An ambitious undertaking

R. came home last week with what might be the greatest present ever ... and the source of my new obsession.


Those of you who know me well know that I've been a voracious bookworm since childhood. Surprisingly, however, I've only read about 20 books on the list so far -- I've got a long way to go!

To get me started, R. scanned the list and picked out something he thought I'd like: "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier. The heavy description made for slow going at first, but, wow -- what an ending.

I'm now starting on "Crime and Punishment." Yes, I've read it before, but it's one of my favorites -- and I picked up a paperback edition with a beautiful cover this weekend at Borders.

My one complaint with the list is that it includes several books from the same authors. I know that Salman Rushdie and Jane Austen were/are incomparable contributors to the literary world, but, honestly -- do I have to read everything they've ever published? Apparently I do. But no mention is made of Harry Potter or The Wizard of Oz -- two glaring omissions, in my humble opinion.

Early estimates predict that I can finish this project in two years. Stay tuned for the occasional update.

And, coincidentally, this study in self-enrichment has provided quite the boost to my sparse cinema consumption habits. R. and I happily joined Netflix as of Saturday, and I've already added several of the film versions to the queue, including "Rebecca." It's a little frightening to step out of my "Wedding Singer" and "Love Actually" comfort zone--to be enveloped in the pink fluffy world of romantic comedies and chick lit is downright cozy.

What do I have to lose? Perhaps I'll regenerate some of the brain cells lost to rabid readings of US Weekly, PerezHilton.com and, yes, Page Six. Oh, pop culture. I just can't quit you.

Secret fear

Did I just lose out on a possibly lucrative freelance opportunity because I made a silly formatting mistake on the application that can't be fixed?

*crossing my fingers*

Of course, that's assuming they're even interested. I tend to get over-excited.

Good rack day

I ventured in the local K-Mart for a couple last-minute happy hour supplies and, on my way out the door, was happily greeted by a lovely sight:





Look, Ma! A real rack! And only one copy left!

It didn't hurt that I sold a subscription as soon as I got back to the office. Now I'm ready to celebrate with the best iced caramel latte in town.

An epidemic of ignorance?

I'm pissed.

Where I come from, blogs and MySpace or Facebook or Ning pages and any other site that employs a social networking platform include comment fields. One can only surmise that people are supposed to comment, engaging in banter, conversation and other sorts of communication-driven discourse.

Apparently, however, I've violated the super-secret comment formula, which, to my best guess, is this:

Compliment + funny anecdote + inside joke + copious amounts of praise = successful comment.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a comment coldly rejected on a peer's blog, a comment that I thought was mature, carefully composed and meant to be helpful. He viewed it as the opposite.

And tonight, in another gesture meant to be helpful, I left a forum posting on a weekly KC-based magazine's web site, pointing out that there were some obvious typos on the home page. I certainly, however, didn't take the express lane to Bitchville as I wrote it -- I even referred to myself as a grammar nerd! Yet minutes later I receive a private message that the typos have been fixed, and when I returned to the site, my post had been deleted -- presumably because it was visible on the home page with the blaringly offensive headline "TYPOS ON THE SITE."

When did it not become OK to leave comments? I would never dream of disabling comment features on any of my sites. Sure, if you leave me unending strings of spam or porn, well, we might need to step outside and have some words. But whatever happened to freedom of speech? Democracy? A free press? Don't any of those apply to the vast world of cyberspace?

If you put thoughts, poems, stories, art, music or anything else out in the world for millions of people to view, then you need to accept the good AND the bad. I've gotten numerous calls in my career, alerting me to various typos, misinformation, etc. Sure, I might lose a night's sleep over it -- but I welcome the criticism, and it helps me to not make the same mistake next time. Besides -- isn't it important that people are even taking the time to leave their thoughts? You know, that whole "all publicity is good publicity" frame of mind. Personally, I'd be more afraid of silence, which is far more deafening than one or two strategically phrased posts.

Feel free to leave your thoughts, unless they piss me off or make me look bad. Then I might delete them . . . never.

And for those of you who can't take the heat, get your ass out of the kitchen and buy a journal. Preferably one that locks.

The lost art of music videos

Thanks to the lovely Dana, I spent today engrossed in this video by uber-talented songstress Adele. It was borderline shocking to watch such an interesting and layered video that literally kept me hooked until the end. R. and I have spent hours lamenting the fact that the not-so-aptly named MTV no longer plays any videos. Or music programming, for that matter, except for TRL. Please. Only cool in high school.

I have a long and memorable history with videos ... my brother and I would stare, slack-jawed and glassy-eyed, at TV before school every morning, lost in the art of each mini-movie. J. and I spent so many hours painting our Plaza apartment that we made it through a full rotation of videos on MTV Hits (damn you, DirectTV, for not carrying this channel!) and stopped to celebrate. And left to my own devices, I'd leave them on as background noise for writing, reading or much-deserved relaxation.

Here's to more videos that truly mean something ... and the creation of a television channel that actually plays them.

Why I love my job

Check out who I'm meeting up with Monday ...



That's right. I've been a weather nerd since birth, and finally, I get to do a story on storm chasers. It's totally random and impromptu, born out of a suggestion by one of the company owners when I e-mailed him for a photo request. I'm hoping I can go out with them on some chasing action, but we'll see. I'll work on channeling my inner bad-ass while I'm on the look-out ...

Yep, that's right. He's my boo!

In case you haven't received my 737 e-mails or heard me talk about it, Rob's gallery show opens this FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 5 to 8 p.m. at Kaw Valley Arts & Humanities, 756 Armstrong, downtown KCK.

Come party with us! And check here for Rob's work and the latest installments of both "Batesville" and "Too Soon." He's a busy little bugger.