Variations on Lise

1. YOUR SPY NAME: (middle name and current street name)

Christine Emeline

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on your dad’s side, your favorite candy)

Helen Ferrero Rocher. I actually like any kind of chocolate, but this one sounded the best.

3. YOUR RAP NAME (first initial of first name, first three or four letters of your last name)

L. Con.

4. YOUR GAMER TAG: (a favorite color, a favorite animal)

Green Dog. But it really doesn't matter because I'm not a gamer. Whatever that is.

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)

Christine Winnipeg

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your last name, last 3 letters of mother’s maiden name, first 3 letters of your pet’s Name)

Condirmoj

7. JEDI NAME: (middle name spelled backwards, your mom’s maiden name spelled backwards)

Enitsirhc Skrid

8. PORN STAR NAME: (first pet’s name, the street you grew up on)

Corey Greenmeadow

9. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The”, your favorite color, the automobile your dad drives)

The Green Astro. Ironically, it really is a green astro.

10. YOUR ACTION HERO NAME: (first name of the main character in the last film you watched, last food you ate)

Nemo Gingersnap. Yes, as far as I can remember, the last movie I watched in it's entirety was Finding Nemo.

"The Divas" - Old English Sheepdogs in beads

Kudos to the "Lone Beader". Click on the title of this post for an awesome piece of art. Wow, some people have *way* more patience than I do.

Mojo on YouTube

Click here.

Word

1. One book that changed your life. The Bible...not! That's a pretty high threshold, but I would say "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl. Suffering need not be pointless. You can choose to take something good from your worst moments. To a lesser extent, I could add Stephen Lewis' "Race Against Time", but not necessarily because of the content, which, although powerful, isn't as compelling as the passion of Lewis himself.

2. One book that you've read more than once. Well, obviously "Man's Search for Meaning", but also "The Colony of Unrequited Dreams" which made me a voracious reader again after I finished school and recovered from overexposure to words in books. I think I've reread many Mavis Gallant stories. There's probably many more that I can't think of right now.

3. One book that you would want on a deserted island. Geez. Um, well it would have to be something huge or I'd get bored really fast. How about the entire library? I suppose that if I had nothing but time, I might read the Bible. But I'd also want to read the Bhagavad Gita, the Koran, etc. Definitely not "Don Quixote". I've been trying to read "The Rights Revolution" by Michael Ignatieff for years, but it's such a snooze...maybe the island would concentrate the mind.

4. One book that made you laugh. I went through an Erma Bombeck phase that brought forth many guffaws. Nowadays when I need a laugh I go for Augusten Burroughs. "Magical Thinking" is pretty good. You can also cheat and get a podcast on iTunes that's hilarious.

5. One book that made you cry. "The Russlander" by Sandra Birdsell.

6. One book that you wish had been written. The autobiographies of all my ancestors.

7. One book that you wish had never been written. Not a one. I think freedom of speech is that important. Although I've never read Mein Kampf I'm sure there's something we can learn from it.

8. One book that you are currently reading. "The Autobiography" by David Suzuki.

9. One book that you are meaning to read. Everything else. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross but I'm not in the right frame of mind yet. "The Custodian of Paradise" by Wayne Johnston - it just came out.

Continuum

Happy Turkey Day. I'm currently enjoying my second piece of Frozen Mocha Cheesecake after finishing the first season of Arrested Development on DVD. I think I like the show because it has that same narrator feel that I've loved about Sex and the City and some other show that I can't remember at this moment that I really love. This is what family togetherness does to you...makes your mind go numb.

Which brings me to thanksgiving...and John Mayer. He's my new *mwah* since I've been too tired to watch Anderson Cooper lately. When he (John Mayer) grew his hair longer and curlier and started to get a bit politic with the lyrics I fell in love. With the music, of course. Whatever. I really like "Waiting on the World to Change" - it feels like it's music that isn't too old, or too young, but just right. For me.

Shit, I just read his wikipedia bio and he's younger than me. Shit. It's just depressing that's all. I was thinking he was the same age, maybe slightly older. Somehow that would be more comforting when thinking about his lyrics. Which brings me to the point...almost.

So I remember a time when I enjoyed family gatherings much more than I do now and I think it's because I bore no burden of having charge of anything having to do with them then. Mom took care of picking people up at the airport, coordinating when different dishes would be ready...driving Grandpa to the corner store to get cigarettes. And even though Dad did the turkey and ham, and Alex took Grandpa to the convenience store....it's not that I don't trust them with these things, but it seems like I have to be more conscious of them, which is probably my own fault anyway...

But this afternoon it made me think of a lyric from Mayer's "Stop this Train", which I really like:

"One generation's length away from finding life out on my own"

By the way, the "be your own fridge" reference in the last post isn't as cryptic as some people seem to think. See the opening line of this post...as I finish my Frozen Mocha Cheesecake.

be your own fridge

be your own fridge
Originally uploaded by raysto.