Go Read This

Fed Up: School Lunch Project First, go back and read the archives.* Add it to your Google Reader or Bloglines or whatever. It's a very short post each day, and it blows my mind. I was a Private School Kid, but didn't have access to a cafeteria until half way through 7th grade - and then the food was very decent. So I was mostly a brown bagger, but my bologna sandwiches and apples were infinitely better than what this (courageous) woman is eating. The peanut butter and jelly "sandwich" made me lose my appetite. * I hate reading blogs in reverse chronological order, so I added it to Reader, then went for the "sort by oldest" option and hit "view all". She's only 18 days in, so there's not a whole lot to catch up on.

Sexy Book, Excitement and a little Sibbling Pride. It's like a 3-for-1 sale here.

I don't even know how to convey my utter excitement. If I didn't have a full glass of wine, I might jump for joy. If I didn't have a lap full of cat, I might pee in my pants just a little. If the Professor wouldn't immediately call the men in white coats, I might just start giving banshee yells. Thank God for wine, cats and husbands. Feel free to thank God in whatever order occurs to you. Are you on the edge of your seat yet, waiting to see what has me so over the moon that I can't even form coherent sentences? This: Since I know you're itching for the information on how to buy this incredibly hot, steamy, sexy, erotic, exotic, intoxicating, titillating, captivating work of art, I'll give you a link: GO HERE AND BUY THIS BOOK. But wait! There's MORE! Ember (whom honesty dictates I must reveal as my sister), being the soul of good-spiritedness didn't stop with writing the above mentioned hot, steamy, sexy, etc. work of art. Oh no. She's running a little contest over on her website. A contest that I am hereby recusing myself from, due to the fact that I am, at the moment, acting in a small, tiny, wee, minuscule PR-ish way. And then there's the editing thing I did for her last year. Hmm. Ember? I need a raise. Wine is fine. But hey! Don't let that stop you! Go read all about the contest. You'd better do that before you read the book, because by the time you're done, you will have forgotten all about contests.

I've fooled you into reading what I write? Check THIS out

I can barely amuse you for the length of time it takes you to read a paragraph. By the time you get to the bottom of the screen, you probably debate with yourself if it’s worth scrolling down any further. But all of your diligence and loyalty – there were 13 of you the last time I checked - is going to pay off. Because I have a sister. And she’s an actual, honest-to-goodness writer. One who actively tries to avoid sentence fragments and comma splices. Which, as you can tell, I do not. So. Go to my sister’s blog – Ember Case. Check out what yummy goodness she has for you today. It’s free. It’s a book. It’s HOT. What the hell are you still doing here? GO NOW. (PS – and I know you haven’t clicked over yet, so you’d better get busy on that mouse – if you want the good stuff – And I’m talking the REALLY good stuff, the stuff you don’t want your mom to know you read - just wait til January when Ember’s book comes out. Thank god Ember already told Mom all about it. Hi Mom.)

Morning Reading

This morning, I have the November 2005 issue of Soldiers magazine sitting in front of me. This is not nearly as bad as it sounds. In fact, compared to some of the other things I "get" to slog through in my daily readings, this is a cause for celebration. Still, I took a nice long pull on my coffee thermos before I opened the cover. And then ... the first story had me captivated. It's not long - four pages, with quite a few pictures. It's about a man that that the US Army freed from a prison camp in Germany in 1945 who came to the US, joined the Army, went to Korea - and then got captured by the Chinese and put in another camp. But more importantly - it's about how he survived and how he helped the people around him survive. This story really touched me. It's full of the best parts of ANY story - courage, hope and endurance. This one man made a difference in the lives so many people. It's...humbling. Link to text only of the story : http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0OXU/is_11_60/ai_n16029217 Link to the pdf of the entire magazine - the story is on the sixth page (which is really page 4, but let's not get too technical): http://www.army.mil/publications/soldiersmagazine/pdfs/Nov%20Soldiers%20small.pdf

