Raymond M. Reskusich

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/2009/07/sunday-secrets_19.html

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So, Ebug has these little people animals, they're about 3" high, she has a barnyard set and a zoo set, and some various other animals... one of which is a camel that I bought her for Christmas because her favorite stuffed animal is a camel.

About a week ago, she realized that the camel was missing, and searching the house and the car then, and again today, while we were cleaning up, and even looking in the bag of dolls in the doll house (the dolls and animals were hanging out when we were on vacation) we decided that this particular camel was a lost cause. Probably, he was left in New Buffalo, where we were on vacation last month. So, I went back to ebay, and purchased an identical one. All the while with Ebug on my lap, not really grasping what was going on...

Certainly, we couldn't convince her that her camel was gone, and that this would be a different, yet identical one, which the mailman would bring in a few days. The picture on ebay was her camel! So, instead, she seems to have gotten the impression that the mailman has taken her camel, and will one day bring it back to her.

Either way, it will be a relief to have him back...

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: ** 3/4 (out of 4)

In certain circles, enjoying the Harry Potter books is considered a bad thing. The books are, by the standards of those circles, too base, trite, unfocused, or unoriginal; and while there may be value in watching the social phenomena of the midnight book releases and its ilk, those that actually claim to enjoy the books are, at best, foolish. It's a fairly insidious attitude, and one that has at least influenced me. But it hasn't affected me enough to keep me from the series; indeed, I have seen all of the movies within the first 48 hours of release, and went to the midnight book release parties for the last four books. If pressed, I could defend the books much more easily than I could attack them.

Somehow, this all makes it harder to review the movies.

In this case, I liked the movie. It was well-assembled, beautifully directed, and cleverly cut for the limitations of the medium. I came out happy to have seen it. And what more do I want?

Well... there were certainly limits. The movie may have been the most focused of the series, but it was still incredibly unfocused on balance. There was a beginning and an end, and most of the scenes progressed towards it; but that restriction caused many characters to be left out entirely, themes to be left out, and new scenes added to attempt to atone for some of those cuts. Yes, this kind of thing has happened before, but it seemed so much more egregious this time. When the ensemble cast drops down to just the eight or so characters that are absolutely necessary to the plot, the whole story suffers.

Still... I liked it a bit more for that. The book series, too, has always felt both rushed and meandering, as the material demands that things happen over both a year and a week. But when you watch the movies, you know that there is more material out there, waiting to be read if you want to see it; with the books, you're stuck knowing that we know all that we'll ever know. And that's somehow sad. In this case, the knowledge that the real material is out there helps the movie, and I find that a bit impressive.

And I am curious as to how the last book, split into two movies, will work out. I have long felt that Book Seven has the least actual material of any of the books; it seems odd to look forward to seeing twice as much footage from it. We probably won't have too much cut there. That might be neat.

Anyway.

I went to the midnight show on opening night, which is the ideal way to see movies like this. On the one hand, I got to see it with a bunch of excited fans; on the other hand, there were a lot of them, and they were mostly annoying and scantily-clad late teenage girls. (Yes, I'm clearly getting old if I find this a problem). This both added to and detracted from the experience, the former through their enthusiasm, the latter by the sheer problems of so many people in the theatre. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been in the front row...

And there's my favorite bit of the whole thing. When I saw the first movie back in 2001, I had my pocket Powershot S30 camera with me. I took a good shot of a pair of girls wearing Hogwarts scarves - and I got yelled at by the theatre staff, who tried to take my camera entirely. On the other hand, for this movie I got a picture of a girl with an SLR camera... Oh, how times have changed! (That she made a point of posing seductively is another point in favor of changing times, but I have less to say about it.)

Anyway, if you hate the series, you're not going to like the movie. If you love the books too much and are going to be upset by changes, you're not going to like the movie. And if you're the kind of person that likes this thing, you've already seen it.

** 3/4

URL: http://wiki.killfile.org/reviews/movies/harry-potter-6/

I went to two sales last week, and I spent the whole week paying for it.

