TV Obsession 1

Here's the newest Smallville recaplet, courtesy of TWoP:

On his quest to track down and capture escaped Phantom "Zoners," Clark travels to Seattle (er, Seattle, British Colombia?) to investigate a case of sailors and dock workers who literally had the bones sucked out of them. Anyhoo, Clark poses as a medical student (ha!) then a coroner (ha ha!) to find clues. The culprit is a giant dude with sweet fronts who is pulling the bones out and drinking the delicious marrow. Mmm, bone marrow (drool).... Clark tries his crest on the thug, but it turns out it doesn't work because the guy's not a phantom. Before Clark can get his ass kicked further, someone else attacks the Zoner, killing him. It's a giant green dude in a cape who eats Oreos. I don't want to ruin it, but...Martian Manhunter! In the other storyline, Lex is transformed into an electronic frequency by a former resident of Floor 33.1, a KryptoVillain who is trying to expose the secret lab. As Lex is stuck in his frequency, he can see and hear Lana, but she can't see or hear him. Much lovey-dovey "I miss you! I love you!" sentiments are exchanged as Lana tries to get him back. She spills the beans about being pregnant. Lex is thrilled because he wuvs Lana. And she wuvs him, too. Jimmy busts out his dad's old radio equipment to pick up the frequency (Kenneth) and the KryptoVillain is killed by Lex and a knife in a decidedly old school way. Lana tells Lex she's cool with the evil things that may or may not have happened in Floor 33.1. Papa Luthor moves the lab while Lex is all static and afterward demands to be made a partner in the experiments as a condition of sharing the new location. Lex, moved beyond all reason by Lana's deep and sudden love for him, decides to get his woo on. He brings Lana into his office, which is full of candles and flowers, and proposes to her with a very expensive ring. Pregnancy. A wedding proposal. I think the last ingredient for jumping the shark is The Great Gazoo.

Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure this series jumped the shark way back in season four. Which I recently bought on dvd. I used to LOVE Smallville, and I had the first three seasons already. When I found the fourth season at GameStop for only $30, I didn't question why I hadn't bothered to purchase it before. That was the season that introduced Lois Lane, after all, and isn't she awesome? Having watched (most of) the season again, I'm now starting to remember why I stopped watching in the first place. Lois got really annoying, really fast. And Lana, who in my opinion had ALWAYS been annoying, because super-annoying with her stupid tattoo and MuLana kung-fu fighting.

But I've grudgingly started watching again, because it did pick up (slightly) last season. There were two episodes when Lana died, which, awesome! Even though one was a future-dream-sequence and the other was reversed by Jor-El, they still made my nights. But this whole pregnancy thing is just retarded. I'm sick of seeing Lana with Lex. I wish they really would kill her off already. I thought comic-Lana was annoying, but tv-Lana is even worse. I am excited, however, that Jimmy has been brought in as a recurring character, and also that Martian Manhunter was sorta-introduced. Bring on the Justice League, baby!

My Favorite Book This Year

I've finished two books so far this week, which was pretty productive.
I had been reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter for a few weeks. I can't really afford to buy new books right now, so when I get my weekly email from Borders about new books that I might enjoy I just add them to my Amazon wishlist and/or try to hunt them down at my local library, usually without results. (Side note: I was on a three-month-long waiting list for The Devil Wears Prada. After a few weeks, I got tired of waiting and dropped the 6 bucks for a paperback copy. I'm still trying to decide if it was worth it.) Anyway, I saw a blurb about TMKD a month or so ago and was intrigued by the premise, but because it wasn't readily available I eventually forgot about it and read something else. See previous side note. It was actually quite serendipitous when I went to my sister's house and discovered, nestled among the James Pattersons and Nicholas Sparkses (yarg), the very book I had been looking for! I was extremely impressed with my sister, and I have to admit that my respect for her literary habits increased a bit. She agreed to loan me TMKD with the brief but telling review: "It's good, but sad." Truer words have never been spoken. This book was beautiful. It has an interesting plot: a young doctor delivers his wife's twins, but when he realizes that the daughter has Downs Syndrome, he gives her to the nurse helping him with the delivery and tells her to take the baby to an institution. He tells his wife that their daughter was stillborn, which leads to a sense of grief permeating their marriage and affecting them (and their son) for the rest of their lives. In the meantime, the nurse has decided not to leave the baby girl at the institution, and instead runs away with her and raises her as her own daughter. The story was just incredible, but the characters are what really made the novel for me. Edwards really got into their heads and allowed me to sympathize with each of them, no matter how badly they dealt with the sadness and loss they felt.

