VmarksTheSpot

Brown Berries Scarf

2010-07-28T21:45:00.001-05:00

Yes, I'm back to scarf-making. This will likely be one I give away, since the yarn isn't particularly compelling, but at least it gave me a chance to give the Brown Berries Scarf pattern a try. You may recognize the yarn as the same kind I used for my sister's hybrid fingerless gloves/mittens. I've got a lot of it lying around. I haven't bought any yarn since March, which is kind of a personal record. I'm trying to use up, or at least put a dent in, my two crates' worth of yarn.

ALA in Washington, D.C.

2010-07-06T21:59:00.000-05:00

Last week I got back from a five-day trip to D.C. for the American Library Association's annual conference. This was my third conference in four months, something I'd not planned at the beginning of the year -- I'd only planned on going to one, the Public Library Association's, so three was kind of a surprise.

It was a challenge, juggling conference programs with taking care of an assignment for my current summer school class on children's literature and squeezing in some sightseeing. My children's lit assignment was on picture books and because I wasn't able to complete it before I left for D.C., I ended up cramming my textbook and five hardback kids' books in my suitcase, taking up a good chunk of space and certainly weighing it down a lot more.

Because my employer was covering the middle three of the five nights I'd be in D.C., I spent the first and last nights at a hostel, save on lodging costs. It really was for the best, since I arrived late Thursday night and didn't get to the Hostelling International-Washington D.C., to hostel at 11 p.m.; it would have been a shame to pay for a nice place for the night because I wouldn't have had time to appreciate it. I promptly left the next morning at 7:30 a.m. to move my stuff to my hotel, the well-appointed Hotel Lombardy in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood. It was lovely having a room to myself (with a king-size bed! Luxurious!); it, along with the room's hardwired Ethernet connection, really allowed me to buckle down and get my schoolwork done while I was there.

I'd spent a summer in D.C. way back during my undergraduate years. Although I didn't really remember where stuff was, my familiarity with the metro system came back quickly, which was nice. I used it to ferry between where the bulk of the conference took place, the Washington Convention Center, my hotel and the few spots around the city I visited when I wasn't at either for the first two places.

I went to the Library of Congress twice, once for a program and another time for a reception. It was pretty awesome to get to wander its halls after it'd been closed to the public. I got to eat at a couple D.C. restaurants; probably my meal was the lobster roll I had at Founding Farmers, if only because that's the closest I'm ever going to get to having a proper lobster roll in Maine.

Although most of the conference action took place at the convention center, events are actually spread out across the city at something crazy like 15 other hotels. But I got a chance to hear author John Grisham speak, which was enjoyable. He told us about how when he was growing up, his father worked in construction, so his family moved frequently. And the first they'd do at every town was connect with the local Baptist Church, library and Little League. You can tell a lot about a place from those three institutions alone, he said. Grisham gave us the skinny on how his writing career came to be, and then answered several question from the audience on things like authors he likes to read and his writing process.

Originally I'd been eager to hit some museums that I'd not yet gotten the chance to visit -- the International Spy Museum, the new Newseum -- but I was reminded while I was in D.C. that there are times when I am complete and utter misanthrope, and traveling is one of those times.

A heat wave weighed heavily on the region the entire time I was there -- it hit 100 the day I flew in, and three days later hit 99 -- which understandably sent the scores of people already in the area flocking even more than they already were into the well-air-conditioned museums for relief from the heat. I ponied up $18 for entrance to the Spy Museum (I am currently reading Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to Al-Qaeda by Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton, so it seemed a good fit) and found myself constantly buffeted by people and waiting in line to check out the displays on the walls. Because of that, I decided not to even bother with the Newseum. I'll just have to go in the dead of winter or something.

It wasn't bad for my first ALA experience, although the torrid weather made it hard to enjoy simply walking around and enjoying D.C.'s stunning architecture. You always ended up at your destination depleted of energy; you just wanted to mop yourself off and sit down.

Will the weather at next year's ALA Annual be any better? It's going to be in New Orleans.

Baby hats galore

2010-07-03T13:33:00.005-05:00

Since the lace-paneled blanket took me three months to finish, for my next project I was all about a quick knit. And aside from baby booties, which I'm not terribly keep on, baby hats are the fastest item I can think of to churn out. To that end, I opted for two designs: the Quick & Easy Baby Hat and the Simple Baby Hat. Thankfully, they are aptly described. These babies rolled out in quick session, allowing me to use up a lot of leftover yarn, which was a nice perk.

My favorite of the bunch is the striped one, which let me use up my remaining bits of Creme yarn, which is a blend of wool and silk. It also allowed me to try out a new knitting technique, that of jogless stripes, which allows you to stack color bars without a overly noticeable discontinuity where they join.

I also had to consult CDC growth charts on infant head circumference measurements to verify the figures I was seeing in the knitting patterns were correct. Baby heads are surprisingly big! Almost all these hats are sized for premature babies. I think only the top left-hand one, and possibly the striped one, are big enough for a full-term baby. I was all set to make more, but decided I'd switch to another project, one requiring a big more time (although not as much time as the blanket). I am donating these to a hospital; Vannie will bring them with her to Brackenridge Hospital, which is in need of baby clothing, when she returns there at the end of the month for the start of her fourth year of medical school.