The reason for only going to two sales was simple: it was the book sale weekend. I seriously considered not going out at all, but I was awake anyway, and needed to stop by work that morning; and so I decided to see what I could find on the way. I went to one sale, and wasn't impressed with anything except the signs; and then there was a school sale, except I couldn't find a place to park. So I resigned myself to just call it a day, and headed home. And on the way, I found... what I was looking for.

There were books there; they were okay, but I had everything I wanted. There were CDs as well, good quality and only a dollar. But what drew my eye were the comics - about a half dozen longboxes, with a few people picking over them. And so I threw myself in and decided to join them.

I didn't realize that more issues were coming out.

It turned out that the guy running the sale was getting rid of two collections: his, and a friend's that had moved to Australia. They had been big collectors back in the 80s. Between them, and after cutting out the cream of the crop to either keep or sell on eBay, they had 30 longboxes full of comics. There were between 7000 and 9000 comics in there, complete runs of an interesting mix of Marvel, DC, and independent books. There were lots of duplicates, as they collected the same books and, in some cases, bought two copies of the same book (one to read, one to save). And very little of it overlapped with anything that I already owned. I picked out about 2.5 longboxes of books before I started thinking about why I was limiting myself.

I believe that I ranted about the price of obsession in my last garage sale report. It's not really the money that worries me; it's the volume. I was only able to fit 22 of the 30 longboxes into my car; I had to call in a friend to help. Moving them up to my apartment was a hefty chore. And once they were there, I ended up with two stacks, 2.5 feet on a side and five feet high, of nothing but comics - and that was before the inventory began.

And... well, at least I'm done with the inventory. It took me all week, and my back is not overly happy with me. Now I have to figure out what I want to keep, what I want to sell off, and (most importantly) how to sell off that many books. It's going to be an interesting time...

But I am proud. And still a bit overwhelmed. And I wonder if I should really keep garage saling without a responsible adult to watch over me...

http://outpost505.com/?p=184

So sometimes you make plans.  And sometimes you unmake them.  And sometimes someone else unmakes them for you.  This post is about the last of those options.

As you all know by now, Shane and I are moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Shane has accepted the job of Digital Preservation Librarian at the University of Michigan.  We don’t have a moving date or new address set yet (and I don’t have a job!), but we plan to firm up those details in the next two weeks, and to complete our move in late August.

As many of you have already commented, moving to a new state and starting new job(s) will make having a wedding in Virginia a bit difficult.  We had initially planned to go ahead with the previously announced plans - until an ACT OF GOD made us see the light.  Sometimes I’m prone to hyperbole, but this is not one of those times.

The park district office where we had booked our wedding site had a flood the day after I turned in the application and deposit.  The whole building didn’t flood - just part of it.  Which happened to be the part where our paperwork was at the time - not where it should have been, but where it was.  All of our paperwork was lost - the check for the deposit, the application for the reservation - all of it.

With that paperwork gone, our most significant financial investment in the event was eliminated, making it exceptionally practical to cancel.  After confirming that our guests had not been charged for hotel reservations, we decided to go ahead and pull the plug.

So in short: we’re not getting married in October in Virginia.  We are still getting married, but for the time being, we’re setting aside those plans in order to focus on our other major transitions.  We probably won’t start planning until we settle in A2 (as the kids call it), which means it may not be this fall.  We’ll definitely keep you posted, though!

I'm having trouble with hypocracy on the current healthcare thing. While I'm not exactly all gung-ho about a government plan (Or single payer) I just saw the "attack add" for against such a policy (Queue the usual, stereotypical, dramatic political ad tactics) Especially about the government coming between you and your doctor.

The problem here of course is that right now, it is not BIG BAD Government, it's actually the BIG BAD Insurance Corporations.

The ad trots out the woman from canada that would have had to wait 14 weeks for a life saving brain tumor operation, but when she came to America she got her first class medical treatment which saved her life.

Compare this to the documentary _Sicko_ where we have people with [a medical condition of which i dont recall] who were rejected by their insurance company, who go to cuba and get life saving treatment.