My second book, As Simple As Snow, I finished in only two days. My best friend, Fran, read it and loved it, and she told her boyfriend to give me a copy for my birthday. This first sentence on the back cover had me sold: "Anna Cayne had moved here in August, just before our sophomore year in high school, but by February she had, one by one, killed everyone in town." Awesome, right? Anna, as it turns out, writes obituaries for fun. She's one of the quirkiest characters I've ever read, and I absolutely adored her. The book is part coming-of-age, part mystery, part romance, and part I'm-not-sure-what. It's definitely different, though. One of the reviews I read compared it to The Virgin Suicides, which is pretty spot-on. I wasn't even aware ASAS was classified as YA until I went online and started researching it. There's actually a website devoted to the book, which includes an excerpt (entitled "Anna's Room") in which the narrator describes the esoteric music, books, and art found in...you guessed it, Anna's room. The great thing about the internet is, all the allusions have links, so you can see which David Wilson poster Anna has on the back of her door, or find out who the heck Isadora Duncan was. It makes the story that much better, because you gain a better sense of Anna's personality and interests. The mystery of the novel is never resolved, but there are clues and hints, and I'm thinking a second read-through will give me even more to think about. Unfortunately, I raved about this book so much, I now have three friends in line to borrow my copy, so it may be awhile before I get a chance to pick it up again.

Ready for the Good Times

Today was the 8th day of my 10-day stretch of work. I really hate when my manager schedules me like that, but every time I try to talk to her about it, she blows me off. So I go to the assistant deli manager instead, and she usually changes it for me. She couldn't change my days off, but she did arrange for me to not close 5 days in a row (!), so that's something.

I've also been sick for the past few days, and not having a day off to lay around in bed didn't help much. But I've been taking OTC meds and sleeping as late as I can, so I've been feeling better. So when my friend Laura called and asked to meet up for a drink tonight, I was torn. She recently moved to Atlanta, so when we get together we meet in Conyers, which is about halfway between the two of us and roughly an hour and a half from my house. In the end I decided to go, because she's one of my closest friends and she was feeling pretty down and needed someone to talk to.

Laura is awesome, because she's actually 20 years older than I am, but we still have a ton in common and can talk about anything. It's almost like having a cool older sister who gives me advice and introduces me to cool music. Right now, we're in pretty similar places in our lives. She recently lost her job and moved in with her daughter to save money while she decides what to do next, whether to go back into food service full time or try something different. Having recently quit my crappy retail job and moved in with my parents to save money while I decided what to do next, I can relate. We also talk about politics (she took me to a Democratic rally last year, where I got to meet the nominees for Secretary of State), religion (we're both open-minded and well-read on this topic), and books. She lent me The Time Traveler's Wife last year, which was amazing, and I just finished As Simple As Snow and will be lending it to her next. Basically, whenever we get together we talk, laugh, and have a ton of fun. I'm glad I went out to see her tonight, even though I'm dead tired now (and would be asleep already, if not for massive stack of CD's I'm uploading to iTunes as I type). It's nice having someone to talk to about all the stuff that's been going on lately, and about all my frustrations re: what to do with my life, my crappy job, my insecurities about the future, etc.

Plus, Laura regaled me with anecdotes about the most recent man in her life. This guy is a recovering peeping tom (there's seriously a 12 step program for it!) and a complete religious fanatic. She calls him "a study in contrasts." I call him a trainwreck, but entertaining second-hand.

Stupid Customer-isms

My job, for the most part, is pretty unbareable. My manager sucks - she rarely works on the floor with us, she's late almost every day, she never has the schedule done on time, and she's constantly taking credit for all the good work done by our assistant deli manager - and the customers are hella annoying. My coworkers are fun, though, and to help each other get through the days we've started compiling a list of the funny, stupid, or just plain ridiculous things our customers say to us everyday. I'm sure I'll be adding to this, as the never-ending weeks go by:

"Can I get a vegetarian sub with turkey?"

"This ham says that it costs $8.99 a pound, but I don't need that much. Can I just get half a pound?"

Coworker: "How would you like your meat sliced?"
Customer: "On a slicer."

