verbatim

All a-Twitter

I know that a lot of people use Twitter for business networking, but I can't yet see how to make that work for me—at least at this point, it's all social. In fact, today I had lunch with Tamar, a graphic designer whom I met via Twitter! I can't recall exactly how we connected—perhaps when one of us was doing a search for local Twitterers?—but we did and we had a nice "first date." She lives in the next town over, right near a wonderful little Spanish restaurant that Andy and I have been to a few times. I just happen to have a gift certificate from there, so we've decided that our next date will be over tapas and red wine! (You don't think we're moving too fast, do you?)

Wiki Wednesday

Time to learn something!

1. Go to Wikipedia.
2. Click on "Random article" in the left-hand sidebar box.
3. Post it!

Today we've got a short passage, but L-O-N-G names:

Tholan is believed to have been the first Namboothiri poet of Malayalam. Believed to have lived in the 9th century AD, Tholan is thought to have pioneered the use of Manipravalam (Malayalam and Sanskrit mix) in poetry. Tholan was a court poet and jester of the Kulasekharas and would write plays in which the Vidooshaka (clown) would parody the Sanskrit verses (spoken by a protagonist) in Malayalam. This began a long standing tradition in Koodiyattam and Koothu.

The manual of acting in Koodiyattam, Aattaprakaarams, is attributed to him.

Hmm, and I always thought that Aattaprakaarams was written by that other guy....

Getting Dressed the Le Parkour Way

I don't see what the big deal is—I mean, how do you put your jeans on?

Spicy

I scored an 80 on this spice quiz, much better than I did with the herbs. I maintain that #1 is unnecessarily hard.

For Sale: DVDs?

Do you buy DVDs of non-kids' movies? Most kids like to watch the same movies over and over again, so we do own copies of Nemo et al. But grown-up movies? I just don't see it. Even if you absolutely adored a movie, maybe even enough to want to watch it again, do you need to own it? If so, how often do you watch the DVDs you own? I know people who buy practically every good movie they see—often before they even see it, just instead of renting it!—and I don't get it. Even classics, like "The Godfather"—do you watch it enough to justify the purchase?

I mentioned this to Andy, who immediately tripped me up by saying, "Well, couldn't the same be said of books? You buy books before you read them and then read them only once—maybe twice at the outside. How is this different?" I sputtered, "Books are different! Books are—books!" I pointed out that I like to lend out favorite books, and he reminded me that people might like to lend out favorite DVDs too. The only argument I made that held any water was that it sometimes takes me a long time to read a book, and it would have been due back at the library in the meantime.

Fun with Etymology

Just in case none of the previous bazillion reasons I've given you for checking in daily at Mental_Floss (fun quizzes! funky T-shirts! quirky articles!) have reeled you in, here's another: language maven Patricia T. O'Connor is guest-blogging all this week. Yesterday she debunked several persistent grammar myths (Yes, Virginia, it is indeed OK to split an infinitive); today she tackles words and phrases whose origins we all think we know—but we're wrong. For instance:

Ask a roomful of people where the word “caesarean” comes from, and everyone will have the answer. Julius Caesar was born surgically, so the story goes, and that’s why surgical births are called “caesareans.” Well, fortunately for both Caesar and his mother, this isn’t the answer....

Go read the rest here, and more.

The Real Gender Gap

Sometime over the winter, I mentioned to Richard and Janet an informal, thoroughly unscientific male-female study I conducted at work more than 20 years ago. I've tested it on many dozens of people over the years, and I've found just one man and just one woman who behaved differently from their peers. Today, as we were walking our kids home from school, Richard mentioned that he'd been experimenting with it too and that his results were 100% consistent with mine. So, here it is:

While chatting with someone, I say, "You have something [or "an eyelash" or whatever] right here" and brush my finger against my cheekbone (right hand on right cheek or left hand on left cheek). All women will brush the imaginary speck off the cheek that is a mirror image of mine (that is, if I'm pointing to my right cheek, she'll go to her left cheek). All men will brush the imaginary speck off the cheek that is the same one as mine (right for right, left for left). It is uncanny.

This all came about years ago when Andy discovered that if he pointed out something on his face in reference to my own (as in "You have a caraway seed in this tooth" or "You have a smudge on your face right here"), I always did the mirror image. He thought this was very strange (and, by extension, that I was very strange), so I set about on my research.

Unfortunately, the game has been ruined for you, but you can do it to everyone you meet and report back here with your findings. And maybe someone will catch you off guard and get to test you on it.

What does it all mean? I haven't a clue. Anyone, anyone?

Initial Here

I was thinking about authors who go by their first and middle initials and wondering what name(s) their families and friends call them by. I did a little Wiki-ing to come up with the following list. Do you know the first and middle names of any of these authors? Hover your mouse over the initials to read the names:

e.e. cummings
T.S. Eliot
E.M. Forster
S.E. Hinton
A.E. Housman
C.S. Lewis
A.A. Milne
J.K. Rowling
J.D. Salinger
J.R.R. Tolkien
H.G. Wells
E.B. White

The only ones I knew were Eliot and Salinger.

