bookies

A coworker picked up this from a Random House summer preview for me. It's by a Chinese-Canadian first time author.


A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It's a bit uneven, but (a) conscious emphasis on strong female characters, and the frustrations of women in the Victorian period -- in a non-clichéd way; (b) the heroine is half-Chinese. In the end that made for a different sort of read, which was interesting.

View all my reviews >>

My Day

Last night I couldn't fall asleep at midnight. But I got back to bed by 2, so not bad. It was a beautiful day to be out and about, up on the mountain where the Victoria hospital is located.

My doctor wasn't sure whether to phlebotomize me or not because my ferritin level wasn't alarmingly high. She decided not to when she checked my blood pressure, which was quite low. That reminded me to tell her that I'm on a new daily drug for my headaches, and it's a beta blocker which lowers your blood pressure. She said there's a good chance I'll actually pass out this time, and she didn't want to put me through that for not-too-high levels. So... we'll see in another six months.

Maybe she just knew I didn't have my kobo yet.

Oh, I thought of another reason for my kobo--reading while standing on the bus/metro. Hard to keep a book open with one hand. Yippy! My kobo! It wiiill be miiiine by the end of this week!

Anyway. Now I'm sittin' around, deciding whether to watch a documentary on the My Lai massacre, or Dynasty.

***
Look at this cute picture I found of how a phlebotomy decreases your iron level.

Okay now it's 2 AM, time to attempt the bed again.

wish me luck

I'm online to figure out my bus for tomorrow... 8:30 AM blood-drawing appointment. Disgusting. But I'm feeling kind of sleepy so I'm going to attempt the rarely attempted Midnight Bedtime.

gasp!!

[crowd buzzes with excitement and worry]

Let me add that my new Kobo eReader won't be out until the end of this week, so I won't have it for my appointment. Pooey! I want something that's easy to hold when laying prostrate, having the lifeblood sucked from my unresponsive vein. Me-nowz.

Universal in for youtube?

Hey--another record company must have come to terms with youtube. I'm pretty sure this video I posted was banned very soon after I posted it, and now it's back up. (Only noticed because someone commented on it.) I'm not gonna listen to it though... it's soooo depressing.

Scenes from a marriage - In the Nabe

Scene: Husband walking Mabel to where she'll take a bus connection to catsit her friend Swissgirl's cats.

Fernando - In future when you catsit, you should only work day shifts.
Mabel [a night owl] - No. ...No, that's not going to happen.
Fernando - This is a dangerous neighborhood.
Mabel - It's a busy street, look how many cars there are.
Fernando - Driven by Poor & Violent people.
Mabel - Swissgirl and her boyfriend are poor and violent?
Fernando - Well. Well, um, they're--
Mabel - The aristocratic minority and the first to go when the revolution happens?
Fernando - Get that cross-stitching woman! She's a witch!
Mabel - Swissgirl will have to take up a less expensive hobby. ...As a front.

I am a super villain

Remember this ad?


Have you seen the new one?

sighness

Food Inc was on PBS tonight, it's the first time I've seen it. Like Pollan's books, this stuff makes me so mad. As Nombly would have said: Meh meh meh! I'm not out for genetically modified foods in and of themselves, but it's the patenting, and bullying of those who don't have to use it, and the monoculture that results, etc etc that makes me mad mad mad.

Now they're showing a short piece about a dairy farmer who lets his cows just eat grass, they keep their calves, and they're only milked in season (cows aren't meant to produce milk in the winter--which of course is very logical when you think about it. They have babies in the spring!) Seeing these cows wandering around green grass, hangin' out, just being cows... it's so beautiful.

As I've said before, I don't think consuming dairy or meat is inherently wrong either, it can be an interdependent relationship--after all, you're taking care of these animals, feeding them, allowing them to breed, and ensuring the survival of their genes. It can be a durned good deal for animals to interact with humans. But treat them like animals, and not like frikkin' ... chairs.

Anyway, I'm glad I watched it. These things help to keep me on the straightish and narrowish.