I'm not as unique as my mom - or how to waste time at work

Karen at Verbatim linked to this total time-sucker of a site: How Many of Me. And because the two issues "Naval Forces" that are staring at me screaming "I'm next! I'm next!" convinced me that I hadn't had enough coffee to be that bored yet, I clicked on it. Then I spent 15 minutes looking up the names of just about everyone I know. Did you know that {According the website}: Only 25 people in the US have my name? That's pretty good odds that I won't be running into someone with my name anytime soon. And no, the character from that sitcom does not count. She spelled her first name wrong anyway. My maiden name is much more common - I'd be sharing my name with 363 people if I still went by it. My husband is considerably more common and shares his name with 158 people, while Stepson will be glad to know that he is NOT unique because 124 people answer to his name. Sisters: oldest is one of 1,114 and this one is one of 350. Brothers: my oldest younger brother (I used to just call him the brat, but I'm trying to mend my ways) is one of 1,741 and the baby bro is the most common of all of us: 1,941. My dad surprised me - if you use his full first name he's in a crowd of 184 (I didn't expect that many); put in the nickname that he goes by and he's one of 4. My mom trumps us all. She is (apparently) THE ONLY PERSON IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY WITH HER NAME. Mom, there's so many jokes to be told about how special that makes you. I'll just say that we've always known you were one-of-a-kind.

I'm a Proud Nerd

My Personalized Google Homepage has three words from dictionary.com's Word Of The Day. And because I'm a nerd, I actually look at them every day. I'm particularly excited when I find a new word, although I don't do the whole "Use it three times and it will be part of your permanent vocabulary" thing. Most days. And if I get extra bonus nerd points, I'll admit that sometimes I still remember learning the words in those vocab books we did every week in high school. Well, today, there were three words so good that I cannot keep them to myself. I just have to share. I think the third one is one of my all time favorite words. Although the first one just kind of rolls off the tongue, too. What? You don't have favorite words? How boring of you. You have nothing to get excited about when they show up in a "word of the day".

indefatigable: untiring.

galumph: to move in a clumsy manner or with a heavy tread.

sagacious: of keen penetration and judgment; wise.

I Should Be Working

I really should get back to work...but I came across this: Nerds: The Musical And now I'm distracted. A Musical about NERDS! Have I died and gone to heaven? If I find out they serve free chocolate and red wine at the performance, the answer is undoubtedly yes.

I'm reading an article about Marine boot camp and it talks briefly about the part of their training that involves live gun fire; it's stressful for the instructors because they're responsible for making sure that it scares the bejesus out of these guys, but they also have to keep everything safe. Safety, safety safety. Then I read this sentence:

"Students who make mistakes with live rounds often will endure an immediate and very direct correction by their supervising sergeants."

I read that, and thought:Well, isn't that a nice way of saying "if anyone gets shot, you will immediatly be cussed out as the most incompetent person EVER in language that would make your mother cry, embarressing you so horribly that you will wish YOU were the one with a bullet wound."

"immediate and very direct correction".

I'll be chuckling all day over that one.

What I'm Reading When I Should Be Working

Diary of Saad Eskander

I don't know if this counts as professional reading - it is about a library - but it will certainly give you yet another perspective on how things are going in Baghdad. Saad Eskander has the task of keeping the Iraq National Library & Archives open, and his diary on the British Library's website is scary, inspiring, and ... well, go read for yourself and then throw in a few more adjectives. I have to finish reading so I can get some work done.

New Job, New Reading Material

I started the morning off with the Journal of Slavic Military Studies.

The first article of the day: "The Soviet Union and the International Brigades, 1936-1939."

If I tell you I'm actually enjoying this, you'll call me a nerd or something.

So I won't tell you.

What I'm looking at while I should be working:

Art Garfunkel's reading list.
"Since the 1960's, Art Garfunkel has been a voracious reader. We are pleased to present a listing of every book Art has read over the last 30 years. To view a list of Art Garfunkel's favorite books, go to "Favorites". This book list has been divided into several pages to allow easy downloading. Each page indicates the author, title, date of publication and number of pages (when available)"

The missing period at the end of that last sentence really bugs me.