My Favorite Sign

I love this sign.

Cars by Pixar

So... does this movie ever get any good?

As part of falling in love with Disney all over again, I put a bunch of DVD's I either missed or haven't seen for a while on hold at the library, and last Thursday I made waffles & settled down with the family to watch it.

The waffles were good, if I do say so myself.

The movie seemed largely to consist of cars going "Vroooom, vroooom" and some really neat animated sunsets. About halfway in, we gave up and put in an episode of Foyle's War instead ("War Games," from season 2).

So--is it worth going back to Cars to find out what happens next? Or should I just shrug and give Tarzan a try instead?

Neil Gaiman's "Chivalry" Online

Hi! Remember me?

Just popping in to say that there is an NPR podcast of Jane Curtin reading Neil Gaiman's short story "Chivalry" up online for another few days.

"Chivalry" has been one of my favorite short stories ever since I read the first sentence, "Mrs. Whitaker found the Holy Grail; it was under a fur coat."

It's is full of low-key humor, an odd sort of sadness, and I realized today that I don't really understand it, not fully, and I intend to go on reading--or listening to it--and probably never will fully figure it out.

And Curtin is a marvelous reader. It's interesting, too, to hear the audience response to different lines. It's not a loud audience, but it is there, recorded in the background.

Prayer

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves
to help ourselves; Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and
inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all
adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil
thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus
Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

From The Book of Common Prayer

Odd

So I've been reading Disneyland's map. It's a very thorough map and even has all the spots with defibrillators marked on it with cute little symbols.

They've go ta symbol for "This ride might scare kids," an big black exclamation mark inside of a bright yellow circle--hard to miss, even if you're skimming the map.

But--it's only on the map once, next to Honey I Shrunk the Audience. That's right, the movie is scary. The Haunted Mansion, Snow White's Scary Ride, Space Mountain, and Pirates of the Caribbean are just fine1.


1.Well, probably fine. There's also a big, red triangle that indicates some possible danger from heart attacks, and that is scattered around fairly liberally.

No Smoking Food and Other News

So. It's always hard to pick up on abandoned writing: Do you start where you left off and cover everything in between? Or just sort of pick up where you are now and run, hoping no one will notice?

Me, I'm going for a summary of several entries I thought about writing:

In the past few weeks, I've discovered that vinyl makes some people sick, and that I am one of those people: A new (and very pretty) vinyl floor in the kitchen had me heading out of the house as soon as possible and staying out for as long as possible. That cut down on blogging for a while, because, really, who wants to blog about fumes? I'm happy to say they are gone now, by the way, and have been for a while. Other Stuff (of a generally nicer nature) happened as well.

For starters, all that absence gave me the chance to act like a proper American: I went and worked on a laptop in Starbucks, while drinking coffee paid for with a coffee card, and while carrying a cell phone and an MP3 player. I felt all grown up and patriotic about it.

I wasn't carrying a BlackBerry, though. Do you think it still counts?

I also had the chance to visit the Gene Autry Museum of the American West. It's a neat museum with lots of nifty paintings and a really great early jukebox. It would be an even better museum if it didn't feel the need to keep apologizing about its contents: Just about every display in the area that dealt with Westerns had a little note saying that women, Native Americans, and/or Latinos were not well represented in this or that film. Come to think of it, a lot of the paintings had similar signs. A general disclaimer along the lines of "The views expressed in these paintings and films are not necessarily those of the management" would have been sufficient.

Oh, and there were no displays from The Phantom Empire. I was really disappointed there, as I had hoped for at least a face mask. Still, they did have the lovely tack from the Rose Parade on display, and they are the museum that advises its guests that there is to be No Smoking Food in the galleries, so I can't complain too hard (and the picture sort of counts as blogging about it, right?).

I've read a lot. Some reviews may follow.

I've done some more writing for The Broken Hourglass. The main site is being updated again, by the way, so there's more to explore.

And I've discovered Terry Pratchett, Disneyland, Facebook, and watercolor painting.

Now... let's see if I can rediscover blogging!