Fallen by Lauren Kate

2010-07-02T21:42:00.000-05:00

It's not a fact that I go around advertising anything -- genre snobbery is rife, and something I try to avoid -- but I'll admit I've read Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series and enjoyed them. You can't really even try to compare it with the Harry Potter series; they are in entirely different classes. But in the post-Death Hallows lull, I decided to give Twilight a try and found the series has occasional moments of enjoyability. Make fun all you want, but Stephenie does a credible job of making you fall in love with Edward in the first book -- the point you're kind of withering away for the duration of the second book, New Moon because Edward is absent for most of it. And though the heroine, Bella, may be sorely lacking in redeeming qualities at least Meyer makes an effort to transform her over the course of the four books into the most powerful (and least helpless) character.

That being said, Twilight has helped spawn a horrible beast: an overabundance of paranormal romance written for young adults. And with overabundance comes lots of chaff in the wheat. Lauren Kate's novel Fallen might have an arresting cover in the same way that Twilight does, but sadly, I found it to be the best part of the book. The story follows 17-year-old Luce as she enters a reform school, Sword & Cross, where she's been sent because a friend recently died under mysterious circumstances when with her. Upon entering the weird world of Sword & Cross, Luce is immediately fascinated with one classmate, the golden-haired Daniel, and pursued by another classmate, the flirtatious Cam. Conflict between Daniel and Luce, Luce and Cam, and Cam and Daniel ensues.

I wanted to like this book. I really did. But I just couldn't. One of my biggest pet peeves is female heroines who make stupid decisions. Bella did it -- ending up lost in a sketchy part of town, where she's beset by thugs only to be -- SURPRISE! -- rescued by Edward. Luce does the same. GIRLS ARE SMARTER THAN THIS. When Luce gets a note from Cam that a driver will pick her up and whisk her away from the school to meet him, she obediently hops into a car with a stranger to meet Cam -- someone she really barely knows. She ends up in a dive of a bar, and Cam proceeds to get into a brawl, something he seems to do with frequency for the fun of it. Charmer? More like reprobate. And then, of course -- SURPRISE! -- Daniel shows up to rescue her. GIRLS ARE MORE CAPABLE THAN THIS. Because of this, it's very hard to like Luce. Yes, she's hopelessly in love with Daniel. But when you think about it, why?? Daniel keeps going all hot and cold. The first time he meets her, he flips her off! I just don't understand the attraction.

**SPOILERS**

Okay, yes, I do. It's because they're eternal lovers, constantly reuniting and being separated by a cruel twist of fate. Because **I'M NOT KIDDING ABOUT SPOILERS** Daniel's a fallen angel. When you finally get to the "big reveal," it's not a reveal at all, given the prologue and title of the book. It's more the explanation you fashioned by the end of Chapter 1 that just needed confirmation. Luce's constant pining for Daniel wouldn't be so bad if we actually cared for both of them as characters. But we don't. We just want the tension between them to be resolved so you can move on and figure out what the weird shadows Luce keeps seeing means. It all leads up to what looks to be an epic battle between good and evil (yes, on the grounds of the reform school) over -- yes, this is rich -- Luce.

But do we care? If we don't care about Luce, it's hard to care about the looming war. Which is right where the book cuts off, just in time for the sequel.

80 Pounds of Crawfish

2010-06-20T19:34:00.000-05:00

It had seemed like a good idea at the time. When An came down for the weekend, she'd requested we have a crawfish boil. As we have a large extended family, my mom had planned for a quite a feast. But one by one relatives began to drop out for different reasons until we had a much smaller number of people coming than we'd expected, which meant that even prodigious eaters only put a middling dent in what was cooked up. And crawfish is one of those foods that requires so much effort for so little payoff. Still, those suckers are so delicious, and we get to eat them so rarely, that they're worth the pain.

Needless to say, there was a lot of cooked crawfish left over. Not that that was a bad thing. My parents sent Van and me home with three bins' worth of unpeeled crawfish. (The picture is to give you an idea of the size of those plastic containers, left, and the amount of meat we managed to pry out, right.) After a long evening spent peeling all of them in one miserable go, my hands already cut up and stinging thanks to the weekend's peeling, we emerged with about three cups' worth of prime crawfish meat that we put to gooood use. I threw that crawfish into some jambalaya mix, along with half a pound of sausage and it made for a mighty tasty meal that served us well the next couple of days.

Sistertime at the beach

2010-06-19T20:16:00.000-05:00

Earlier this month An came home to Houston for the weekend. We don't get to see her often so we loaded up the car and spent a day at the beach together.

Lace paneled baby blanket

2010-06-19T20:07:00.005-05:00

I just finished (finally!) one of those interminable projects that seemed to have no end; the more progress I made, the further away the end-point seemed to be. In March, after having completed a Longhorn baby blanket for an expectant friend, I moved on to tackle a lace paneled baby blanket for an expectant co-worker.