In both cases you dont get the full story...and frankly I've certainly heard more about insurance companies denying life saving procedures because they are too expensive (thus sticking the bill with the person....despite paying $1000 a month for years)...SO what are we to do.

I think I ultimately have a real problem with someone making money, and basing medical care for someone based on profits, or a suddenly being dropped from coverage. It just does not seem right (especially for a country that, if you listen to the right wingers), is a country that should be more christian. It really doesnt seem right if you are a human being.

However, I will not claim that I have the answer. The real answer is probably a mix of both govt and not-for-profit but no one will be willing to support that. It is a bit more reasonable.

One other grump point. I am tired of the "Government cant do anything" and then claim, that all insurance companies will go out of business cause the govt program will be so great.

Um...huh?

Lastly, healthcare is sky-rocketing. It will get worse as the boomers continue to age and get more problems as a result. Ok so everyone goes bankrupt or in debt for health care coverages....I then ask...why bother even saving a damn dime if it will all end up going to an insurance company to cover costs or to the mediacla bills i wont be able to pay anyway. Bankrupt or Bankrupt and enjoy the money while I have it in the past......


Again, I dont have the answers, but Im just getting tired of irrational stupid arguments.

http://outpost505.com/?p=182

Shane shared this article on Google Reader tonight and it had what I imagine was the intended effect - getting me thinking about the small canning empire I started last summer.  The author argues that canning - in its current urban incarnation - is less about frugality and more about a bourgeois sense of connection to what we eat.  (Is bourgeois the right word?  I’m never sure if I’m using it correctly.  Anyway.)

There are a couple of things I take issue with in this article.  First, the opening paragraph references the author’s ” $15 per pint, straight-from-the-Greenmarket, homemade and canned in Brooklyn, N.Y., macerated and simmered in unprocessed sugar, spiked with organic chiles and small-batch Kentucky bourbon strawberry jam” in her calculation of a $17 PB&J sandwich.  $15 per pint is a ridiculous figure for jam - I think we can all agree on that - but unless she ate the entire pint, her sandwich probably works out to more like $3 at most.  She makes an important point, though - you’re not saving money by canning when you’re paying more for the raw ingredients than you would the finished product in the quantities produced.

I started canning last year in the midst of an eating-local mania.  Over the course of the summer and fall, I canned around 2 dozen pints of tomatoes, 8-10 pints of peaches, and a lot of applesauce.  In addition, I froze zucchini, asparagus, roasted tomatoes, blueberries, strawberries, green beans, and roasted red peppers.  We’re still working our way through all the frozen stuff, though we exhausted the peaches earlier in the summer, and are on our last (I can’t believe it!) jar of canned tomatoes.

Has it been worthwhile?  Taste-wise, mostly.  The frozen vegetables didn’t hold up as well as I’d hoped, but the fruit was all great.  Always having tomatoes on hand is excellent, and the peaches were a treat long before they’d returned to the market.  Has it been financially worthwhile?  Not sure.

We buy most of our produce from the assorted DC FreshFarm markets.  It’s always a toss-up as to whether the market produce is cheaper than what’s at the grocery store.  Much of the time it’s comparable, and the primary gains from shopping at market are being able to select the specific quantity you need from higher quality products - in addition to the warm fuzzies that come from dealing with people who have first-hand experience with the produce, rather than a stockboy who doesn’t know what you’re talking about.

When I started thinking about canning, I realized right away that it was only going to be financially worthwhile if we could get the stuff to be canned very cheaply.  The author refers to putting up the bounty from a home garden - which is what my grandma did for years.  With no home garden to plunder, the only financially feasible option was buying 2nds produce - or going the you-pick route.  Whenever possible, we buy 2nds produce - things like tomatoes, apples, peaches, and pears that are still edible when less than perfect.  2nds produce is generally at least $1 cheaper per pound than the unblemished stuff, so by my calculations, it works out something like this:

10 pounds of tomatoes at $2 per pound produced 8 pints of tomatoes plus 3 pints tomato sauce.
Total expenditure on raw materials: $20

