How I Like to Break News

There are two siblings, Mary and Jack. Mary has Jack house sit and watch her cat while she is on a business trip. After a few days, she calls to check in.

"How are things going? House still standing? How's Brody doing?"

Jack paused a bit and said, "Um, yea. Your house is still standing. Nothing to report, but I really hate to tell you this, though, but Brody died chasing a bird."

"What?" Mary said. "Dammit, Jack. You just can't tell someone that their cat is dead like that. You have to break it to them slowly. When I first called, you should have said that Brody is on the roof, trying to catch a bird. The next time I called you should have said that he fell trying to catch the bird as it flew away, and now it's at the vet. The next call should be to tell me that the vet says that it's not looking good for Brody, but he is not in any pain. Finally, you tell me that Brody died peacefully in its sleep."

Jack apologized and said he won't break news that way again. They continue about everything and at the end of the conversation Mary asks, "How's Grandma doing?"

Without missing a beat, "Well, Grandma's on the roof trying to catch a bird."

I always liked this joke and I always approach giving news to people in phases like that, especially, if it is bad. Some people think it is better to get to the point, but I think they are going to hear more before you get to bad news than anything you say once you tell them. Also, if they have an active imagination they are going to think something way worse and will be relieved when you tell them the real news since it won't be nearly as bad as the conclusions they jumped to.

So, if I am going to be blogging about something that is along these lines and you see the title "The cat is on the roof" then you will know that this is building up to some news.

Quests and Mini-Missions

As the saying goes, "I was born with a reading list I will never finish."

Being a geek/nerd/fangirl, this gets extended to movies, television, graphic novels and of course, more books. The only way to get through them it to have a plan. Plans are boring so I make them quests and mini-missions. It is fun and can be completely customized by you as to which ones you want to do. However, part of all good quests involve some risk so even if you hit a book or a movie you don't want to watch or read, you have to suffer through.

The first quest I ventured on and have since conquered was to watch all the movies on the AFI list of Top 100 Movies of all Time. It took a few years to do, but totally worth it. I ended up watching and loving a lot of movies, I wouldn't have seen otherwise. My favorites that I discovered were The Third Man, Network, The African Queen, The Philadelphia Story, 12 Angry Men and The Apartment. The only bad movie on the list (that I have no clue why this movie was on there) was A Place in the Sun.

The second quest, which is ongoing and much slower, is to read all the BBC Must Read Books. There is a lot of controversy about the list, but I thought it was a good jumping off point. I have posted a few updates on this and will continue to do so. When I started, I had only read 17 of the 100 and now I am almost up to 50. I have been liking most of them, but every now and then I hit one that just endlessly drags and has been a pain to read. I'm looking at you, Wuthering Heights. Why can you be more like your sister, Jane Eyre?

These are more epic quests that long and have peaks and valleys, but in the end are totally worth it. Then there are mini-missions. These are more like short jogs with less grand end results and are more for a general sense of accomplishment.

One mini-mission was one to read all of Chuck Palahniuk's books and stay up to date. I just recently posted how I finally got caught up on that one.

Another mini-mission is one I do at the beginning of every year. I make a blog post for books I read, movies I watch and television I watch for the new year. I make the categories up and add to it as I finish reading or watching them. For the movies, I start with a list of all the movies that I hear about or see trailers for that are supposed to be coming on that year. I realized recently that for 2011 and 2012 I still had movies on the list of wanting to see, but hadn't yet so I made made that a mini-mission to knock those out.

The point of all this is to explain what and why I do so you can do quests and mini-missions as well!

Highlight: Chuck Palahniuk

One of the few writers that I follow and inhale everything that he writes is a man named, Chuck Palahniuk.

His writing isn't for everyone. I can't say you will enjoy his work. The man is deeply damaged (lots of murdered family members) and writes deeply damaged characters in some pretty messed up situations. I am permanently damaged by some specific scenes from various books. Despite that, I will always read what he writes. 

I discovered him after I fell in love with the "Fight Club" movie. He had written the book (his first one). I then made it a mission to keep up with all of his books going forward. He puts out one a year so it is pretty reasonable to keep up.This mission of mine has faltered the last few years, but I am proud to say that I am back to being caught up once again. Yay!

I thought I would rank my favorites of Chuck's books for you:

1. Survivor (1999)
2. Lullaby (2002)
3. Rant (2007)
4. Invisible Monsters (1999)
5. Diary (2003)
6. Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon (2003) [Non-Fiction]
7. Tell-All (2010)
8. Haunted (2005)
9. Fight Club (1996)
10. Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories (2004)[Non-Fiction]
11. Damned (2011)
12. Snuff (2008)
13. Choke (2001)
14. Pygmy (2009)

Fight Club and Choke were made into movies. I actually liked the movie Choke better than the book. Survivor and Haunted damaged me the most.

