Film: BLISS

Nearly every time my mum puts a film on our netflix list that looks kind of weird, it ends up being fabulous.

The latest one is called BLISS, or "Mutluluk," based on the novel by Turkish writer Zulfu Livaneli, and it is lovely. It's one of those indefinable things, when you don't exactly know whyyou love something...but you do! With subtle, stunning scenery and a wonderfully sparse script, the film fully explores nice big themes of love, war, honor and trust. At times it feels very much like a documentary, with that standing-right-there street view. There are three main characters: a brave and original girl escaping a life ruled by tradition, a conflicted and angsty soldier, and a university professor trying to break from a rigid, cultured career.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnEMhcaLTuM

Also check out the music in it, which is haunting, simple and waveringly beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUMv8e_zSvk&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL185BC47BA0562513

Watch this movie with an open mind.

individual writing

I forgot how much I love styles/types of writing. Once I randomly took a picture of a word I'd written, and it was so weird, because normally you don't think about what your writing looks like, and how it contributes to or collaborates with you as a person.

Try it! Take a picture of a page of words you've written. You can zoom in on different letters, and experiment with your different ways of writing (legible, for teachers and homework and informal letter writing and stuff, then script for being fancy, and then your normal jotting, for instance). Think about it-all authors throughout history had their own wonderful signature style. My personal writing, which looks like a secret code (sometimes it's secret even from me) tends to be a scrunchy scrawl because the words go so fast through my head that I have to get them down on paper as quickly as possible. I also have the other options I've mentioned. Anyway, this is just something that interests me.

When I was first learning script (apart from those quirky tries back when I was 10 or so), I searched online and eventually printed off a whole alphabet adapted from Jane Austen's surviving letters. I try to simulate it as much as possible, and it's really entertaining. I wonder if you can find that kind of thing for many other authors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursive

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/script

I think that cursive implies a style in which the letters in each word are smoothly connected. Script is a term that can be used widely to refer to any text OR style of writing, including non-connected letters and computer typeset.

Cursive is also called joined-up writing in British English, running writing in Australian English, and many other things. See wiki link above.

Mississippi 1840

Ah, the worldwide weighty dread of waking on a Monday morning and knowing what awaits you for the next five days of your life.

As The Adventures of Tom Sawyer says (I'll be gushing over that book and quoting it a bunch on here, so if you don't dig...): "Monday morning found Tom Sawyer miserable. Monday morning always found him so, because it began another week's slow suffering in school. He generally began that day with wishing he had had no intervening holiday, it made the going into captivity and fetters again so much more odious." And there, my friend (or not, whatever suits you) you have the everyday moment of over one and-a-half billion kids encapsulated in a short paragraph.

The book's setting, in the midst of a quirky hullabaloo of big-talking Mississippi boys, isn't so bad either. It isn't every day that someone comes up to you wanting to barter a dead cat or rat tied to a string, a cow bladder, tadpoles, a fence-painting....you get the idea. I will say that I've had little quibbles with Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain as he wished to be called) over a certain incident involving knitting and a fiddle, but we've put that behind us now and I've renounced my hypercritical ways (okay, not entirely). I intend to read all the classics with an open mind. Mr. Twain's definition of a classic was something that "everyone wants to have read but nobody wants to read." Maybe it's because I haven't been forced into it, but I love reading the "classics".

Although I'm probably the trillionth person to say this, I will anyway:

I'm still searching for the reason why writing blows me away, but I think a bit of it is that writing takes thoughts and, because we're all human, makes them universal. It's not easy to capture exact feelings or moments on paper, but writers somehow manage it. I did have profound things to say on this subject, but have now become distracted thinking about Mississippi in 1840. Ta for reading, if you haven't already thrown up your hands in exasperation and run away.

I find it ironic that this was written just after a Monday holiday!   

A plethora of statistics

Some interesting links to check out.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs319/en/index.html (note the countries with the highest per person and government spending)

http://truecostblog.com/2009/08/09/countries-with-universal-healthcare-by-date/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/07/25/despite-recent-shootings-norway-is-a-low-crime-nation/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mortality_rate

cool link

http://www.beautiful-minds.com/

Foreign Policy

America is like a child who says "I want that" and then goes and takes it. Don't get me wrong, I love the ol' patriotism- the triumphal songs, the pride, the culture, the traditions. But I disagree with the "my country right or wrong" mentality. We need to rethink our position in the modern world, take a step back, observe instead of interfere for once. Stop bossing everyone around. Maybe I'm just naive, but at least on a personal level, when you yourself rise up and decide to accomplish something, there is a much stronger result than when someone orders you to do it or holds your hand the entire way. We need to let other countries stand on their own two feet. All right, yes, go ahead and say that I'm reducing huge problems to silly little sentences, and all of this is way more complicated than I think it is. Goodness knows the world has so many dictators that need crushing! We have no time to fix our own ways, we have to go meddle! Send out the troops! Blow the battle horn!

Anyway.

Oh, and all you readers out there, keep in mind that these are my most negative thoughts that you see on the screen. No, I try not to spout this pessimism 24/7. This weblog has, in the year or so that I've had it, become a space for me to vent my irritation, rage and guilt about what goes on in the world. Don't take it personally.

neat show

This show utilizes the soap-opera feel, but is actually very informative and funny. In my dear mum's words: maybe that's what people need to do, make gardening sound "cool."

http://tubervilletheseries.com/episodes/

Quote £8

"We acquire the strength we have overcome." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great Bear Foundation

This morning I was going through a National Geographic from the 80s (Vol. 167, no 4.) and I came across one of those Canon advertisements, which still run today, featuring the Spectacled Bear. Wondering if the species still existed today, I looked it up online and found this very valuable website.