Pretty World, Indeed

I just realized that I never reviewed the Sam Baker CDs I got a while back. I had never heard of Baker until some months ago, when No Depression had a free download of his song "Broken Fingers," and it knocked me out. I ended up buying that CD, "Pretty World," along with Baker's earlier CD, "Mercy."

This is the voice of a guy whose whole life almost ended in tragedy, but instead he clawed his way back up—all without bitterness. The whole story is here; in short, Baker was in Peru on a bus that got bombed, leaving him with brain damage, hearing loss, and a ruined dominant hand. You would expect angry, depressing words and sounds, but instead there's gratitude, albeit tempered with a hefty dose of wistfulness.

Baker's lyrics and vocal phrasing are unique, which he attributes to the fact that his brain doesn't "store words" properly anymore:

"I think I have to collect the words, a lot of times. I have to go get them, and then hold them, and then put them out, and then go get some more. I don’t think there’s a steady stream coming in; I have to gather them up."

But you really don't need to know any of this to appreciate his songwriting or his voice—just give him a listen. You can hear a lot of his songs at his site; here's "Broken Fingers," the one that did me in. Let me know what you think.

Sunday Video Two-Fer

1. I don't normally get all goopy about wedding stuff (well, I guess sometimes I do), but this wedding toast video knocked me out. Watch it. Really. (via Neatorama)

2. Now I'm especially glad I'm not on FaceBook or MySpace—don't want to become a New Media Douchebag, now do I? (via Presurfer)

Pitching In

Andy doesn't want me to post about Little League pitchers yet (he says I'm not "ready"), but I'm going to. Pete's finally in AA and that means ... kid pitchers! That also means batters getting hit by pitchers, batters walking (a lot), and so on.

The league has a set of complicated rules about how many pitches a kid can throw per game and per day without a rest. Also, if a pitcher walks three batters in a row, a coach steps in and pitches for him.

[Andy disagrees with this next paragraph.] I understand that the kids need to learn how to pitch, but they also need to learn how to hit, and those two goals are almost mutually exclusive at this point. As the season wears on, pitchers will emerge who can get the job done, but for now ... not so much. I get that there's no "better" way to do this.

Today Andy had to step in as ump behind the pitcher's mound, and a kid from the other team was very carefully positioning his fingers around the ball. The pitch went wild. Andy said to the kid, "What was that?" The kid looked nonchalant as he said, "Circle change." Andy loved that. Throughout the rest of the day, he has chuckled every time it came to mind.

P.S.

I forgot to say one more thing about Twitter, and then I'll try to shut up about it. Being a freelancer/mom means that I spend most of my time alone or with young kids. I can't tell you how much I miss having coworkers whom I see on a day-to-day basis. I used to love that office chatter, and I find that Twitter is in some ways a mini-substitute. Of course I don't know the people I follow in the way that I knew my old colleagues, but I do get to hear about this one's pregnancy or that one's funny mishap or whatever. Twitter supplies that last piece of the virtual office that I was missing.

How Very Meta

Today I'm blogging about Twittering. (And afterward I'll be Twittering about blogging about Twittering. You are getting v-e-r-y sleepy....)

I am loving Twitter. If you are one of the last 8 people on the planet who aren't Twittering, I say this: Join us now! Resistance is futile!

So, what is Twitter? It's sort of a cross between blogging and IMing. You post little (and I mean little: 140 characters maximum) updates meant to answer the question, "What are you doing?" Anyone who's following you on Twitter sees these updates, and you see the updates of anyone you're following. Not surprisingly, the updates end up going far beyond "What are you doing?" and into links to interesting web sites or blog posts, requests for information and advice on everything from software to restaurants, one-liners, and more. You can also reply to another person's tweet (sorry, that's the only bad news: "tweet" is the word for Twitter update), either publicly or privately.

Here, for example, are my last few tweets:

Most Twitterers are just regular people like you and me, but there are also lots of Popular Kids on there (Ira Glass, Ze Frank, Merlin Mann, Guy Kawasaki, Stephen Colbert, etc.) as well as tons of commercial sites (NPR, CNN, Apple, JetBlue, Zappos, etc.). Tony, the Zappos CEO, is the most Twitter-addicted person I've ever encountered, but he channels his obsession into intermittent free shoe giveaways to his followers! Tony Twitters almost exclusively from his mobile phone. I've done this a few times, and it's way cool. Talk about feeling connected!

If you aren't sure about all this, just give it a try. Go to Twitter, follow me, and then follow some of the people I follow to see what it's like. Then join up and see what happens. People will start following you, really! I for one promise to follow you. If you like it, I suggest you download Twhirl, which makes the whole Twitter experience smoother—it's easier to post replies and direct messages (a reply to a tweet that only the recipient sees) and, most importantly, it refreshes itself automatically so you don't have to keep refreshing the Twitter web page. (Twhirl's updates are a wee bit delayed, but I can live with that.) I also occasionally visit Twitter Karma to see who's following me.