Customer: "Do you have any ketchup?"
Coworker: "Ma'am, there's some on the shelf there."
Customer: "That's all Heinz ketchup. Don't you have another brand?"
Coworker: "No."
Customer: "Well, I can't use that one. I don't support him."
Coworker: "Who?"
Customer: "John Kerry."

Customer: "My husband wants a turkey for dinner tonight, but I don't feel like cooking. Can I just buy one of your turkeys?"
Me: "You might be better off buying a turkey in our meat department. The turkeys we have here are for slicing, and we would have to sell it to you by the pound, which would be pretty expensive. But the meat department has pre-cooked turkeys that you can just heat up in the oven."
Customer: "Ok, I'll go check over there."
*a few minutes later, as I'm walking through the store, I see the same customer*
Me: "Did you find what you were looking for?"
Customer: [holds up a jar of peanut butter] "Yes, thank you."

More to come...

The "Automatic" Car

It's a rainy day in Georgia, and I'm sitting in my trusty neighborhood coffee shop. Well, I live in the middle of nowhere, so technically it's more of a countyhood coffee shop, but whatev. I saw a commercial last night for a new car (Mercedes? I don't pay attention to brands) that parallel parks itself! This is pretty exciting, no? Think of the possibilities...

Code Monkey recently had an opportunity to enable the GPS chip on his phone and use it for a free trial period. This actually came in handy, because we live roughly 3 hours from each other and usually end up meeting halfway, in a city that neither of us knows very well. The three places we can get to with absolutely no problem: the mall, one of the four movie theaters in the area, and a kick-ass Indian restaurant (YUM!) During our last rendezvous, we decided to see a movie but didn't like the choices at the first movie theater. So he pulled out his phone, got show times for other theaters, picked which one we wanted to see (Man of the Year, which: eh), got directions using the GPS navigation, and then his phone TALKED US TO THE LOCATION. It was beyond cool. Every time we came to an intersection, the phone (which is apparently female) would tell us which way to turn, and even how far we were from our destination. Pretty sweet.

So, if cars can park themselves for us, and we have GPS that navigates us to where ever we need to go, I'm thinking pretty soon we won't even need to drive cars anymore. Pop some sensors in those babies (so they know when they're getting too close to another vehicle, thus avoiding accidents) and I'll be more than content to let them cart me around.

Of course, we could also invest that money and research into more alternative fuel sources and public transportation, and that would be even better, but I'm doubting that'll happen before the self-driving car.

Next stop: getting those suckers to fly!

First Things First

Welcome to Casual Dread, my newest blog. I used to have a livejournal, but I met too many people and discovered friends who also had one. Once the anonymity was lost, I felt like I couldn't write what I really wanted for fear of being judged or offending someone. The title comes from my favorite Jennifer Nettles song:

Casual Dread

So I'm moving out of nothing town,
this spirit's restless inside of me.
I'm tired of working in my family's grocery.
They say there's much I've yet to see.
See my mother had the soul of a story teller.
And she passed those demons down to her daughter's head.

And it's sir I will and sir I would --
put me down for some of that casual dread.

Driving at the back of this truck for what seems like hours.
Feel I know the driver like the back of my hand.
'Cause I been making up stories of his life,
like right now what he's saying to his wife.
And his stickers say he supports the navy
and thinks love is grand.
Well I do too.
So, thoughts of you break his story to remind me of the last time you were in my bed.

And it was sir I will and sir I would --
put me down for some of that casual dread.

And oh, you're invited to the table.
Yes, your choice tonight is famine or feast.
Well step on up to the table.
You see the wine it might be bitter,
but the sacrament's still sweet.
I've been thinking about my lives and where they've brought me.
So I asked a teacher for some living bread,
and he said, "Child the best lesson you could ever swallow,
is that this life is the one that's living,
all the other ones are dead."

Well, I've never seen a gravestone of mine,
but I hope each life was defined by an epitaph that read,
"She was sir I will and sir I would -- put her down for more of that casual dread."
I'd like a little more of that.
Some glad morning when this life is o'er.

My life right now is pretty random. I filed for bankruptcy last year, quit my crappy retail job, and moved back in with my parents. I was hoping to get a job as a teacher, but it's more difficult than I thought. My current "temporary" job is slicing meat in the Deli department of a regional grocery chain, and I hate it. Mostly because I'm a vegetarian, but also because my manager kida sucks and the uppity rich customers are pretty annoying.