Cost of comparable store-bought items:
8 14 oz cans Giant-brand whole tomatoes @ $1.39 each: $11.12
3 14 oz jars Giant-brand Thick & Rich spaghetti sauce @ 1.25 each: $3.75
Total expenditure: $14.87

Does it work out to be financially worthwhile?  No.  Or at least not really.  This also doesn’t calculate in the cost of the jars and lids - a one-time investment in infrastructure - or the electricity used in the process.  At the same time, the oft-extolled “satisfaction of a job well done” is worth $5 to me.  I felt immensely proud to have done the dirty, sweaty work of canning.  I have continued to feel proud every time I open the cabinet to grab a jar of tomatoes at the last minute.  In the last 12 months, I can count on one hand the number of jars of tomatoes we’ve purchased - 3 at most, and those were because we were cooking in bulk for Obama volunteers.

Canning is not financially worthwhile at $16 for two quarts of strawberries, which is what the author paid - but then I guess if you can afford to pay $16 for two quarts of strawberries, the financials don’t really matter all that much.  Taking a $5 loss on something you enjoy doing is much more reasonable.  $5 would get you (maybe) two games of bowling or a skein of yarn or a single ticket in the bleachers at a baseball game.  Depending on where you live, $5 covers a beer or a Value Meal.

Last weekend I made 9 pints of Lodi applesauce - $16 for a peck of apples + $.07 for 1/4 C sugar = $1.78 per pint.  A 25 oz jar of Giant-brand Apple Sauce (Natural) is $1.69.  The price difference is about $.05 per ounce - except that Lodi apples aren’t usually available in the store.  They’re early apples, with a very short production season and a limited shelf-life.  They’re also the apples my grandparents grew in their backyard, so I grew up with Lodi applesauce, rather than the overly sweet or cinnamony stuff most kids had.  The extra $.05 per ounce is worth it for taste and - for me - nostalgia.

Will I be canning this year?  It depends on what’s available, and how much it will cost.  I’m volunteering at the  market this year, and as a result I get half-price produce.  Half price might be worthwhile.

I am today a Doctor of Philosophy in the field of Economics.

I've been spring cleaning ( a little late I realize) one room a day approximately and I am going to tackle my office tomorrow. I know for a fact that there is a huge stack of prints left over from gallery shows and events from the past five years that are just sitting there and I think I will sell them off at cost.

Think of this as a great opportunity, I would like them to go to good homes and I realize no one has any money. Some I will keep for my portfolio but most will go for $5 to $8 bucks, poster prints at $20 to $35. Stay tuned for great deals coming your way - I don't intend to ever print out these images again.

Anyone interested?

The books I read on my honeymoon and a few I've finished since...

( 15 books - this got long. )

George Weisiger, an old high school classmate, was apparently hit by a drunk driver while biking near campus. He died early this morning. I was never exactly close with George, but... shit.

I'm sitting at the microtome studying the schedule and counting, and it's three weeks til we move. Weird. I don't quite believe it, though I think it's time... high time? to get out of town. Some people apparently don't know we're moving, which seems weird. I guess they're not obsessively checking my profile on facebook?

Anyway, in three days, I'm quite the expert at paraffin sectioning, well, not really, but I'm getting better and can identify the part of the brain we're looking for, though I can't think of what it's called. Nothing like learning a completely new technique a month before ditching the career. Also, the woman for whom I am sort of working did her post doc in Ann Arbor, and says she can hook me up if I decide I want to work there, but for now, we're not considering it. I want to see if I can do the stuff I want to do with more time to myself *cough* yes, I know, if bossy Ebug will let me... But, still, good to know.

