Orcas are not people

Um...well...I don't even know what to say to this article(pause while you read it), except that I'm not *quite* sure training Orcas is the same as enslaving human beings. But it will certainly get PETA some attention.

(And while human slavery is still a problem, I think it's irresponsible to draw so much attention to something that, comparatively, does not matter)

Er...

Um. I don't know how to begin this. But this really happened.

I drove to work today. I KNOW I shouldn't have but it was cold and I was feeling lazy. When I left just now at the end of the day, I got into the Conference Center lobby (the Conference Center is the building across the street from the library. I park under it. On the very rare occasions when I drive. Most other people park under it as well) at the same time as a girl I know who also works at the library, though in a different division. She was in conversation with a tall, slightly attractive man. She saw me and started trying to include me in the conversation because she's nice like that. Problem: it's nearly impossible to come up to speed on a convo that's already been going on for a while when your only involvement comes when someone turns to you and says "Isn't that right? Don't the teams always need us?" WHAT TEAMS?!

Anyways, I did my best to fake my involvement. We got on the elevator and somehow I ended up between these two, still carrying on their conversation. She was getting off on P2, he and I on P4. After she got off, I started making small talk because, as I mentioned, he was not unattractive, OK?!

We arrive at P4. We take a few steps out of the elevator, still chatting. All of a sudden, it hit me. I'M ON THE WRONG FLOOR. I parked three floors up, on P1. So what did I do? Excuse myself and jump back on the elevator like a normal person? Don't make me laugh. I KEPT WALKING.

Not wanting to embarrass myself, I carried on the conversation halfway through the garage. Now. Consider. The Conference Center takes up an ENTIRE city block. I made it halfway through before I came up with a plan and took my leave. Luckily, we arrived at his car just as I made my decision. What was The Plan, you ask? Obviously, I did the only thing I COULD do.

I walked past his car, even further into the garage abyss, and, knowing he would be passing by on his way out of the building soon, and not wanting him to see me turning around, I chose a random car and pretended to unlock it until he was out of sight. I did no more or less than any reasonable person would have done.

Obviously.

I love the New York Times movie reviewers because...well, for lots of reasons, but because, while being oh so smart, they're not afraid to just lay it all out there. Each review ends with the movie's rating, and the reasons for that rating. Usually the reasons have been tweaked.

The coda to A.O. Scott's delightful review of "Anonymous" (you know, that movie that puts forth the old theory that Shakespeare's plays were written by a well-heeled noble supporter?) reads thusly:

"“Anonymous” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Swordplay, bodice ripping, bawdy speech and the cold-blooded murder of the truth."

Spectacular. With just that last sentence, Scott simultaneously rips the movie apart AND increases my desire to watch it.

I have a really passive aggressive desire to post only about quilting and other..."domestic" hobbies that take up my time from now on, but for now I will resist.

I spent my lunch break today reading Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness". It's October (I thought I'd let you know just in case that fact has escaped your notice for the last 26 days), so I wanted something slightly Halloweeny, and what says "Halloween!" more than H.P. Lovecraft? Nothing.

Anyways, I just started and had only gotten through 4 pages over the last few days, but after today I am COMPLETELY HOOKED. It was quite a trial to tear myself away and go back to cataloging. Have you ever read it? Or any Lovecraft? You probably should, he basically invented the horror genre. But he wrote horror as it should be, not trying to substitute gore for horror. I think true horror should focus more on suspense, on the terror of the unknown, than on known, conventional villains (like any slasher story). I. Can't. Take. Slasher films.

I don't really have anything intelligent to say about any of this. Mostly just, if you haven't read any Lovecraft, you probably should (especially if you're looking to read something scary that will still let you sleep at night). Once you do, you'll start seeing references to him all over the place. Christopher Nolan's Batman movies (well, anything from anyone about Batman really- for some reason Lovecraft pops up a lot), Guillermo Del Toro references Lovecraft all the time, I feel like anything involving a protagonist turning to old musty archives for answers to their deepening fear is a reference to Lovecraft (I don't know where that meme started if not with him). If I paid more attention to things, I could go on longer. But I don't, so I won't.

I know this is really goofy, but one of the quilts I'm working on right now...I really want to back it with this fabric. It's the right color and I love that it's vegetables for some reason. Maybe you saw the picture I posted on Fb? The top is all black and white and grey with some pink and green touches. But none of it has anything to do with vegetables.

I was also thinking about using this as a backing. The grey version of this print is one that I used in the top and I really love this print.

Or I could potentially use any of these because I used about half of this fabric collection in the top.

I wish I had a picture of the top to share, but it's really just kind of boring. And it's not done yet.

AND ALL THAT I CAN THINK ABOUT ALL DAY LONG IS QUILTING AND FABRICS THAT I WANT TO BUY. It is like a disease. I really have no idea where this came from because I never used to care.

So. My brain is weird, but you knew that already. A few weeks ago, I won a free dozen cookies from this amazing Etsy shop in a giveaway on a friend's blog. Seriously gorgeous cookies. I got to pick my choice and I decided on the Halloween Black Lace cookies, but the Autumn Flor ones were the runners-up. Seriously I've never seen such gorgeous cookies. So I've been waiting for them, they're supposed to get here today or tomorrow. Last night, I was thinking about and anticipating receiving my beautiful cookies (yum!) and I ended up having a dream that I received them. When I opened the box, they were sooooo disappointing. I was expecting these gorgoeous, intricately decorated red and black cookies, and what I got was red-frosted cookies with lazily applied black swirls and stripes- kid stuff that I could have done myself. I was *seriously* disappointed.

Yes, I dream about cookie regret.

I love that I can look at this picture and recognize the landmarks. I've walked through that gate. I stood, completely bewildered, on the street corner in front of that church. It was noisy. It was spectacular.

I can't wait to go back.

(photo taken from National Geographic)

Overheard at the reference desk (we are not a lending library)...
"Hi, can you check books out from the library?"
"No, but you can sit at one of these tables and read them."
"Oh, they just have numbers on them, so I wondered..."

How silly of us to put numbers on books if we're not going to allow them out of the building. There's no other reason imaginable why we would give them barcodes and/or call numbers. There's not any reason why we would need to keep track of them ourselves.

So lately I've been kind of (I mean completely) obsessed with quilting. This is A HUGE PROBLEM for many reasons, but mainly because I usually lack the follow-through to actually stick with such a large project from start to finish. The result? A build up of quilt tops and of unused fabric. The actual quilting and binding are always super daunting to me.

I'm feeling better about it now because I'm actually quilting and nearly ready to bind the first of this recent spate of quilts. After that I've got one finished top, one pile of fabric already cut and ready for sewing, and then a pile of uncut fabric ready to be turned into something fabulous. So that's four. BUT (and this is part of the thing that keeps me hopping from project to project) I get distracted by new patterns and fabrics very easily. My latest obsession? I reheheally want to make this pattern:

With these fabrics:

Oooooh preeetttyyyy.

Make me stop please.