Map of My Backyard

The Big Read

2012-07-11T00:35:38Z

Gacked from everyone.

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.

1.) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2.) Italicize those you intend to read.
3.) Underline those you LOVE.
4.) Put an asterisk next to the books you'd rather shove hot pokers in your eyes than read.

( Read more... )

It's interesting, a decent chunk of these were for school, but most of the ones I really love I read for fun as a kid. The only "love" on the list that I came to after high school was Hamlet. (I did read it in high school, but I didn't get it or love it until college).

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Random Observation:

2011-01-09T22:45:52Z

A Bit of Fry and Laurie is possibly the most meta series I have ever seen.

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Things that I have learned in my first time as an almost adult

2010-12-18T03:19:37Z

1. If you think you're going to send holiday cards to Jewish and other non-Christian friends, think about the holiday cards well before your boss gives you one right before you leave for Christmas break. It's just tacky to get the cards together a week after Hanukkah has ended. Also, if you have a friend in Israel, don't just think about it before Hanukkah, think about it long enough before Hanukkah that you can get a card to her overseas without paying an arm and a leg for it.

1a. Large mid-western grocery store chains are a not a good place to buy nifty holiday cards. Their Christmas card selection is decent, the holiday card selection, not so much. Therefore: buy ahead so that you can check more places.

2. Walk slowly on the ice. No really. Falling on your face is not fun.

3. States in the mid-west are a lot bigger than in the northeast.

4. Midwestern accents are adorable.

5. Even really clumsy people can use knives at work without killing themselves.

6. Librarians are awesome.

7. Start doing the dishes at least an hour before you want to go to bed. Also, get an apartment with a dishwasher next time.

8. Taking up watching the Rachel Maddow show religiously about a month before spending Christmas with really conservative relatives is just a holiday politics fight waiting to happen.

9. The real test of full adulthood is when you earn enough that you see don't see it as an overall win to take three weeks worth of laundry 13 hours away to your parents' house over breaks because you can do it for free there.

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Torchwood or how not to run a Secret Organization

2010-12-18T02:58:22Z

So I watched Torchwood earlier this year. Children of Earth was amazing. The rest...let's just say that I was not impressed by half of the plots being driven by Jack being completely incompetent at running a secret organization. I nominate him for management, common sense, and ethics classes.

( Things that Jack might want to reconsider in the set-up of his super secret organization: )

Doctor Who can get away with completely nonsensical plots because of its whimsical tone. I don't think the shift in tone with Torchwood gave it the same license, which is why I largely don't think the series worked. Children of Earth does a lot better because it engages with the kind of questions that suit darker works, and uses a much more solid plot to do it.

My other issue with this show is that Russell T. Davies equates sex with adulthood, apparently to the exclusion of things like maturity and responsibility. Sex is only one part of adulthood, and watching characters fumble through with the same sense of ethics and maturity that I see in shows about teenagers is just frustrating for me, especially when I know that the show was designed specifically to be an adult alternative to Doctor Who.

In short: I can take a completely ridiculous plot when it comes packaged in funny, but when you're trying to be serious I expect the plot to hold together.

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Why NPR Needed to Fire Juan Williams

2010-10-23T16:41:44Z

It's very simple, and it's not because Williams said racist things, although saying those things was not of the good.

There is a crisis in news organizations in this country. We have some news organizations that actually report the news and have a commitment to doing so in an ethical way, and an increasing number of organizations that are willing to pay outrageous sums of money to tv personalities in order to bloviate their opinions on the news, sometimes in lieu of actual coverage of the news. Fox is the worst offender on this count, but MSNBC and CNN are doing their darnedest to catch up. Given that NPR requires it journalists to act with the same ethics and integrity that NPR requires of them in any public appearance that they make, it seems to me that appearing on an opinion show on any of those networks should probably be a firing offense, since the entire of set-up of those shows requires that you throw nuance and objectiveness that NPR requires of its reporters out the window. What this same media has largely missed in its coverage of this story is that the tension here is not between conservative and liberal view points, but between genuine journalism and opinion driven, high paying pseudo-journalism. The fact that Williams himself is unable to make this distinction suggests that if he ever intellectual rigor necessary to be a real journalist, it's gone now, and getting paid large sums to give his opinions on Fox is a completely appropriate direction for him to take his career in. If there are liberal NPR reporters commenting on Keith Olberman or any similar shows on MSNBC and CNN, they need to be dismissed as well, in order that we have at least one news organization in this country committed to objectivity and genuine news coverage.

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Slightly terrifying features of the Midwest...

2010-08-26T03:13:57Z

There is nothing more disconcerting than taking a break from the Agatha Christie episode of Doctor Who to go for a run down country-ish roads behind your new apartment complex and running past bee hives and a giant metal bee.

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Vampire Puppets

2010-08-08T04:24:53Z

So I have not organized any coherent thoughts on the Middleman yet, but I just wanted to say that there's a multi-fandom vampire puppet episode marathon in my future. I thank the Middleman for contributing to it.

