos about 10 minutes before closing, so it took us a bit longer to do all the closing stuff we have to do before going home.
Before going in to Starbucks, I worked my first-ever day as a substitute teacher. It went really well, and I actually (dare I say it?) had fun. I hope I get another call soon.
Quote of the day:
"I would really respect you if you didn't make us do this assignment."
"I don't care..."
"YESSS!!"
"...If you respect me."
"Oh."
I have tomorrow off, which is good, because I still have a fair amount of preparation to do for the messianic Passover Seder we are hosting at our church tomorrow evening. I'm doing a scaled down meal this year, so it shouldn't take me as long to cook as it did last year, but I'm still a little worried about a) a Passover brownies recipe I have never tried before and b) how to pre-make matzah ball soup without the matzah balls turning to mush.
(Aside: Our church has some heating issues, so I've decided not to use the kitchen, which is two floors down from the room we're eating in and unheated. So I need to bring the soup with me, and keep it hot in crockpots. I've already made the chicken and broth, and I'm hoping to make the soup in the morning, cook the matzah balls in it, then drain them off and add them back in to the broth in the crockpots right before the Seder starts. They'll still have to sit in the broth for a while that way, but not as long. If anyone has any experience with this, I would really appreciate your advice!)
If I get the chance tomorrow, I will post my charoset recipe, and I can also post my Haggadah if anyone is interested. Please comment here or email me at juleannwakeman at gmail dot com if you want a printable copy emailed to you.
You know what? I think I'm ready for bed. Good night!
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Another post about hair?
I thought I would share a few more pictures of some of my more memorable hairstyles.
December 1996: Buzz-cut (photo by Elsa)
June 1997: Slick retro prom-hair (pictured with Sarah)
Spring 1998: One of the many shades of red my hair has been (photo by Nicki, taken on the tube in London)
Once marriage was on the horizon, I let my hair grow in so that it would be long and normal-coloured for my wedding. Then, after I got married, I decided to return to my hair-colouring ways and ended up with this disaster of a bad hair-cut in unflattering black.
May 2002: Behold the Badness
That was the last time I ever dyed my hair.
December 1996: Buzz-cut (photo by Elsa)
June 1997: Slick retro prom-hair (pictured with Sarah)
Spring 1998: One of the many shades of red my hair has been (photo by Nicki, taken on the tube in London)
Once marriage was on the horizon, I let my hair grow in so that it would be long and normal-coloured for my wedding. Then, after I got married, I decided to return to my hair-colouring ways and ended up with this disaster of a bad hair-cut in unflattering black.
May 2002: Behold the Badness
That was the last time I ever dyed my hair.
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