Initially, I decided to do this blanket two-stranded on Size 10 needles using Bernat Softee baby yarn. This decision, along with my irrational but consistent refusal to knit a swatch to check gauge, led to a lot of wasted time. Yes, this is my method. Egregious, but proven. I'd bought two skeins of the yarn, which seemed like plenty at the time, but I soon realized that if I was going to continue on with this plan, that this blanket was going to be the end of me -- more for the likes of an NBA player than a newborn baby. I don't know how afghan knitters do it.

Doggedly, I continued on. By the time my yarn ran out, I'd produced maybe half a blanket. I blindly thought I could salvage it with a nice border around the curling stockinette stitch edges. This proved a disaster. Neither the yarn I'd chosen for the I-cord border nor the needle size I'd chosen to do it with was doing me any favors. Rather, it was making the blanket bunch up awkwardly and worse yet, the curling wasn't going away, either. Curses! This led to my frogging the majority of what I'd accomplished. Frogging was not easy; this yarn likes to cling to itself and I'd somehow done the edges with a selvedge stitch that didn't simply come undone but rather required painstaking untangling. High blood pressure ensued.

Nevertheless, particularly once the spring semester ended, I was able to devote a lot more attention to this baby blanket. For the do-over, I switched to a single strand of the yarn on Size 6 needles. I incorporated a garter stitch border into the pattern along the way so it'd whip the stockinette edges in to submission. Three months from my starting this entire project, I finally was able to find off and block it. The dimensions were also much more baby-like: about 39 x 39 inches.

I'm just so glad it came together and that I could give my friend and co-worker this blanket something I was proud of. This is a blanket (can you see the repeated two-leaf pattern???) I can see myself doing again. I have learned my lesson, though, on how to go about it feasibly (and right at the start) the next time I do.

A newcomer to the Lone Star State

2010-06-15T16:53:00.003-05:00

My friend Aliciah came to visit me last week and I tried my best to make sure she had a fun, memorable time exploring the area. It was her first time in Texas. In the process, I also got a chance to visit some places and do some things for the first time myself. All in all, a great way to end my semi-time-off, since my first summer school class begins this week.

Aliciah arrived Wednesday afternoon and after dropping her stuff off at the apartment, we hit the Alamo Drafthouse for a good meal while watching Iron Man 2. (I was quite pleased with the sequel. I was worried it'd be a let-down, a common trait of sequelitis, but the team of Favreau/Downey Jr./Theroux did not disappoint. I felt it was consistently funny and action-filled and lived up to its predecessor. I even quite enjoyed Scarlet Johanssen's role and appreciated how restrained she played her bombshell character until her memorable, big action-reveal near the end.)

That evening, we made our way to the Congress Avenue Bridge in hopes of seeing the nightly departure of the 1.5 million bats that live underneath it. Unfortunately bat-viewing is an inexact science. My understanding is that they come out around dusk, which was around 8:45 p.m., so we got there around 8:15 p.m. The bats decided to take us for chumps and didn't emerge until around 9:15 p.m. when the light was gone. The absence of light meant they were nearly impossible to see; you could only spot slight blurs of movement. Disappointed, we consoled ourselves with some bubble tea at Tapioca House.

Thursday, we set out for some tubing on the Guadalupe River. It'd rained for much of Wednesday and a check of the tubing outfitter I'd planned on using reported that there'd been some reporting in nearby New Braunfels. The Canyon Lake portion that we planned to tube, however, was fine. The outfitter we used, River Sports Tubes, may have an atrociously designed website, but I appreciated the fact they kept it up to date with status updates on the river. Our tubing trip turned out to be a super-mellow float down the Horseshoe Loop, which purportedly takes 1-1/2 to 2 hours to complete but took us probably an hour. The water, which was at a nice, brisk temperature, moved so slowly Aliciah and tended to paddle at times. I wouldn't mind going back again this summer for the longer floating routes.

Afterward, we pressed on to San Antonio for the afternoon, where we got some yummy Mexican food for lunch at Casa Rio and walked along the Riverwalk. This of course necessitated some refreshments -- for Aliciah, it was gelato, and for me, it was a snow cone. We followed this with a meander through the double feature of Ripley's Believe It Or Not and Louis Tussaud's Wax Works.

All this walking necessitated some relaxation, which we did for much of Friday at Krause Springs in Spicewood, about 45 minutes west of Austin. My sister has pointed out I have kind of an obsession with swimming holes. (My favorite one so far is Balmorhea in West Texas.) They're just so idyllic and pastoral! For dinner, we dug into some barbecue at the original, cash-only Salt Lick in Driftwood, followed by some ice cream at Amy's.

The day wound down with a fascinating ghost tour of Austin's Warehouse District, which is defined as the area south of Sixth Street, that ended at the stories Driskill Hotel. Our tour guide, Maverick, really impressed upon me how riveting a good storyteller can be and sometimes it's worth it to pay money for a tour. Maverick's task wasn't easy, either -- this past weekend was the ROT (Republic of Texas) Rally, a ginormous motorcycle rally that brings bikers from all over to Austin, so Maverick was competing the some constant roaring of Harleys as he led us around. Tickets are $20/person, and he earned it. His stories hit on everything from ghosts to serial killers to plain (but fascinating) Austin history. He even took us into specific spots inside the Driskill with eerie phenomena and stories attached to them.

