Half Way There

So I decided back in January that my New Years Resolution would be to read a book a week in 2010. Since some of the books I read are long and some I are not I decided to not focus too much and reading exactly one per week but more like 52 in the whole year. I have been keeping track in one of the side bars and am proud to say that half way through the year I’m at 30 books.
So after plowing through all those pages I have a few worth recommending.

Alice I Have Been is the haunting story of the girl the Alice in Wonderland books are based on. It talks about her very odd relationship with the Louise Carroll and how being the subject of the books affected her for the rest of her life. Beautifully written, I loved this book but it does make me never want to read Alice in Wonderland.

Bad Mother is a series of essays exploring how critical our society is of mothers and the impossible standards that have been set. Funny and heartfelt I love how the author explored all sides of the subject. I role model to any mother who has thought she knew it all and way proved wrong, tried to keep her own identity without surrendering it to her children, worried about what she hands down, or simply feel judged standing in line for groceries.

The Girls with the Dragon Tattoo was and interesting exploration of Swiss culture and a delicious murder mystery combined. I can see why this brain candy is an international best seller.

Idea Spotting was a quick read and a cleaver way of looking at how ideas are created and evolve. Changed your perspective on where your ideas come from and how to get new ones. A perfect read for random 5 minute chunks of time.

The Guinea Pig Diaries was absolutely hilarious! This poor mans wife has lived with him making nearly everything into a social experiment. If you liked the movie Super Size Me this is the book for you. The most interesting exploration of modern society I have ever read.

The Absolutely true Diary of a Part Time Indian is my favorite book to teach. Heartbreaking and hilarious it gives a modern look at life on a reservation and the challenges Native Americans face in trying to become a modern definition of successful. Sherman Alexie is the cat’s pajama’s for writing this book.

Wow

I found this really inspiring...

Your secret from Jean-Sebastien Monzani on Vimeo.

Twilight's like soccer.

They run around for 2 hours, nobody scores, 
and its billion fans insist you just don't understand.
-Posted on twitter by someone smarter than me. 

It was during one of these bouts of male posturing that Kristen Stewart's Bella, refusing to choose sides, said: I'm Switzerland. And it hit me. I'd been seeing this story in terms of high school gangs - Sharks and Jets, or wolves and bats or whatever - but there's a much better metaphor: geopolitics.
Aging European aristocracy - Edward being 109 years old and downright Byronic - meets brawny all-American boy, Jacob - having apparently spent most of his 16 years in his tribe's gymnasium. Pasty, anemic Edward loves poetry and sitting in blossom-filled meadows. Virile Jacob likes hikes in the woods and sitting around campfires. I mean, sure, they'll be allies when the Germans - sorry, when the newborns threaten.
But they're basically from different worlds. Even their acting styles match up: Robert Pattinson's an English thespian, giving Edward sad eyes and a smile that looks like indigestion. Taylor Lautner's Jacob is such a chest-thumping Brando-wannabe you half expect him to yell: Bell-llaaaaaaaa.
The film around them has pretty scenery, pretty people, pretty wolves and pretty broad winks at the audience, including a jokey male-bonding scene atop a mountain in a tent. Bella falls asleep between her two hunky boyfriends, and they talk about the pain of love till the sun comes up. All it needs is a herd of sheep outside.
Director David Slade keeps the action brisk and the time-killing attractive. There are better special effects than last time, and Bella gets to be brave when it counts, all of which should be like a freshly opened vein for fans, especially as it results in "Twilight: Eclipse" ending up almost exactly where it started, weddings still to come. Can you wait?
       -Clip from the movie review by Bob Mondello on NPR

So maybe it is because I work in a treatment center but am I the only one who thinks that Twilight is a creepy and glorifies a disturbingly unhealthy relationships for teen girls.  Not only is Edward the controlling boyfriend who makes Bella want leave her family, friends, and any hope of a future behind their relationship is build on lust without common interest.  But he loves her a buys her cars and everything turns out alright in the end so that makes it ok for him to take over and control every aspect of her life because Bella is not capable of making "safe choices" for herself.    Is anyone else worried here?

Bella gives up a healthy relationship with Jacob and ties to her family and a foundation on common interests for Edward whom she literally compares to a drug and sinks into life altering depression every time he abandons her "for her on good."

Then there is the final book, with it's undercurrents of pedophilia.   Ummmmm, don't even know where to begin here except to say "who messed with Stephanie in her childhood?"  Making this into and ok thing just creeps me out.  I worried that everyone else thinks this is a perfectly acceptable definition of eternal love.

I'm just saying.
 -Me

The last of my stuff

Now if I can just find a place to sell it, cuz that has been a little dramatic lately.

 

Let's Colour

 
The video segment below is a very beautiful clip and idea for the "Let's Colour" project. It is a worldwide initiative to transform grey spaces with vibrant color -- a mission to spread color all over the world. Isn't that rad? They've already spread color to Brazil, France, the UK and India.
 


Read more about "the Let's Colour Project" here.

More Stuff

Here are some accessories I have been working on.

Stuff

Here is some of the stuff that I have been making.
It took like 1,000 pictures before I got ones that I like.
Which means that Maddie had to be nice to me like 1,000 times.
And put up with me saying, "smile pretty, no that's not pretty" when she acted goofy
or scrunched up her face funny.
I hope I have not scared her for life.

Funny thing is,
and it took me way, way, way too long to figure this out.
When I asked her to just play or twirl,
She became so beautiful,
just being her sweet simple self.
Silly Aunt Amy, should have known better from the start!