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Pruning

I’ve just spent some time pruning my blogroll. I’ve been overdue on this; it seems to me that over the last year or two, blogging has fallen out of favor as an online hobby in favor of Facebook and Twitter. Now, I like Facebook as much as anybody, and I use Twitter as well, albeit fairly infrequently (in fact, most of my Twitter updates are automated links back to this blog, whenever new posts appear). But even though my own blogging frequency has dropped a bit to where I only post three or four days a week instead of my once-daily pace, this is still my main means of online personal expression. So on it goes.

Still, I was somewhat surprised as I went through about half of my blogroll looking for inactive sites. Some are still within my own working definition of an “active” blog — they’ve posted at least once in the last month — but they’re only posting once every six weeks to two months. Some blogs I actually had forgotten about completely and hadn’t checked in a very long time; one, to my utter amazement, had apparently fallen silent more than three years ago. Ouch. Other blogs I remember reading faithfully way back when, and exchanging comments with those bloggers; others I can’t recall at all and I wonder when I added them in the first place. Oh well.

I also ditched a bunch of my political blogs as well, because there are relatively few of those that I read anymore, for various reasons. Mainly it’s because most of them say the same things in different ways, and I only have so much time to read the same thing said different ways.

I have found a bunch of new blogs recently, though, which will over time make their way onto the blogroll. Which is how it always worked, anyway!

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To Pittsburgh!

Last weekend, The Family and I took an overnight trip to the fair city of Pittsburgh, PA, the mythical city of my birth. We spent one whole day there, not nearly enough, but we had a great time in general.

On our way down, we stopped at Quaker Steak and Lube in Erie and had chicken wings for dinner:

Chicken wings!

Chicken wings are all kinds of awesome. But then we drove down the rest of the way, staying at a hotel in one of the northern suburbs before rising the next day and heading to downtown Pittsburgh’s Strip District, an area of small shops, eateries, ethnic markets, street vendors and street musicians and the like. That area is fascinating, and I wish we’d had more time to hang out down there, but the clock was ticking and we wanted to make sure we got to our main destination for the day in time to enjoy it fully: the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

The Wife and I visited that museum years ago, when we were only merely dating, so the museum has changed quite a bit since then. Some things were very familiar, while others were almost completely new. They’ve totally redone the dinosaurs, constructing fairly elaborate landscapes for them to “roam” in; they are no longer skeletons standing in rooms by themselves behind rope lines:

CMNH: Overlooking the Dinosaurs

CMNH: T-rex

CMNH: Okay, NOW he looks scary.

I have a lot more photos of our Pittsburgh trip in this Flickr photoset. We had a terrific time. Pittsburgh rules!

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10 Posts I Will Never Ever Write

10 ways that civilization could collapse because of overalls

8 horrible lessons about the Buffalo Bills that Hollywood teaches kids

10 chicken wings the government is trying to keep secret

7 bizarre ways Bart Simpson can kill you suddenly

8 shocking ways that Han Solo has appeared in porn

7 ways Star Wars could cure cancer

8 ways pie throwing could help you survive a zombie outbreak

8 ways blueberry pancakes can help you survive a plane crash

10 of the biggest Captain Morgan’s screw ups of all time

Why Nicholas Sparks should scare you more than Osama Bin Laden

(Titles created with , found via Lynn. What a fun timewaster!)

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Something for Thursday

Blame Jennifer for this, as she spent all day on Facebook yesterday posting bits of lyrics from The Music Man. Here’s the enchanting duet, featuring the Buffalo Bills (the barbershop quartet, not the football team) singing “Lida Rose” and Shirley Jones as Marian singing “Will I Ever Tell You”.

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The Worst Town in the Entire United States

Congratulations, Fulton, Mississippi! You are the Worst Town in America.

That’s the town that (a) cancelled the prom when a couple of lesbians wanted to attend, (b) relented and let them come to the prom after all, (c) actually sent them to a separate prom while all the other kids went to a secretly held “real” prom, and then (d) had some of their kids actually brag about their conduct on Facebook.

Worst Town in America. You’ve earned it, Fulton!

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Here we go again!


Super Mario Sis., originally uploaded by Filipeanut.

The Super Mario Sisters!

(BTW, World Five on Super Mario Brothers is kicking my ass. Stupid world, getting me killed all the friggin’ time.)

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Back in the Swing

What better way to get back in the swing of things than with a quiz? From Sunday Stealing:

36. If you suddenly became single or are single, do you think you could last in a relationship for 12 months or more?

Right off the bat, I’m not sure I understand the question. I’ve been in a relationship for nineteen years now, so I think I’m pretty good at the long-term thing.

37. Do you forgive or forget?

Both. Unless I’m really pissed, in which case I hold a grudge for years.