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Avatar (of the Last Airbender Variety)

2010-08-07T06:24:17Z

So a couple of weeks ago, I hurt my back, and spent a week lying on the floor watching Avatar, which is currently running neck and neck with The Middleman and this video of baby sloths in the "cutest thing Liz has seen this year competition." My thoughts on the show lie behind ( this spoiler cut. )

But on the whole, this was an awesome ride, and I'm excited that I discovered it just in time for the follow-up series. Shame the live action movie was so bad, the costumes could have stunning.

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The Daily Show Controversy

2010-07-08T06:37:24Z

So, Jezebel criticized The Daily Show for both not putting enough women on screen and for being a toxic working environment for women. Slate fired back, accusing Jezebel of being inaccurate, and of profiting from that inaccuracy in a way that is similar to the women's magazines Jezebel has tried to provide an alternative to. The women who work at The Daily Show have released a letter defending the Daily Show's gender practices on all fronts.

I think they're all wrong, ( cut for length. ) In other news, I need to start doing more squee posts to get some happy in here. The Doctor Who Season finale anyone?!

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Glee

2010-06-04T19:52:38Z

I wish I could quit this show. Other people have demonstrated amply that it's not really doing what it thinks it is in terms of highlighting kids who are on the outside, so I'm not gonna go there. My love for Sue Sylvester is infinite, but it's actually gotten to the point where I'm rooting for her evil self (as opposed to appreciating her comedic value in the show) because I really think that Will Schuester is a terrible teacher. It's one thing to learn with and from your students, and quite another to be giving them terrible advice at the beginning of every episode because you're learning the exact same lessons that they are at the exact same time that they are. The immaturity of the students is expected and a reasonable part of the story. That their teacher should also have that maturity level is annoying, especially when he's constantly referred to as an excellent teacher. He may be very good at teaching them the fundamentals of music and dance off-screen or something, but I think that he's not doing a very good job of providing the emotional support that the everyone on the show thinks he's so wonderful for providing. Sue certainly doesn't really treat her students any better, but at least everyone is honest about her techniques.

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Rape in Veronica Mars

2010-06-03T05:47:40Z

So I have some issues with the depiction of rape in Veronica Mars. ( Cut for length, triggers, and spoilers. )

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Some thoughts that I've been acquiring over the last six months...

2010-06-03T04:30:20Z

So now that college is over I finally have some time to post on some things I've been meaning to talk about for ages.

First up: my thoughts on Veronica Mars. The first season was one of the best pieces of television I've ever seen. Ever. I love Veronica (she's so deliciously flawed and strong, all at the same time), I love the noire feel, the depth of the characters, their complex relationships, and the writing.

After that, it went a bit downhill. The bus crash simply never captured my interest. I think musesfool's assessment that intense emotional connection that Veronica felt to Lily's murder was never really recaptured is correct.

S3 was a mess on several levels, and I'm going to devote the rest of this post to my issues with its depiction of feminists, and a separate post to depictions of rape. ( Cut for length and spoilers. I'm warning for passing references to rape, as catching a serial rapist was the main plot the feminists were involved in. )

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lizzieladie @ 2009-12-19T15:15:00

2009-12-19T20:16:14Z

So I've been thinking about Dollhouse's impending end, and I'm finally beginning to reconcile to it a bit. When Serenity came out it was good, but I felt cheated, like I would have preferred to see the story slowly revealed over several seasons. I've heard a couple of people comment on the breakneck pace that we've been getting with Dollhouse for the last couple of episodes, and I think that the plot developments work better because the writers know that they need to wrap things up quickly. There's a basic difference between Firefly and Dollhouse, which is that Firefly's individual episodes that didn't move the plot forward were incredibly entertaining and though-provoking. I really feel that by canceling it, Fox stole several years of top notch television from me. In contrast, Dollhouse was at best average when it was doing episodes that focused on engagements. It tended to use plot devices that have been done over and over again, and done much better elsewhere. But the overarching plot, the questions about who Caroline was and what Rossum's goals are make a very entertaining story, one that is probably better served by the intense focus that's it getting due to the cancellation. This season of Dollhouse has been so much better than the previous one in part because the writers aren't trying to make it last longer than it should.

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Memo to Joss Whedon:

2009-12-14T05:09:42Z

If Dollhouse had been this good during the first season it might not have been canceled. Actually, in light of Firefly and the Sarah Connor Chronicles, that's not necessarily true, but I'd have a little bit more sympathy for you. If by some miracle you get another show please don't screw around for a whole season and then make me like it right before it gets canceled okay?

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lizzieladie @ 2009-05-18T21:41:00

2009-05-18T20:45:49Z

I have two DW invite codes; just comment if you would like one.

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Dollhouse

2009-05-09T18:59:20Z

So I finally got around to watching the episodes 8-12 and ( I have some spoilery thoughts. )

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