More about me: I love to read (Jane Austen, Chuck Palahniuk, Neil Gaiman, Nick Hornby, Douglas Adams), play video games (my boyfriend just bought me FFVII, so there goes my free time), and sew and crochet. I'm a Girl Scout leader and I spend WAY too much time online. My new tv boyfriend is Hiro Nakamura, and I'm sorta obsessed with Veronica Mars.
Feel free to comment about anything I post on here. I love discussing/arguing with complete strangers - it reminds me of being drunk and chatty at college keggers.

Fortinbras was a Mary Sue

3 things I learned (mostly about Hamlet) from reading A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1899:
1. Hendiadys are one of my new favorite literary conventions. Literally meaning "one by means of two," it's a way of expressing a single idea by pairing two nouns linked by "and." For example: "sound and fury" or "law and order." Shakespeare used 66 hendiadys in Hamlet, over twice the 28 used in Othello, the play with the next-highest amount.
2. Shakespeare was a voracious reader, and most of the ideas for his plays were taken from other, earlier writers. Hamlet is his least original work: the only new aspect was the character of Fortinbras. Fanfic, y'all.
3. Shakespeare did invent other things: namely, new words. Or ways to use existing words in new ways. Over 2,000 words are thought to have been invented by him, and he's also attributed with creating my given name, Jessica, for The Merchant of Venice.


I've been really into reading historical stuff recently. In addition to the Shapiro novel, I read The City of Fallen Angels, by John Berendt (which really, really made me want to visit Venice), Abraham, by Bruce Feiler (which really, really made me want to visit the Middle East), and now I'm reading Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation, by John Ehle (which really, really makes me wish my grandmother were still alive, because apparently she was full-blood Cherokee and I'd really like to ask her about it).

Books Read in 2006

100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken is #37), Bernard Goldberg
Abraham, Bruce Feiler
Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman
A Series of Unfortunate Events: Book the 10th - The Slippery Slope, Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events: Book the 11th - The Grim Grotto, Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events: Book the 12th - The Penultimate Peril, Lemony Snicket
As Simple As Snow, Gregory Galloway
A Dirty Job, Christopher Moore
A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby
A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599, James Shapiro
Bertie Wooster Sees it Through, P.G. Wodehouse
The Big Over Easy, Jasper Fforde
The City of Fallen Angels, John Berendt
The Debutante Divorcee, Plum Sykes
The Devil Wears Prada, Lauren Weisberger
The Fair Tax Book, Neal Boortz and John Linder
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, J.K. Rowling
The Final Solution, Michael Chabon
The Gospel of Judas
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter y la camara secreta, J.K. Rowling
Haunted, Chuck Palahniuk
Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk
Letters From Pemberley, Jane Dawkins
Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Kim Edwards
Prep, Curtis Sittenfeld
Quidditch Through the Ages, J.K. Rowling
Remember Me, Christopher Pike
The Return of Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse
McSweeny's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, edited by Michael Chabon
The Second Wives Club, Jane Moore
The Secret Supper, Javier Sierra
Shopaholic Ties the Knot, Sophie Kinsella
Shopaholic and Sister, Sophie Kinsella
Something Rotten, Jasper Fforde
The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
Trail of Tears, John Ehle

