Walking in a wint . . . whaaaaaat now?
Topic: Whatever
While out walking late in this balmy January evening, I passed by a house with lovely garden in which the gaudy gleam of Christmas decorations was accompanied by the soft sputtering hiss of a lawn sprinkler.

Is this what they mean by cognitive dissonance?

The new year's first book
Topic: Reading
I'm feeling a bit guilty that it was The Internationals by Sarah May. It really should have been The Postwar Moment, which has to be returned on Monday and will doubtless be important for my thesis, but can't be read in bed since I have to take notes on it. So The Internationals it was.

I wanted to like The Internationals. Its set in Macedonia, it's about the people who do relief and development work, it was nominated for the 2004 Orange Prize. In places, I did like it. There were moments, in the scenes set in and around Skopje, where I could place myself in the book, look around, and know exactly where I was and what I would be seeing. But I liked it mostly because it sharpened my own memories. I was very aware that the characters were created. They didn't ring true to me, although their dilemmas and development were interesting. Misha Glenny succinctly identifies the other problems I had with the book in his review for the Guardian, so I won't rehash them here, but they were irritating enough to prevent me from fully immersing myself in the story.

I wouldn't rule out reading one of May's other books, though. The narrative is well-paced, her writing style is clean and unaffected, and she creates very evocative descriptions of places. It's just unfortunate that reading The Internationals made me wish that someone who knows Macedonia had written it.

Enjoy me while I'm around
Topic: Uni
Because I just finished drafting a timetable for writing my thesis and all my coursework for the year, and it is brutal. I'm suddenly terrified all over again. Not so much, this time, by the scope of the project (my supervisor seems like the sort to reign me in if I start letting it get too overblown), but by the amount of work I have to do in a very limited time. Hopefully, only next semester will be really frantic. Since I'm taking a class in the late summer, I'll only have one class in my final semester. Or, who knows, maybe I'll finally get a handle on this time management thing everyone keeps telling me about, and I won't even be frantic next semester despite the amount of work I have to do. Looking at my timetable right now, though, that doesn't seem likely.

Right. Back to work, then.

An idea that might take some getting used to
Topic: Whatever
Got an odd jolt this morning as I was walking down the sidewalk and passed by a woman in about her early 40s wearing a nose ring. It seemed very incongruous, but then I realized that I'll probably fairly quickly get to the point where I barely notice, as it becomes more common over the next few years. And in about 25 years or so, I'll have friends who will be grandmothers with nose rings and tattoos. That idea struck me as really funny, because I've been wired to think that grandmothers look like this, or (in a more updated version) like this. So if this picture of a grandmother feels surprisingly new to me, how startling is it going to be to see not only the reality of a grandmother with a row of earrings up her ear, a nose ring, and a tattoo sleeve, but the first children's book that depicts a grandmother like that? I'm looking forward to that development in children's literature.

Required reading
Topic: Politics
The Washington Post published 'this story' on the Bush administration's plans not to request further funding from Congress for rebuilding in Iraq, which the Guardian drew on for it's pointed discussion of just how short the administration will fall of its stated plans for rebuilding Iraqi infrastructure. Funds that were intended for infrastructure projects had to be diverted to security measures due to the scale and persistence of the ongoing guerrilla conflict. Further evidence of just how thoroughly the Bush administration neglected to adequately plan for post-invasion security and stabilization needs in Iraq, if anyone needed it.

Say cheese
Topic: Ranting
Christmas is over, and I'm over Christmas, but I still had to laugh at Jellyfish's takedown of Carols by Candlelight, a Melbourne Christmas tradition that, between the Christmas Eve broadcast and Christmas day rebroadcast, I saw in its entirety. People, it was every bit as bad as Jellyfish claims, and I didn't spend all day waiting in line alone to see the thing. I was hoping for cheesy holiday goodness, but it was mostly bad evening gowns, worse "jokes", and mercilessly butchered carols. Jellyfish didn't mention, amidst all the other things that were bizarre about the evening, the aspect that I found the most unusual the Melbourne Gospel Choir, which was composed of young, telegenic people who could sing, but couldn't seem to sway in unison. It was oddly distracting. They sounded like a gospel choir, but they didn't look like any gospel choir I'd ever seen before.