Hey, are you following me?

P.S. here, the main pointed I wanted to make when I wrote this post but then forgot to mention....

All the Colors of the Rainbow

Julie looked like a bouquet of spring flowers walking to school this morning, even in the rain:

Her backpack is so loaded down with knick-knacks, I don't know how she can carry it:

All that's inside it is a snack!

Friday Link Dump

In case you forgot to pay attention to the Democratic primary race, here's a 7-minute primer from Slate. (via Growabrain)

The next Color War event from Ze Frank is the Bad Day at the Office Reverse Caption Challenge: He supplies the caption, you take the photo. Makes me wish I worked in an office again! I still might give it a try.

I heart so many products at the Museum of Useful Things.

On Not Having it All

I've said it before, but it bears repeating. You can pick any two:

(a) kids
(b) clean house
(c) mental health

Some days I've got (a) and (b); today's more of an (a) and (c) kind of day. I'm talking to you, Four Loads of Laundry Still Waiting to Be Folded Since Wednesday.

Friday Fiver

I'm still

1. Describe where you grew up.

Framingham, MA, which was a very typical '60s–'70s MetroWest suburb. Not so much anymore.

2. Do you wear any jewelry?

Just a wedding band, engagement ring, watch, and earrings. If I'm going out, I might remember to don a necklace or bracelet. It's not that they're fancy pieces; it just never occurs to me to wear them otherwise.

3. What do you have too much of?

Snack foods—I had a salty-carb craving at the market the other day and came home with Doritos, Cheetos, Fritos, SmartFood, Cheezits, Cape Cod potato chips, Pirate's Booty, and Goldfish. It's all for the kids ... yeah, that's it.

4. Who is a fool?

The client I reverse-fired yesterday.

5. What's your nickname?

Krin

Friday Fill-Ins

1.  Two of my favorite ingredients in a drink are Absolut Citron and ice.
2.  The fact that Andy and I are coming up on our 20th anniversary often amazes me.
3.  You can keep doing that forever, the dog is dead. (For the record, I don't get this one—is it a movie reference?)
4.  Flour, water, yeast, and salt—mix it all together and voila!  You have bread! (I think I'll make some today.)
5.  If I had a yard with a garden, I would love to grow basil, rosemary, parsley, thyme, oregano, and tomatoes.
6.  Fruit is best au naturel. 
7.  And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to temple for services and dinner in honor of Steph's class moving up to the next level of Hebrew school, tomorrow my plans include soccer and Little League (if it stops raining), and Sunday, I want to go to a local production of "The Music Man" featuring 3 generations in a family of friends.

Geography Quiz

Andy was in Toronto overnight. Last night Julie asked me if I'd ever been to Toronto; I said no. She then launched into the weirdest, wonderfulest quiz:

Have you been to Jamaica?
No.
Have you been to Belize?
No.
Have you been to Ireland?
No.
Have you been to Spain?
Yes.
Have you been to New York?
Yes.
Have you ever been to Cape Cod?
Yes.
Have you been to Mexico?
No.
Have you been to London?
Yes.
Have you been to Kentucky?
No.
Have you been to Maine?
Yes.
Have you been to Asia?
No.

And so on. I didn't know what would come next—a city? a state? a country? a continent? Fun.

Go Sox

We are all big Red Sox fans in this house, but no one so much as Steph. (It's true. Even her email address reveals her affiliation.) Sure, we all watch, but she really watches. She even has a scoring book (a gift from her Sox-obsessed grandparents) and knows how to use it. After a play, she'll say, "Mom, was that a 3-4-2"? or "Dad, how do I score a hit-by-pitch?" She knows every player, all their stats, and everything that has happened in every game gone by. Truly remarkable. She has had a major crush on David Ortiz for a few years now, to the point where she pretends he's her brother. (That's the beauty of the pre-teen "crush.") When I have to send her to bed before a game is over, I'm always sure to stick a note under her door so she'll see it first thing in the morning (she gets up before I do), hopefully something along the lines of "Varitek hit a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 9th!" or the like. Such good, clean fun.

It's All Good

Today:
1. It was sunny and mild.
2. I had a tour of the middle school Steph will go to next year, and I felt good about it.
3. I told my worst client to take a hike. He's a total loser, the pay is lousy, the work is boring ... all I can wonder is why it took me this long to give him the virtual finger! I'm euphoric to be done with him.
4. Andy came home from Toronto (which I always pronounce "Tronno" after the way an old camp friend from Toronto used to say it).
5. My parents, along with my sisters and their husbands and kids, came over this evening to celebrate Dad's 80th birthday! We sang songs and read poems, we ate and drank, we had cake. It was just right. I should live so long.