Finally, on Saturday, Aliciah and I explored the University of Texas campus. The high that day was 94, and being out in the sun was a little rough; we were constantly stopping for water breaks. Nevertheless, we got to check out the Texas Memorial Museum, get a tour of the Harry Ransom Center as well as the UT Tower. In particular, I'm so glad I got to do the tower tour, since it would have been a shame to have spent all this time at UT without having never been to the top of the 27-floor structure. The view up there is great, and the tour guides were well-spoken and more than willing to share additional stories about UT and its history. The sweltering heat could only be rectified with some good Japanese food, which we found at Izumi in Austin's West Lake area.

And before we knew it, it was Sunday and time for Aliciah to return home. After stopping by the Kolache Factory for a couple of the delicious breakfast pastries that I'd introduced her to earlier in the week, I dropped Aliciah off at the airport and headed to work.

Skulduggery Pleasant

2010-05-26T19:42:00.004-05:00

As a fan of audiobooks, I have to say my relatively modest familiarity with the genre has led me to believe that Jim Dale's work with the Harry Potter series probably sets the bar when it comes to quality of audiobook narration. It's a tricky thing because it requires excellent content that the narrator than elevates with her or her spoken rendition. I've listened to six of the seven Harry Potter books on audiobook and Jim Dale is freaking A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. He has a different voice for every character -- not an easy thing at all, given the size of J.K. Rowling's universe -- and brings such warmth and life to the story.

(Reading begins around 2:02.)

Since then, I've wondered who I'll come across to take that mantle next. I've heard good things about Davina Porter's work with Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series but haven't had a chance to listen to them because I've read most of the books multiple times, and they're beasts to read (in a good way), let alone listen to. On a recommendation, I tried the Young James Bond series, narrated by Charlie Higson, and found that while Higson's excellent, the content of first installment (Silverfin) just didn't pull me in.

But now I've found the Skulduggery Pleasant series.

It's written by Irish author Derek Landy about a 13-year-old Irish girl, Stephanie Edgley, who finds herself befriended by a hard-boiled detective named Skulduggery Pleasant. Skulduggery happens to be a wizard stuck in a living skeleton's body. Together they solve mysteries that mainly have to do with saving the world from evil. The first book in the series came out in 2007. Landy's released three more since then. I've listened to the first two on audiobook and they are so entertaining. Narrator Rupert Degas infuses the text with excitement, personality and great humor. (Listen to an excerpt from the first book here.) While Landy's world may not be as complex as that of the Harry Potter saga, it's equally dark, violent and magic-filled. And -- I'm not gonna lie -- the accents lend the story an additional wallop of charm. Most of the characters are Irish, but Degas does a mean East London accent as well as Texan accent. I'm actually not sure how accurate the Texan accent is, but the psychopathic killer who sports it comes across hilariously because of Landy's writing and Degas' interpretation.

My favorite character is Skulduggery Pleasant, who has an extremely dry wit, which he uses to self-deprecate his hefty ego. You can get an idea of the way Degas plays Skulduggery in this great "interview" on the Skulduggery Pleasant site. That's the same voice that Skulduggery has in the audiobooks. I have no idea if the series has been picked up for a movie yet but I've been wracking my brain trying to mentally cast who might play Skulduggery. So far the best I could come up with is Daniel Craig (yes, of James Bond fame) because he can pull off a persona that's debonair and action-oriented and yet not afraid of humor at his own expense. (See his excellent movie, Layer Cake.)

That being said, I quite like Stephanie's character as well because she's no-nonsense and not afraid to take Skulduggery to task. I don't know enough 13-year-old actresses from across the pond, so I'd have no idea who I'd cast for her. Whatever the case, I'm really looking forward to enjoying installments out of this series.

In search of bluebonnets

2010-05-20T17:35:00.003-05:00

Last month, Vannie and I got to explore the small town of Wimberley, population 5,400. It's about 40 miles southwest of Austin. At the time, bluebonnets were busting out all over the place, so I wrongly assumed there'd be plenty on the way there. WRONG! The only place we saw bluebonnets were in brief, rare smatterings in small pockets on the side of the road. There were a few in front of the visitor's center, but that felt kind of like cheating.

Nevertheless, we had a lovely outing out there, climbing up the 200 steps to Old Baldy, eating lunch at Marco's Italian Restaurant (we'd originally wanted to try the Wimberley Cafe, but they wouldn't give us the time of day, so we walked out), and visiting the wonderful eccentric Old Oaks Ranch, which included a sculpture garden and yarn shop.

After stopping for a slushee at a Sonic (all road trips should end with one!) in Dripping Springs, we decided to hit St. Edwards University once back in Austin to get the obligatory bluebonnet shots since we'd not found any along the way to Wimberley. I don't know where I'll be this next year, so I wanted to get them while the going was still good. St. Edwards proved to be a perfect setting, with rolling fields of them inside the campus in front of its main building, safely and quietly tucked away from rushing traffic.