Oops. This was not meant to go live this morning - I'd intended to save it as a draft and hit the wrong button. At least all the links work, for once, but I did feel the need to edit the text.

Quiet night
Topic: Whatever
Happy not-quite New Year! It's nearly 11:30 p.m. in Melbourne, and I'm going to bed soon. I haven't felt my best all week - the remnants of the cold I wasn't quite able to shake before Christmas, plus the heat, plus the cumulative effects of all the general holiday carryings-on are conspiring to make me feel rather unwell. It's quite the evil conspiracy, coming to fruition on the biggest party night of the year. So it's a quiet New Year's Eve for me. After all, the last thing I need right now is a night that lasts well into tomorrow and takes a day or more to recover from. Although, since I put it that way, I am suddenly and entirely against my better judgement tempted to try to make it downtown by midnight. ::grins:: Best wishes for a happy and healthy new year to you all!

Grounded for life
Topic: Odds and ends

"I don't think I will ever leave him in the house alone again," she said. "He showed a lack of judgment."

So says the mother of Farris Hassan, a 16-year-old from Florida who took a solo, and parentally unauthorized, trip to Iraq on his Christmas vacation. His story is that he was 'going the extra mile' for his high school journalism course by practicing immersion journalism on a grand scale. He skipped a week of school, spent a large sum of money that his parents had given him, and scared the daylights out of his poor parents.

Hassan's trip included an attempt to cross into Iraq through the Kuwaiti border, which was prevented by border closings around the Iraqi elections, a detour to Lebanon, and a Christmas flight into Baghdad. Considering that, after being picked up by the US military in Baghdad and escorted to the embassy, his thoughts on his thwarted plan to drive from Kuwait City to Baghdad were:

"If they'd let me in from Kuwait, I probably would have died," ... "That would have been a bad idea"

I'm thinking that his mother won't be changing her mind about letting him out of the house alone any time soon.

The full story is here on AP Yahoo News. It's sweet, in a frightening way. Hassan appears to be intensely idealistic, possessed of boundless optimism and that peculiarly adolescent sense of indestructibility that tends to preclude sober consideration of consequences. I hope he finds worthy causes closer to home to devote his energy to until he's old enough to do the work he wants to do in an official capacity. Or, at the very least, until he's old enough not to be grounded for attempting to do it.

Update: The press must be thrilled that it has a sensational human interest story with a happy ending and a highly photogenic family to cover. Farris Hassan is back, very sensibly cancelled a press conference, and prompted an amusing turn of phrase from the president of his school, who described the whole episode as 'an egregiously interesting escapade.' Although, really, would one expect any less from someone whose name is just one letter away from this? Full coverage here.

I forgot to acknowledge Wonkette
(NSFW, but very funny, material at this link) as the source for the link to the original AP Yahoo News article on Hassan.

Play day
Topic: Whatever
And oh, what a play day it was. Gracious's other grandparents have a beach house on the Mornington Peninsula, and I was invited down for the family party for Gracious's birthday. The Good Doctors and I headed out in the late morning, and arrived in plenty of time for lunch. Spent the day watching Gracious open presents; chatting; eating; teasing Gracious and her sister, Blue Eyes; walking to the beach; sitting on the beach; walking down the beach; then going back to the house and eating some more.

It was such a gorgeous day. The weather was perfect - just warm enough in the sun, just cool enough in the shade. The water in the shallows at the bay beach was warm and crystal clear, and the beach was littered with bright, delicate shards of seashells. Unfortunately, the beach was cursed with a plague of flies, and Australian flies are a special breed. They're persistent, they travel in packs, and keeping them off your face requires a near constant lazy wave in front of your face that's known as the Aussie salute. Which I will be an expert at by the time the summer is over, I'm sure. But still, a lovely, lovely day. I could get used to this Christmas holidays in summer thing.