38. Do you trust people?

Until they screw me! (Actually, I don’t really trust people until I get to know them.)

39. What are you not looking forward to?

The series finale of LOST, because I don’t watch the show and don’t care.

40. Do you get mad easily?

I can, but I try not to.

41. Tell us about the last time you were told you that you have pretty eyes.

Hmmmm…a few years ago a co-worker told me I looked good in blue because it brought out my eyes. Does that count?

42. Do you have strange dreams?

Yup.

43. Ever licked someone’s cheek or forehead?

Er…no.

44. Tell us about the last time you fell asleep in someones arms.

Er…no.

45. When did you last play a game?

Yesterday. And I’m about to play the same game in a few minutes: Super Mario Brothers!

46. What do you have on you at all times?

I try to never leave home without my cell phone.

47. Do you go out in public without getting all dressed up?

Define “all dressed up”? As in, do I go out in sweat pants? No. I used to live in sweat pants, but now I just wear them at home or to the gym.

48. Do you like fruity or minty gum?

Minty. But in general I’m not much of a gum person.

49. Favourite musician or group?

Dougie Maclean. (Just naming one at random.)

50. Do you like anyone?

Nope. I’m a giant heap of dislike.

51. Favourite computer game?

Galactic Civilizations, which oddly I’ve never played.

52. First album you ever went and bought with your own money?

The soundtrack album to The Empire Strikes Back.

53. Think back five months ago, were you single?

Yes. I mean, no.

54. Do you believe in celebrating anniversaries?

Yes, although not terribly lavishly.

55. Do you think someone is thinking about you right now?

I hope so!

56. Last thing you bought?

I bought a couple of small knickknacks for The Daughter at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History the other day.

57. Are you a jealous person?

Sometimes, but I don’t like to be.

58. Does it take a lot to make you cry?

Not always.

59. Do you have a friend of the opposite sex you can talk to?

Yes.

60. Have you ever had your heart-broken?

Yes.

61. Have you ever done something while drunk that you still cannot believe you did?

Was I drunk when I mooned a professor of mine? I can’t remember. Maybe.

62. Is there anyone you secretly wish you could be spending your time with right now?

Nope. I’m pretty open to my wish that The Wife was home right now instead of at work.

63. Do you text?

Rarely. We don’t have an unlimited texting plan. I like texting, but it’s expensive.

64. Do you wish someone would call or text you right now?

Text…e-mail…leave a comment…sure, why not?

65. Is your life anything like it was a year ago?

Same job, same apartment, same overalls…yeah, pretty much is.

66. Go back one year on your blog. Leave us a link to your favorite post.

Looking around that general date, here are my thoughts on the ending of ER.

67. You can only drink ONE liquid for the rest of your life, what is it?

Water.

68. Tell us about someone that you have lost contact with someone you wish you didn’t.

You know, it’s weird…Facebook has had a tendency to reconnect me with people left and right. There’s the girl I had the crush on when I was a sophomore and junior in high school, I suppose…I wonder whatever became of her.

69. What is the last thing you said out loud?

“Love you!” (Talking to The Wife on the phone.)

70. Will this year be better than last?

Yes. Unless no.

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May he rule a thousand years

My review of Under Heaven is now available at GMR. For non-spoiler thoughts, feel free to read the review.

I do have some thoughts on the book that I left out because they were spoilerish, so I’ll put those here, but in order to read them you’ll have to highlight them with your mouse:

:: GGK so often writes about medievalish places wherein women have little real power given to them overtly, and thus must scramble to assume whatever power they can through other means. This theme is particularly evident in this novel.

:: Is Kitai in the same “world” as Esperana and Sarantium? I don’t think so. The book’s reference to the moon is singular, where GGK’s previous pseudo-Europes all have two moons.

:: I spent much of the book thinking that Tai would eventually give his horses to the Kanlin Warriors. I was wrong, obviously.

:: I love GGK’s elegiac endings, even when he’s written a happy ending (for the most part). The fact that Spring Rain’s letter never reaches Tai and the way the voices of the ghosts of Kuala Nor eventually face away set a perfect note of melancholy alongside Tai’s union with Wei Song.

:: Speaking of Tai’s union with Wei Song, this was as satisfying a finale in a GGK novel as I’ve ever read. I loved it.

:: GGK really managed to work up some tension by having Tai continually worrying over his sister’s fate, when we know that she’s already been rescued from that fate. Meshag’s dual nature (trapped between wolf and man) makes him one of the book’s most fascinating characters.

:: I really want to see more of this world, and I hope I am wrong about Kitai not being in the same world as GGK’s proto-Europe. I’d love to see GGK’s Marco Polo come to this world.

That’s all for now. What a great book this was.

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The official site of Kelly Sedinger: Reader, writer, photographer, and dreamer

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