In The Mail

Many thanks, Summer, for this adorable little guy! He found a perfect home in a previously empty cubbyhole.

Music To This Girl's Ears...

From the hubby: 'If I were Jim Halpert, you would be my Pam.'

Incidentally, we are very very glad The Office is back. We have something, again, to live for.

Still Don't Wanna Talk About Economics But...

I'm as scared and confused as anyone when it comes to economics and the crisis going on this week. I am fortunate to have a financial advisor (hi Dad!) who I trust does have a solid perspective on how the market works and all the panic around it, and articles such as this one in the Village Voice that he points out on the history of the problem prove to be extremely informative and clarifying. It's long, arduous reading, and it definitely has its own take on who/what to blame, but my understanding of the basic issues, terms and key players exponentially increased after reading it. (If you're anything like me you'll need to have an economics dictionary or Google handy.)
On the flip side, we do well to remember that we all contribute to the problem as this article that Killpoets found points out.

Paint The Town

Last weekend...

"Memoir Writer Needed Immediately..."

This is the perfect job to get me through grad school...

I have five-ish posts swimming around inside my head but no time today and I'm headed off in a few minutes for my fourth extra night at the restaurant this week. I'm feeling just slightly that all I do these days is work when all I want to do is soak up the beginnings of Fall here and the light! that wonderful Fall light... Instead here are some of my favorite pictures from Annabel Mehran who clearly knows a lot about light.

Publishing Crisis

It's an interesting time to be jumping into a publishing career. Chat rooms and articles on the topic are very gloomy and doomy, with factors and debates including corporate publishing houses vs. mom and pop publishers, huge chain bookstores replacing independent local booksellers, and ebooks and online journals replacing print. While many consider it a crisis, I am actually optimistic and excited about entering entering this field at just this time. It seems that the publishing industry will need a complete restructuring and update and I'm up for it! This fantastic (and optimistic) article talks about the history, many of the concerns, and some solutions for the future success of publishing.

Please, not you too, lotion.

#1 pet peeve: dry elbows.
According to this article, I now have to choose between life and moisturized elbows. Oh, what an unfair choice. The question is: is life worth living if it has to be lived with dry elbows? I might rather go ahead and die, but die moisturized. Although the 100 toxic chemicals emitted by my vinyl shower curtain will probably do me in first.

Etsy Birthday

A few posts ago when I mentioned the things I speak frequently of, I forgot to mention Etsy. I don't actually speak the word Etsy because I don't know how to pronounce it. I'm sure Google could help me out there, but I haven't gotten around to that. At any rate, I speak about Etsy often, and surf it even more often. I love what Etsy is doing - a virtual shop for artists to showcase and sell their work. I love buying beautiful things directly from the hands that made them. My goal is to find more and more of my gifts for others and artwork for our house on Etsy.
August 31st has been a stop-everything-and-celebrate day for me for 15 years or so - it is Keiko's birthday. And later (for me) it became Zeb's birthday as well, so now that day pretty much wonderfully overtakes my life for a week before and after. I love August 31st. This year I combined two of my favorite things, August 31st and Etsy. This is what I came up with:

For Keiko: Domino Pendant from Gentle Suds

For Zeb: Oil painting entitled On The Green from Studio236

Companion painting The Sandtrap from Studio 236.

I did stray from Etsy for one item this birthday. Supporting artists' directly is very important, but so is finding the perfect gift that just screams out someone's name. And so far no one on Etsy makes these, and I just had to have it for my boy.

Could it get any more Boy than a lego ipod dock? (Don't tell him it came from the girly Paper Source.) It was a one time exception though, I'm already planning an Etsy Christmas.

Still Don't Wanna Talk About Politics But...

Killpoets is blogging again and this morning his blog points out a interesting article on the psychology behind liberal and conservative political views. Though there is some loaded language, it's the first article I think I've ever read from either camp that I could actually finish reading. There's even a bonus survey to help determine whether you subscribe to a fundamentally Millian or Durkheimian view of society.

New Emiliana Torrini

Emiliana Torrini's new album, Me and Armini, is one of the best I've heard in a long time. Zeb even voluntarily puts it on and he hasn't liked a new album since 1989. The girl is good. Me trying to sound like Sasha Frere-Jones about it here.

Eliot Review

The delay on this review was not because the book was uninteresting, but rather it was too interesting. I savored it. I didn't want it to end but my two week turnaround deadline was long past so I finally finished it and wrote the review. All I really want to say about this book is READ IT!! But Blogcritics frowns on too many caps and exclamation points so the dry, stuffy, real review is here.

Wishlist

A mini cow.

Monday Night, 8:03 pm.