27 years after the Spectacled Bear was pronounced as declining, it still hangs on, although the looming threat is, not surprisingly, deforestation. Its range used to extend in patchy spots from Northern Argentina to Venezuela, but apparently has shrunk to Columbia, the coastal foothills of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, and the heart of the Andes in Venezuela.

Not sure what to do about all these species declining. Still looking out for career choices (augh, what a horrible term) that could help with that. However! I believe it is good to at least know

about these things.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."~Mahatma Gandhi

"I'm neither an optimist nor a pessimist. I am a dyed-in-the-wool possibilist! By this, I mean with an eco-mind, we see that everything is connected and change is the only constant." ~ Frances Moore Lappe (Author of Diet For a Small Planet, which I have not yet read. New book- http://smallplanet.org/books/ecomind)

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." ~ Anne Frank

"I can't understand why people are afraid of new ideas. I'm afraid of the old ones." ~John Cage

"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." ~ E. B. White

Victorian Housekeeping

Yes, yes, you're all thinking "haha." But it is kind of fun to look through the pages on this website. http://www.vintage-homemaking.info/category/vintage-crafts/

How do cats manage to walk at just the right speed that you trip over them, but they don't get hurt?

Quote £7

"The fate of animals is of greater importance to me than the fate of appearing ridiculous; it is indissolubly connected with the fate of men."

~Émile Zola (1840-1902)

(He was a literary contemporary of Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables.)

Life Decisions and Other Funtastic Things

Apparently there comes a time in life when one must start having opinions. I don't mean little opinions such as what to wear with what, or what kind of tea you should have with that cookie, no, I mean big, scary, worldly opinions that raise the hackles of many different people for many different reasons. I'm very rapidly approaching this point in time. Goodness knows I keep my possibly offensive opinions to myself when I'm around family or family friends or people who I know strongly disagree, but I do have them, and they will escape this large mouth of mine sometime.

For example, I believe that a person should be able to lead a life that they find pleasing to them, no matter if others think it is unproductive, not a smart career choice, etc. etc. etc. If you think that there is not even an argument in this (of course a person should live the life they want!), I suggest you go tell someone seriously that you'd like to be a writer, a street/graffiti artist, an entrepreneur.

More on this extra fun ranty topic later. Ta!

HURRAH

This little blog is past its 50-post anniversary, so, yes, I'm excited about that. Even though lots of them are only about 20 words long!

possible book reviews

I realised that maybe if I put things up on here that hang over my head, every time I come onto the blog I'll see them and think "Oh right, I was going to do that."

So here are a few book reviews that I'm planning. They may not go through, but we'll see.

Thomas Grey, philosopher cat

North and South (might just have to re-read. It went by so fast!)

The Help (I'm trying to do this one in February, you know, for Black History Month, because it really is a huge part of history (black and white) in this country).

Scaramouche

more later. I'm also looking for book suggestions, if anyone has them.

There's no underliner on here! I'll just use italics.

Real life horror-movie

The Sixth Sense is nothing compared to what's really going on. I just heard that president Obama is now supporting continued (and more extensive) drilling in the gulf. Way to go, people, way to go.

First Knitting Post of the year

The book Stitch n' Bitch (such an accurate name!), by glaringly feminist author Debbie Stoller, has become a pretty valuable resource to me in my knitting adventures. I should consult it more than I currently do, because the few times that I have it's been clear and wonderful.

The book contains things like how to straighten out that annoying curl in circular needles (dip the plastic cord in hot, hot water) how to pick up dropped stitches (pull ladder rungs through loop from the back on a purl stitch, from the front on a knit stitch) and how to tighten saggy and whacked-out stitches (gently pull on each neighboring stitch in that row along the right, tapering off until they look even) as well as less common sense things (because common sense isn't that common, especially when you're all caught up in a project and just want to knit.)

A dear friend of mine just had a great post about yarn bombing/guerrilla knitting/yarn storming. Go google these terms and you'll find amazing pictures and advice.

Some useful websites:

http://www.knithappens.com/ (You can find these books on Amazon as well.)

http://www.ravelry.com/tour/getting-started

http://knitting.about.com/od/learntoknit/l/bl_abbreviations.htm

http://www.keep-on-knitting.com/knitting-stitches.html

http://knitting.about.com/od/toolsandsupplies/a/needlesize.htm (REALLY useful!)

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-essentials-of-knitting-cables.html (Invaluable)

http://www.earthguild.com/products/knitcroc/marypat/gauge.htm (This lady makes gauge a little more confusing than it needs to be. Maybe the directions will make more sense to you though.)

http://www.vogueknitting.com/resources.aspx (Check out the Stitchionary category...and be amazed.)

If you like very natural, bulky, earthy wool, this is a really good place to order from: http://www.briggsandlittle.com/wool/products.asp Most stores carry B &L yarns.

http://www.google.com/search?q=cable+knits&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=ivns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=ehgrT-LiJJDrggeAx4wD&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ And be inspired!

http://knitty.com/ISSUEdf11/patterns.php

So there you go. If you're a just-learning knitter or an experienced one (I bow down to you. Actually, in both cases! What patience you must have!) these websites will probably be good fun and helpful reviewing.

YouTube is also really useful for seeing how certain stitches are done.

note: I'm really sorry, I forgot about hyperlinking these! Don't have time for that now, so just paste the links into your browser. (Really, it's just a few extra clicks. Y'all can deal, right?)

Quote #6

"Action is eloquence."~William Shakespeare

Quote #5

I thought it was about time for another quote. Here it is:

"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!"

~Audrey Hepburn

Here are some good quote websites:

http://www.great-quotes.com/quotes/category/A.htm

http://www.quotationspage.com/