Audio Books:
Lady Chatterly's Lover, D.H. Lawrence
Naked, David Sedaris

101 Things in 1001 Days (Revised)

My (Revised) 101:
1. Come up with 101 things to do in 1001 days and post the list on the web. It sounds a LOT easier than it actually is, but at least I have one down now. (12/31/05)
2. Complete a gallery of 26 things.
3. Learn how to drive a car with manual transmission.
4. Learn how to change the oil in my car.
5. Learn how to knit.
6. Make a quilt.
7. Learn how to play at least three chords on the guitar. 'Cause that's how many you have to know to write a punk song, right? :)
8. Visit the new aquarium. Tim took me for my birthday (11/04/06)
9. Attend a Falcons game.
10. Attend a Thrashers game. (01/21/06)
11. Attend a Braves game.
12. Learn how to ice skate.
13. Make a photo collection of Atlanta graffiti. (an art project I've been thinking about for a while now)
14. Create a website for said pictures.
15. Go to at least five small art galleries in Atlanta, preferably featuring artists or periods/movements that I'm unfamiliar with.
16. Attend at least one opera.
17. See Rent live. (06/15/06)
18. Save one dollar a day for 6 months.
19. Create a website for Lizzie and the Chad's wedding.
20. Watch the top 10 movies on the AFI's top 100 list.
21. Finish my England scrapbook.
22. Watch a Spanish film without subtitles or dubbing, just to see how much I can actually pick up.
23. Get a teaching job.
24. Finish my NYC scrapbook.
25. Read at least 25 books on the ALA's 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books list.
26. Read at least 25 books on the ALA's Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century list.
27. Finish my Salt Lake City scrapbook.
28. Climb Stone Mountain.
29. Go tubing.
30. Take Hunter to the Yellow River Game Ranch.
31. Finish the needlepoint that I started 8 years ago.
32. Re-learn all the presidents in order of office.
33. Learn all of the state capitals.
34. Eat a fruit that I have never tried before. This is actually really easy to accomplish, considering I now work in a grocery store.
35. Test drive my dream car - if I can complete #3 and find an MGB dealership in GA.
36. Learn how to say 3 basic phrases ("Do you speak English?" "Where is the bathroom?" and "Good morning, how are you?") in 5 different languages. I can already say "I am a big duck" in 9 different languages - Spanish, French, German, Italian, Latin, Russian, Hindi, Cambodian, and of course, English.
37. Finish Violet's baby blanket.
38. Allow my sister to help me pick out an outfit that Stacy and Clinton would approve of. Potentially painful, as I'm sure pointy-toed heels will be involved. (01/07/06)
39. Get my England pictures put on CD.
40. Go through my CD collection, burn copies of everything I want to keep, and then sell them all at Warehouse Music. Mostly done. Apparently, they don't want to buy what I'm selling, but I'm working on it.
41. Take Tim to a comic book convention.
42. Volunteer. Anywhere. At least once. (I used to work with the Latino Outreach Center at GSU, and I'd really like to get involved in something like that again) I volunteered at the Eatonton Christian Outreach, which was basically a thrift store. It was...not what I was expecting. I ended up hanging and putting away clothes while the people who were actually paid to be there sat around watching soap operas. I also volunteered as a Book Buddy for the 2006-2007 school year.
43. Participate in the Peachtree Road Race with my mom.
44. Complete the Couch to 5k program.
45. Take a yoga class.
46. Take a karate class.
47. Become a Girl Scout troop leader. I've re-registered as an adult Girl Scout and help out with various service unit functions.
48. Write a short story.
49. Spend a day at the beach and not get burned, because I actually remembered to apply sunblock and kept it on all day.
50. Go to the planetarium.
51. Get enough My Coke Rewards points to earn that Nintendo DS.
52. Re-establish contact with five people I knew at Southern. Facebook counts, right?
53. Take Hunter to the zoo.
54. Upload all my digital pictures to Picasa and organize them. Still ongoing, but I've got all my old photos grouped and (mostly) labeled.
55. Go to at least five restaurants that I've never eaten at before. Easy, when you move and are forced to find new places to eat.
56. Sell off the comics I no longer want.
57. Graduate from my Master's program with at least a 3.75. I'd really like a 4.0, but I don't want to push it.
58. Get a medical check-up. I'm healthy!
59. Have the dashboard light in my car replaced.
60. Scrape all the old bumper stickers off my car. "Stop bitching, start a revolution" can stay. They're all gone.
61. Participate in NaNoWriMo.
62. Learn how to make a cobbler.
63. Send out Christmas cards.
64. Make Christmas cards.
65. Buy an address book and put all known addresses in it.
66. Collect all 50 US statehood quarters.
67. Take a dance class. Probably swing. I took a swing class in high school and really liked it.
68. Convince a male friend to take a dance class with me.
69. Make a batch of jam.
70. Learn at least one poem by heart.
71. See Eddie Izzard (or any comedian) perform live.
72. Sew an item of clothing from scratch.
73. Research my family tree as far back as possible.
74. Learn my family tartan.
75. Attend a Hawks game.
76. See Mario Lemuiex play for the Penguins just once before he retires for real. He went and retired on me, making this impossible to complete. So sad. (01/29/06)
77. Try out a new recipe once a week for a month. Non-work related.
78. Paint a self-portrait. I did this for a high school art project, and mom still has it hanging in her house. I'd like to make an updated one.
79. Buy stock. I put in a request for some Publix stock, but I haven't heard back yet.
80. Learn my correct bra size.
81. Learn how to make hummus.
82. Go horseback riding.
83. Finish Tim's scrapbook.
84. Plant an herb garden.
85. Get at least 5 pictures matted and framed.
86. Sing at least one karaoke song by myself. Done. Blondie, eat your heart out.
87. Take a pottery class.
88. Audition for a play.
89. Audition for a TV reality/quiz show. (I'm thinking more Jeopardy! than Real World)
90. Buy a new sketchbook and draw on every single page.
91. Have a reunion weekend for my old Girl Scout troop.
92. Write a toast for Lizzie's wedding.
93. Get a manicure.
94. Beat Final Fantasy VII.
95. Learn how to water ski.
96. Get at least one watch battery replaced. I have three watches, all with dead batteries. I want to get at least one of them working again, because not having a watch is annoying.
97. Participate in bookcrossing by releasing at least 10 books into the wild. Done, and I'm still releasing...visit my bookshelf
98. Rasterbate something.
99. Teach myself to write my name left-handed.
100. Organize comic books in long boxes and upload the list to Stash my Comics or some other site. Done, although it is an on-going process - I get new comics every week, and will need to remember to add them to the database. You can see my collection here!
101. Read a book in Spanish before I read it in English.