View Larger Map

Green Mesquite BBQ

2010-05-14T18:49:00.007-05:00

I survived the semester! And what an exhausting semester it was. It has pretty much been nonstop since mid-April, when I went to San Antonio for the Texas Library Association's annual conference. Working two part-time jobs, volunteering weekly at a school library and taking a full class load finally caught up with me that weekend. I was already pretty exhausted from catching up from the two days I'd missed in March from going to Portland and working ahead to cover the two days I'd be missing while in San Antonio. As a result, I didn't do any sightseeing while in San Antonio and even cut out early on afternoon to go back to the hotel to rest. Although it did practically the entire time -- and it wasn't an ignorable drizzle, like in Portland, either -- so I didn't feel too bad about not looking around. At least I got to pay visit an old friend who lived in San Antonio whom I hadn't seen in more than 10 years. We'd gone to orchestra camp together in high school and kept in touch through college, JET (which we'd be both done at different times), and afterward.

The past few weeks have been a blur of projects, papers, presentations and studying. For my Collection Management class, I selected science-related books for the elementary school library I volunteer at based on an imaginary $500 budget. I also put together a $1,300 wish list of similar items, followed by a three-essay take-home quiz for the class. For my Grant Writing course, which pretty much kicked my butt -- the professor and class acted as the grant makers and had a lot of good, hard questions I failed to answer, but it taught me so much -- I wrote a grant proposal covering an area public library's $1 million capital campaign to raise money for a new building and then presented it to the class. Finally, for my lone undergrad class, second-semester Japanese, I crafted a skit with three other students and presented it to the class. The performance was shaky and another group ended up having the same idea -- the Dating Game -- and pulling it off better, but we made it through relatively unscathed. For the comprehensive final, I spent Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning reviewing the four chapter's worth of material that it would cover. It took me most of the 3 hours to complete the test, which was 13 pages long. Although I'm pleased to report I felt very well-prepared for it, particularly the kanji portions. I'd devoted a great deal of time using the very cool flashcard wiki Memorize.com to test my recall abilities to not just recognize them but write them as well.

How do undergrads manage to do this for as many as five classes every semester? How did I manage to do this during my own undergraduate career? I think I must have blocked it out. It is utterly draining for one class, let alone five. That was Wednesday afternoon. Since then, I've spent much of my time decompressing through retail therapy, hitting up my favorite thrift clothing store, and some cleaning at home. Vannie got off early from her surgery shift today so we decided to celebrate with a nice lunch out. This time, I chose Green Mesquite BBQ, which I think I added to my list because I'd heard it had good burgers. Given my digestive ailments the last time I got a burger, however, I opted for a po boy with brisket, fries and fried okra. Vannie got a catfish po boy with green beans and corn. While the po boys weren't bad -- I did have to continually add sauce to mine, though, to up the moistness of my sandwich -- the fries, one of my cardinal food groups, were sadly lacking. And I realized it wasn't even worth it to try an food establishment's burger if its fries don't cut it.

Inexplicably hurtful

2010-04-30T17:01:00.003-05:00

Most people resolve to eat out less at New Year's. I resolved to eat out more. There are so many tasty places in Austin I haven't gotten a chance to try and since I'm slated to graduate at year's end and who knows where I'll be afterward, I realized I needed to buckle down and get the comestibles of a couple more local eateries in my system.

A lot of the dining out that my sister and I do is in small-town restaurants when we take our day trips outside Austin. In town, though, some of our meals have included tapioca drinks at Lux Bakery & Cafe, breakfast at Kolache Factory and lunch at Red's Porch (excellent po-boys; lackluster fish tacos). Most recently, we tried Steak 'n' Shake. In most cases I try to gravitate toward locally owned restaurants rather than chains but we got a couple coupons in the mail (which, ironically, we ended up not using) and we're suckers for burgers.

Our visit last weekend initially went extremely well. We were promptly seated. I ordered the guacamole grilled chicken in a feeble attempt to balance out the fries and peanut butter cup shake that I also got. Vannie asked for a single steakburger (a term we still find kind of weird) with fries and a mint chocolate chip shake. The food was brought out quickly; the shakes took longer. Our burgers and fries were yummy and came in reasonable serving sizes. I actually don't have any complaints about the food. Except one, and it's a doozy. We'll get to that in a minute.

I think it was the service that convinced that I'm not coming back. I'm not sure if the Steak 'n' Shake we went to was slammed with customers and short staffed or what -- we went at an off time, about 3 p.m. -- but our server was like a cyclone. You could see her trying to make sure we were enjoying our meal -- she'd make the effort, and seemed sincere -- but she was always in motion and enroute to somewhere else while she was talking to you. She left the bill with us and it wasn't clear to me whether we paid her or paid a the front but by that point she'd moved on to her other customers. I couldn't catch her long enough to ask her. When we finally established that the bill was paid at the front, that, too, took forever. I was not pleased or impressed.

The worst part was, immediately after, I didn't feel all that great. My stomach tends to me a little temperamental so this is no surprise but Vannie also had some digestive issues the next morning. There's no telling whether it was because of our meal at Steak 'n' Shake but whatever the case, I don't see myself going back. Cross that one off the list.

From Baltimore to Iraq

2010-04-28T16:12:00.004-05:00

One of my favorite miniseries of recent was HBO's 2008 Generation Kill, a really well-done TV adaptation of the already engaging written account of the same name about the first push into Iraq in 2003 by special ops forces.