If you were to start reading Chuck's work, I would start with Lullaby. I think that is his most accessible to a new reader. Chuck wrote it while deciding if he wanted them to push for the death penalty on the man that murdered his dad. The book is about a man who stumbles upon a culling song and accidentally kills his wife and child with it and then goes on a quest to destroy copies of it when he meets a woman who is on the opposite quest. And when I say this is the most normal and accessible of his stories, I am not kidding.

When asked who are my favorite authors, Chuck Palahniuk and Jane Austen are always the first two that come to mind. The fact that I love them both equally and they couldn't be more different just shows how I am a...what's the polite word that people use to describe me...umm...unique individual.

So this happened...

Logo placement + Expression = Patrick Stewart is happy to see you

2012 Resolutions - Wrap Up

I set out to do two sets of resolutions. One from January to June and one from July to December. That didn't work out so much and I ended up just doing the first list.

So here are the 10 resolutions (in no particular order):

Photography Category:

• Start setting up a portfolio website and professional presence

I did buy the domain name and paid for the hosting, but haven't really worked on it since. I do have the foundation at least.

• Make/Customize a photo bag for my camera 

I totally built a camera bag from a diaper bag, some foam and geeky patches. It came out great!

Health Category:

• Take a yoga class - once a week 

Failed. I tried it a few times and I think my main issue is that they have all levels of yoga in one class. I felt that I had no idea what I was doing and the teacher had no interest in really fixing that.

• Eat a prepared meal - once a week - that I have not eaten before (counts if it is at a sit down restaurant) 

Mostly failed for the last half of the year, but did decent for the first half. Found a few new places to eat, but the making food part just didn't happen.

BONUS: However, I have lost 25 pounds, 4" and one dress size over this year. I'm down to no cream and only two Splenda in my coffee. I have not had a pop (Diet or otherwise) since May 20th.Technically, I haven't had anything carbonated since then either.

Travel Category:

• Three trips - one needs to be somewhere I have never been and one needs to be out of state. It can be day trips, but needs to be over 60 miles one way. 

Success! I made it out of the state twice! I went home to Chicago for my Grandma's wake/funeral and got to spend some time with my family. I did a road trip down to the bottom of Oregon to see some live Shakespearean theater (Henry V) with friends. The third trip was taking two friends to Port Townsend for some sea glass picking and photo taking at the fort.

Reading Category:

• 25 Books (50 for the year) and 25% of books on the BBC list of Must Read Books (I read 40 books last year and 75% of it was between June and Sept.)

Success and then some! 61 total books read and 14 of them off the BBC list with 9 books that have come out in the last year and half. I've really been using my Kindle more and falling asleep reading in lieu of falling asleep to a movie. I don't get through as many audiobooks at work as I used to, but have been able to knock out a good chunk.

Misc. Category:

• Have a mani/pedi once a month     

I did the first three months and decided this just wasn't for me. It was expensive and to be done right needed to be about every two weeks. I think I'll do it every once and a while.

• Go to the make-up counter at a department store and get a make-over 

Failed! Came close twice, but the timing didn't work out.

• Get 2 haircuts from an actual hairstylist 

Success! Four haircuts! I like my stylist who my friend recommended.

•  Buy and wear two dress casual outfits that I wear outside of work 

Success! It happened in the later half of the year. I did get a fancy dress, but have yet to find a reason to wear it. I did wear a skirt/dress upwards of 12 times, I think. I am in boots as much as sneakers. However, I also discovered Woot t-shirts and my t-shirts have more than doubled in size. I have several new favorite T-shirts now that are geeky. My newest one has a tree reading a Kindle and a Telsa related shirt arriving soon.

Television I Watched on Netflix in 2012

The Awesome:

• Downton Abbey - Season 1-2 (with Christmas Special)(DVD)
• Sherlock - Season 2 (DVD)
• Game of Thrones - Season 1-2
• West Wing - Season 3-7 (although, Season 5 was a bit rough to get through)
• The Newsroom - Season 1(DVD pre-ordered)
• Doctor Who - Season 7
• Walking Dead - Season 2 (DVD)
• Man Men - Season 5 (DVD)
• Breaking Bad - Season 4 (DVD)

The Good:

• The Big Bang Theory - Season 1-4 (Own on Amazon Instant)

The Guilty Pleasures:

• The Biggest Loser - Season 1-5

The Just Okay:

• How I Met Your Mother - Season 2-6

*(DVD) = bought DVD

As you may have noticed from past years, I have significantly cut back my television watching.

BBC List of Top 100 Must-Read Books (Updated)

I have previously mentioned my wanting to read all of the books on the BBC List. I thought I would put which books I have already read and then I'll also have a list of the ones I need to read yet. I know the list isn't perfect, but it is a good jumping off point.

The ones in RED have been read (the ones Bolded were the ones I have read this past year). The ones in BLUE have not been read, but I have seen the movie so that should count for something.

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – J. K. Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible (I went to Catholic school so it counts)
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchel
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

So the count is 31 down and 69 to go.