What I did on my Christmas vacation
Topic: Catching up
I was right. The chunks of parsley weren't noticeable with the rye bread, so the dill dip was a hit, as always. I love a foolproof recipe. Saturday was the traditional day of big-family hubbub. I'm so glad that the Good Doctors have a big, noisy family, because I feel right at home with them. Eleven adults and five kids is actually on the smallish side for the holiday gatherings I'm used to, but two additional children are in the works for next year. The kids are all under the age of six, so there was more than enough excitement and enthusiasm to go around. Anyone who had a present had the option of accepting assistance opening it, or attempting to make an undignified escape from several sets of tiny fingers. 'No, no, c'mon you guys, you had your presents, let [child's name here] open their own', was the refrain of the afternoon. The one to watch was Chuckles, who's not quite two, and so was having his first Christmas where he sort of understood what was going on. Chuckles gets his name both from his easy laugh, and the way he gets everyone laughing with him. When he's happy, his smile pushes his chubby cheeks up almost to his eyebrows, so that all you can see of his big blue eyes is their merry twinkle. He was all glee while presents were being opened. His first was a stuffed Nemo almost as big as he is. All of Chuckles's presents were greeted with a wide-eyed "oooooooooooooooh" of awe and pleasure (even books - a child after my own heart), but 'Nemo Fisssss!' inspired shrieks of delight, and fits of joy that were beyond Chuckles's growing vocabulary and could only be expressed by raising Nemo over his head, tossing it to the floor, and throwing himself belly-down on it, kicking his feet until he rolled off in one direction or another. Meanwhile, Chuckles's cousin were going about the business of opening their presents and having their own little celebrations. In between opening their own presents, parents were procuring batteries so that lights would flash and noises could be made, and spiriting away the more tempting toys with lots of bits and pieces before they could be opened. And, as I discovered, the beauty of Christmas in summer is that, if the weather is remotely decent, the kids take their toys outside to play, leaving the adults to clean up in slightly shell-shocked silence. There were plenty of firsts this Christmas - my first mince pies, first Christmas crackers, first plum pudding (which gets points over fruitcake, although I will always prefer my parents' Christmas cookies for dessert), first Christmas barbeque, first Christmas rainbow (seen over northeastern Melbourne on Christmas afternoon), and of course, my first Boxing Day, which I spent with the Good Doctors. Mr Doctor attempted to explain some of the intricacies of the cricket to me while we watched the Boxing Day test. The terminology alone is brain-knotting, but I feel like I have a better handle on it than I do the footy. I was not subject to the all-day cricket experience, however, since the Good Doctors wanted to go to the movies, and invited me along. We saw The Chronicles of Narnia, which I enjoyed more than I expected to, and Broken Flowers, which was very unsatisfying. Tilda Swinton's performance as the White Witch is almost reason enough to see Narnia - she's a gorgeous, dramatic evil presence in the tradition of the old Disney villainesses - Maleficent, Snow White's Evil Queen, Cruella de Vil - all menace and grand gestures, with the wardrobe to match. Visually, the film is very well presented, although it drags a bit in places and sacrifices some of the plot and relationships for the sake of spectacle. Its not quite as good as The Lord of the Rings films at boiling down the essence of the book, but its nowhere near as bad as the Harry Potter films about relying on prior knowledge of the book to understand the story. Broken Flowers doesn't really seem to have a story at all, on the other hand. It has some excellent performances, and beautifully composed shots, but it doesn't provide a sense of resolution, or much insight into or understanding of its characters. Perhaps I might have enjoyed it more if I hadn't seen it after Narnia, which attempts to be an immersive experience. Broken Flowers keeps the audience at arm's length. It's a thought-provoking film, but not a satisfying one. All in all, I was well looked after and well entertained throughout the holiday weekend, and am now having great difficulty getting myself back into any sort of functional working mode. I've been shockingly lazy since Friday, and I like it a whole lot. I've got one more day to play, and then I think I'll be feeling the need to get my act together for my next supervisory meeting. Wish I could while away the whole week, but I think even I would get sick of my laziness after tomorrow.