Evan Wright, embedded in a platoon of First Reconnaissance Battalion Marine, recounted his experience and observations in a three-part series for Rolling Stone. He then worked with Wire creator David Simon to bring it to the small screen. I should have known! Simon did such an amazing job turning the prosaic everyday life of Baltimoreans into unrelenting drama; the same proves true with the soldiers of Generation Kill. **SPOILER** I was so sad when The Wire offed Bodie, one of my favorite drug dealers. It kind of weird to say that but it's totally true. The same was the case when Omar met his untimely death. But that's The Wire's genius: making you care for nearly all the characters, no matter on which side of the law they may stand.

Although I've read the book, I saw the miniseries first, and that's how I got to know the "characters" -- actually the real military men Wright rode with. There are so many characters, too, much in the same vein as Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down (another favorite of mine), that it takes you a while to distinguish them because they're
constantly dressed the same, with their crew cuts, helmets and gear, and they speak in indecipherable military speak. But over time, they reveal glimpses of themselves as they try to do the best with the alternately banal and precarious circumstances they encounter on a daily basis (which reminds me of the genre-skewering Three Kings, also a favorite).

In fact, it was Black Hawk Down that introduced me to Australian actor Eric Bana, of whom I'm quite a fan now, even if his Hollywood star status has never quite been realized. Generation Kill clued me in to the equally hot and engaging Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard, who's gone on to scorch many a TV set in HBO's vampire series True Blood, where he plays Eric Northman, the sardonic, milennia-old, blood-dependent owner of Fangtasia, a vampire club. The show is based on Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse mysteries, a series I've also read (this time, before watching the show, also the books are still coming out) and enjoy. Given Eric's mischievous/homicidal tendencies, I'm quite looking forward to this coming season of True Blood. In Generation Kill Skarsgard plays Brad Colbert, otherwise known as "Iceman," and he is pitch perfect as the stoic leader. Not to mention a tall drink of water, as they say. ;-) It's interesting to see his charisma and shades -- very pale shades -- of his portrayal of Colbert color how he does Eric.

Much has been made this past spring of The Hurt Locker and the fact that it was directed by a woman, Kathryn Bigelow. I'm surprised, given that Generation Kill ranks right up there in its storytelling quality, that no one has said anything about how four of the miniseries' seven episodes were directed by a woman as well, Susanna White.

All of which I meanderingly mean to say is that it's no surprise I'm so enamored with The Wire, given its my past preferences. Generation Kill came out after The Wire but I saw it first and it's paved the way for me in becoming a David Simon fan, which leads me to look forward to what comes of his latest inspiration, the New Orleans-based Treme.

The Wire: "This story's got legs"

2010-04-19T16:52:00.002-05:00

I'm working my way through Season 5 of HBO's excellent series The Wire. MAJOR SPOILER ALERT. I'm totally digging how this season's secondary setting (beyond the usual tango between the cops and drug dealers) is the local newspaper, The Baltimore Sun. The show's doing a fantastic job portraying how newsrooms work. Buybacks! Fewer reporters doing the work of many! Meddling editors! LOVE IT. It's showing journalism at its best -- the analysis, the watchdog drive, the wordsmithing -- and its worst. Although is it just me, or is there a lot more cursing going on in this newsroom than any newsroom would permit?

I shouldn't be surprised, though, seeing as how the writer/producer of the show, David Simon, is a former longtime journalist himself for said newspaper. When one of the editors wakes up in a panic in the middle of the night worried he may have entered some stats into a story incorrectly, I knew this portrayal was one of after my own heart. I remember many a night, particularly in my first few years, of waking up in the dead of time with the same fears. It took me quite a while to realize that it wasn't just me that that happened to, that it happens to all journalists who care about their craft.

Although I'm enjoying this season's over-the-top antics (A fake serial murderer! A fake journalist!), I can't help but sense some shark-jumping going on. Past seasons have never had to rely on sensational plot lines to draw in viewers. I'm pretty sure this is show's final season. Was this its way of going out with a bang? I don't know. I'm only halfway through, and I admit I'm still hooked by these ridiculous story lines but part of me is a little disappointed, too. Before, its plot was always driven by realistic, believable developments. But a detective staging a serial murder in order to get City Hall to OK overtime for the police? I'm capable of believing many things but even that seems a *little* far-fetched.

The storyline with the reporter fabricating sources and stories has me riveted, too. I didn't like this character from the start; he just came across as a tool. My impressions were rewarded with plot developments hinting that something dirty is afoot. It cracks me up how a detective faking the threat of a serial murderer knows he's working with a reporter faking that he was called by the serial murder. It's such a hilarious, tangled web. I'm so impressed with the way the show has chosen to depict this little liar, too, showing how subtly he works and how easily he's able to make is seem like what he's doing is on the up-and-up.

In the newsroom, my favorite character is Gus, the crusty middle-aged metro editor with a sailor's mouth and an old-school eye for news. He's not yet onto his lying reporter but he knows that the reporter's a little too big for his britches. It's all a matter of time, though. All a matter of time.

Biblioburro

2010-04-13T16:03:00.000-05:00

I am amazed at this man's single-minded dedication to bringing book to the 200 children of in his little hamlet in Columbia. And that burro! How much weight do you think it's carrying without so much a bat of its eye?