Completed: 18
In progress: 10
To go: 73

101 Things in 1001 Days

The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as new year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

~ borrowed from triplux

My 101:
1. Come up with 101 things to do in 1001 days and post the list on the web. It sounds a LOT easier than it actually is, but at least I have one down now. (12/31/05)
2. Complete a gallery of 26 things.
3. Learn how to drive a car with manual transmission.
4. Learn how to change the oil in my car.
5. Learn how to knit.
6. Make a quilt.
7. Learn how to play guitar. Or at least one song on the guitar. And retain the knowledge, for the love of Pete! Ryan taught me how to play "Blister in the Sun" back in high school, but that's been lost to the ages.
8. Visit the new aquarium. Tim took me for my birthday (11/04/06)
9. Attend a Falcons game.
10. Attend a Thrashers game. (hey! I need at least one easy one) (01/21/06)
11. Attend a Braves game. (ok...make that two easy ones)
12. Learn how to ice skate.
13. Borrow Sis's digital camera and take pictures of Atlanta graffiti. (an art project I've been thinking about for a while now)
14. Create a website for said pictures.
15. Go to at least five small art galleries in Atlanta, preferably featuring artists or periods/movements that I'm unfamiliar with.
16. Attend at least one opera.
17. See Rent live. (06/15/06)
18. Save one dollar a day for 6 months.
19. Try at least five new cocktails, and learn how to make them at home. My goal is to find my own signature drink. It'll probably be a dirty martini, but I have to be fair and give others a chance.
20. Watch every movie on AFI's top 100 list. (not all at once, mind you)
21. Finally finish my scrapbooks from England, New York, Texas, and Salt Lake City.
22. Watch a Spanish film without subtitles or dubbing, just to see how much I can actually pick up.
23. Get a teaching job.
24. Work in New Orleans for the summer.
25. Read every book on the ALA's 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books list. (not too difficult, as many are children's or ya lit)
26. Read every book on the ALA's Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century list. (slightly harder, as these are not children's or ya lit)
27. Travel to a Spanish-speaking country.
28. Climb Stone Mountain.
29. Go tubing.
30. Take Hunter to the Yellow River Game Ranch.
31. Finish the needlepoint that I started 6 years ago, and finish Matt's afghan.
32. Re-learn all the presidents in order of office.
33. Learn all of the state capitals. (is it sad that I don't know them?)
34. Eat a fruit that I have never tried before. This is actually really easy to accomplish, considering I now work in a grocery store.
35. Test drive my dream car - if I can complete #3 and find an MGB dealership in GA.
36. I can already say "I am a big duck" in 9 different languages - Spanish, French, German, Italian, Latin, Russian, Hindi, Cambodian, and of course, English. I should probably lean how to say something I bit more useful, like, "Do you speak English?" Or learn "I am a big duck" in five more languages.
37. Learn enough French to understand the Circle bonus show. I think it's just Eddie performing his English show in French, but it would be cool to watch and understand anyway.
38. Allow my sister to help me pick out an outfit that Stacy and Clinton would approve of. Potentially painful, as I'm sure pointy-toed heels will be involved. (01/07/06)
39. Travel to at least five new states. One down, four to go... (03/09/06)
40. Go through my cd collection, burn copies of everything I want to keep, and then sell them all at Warehouse Music. Mostly done. Apparently, they don't want to buy what I'm selling, but I'm working on it.
41. Go to Wizard World Atlanta.
42. Volunteer. Anywhere. At least once. (I used to work with the Latino Outreach Center at GSU, and I'd really like to get involved in something like that again) I volunteered at the Eatonton Christian Outreach, which was basically a thrift store. It was...not what I was expecting. I ended up hanging and putting away clothes while the people who were actually paid to be there sat around watching soap operas.