So, I've kinda inadvertently given myself the morning off tomorrow, because I thought I had to do something in the morning, but it turns out it's in the afternoon, and either way, I told them I wouldn't probably be in, because I thought it might run over, but I guess I'll have to suck it up and tell them I messed up. The whole thing is pretty dumb, because a) apparently, this lab I cleaned out was already opened up and picked over before so it's likely no one will come and b) if not for my ex-boss sending me a jokey email in reply to the departmental email, I wouldn't have known what time I was supposed to be there, because somehow he WHO NO LONGER WORKS THERE was on the email list for this announcement and I was not, despite my being cc:'d in the text and being volunteered to man the firesale... (the email being written by the dept head and then sent out by the secretary, the same secretary who didn't forward the email I sent her to forward, despite my going up and explaining to her what I wanted to do and her agreeing to do it... so, I suppose I should think she's something against me, but I expect she's simply overwhelmed, because this wasn't her job until like a month ago, when the dept. head's personal assistant retired and, of course, no one was hired to replace her. Ah, the University! I will not miss you!)

I have a new loom, I'll get a picture up one of these days. It's huge, though not for a loom. It's three feet long by maybe two and a half feet wide, but luckily, it's very light, so I can scoot it around. I've put on my first warp! It only took forever! It's a rigid heddle, but bigger than my other one. So, once I have my yarn back (I've only left out a few skeins, the rest is packed), I think I'll finally make fabric for skirts. So, there.

For today's plug: I have now finished three courses from The Teaching Company. They've all been excellent:

• Famous Greeks
• Famous Romans
• Emperors of Rome

I've got another four courses on their way (thanks, Dad, for sending them to me first!), all on Classical history. I'm sure I'll get sick of that category before too long, but for now it's been absolutely fascinating both getting a more in-depth view of that time period than I had before, as well as getting multiple viewpoints on it. These things really do feel like well-taught college courses without the tests or papers. It's cut into my listening to NPR, but I am certainly learning for it.

If you're into this kind of thing, you should check one out. Just make sure you only buy them when they're on sale; the price difference is immense.

Still here in Korea, obviously. In fact, I just signed a 7 month extension to my contract, putting me back in the States in May. The eventual goal is to go to grad school, get my TOEFL certification, and come back here to teach at a university.

Busy couple of weeks coming up:
This weekend I'll be heading up to Pucheon (between Seoul and Incheon) for the Pucheon Fantastic Film Festival. I'll be seeing lots o' international horror movies. The one I'm looking forward to the most is Dead Snow, a tale of a group of guys camping in the Norwegian mountains who end up having to fight a battalion of Nazi Zombies. Should be good times.

Next weekend will be the Jisan Rock Festival. It will really be good to hear if Koreans can actually produce good rock music (it's been 10 long months of gawd-awful K-Pop and Hip-Hop). Sadly, I have to work Friday night, so I'll be missing Weezer. But I will be seeing Oasis and Patty Smith.

Last week of July, I'll be going to Bangkok! A friend from ISU is teaching there, so she's going to show me around the city for a few days. Eating authentic Thai food will be nothing short of awesome. Not to mention buying stuff at dirt cheap prices.

So, the next three weeks will be good. After that, I'll be slaving away during our month of intensive lessons. Good times, indeed.

Cheers, Belle. I still miss you.

http://brixton.tumblr.com/post/141484225

2 or 3 things I know

http://waiterrant.net/?p=1309

"A wry, tender story about the tribulations of flesh and ink - and funny as hell. I've never understood why people get tattoos, but after reading Jeff's excellent book I may just get one myself." - Steve Dublanica, the author of Waiter Rant.

Congrats Jeff! Hope it's a bestseller!

You can buy Jeff's ...

Ideas, ideas, I'm out of ideas...

I am hoping taking the summer off will help me refuel my imagination vault. Bright sunshine does not inspire me, neither does sweating. It is currently raining and that is good.

I must make a list of objects that would translate well to the literary industry (keys,bones,tea cups, knives,broken things,lockets,letters), things that speak of nostalgia and mystery and murder. Unfortunately these iconic images have been shot a million times and then some, it leaves me uninspired as well.
My house is full of such nonsense, I just need to walk from room to room (old bottles, tin toys, broken dolls, crumbling books, sacred icons, dried flowers) and take note.

I've asked my husband to make me a new series of masks. I am hoping that will inspire me. The time involved to make the whole series will have me starting in the new year though. Still, they will be wonderful to see.

From the Onion: I'm Not Questing With You Until You Admit You Screwed Up The Zul'Aman Raid