Baked apple chips

2010-04-11T12:26:00.000-05:00

Having recently made calas, which are essentially fried rice dough balls, I needed a sweet that would be *slighly* more healthy. I settled on baked apple chips, which are quite possibly the simplest recipe I have ever attempted. We had some leftover Braeburn apples sitting in the kitchen, so sliced them up, sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar, and popped them into the oven for two hours at 250 degrees F. I'm not sure if it's because I sliced one apple thinner than the other, or if one side of the oven is hotter than the other (so many potential variables!), but one of my cookie sheets came out burnt (the apple slices, not the actual cookie sheet) and the other did not. The sugar, however, goes a long way toward making all that better. Plus, I wonder if the very act of baking these apples at low heats extract and caramelize their natural sugars as well. When they were cool, I threw the chips into a container for storage. I had a few this morning. They're no longer crispy, but I kind of like their tart, sweet chewiness. And healthy to boot!

Sportswriter Frank Deford talks

2010-04-11T12:15:00.004-05:00

I like to keep up with events at UT's College of Communications, particularly when journalists come to speak. Two years ago I got to hear Michele Norris, host of NPR's "All Things Considered," evaluate how the media did on its coverage of the 2008 election. Coincidentally, the guest speaker at the Public Library Association conference in Portland was New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. (Sadly, I missed closing speaker Sarah Vowell, whose distinctive voice and stories I've heard many times on my beloved podcast This American Life.)

Recently the college hosted Frank Deford, who has written for Sports Illustrated since 1962 -- an amazing longevity, considering today's media climate. Among his many accolades is that he's been elected into the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame as well as been chosen six times by his peers as Sports Illustrated Sportswriter of the Year. Although I'm not very well-versed in sports journalism, I do appreciate it when it's well done; one of my favorite books is sportswriter Gary Smith's Beyond the Game. Deford gave an entertaining talk, recounting many old-school stories with athletes outside the game.

The talk ended on a sober note, though. During the Q&A, a sportswriter for UT's student paper, The Daily Texan, asked what advice Deford might have for aspiring sportwriters. Deford said point-blank that at this point, he had no idea. Ten years ago he would have imparted his wisdom with confidence, but these days, the landscape had changed so drastically he had no clue what the future held. I'd like to think that the foundational tenets of journalism will continue to hold true -- ideas like striving for accuracy, building sources, digging for the untold stories -- but increasingly struggling media outlets have had to sacrifice for the bottom line. I was only in it for six years but even in that short window I saw that what once took precedence was slowly being eroded away to meet the demands for 24/7 coverage.

PLA in Portland, Oregon

2010-03-29T19:21:00.015-05:00

I spent four days last week in Portland, Ore., for my first library conference, the Public Library Association annual conference. It was awesome; I learned so much while getting to see a corner of the U.S., the Northwest, that I've not yet gotten to visit and I also got to see a friend of mine who graduated from school last year and is now working in Portland.

During my time there, I stayed at the Northwest Portland International Hostel. It's in this lovely neighborhood, Knob Hill, that has a long avenue of boutiques, restaurants and shops (NW 23rd) and is chock full of elegant Victorian homes. The hostel itself is in one. I'd picked it because reviews on HostelWorld said it was "kind of boring" and "not as fun as other hostels" -- sounds like just my kind of place!

It was just what I needed: A clean, cozy and serviceable place to sleep and leave my stuff in a neighborhood that I felt safe in, since I knew I'd be wandering around in the evenings when it got dark. Not bad for $20/night.

I stayed in a room with four beds (two bunks) with another librarian attending PLA, another graduate student on Spring Break and a Japanese woman between jobs who was traveling for fun. There was a Trader Joe's a few blocks away, which I visited simply out of curiosity -- Nashville was really jonesing for one while I lived there (I think there's one there now) and I was curious what all the hub bub was about. I picked up some blueberry scones and fruit for my breakfast there.

Friday night, my friend Stephanie picked me up and showed me around town. We had dinner atop "Big Pink," the second tallest skyscraper in the city. It's named that due to its rose-colored hue (Portland is known for being able to grow roses year-round). We arrived at the topmost floor, where the Portland City Grill resides, just in time to order some happy hour dishes and watch the arrival of dusk. Then we walked down the street to Powell's Books, this 68,000-square feet fortress of books. This is a Portland landmark. How wonderful to live in a city with such a strong love of books. The shelves stretched far higher than I could ever reach. One of my bunkmates back at the hostel said this place had been overrun earlier in the week by librarians. I am not surprised. Who wouldn't want to hole up in a place like this???

One thing I was really struck by: how many similarities Portland has with Austin. It calls itself PDX (after its airport code); Austin calls itself ATX (for Austin, Texas). You'd see "Keep Portland Weird" signs around town. You see "Keep Austin Weird" bumper stickers all the time here. Both cities exude this youthful hipness.