43. Participate in the Peachtree Road Race with my mom. I didn't say place, I just said participate. And it's something she really wants to do, apparently.
44. Train myself to run a mile. Or at least jog it. I'm so out of shape.
45. Take a yoga class.
46. Take a karate class.
47. Become a Girl Scout troop leader. I attended a leader's meeting with my mom and have re-registered for Girl Scouts, so I'm getting there.
48. Write a short story.
49. Spend a day at the beach and not get burned, because I actually remembered to apply sunblock and kept it on all day.
50. Go to the planetarium.
51. Have a star named after someone. Don't know who right now. Probably my mom. Or sister.
52. Re-establish contact with five people I knew at Southern. I really should e-mail Dr. Griffin anyway, and writing it down ensures that I will do it. So far, I've gotten back in touch with Heather and Dr. Paige. Two down, three to go... Facebook counts, right?
53. Take Hunter to the zoo.
54. Go backpacking for a weekend by myself.
55. Go to at least five restaurants that I've never eaten at before. Easy, when you move and are forced to find new places to eat.
56. Go scuba diving.
57. Go back to Scotland and climb Arthur's Seat again.
58. Get a medical check-up. I'm healthy!
59. Have the dashboard light in my car replaced.
60. Scrape all the old bumper stickers off my car. "Stop bitching, start a revolution" can stay.
61. Participate in NaNoWriMo.
62. Learn how to make a cobbler. Stella says every Southern woman should do this.
63. Send out Christmas cards.
64. Make Christmas cards.
65. Buy an address book and put all known addresses in it.
66. Collect all 50 US statehood quarters.
67. Take a dance class. Probably swing. I took a swing class in high school and really liked it.
68. Convince a male friend to take a dance class with me.
69. Make a batch of jam.
70. Learn at least one poem by heart.
71. See Eddie Izzard perform live.
72. Sew an item of clothing from scratch.
73. Research my family tree as far back as possible.
74. While completing #57, get a kilt made or buy a kilt in my family tartan.
75. Attend a Hawks game.
76. See Mario Lemuiex play for the Penguins just once before he retires for real. He went and retired on, making this impossible to complete. So sad. (01/29/06)
77. Visit Philadelphia.
78. Paint a self-portrait. I did this for a high school art project, and mom still has it hanging in her house. I'd like to make an updated one.
79. Swim with dolphins again.
80. Go to a casino.
81. Drive Route 66. (if this is still possible, and gas prices go down)
82. Go horseback riding.
83. Own a sea anemone and clown fish, just because their symbiotic relationship fascinates me. And they're pretty.
84. Plant an herb garden.
85. Get at least 5 pictures professionally matted and framed.
86. Sing at least one karaoke song by myself. Karaoke Revolution, while fun, does not count. Done. Blondie, eat your heart out.
87. Take a pottery class.
88. Audition for a play.
89. Audition for a TV reality/quiz show. (I'm thinking more Jeopardy! than Real World)
90. Buy a new sketchbook and draw on every single page.
91. Have a reunion weekend for my old Girl Scout troop.
92. Visit Canada.
93. Get a manicure.
94. Own a Michael Turner sketch. Preferably of Nightcrawler, but I'm really not picky.
95. Learn how to water ski. (shouldn't be difficult, as my parents live on a lake and I have attempted to learn in the past)
96. I have three watches, all with dead batteries. I want to get at least one of them working again, because not having a watch is annoying.
97. Participate in bookcrossing by releasing at least 10 books into the wild. In progress...visit my bookshelf
98. Rasterbate something.
99. Teach myself to write (well) left-handed.
100. Organize comic books in long boxes and upload the list to Stash my Comics or some other site. Done, although it is an on-going process - I get new comics every week, and will need to remember to add them to the database. You can see my collection here!
101. Read a book in Spanish before I read it in English.