Anyways, one thing I knew I wanted to check out was Portland's many food carts. I also tried Voodoo Donuts, famous for its off-the-wall donut concoctions, but there was a line out the door and around the corner and I just felt no donut is worth waiting that long for. Instead, I found two main corners for food carts: Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, Greek, Polish, American, Thai, Mexican ... the diversity was incredible. A lot of them were closed, though -- maybe my dinner time was too early for them? It was about 6 p.m. Maybe they get more business when it's later. Whatever the case, for $6, I got a "bulgogi burrito" (I kid you not) from a Korean barbeque food cart. I sat down in its small covered seating area and watched the city's many pedestrians and cyclists and commuters go by. The burrito was pretty tasty, with marinated beef, I think some kimchi, a sprinkling of corn and lettuce wrapped in a tortilla. It was huge, and easily could have made two meals, at least for me. Unfortunately that meant no room to try more food, but that's the price you pay.

The weather itself couldn't have been better. The day I arrived, the skies were clear blue and the sun shining. I hear some schools let their kids out for a "sun day" because days like those don't come along much. It rained the next day and a half, which wasn't bad because it wasn't the drenching downpours we've been getting here in Austin. With temperatures in the 50s, it was just right for long stretches around wandering the city -- not too hot and just cool enough that a brisk walk feels amazing. That it was cloudy was nice because it kept temperatures about the same throughout the day.

Portland treated me well. Thanks, Portland. With your amazing public transit system (bus, light rail, train and street car!), I managed to get by on a measly $2.30 for transportation during my entire stay. I hope to be back and hard-core explore next time!

Pedernales Falls State Park

2010-03-20T21:38:00.005-05:00

View Larger Map

Home for Spring Break

2010-03-20T21:15:00.007-05:00

My last Spring Break (... for now ...)! Between catching up on some household chores, feebly attempting to get in some schoolwork and redoing this blog's look (what do you think???), I got to squeeze in a quick visit home. My dad showed me how to change brake pads on my car and disassemble my laptop (terrifying!) and I helped by mom make egg rolls for dinner since we had guests coming. (And by "helped," I mean "washed the vegetables and then the dishes.") My mom's cooking exemplifies the idea that home-cooked food always tastes better and her egg rolls are superb example of that adage.

How they do it in Elgin

2010-03-11T17:56:00.010-06:00

One Saturday late last month, I drove to the small town of Elgin (population 10,000), on Saturday morning to meet Vannie, my parents and my grandma. Elgin is apparently the brick and sausage capital of Texas. Vannie had been doing a medical rotation there and getting quite the education in rural living. She stayed in a ranch house out in the country and got to shoot guns and drive this tricked-out golf cart and help re-stock the pond with fish. The five us first hit Elgin's Southside Market & BBQ for really filling lunch before checking out Vannie's digs.

View Larger Map

New Year's up North

2010-02-21T20:59:00.001-06:00

I spent the days leading up to New Year's first snowboarding at Cascade Mountain in Wisconsin, which included a drive to Devil's Lake State Park and the nearby towns of Baraboo and Portage, and then hanging out around Evanston, Ill., on our last day. Lots of Wii was played.

Brazos Bend State Park

2010-02-14T20:24:00.008-06:00

I'm finally getting around to going through the pictures I took over the holiday break. While I was home in Houston, I went with Vannie to Brazos Bend State Park, about an hour south of us.

It was a great opportunity to test out my new camera. There was lots of wildlife, including not a few alligators, to focus in on! We ended our outing with a lovely snack of beignets at Crescent City Beignet; I haven't had any since my April 2008 trip to the Big Easy with Sally.

Old-fashioned chocolate cake

2010-02-02T15:48:00.005-06:00

Okay, this chocolate cake recipe is just ridiculous: Vinegar, yes. Butter, eggs and milk? No. Apparently it's a holdover from war-time recipes affected by rationed staples. But trust me on this: There's some delicious magic at work here.

Recipes don't get much simpler than this one, and you probably have all the ingredients in your pantry already. My favorite part is how the vinegar begins softly fizzing the second you add it as it interacts with the baking soda. The only change I made was to reduce the sugar by half a cup, so I used 1-1/2 cups. In my quest to get by on as little sugar as possible in baking, I may even try just 1 cup next time.

I have only recently come to the revelation that chocolate cake, unlike chocolate-chip cookies, taste best the next day rather than straight out of the oven. This cake wasn't bad straight out of the oven -- but 24 hours later? Mind-blowingly scrumptious. The cool-down leaves it unbelievably moist and the sweetness, more pronounced. I have to say this baby even rivals the chocolate zucchini cake I tested last fall and publicly debuted at Christmas.

Molly's Headband

2010-01-30T16:33:00.006-06:00

This semester is shaping up to look like a doozy. We'll see how much knitting I get done this spring.

My most recent project as a quick knit; I'm still recovering from the hoodie. I chose "Molly's Headband," a pattern from Interweave Knits. It was my first attempt at lacework and I think it turned out splendidly. I had to better acquaint myself with ssk's (slip-slip-knits) and yarn overs, but it was good practice.

The headband was also an opportunity to use up some sock yarn that I've had sitting around for a while. I used probably one-third of it up. I'll have to look for a couple more similar projects. One of the reasons that I realized perhaps this particular sock yarn shouldn't be used for my socks is that it's 100% wool, which would make for a sad story if I ever absentmindedly threw them in the wash. (For non-knitters: Wool turns into felt when agitated.)But a headband? Man, there's so much pleasure in blocking wool and seeing the stitches of the final product relax into what they're really supposed to look like.