Long Time, Let's Play Catch-up: Books, Knitting, Revolutionary Road

So I know it's been a really really super long time. Haven't felt much like updating. But now I do, so here it goes.

I finished a lot of books since I last wrote. One of my favorites was one entitled The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall. It's about a mother and daughter who have escaped the Russian Revolution and have moved to a Russian-owned parcel of land in pre-revolutionary China. It does sound a little weird and far-fetched. I mean, why would I want to read a book about a Russian girl in pre-Communist China? It makes no sense. But it was suprisingly good. The writing was very fluid; I had a hard time putting it down. The characters were well-rounded and I felt emotionally invested in the main character, as well as the many side-plots that were going on around her. In the end they all tied together for a nice bang. So, this is definitely a book I would recommend.

I also just finished David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Great book! I absolutely love Dickens style of writing. I sometimes try to keep in mind that he got paid by the word, and there are certain characters, such as Mr. Micawber, that I think may have been written with a personality that lends itself well to exaggeration and long ranting. I was kind of expecting something more similar to Great Expectations, if only because Jane Austin's novels are so very similar to each other. But it took a completely different turn of events, and I ended up with tears in my eyes towards the end.

As far as knitting goes, I finally finished a humongous project of three baby blankets for my neighbor across the street. She had triplets instead of just one, and I had promised her I would make her a baby blanket when she had just found out she was pregnant. They are adorable! They're names are Anna Faith, Owen Sotir, and Eli John. I made each a different color: one pink, one light blue and one dark blue. It was my first time using a cable needle and trying to make something with a cable knit, so I was a little nervous at first. But the repetitive nature of the blankets made it so that eventually it came to be second nature, and after only a short while I didn't need to look at the pattern at all. They turned out absolutely beautifully and I am so proud of them. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of them before I gave them to her, but I do have the pic that I saw that made me decide to use this particular pattern. This is the blog that I discovered the knitting pattern at: http://thecakeplate.blogspot.com/2008/08/luca-cabled-baby-blanket.html

Lastly, I just have to say a few things about Revolutionary Road. I saw this movie two weeks ago, and I was sorry I hadn't seen it sooner. I know many people have told me that the critics didn't like it, but I have no idea why. The movie opens with drama and it ends with drama. It was like an Edward Albee play written without the major ridiculousness. It seemed to me so true to life, so genuine. I could relate to exactly what it was the characters were going through; the feeling of being trapped into what society dictates how life is supposed to be led. It tugged at my heartstrings and brought me along for a wonderful ride. Both Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio gave outstanding performances, and I think everyone should watch this film.

Abundance

I haven't written in awhile, I know. I just finished this novel, Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund. It's a novel about the reign of Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette. It's told from her point of view.

I read in the author's notes at the end of the book that much of the novel was taken from actual journal entries and letters that were written by her, and only a little of it was speculative, which excited me at first.

However it took me an incredibly long time to finish the novel. It did get to be a little boring, since she seemed so out of touch with what was actually going on. I felt bad for her. The author portrayed her as a victim of circumstances. She was married very young, to a man who was afraid to have sex with her, and was completely unprepared in running a country. She had no idea how to keep up with what was really going on in France and seemed completely oblivious to everything. So, overall, it made for a very boring middle, and I was sighing with relief when I had finally finished the book. I feel as though the author was trying to make you sympathetic to Marie Antoinette's plight, but I just felt like she should've tried harder to understand France and the French's people's needs. Since she didn't really try at all.

I definitely would skip over this one, unless you're a Marie Antoinette fanatic.

Knit Socks, Curious Incident, and The Spot

So I haven't updated in awhile, so there's lots to talk about.

I finally finished knitting my first pair of socks!! Pictures will come. They were definitely a challenge, especially with me never having knit in the round before, but I have to say I'm really proud of them, and the second sock came out perfectly. I'll also post the pattern for anyone whose interested.

I've started knitting a baby blanket now. http://thecakeplate.blogspot.com/2008/08/luca-cabled-baby-blanket.html is the URL to the pattern I'm doing. It's coming along very nicely, it looks real sweet and I'm excited to complete it. My neighbor is having TRIPLETS instead of just one, so I have to work quickly.

I finished reading a few books as well. Well audibly, i finished listening to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It is, for anyone unfamiliar with it, about a 15 year old English boy with Asperger's Syndrome (a form of Autism). In the story, he's writing a book about the mysterious murder of a neighborhood dog, but it's so much more than that. It is an incredible book and I would recommend it to anyone. It really gets into the mind of a person with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, and you come to realize and understand how differently they view the world than a normal person. It's cleverly written and a wonderful book to read (or listen to, in my case).

I also finished reading a book called The Wild Irish. It is about Elizabeth I, towards the end of her reign, and a female pirate from Ireland, and their stories and how they intertwine. You would think with such a premise and with two strong historical female figures, that the book would write itself and be decent. However, I found that it dragged in a lot of places and it took me awhile to finish it. Nevertheless, the ending was better than I expected. I wouldn't paticularly recommend this book unless you were paticularly interested in the subject of female irish pirates in the late 16th century. It follows Ireland's story more than England's, so be prepared when you pick it up.

And lastly, some good personal news. At the beginning of December I will be appearing as Gloria in the student-directed one-act play The Spot. More details will come when it gets closer to the date.

Palin

This is going to sound a lot like a rant, but it needs to be said.

Many people are now supporting McCain because he picked Sarah Palin as a running mate. Why? Because she's a woman. A younger, good-looking woman who has a son in the army and another child who has a disability. These facts do not, however, make her fit to be vice-president. People are losing sight of who she actually is and what the position of vice-president means. They gloss over the fact that a month before she was picked as VP, she didn't even know what the post entailed, she said so in an interview. It is incredibly hypocritical of the Republicans to say that Obama is young and has no experience to then pick a VP who is even younger than him and has absolutely no experience on the national level, or even in politics for that matter. Her record in Alaska hardly does her credit as well. She supported pork-barrel legislation, her claims that she refused perks is false, and her opinions of abortion and global warming are alarming enough to make anyone see how extreme she is.

If McCain were elected, he would be the oldest president, whereas Obama would be the third youngest, hardly a comparison. If something were to happen to McCain, Palin would then be president, and everyone must take that into account when voting. She has virtually no experience and would be entirely lost if she were to make any big decisions. We need a president that knows what they are doing, and although McCain's policies aren't the best, they certainly aren't the worst. But having Palin as a running mate makes me frightened as to what they could do to this country. If there was anyone that could be a worse president than Bush, it would be Palin.

So people need to stop being mesmerized by the fact that she's a woman and see her for her policies, not for her gender. If you didn't want to vote for Clinton for her views, then don't vote for Palin for hers, not cause she has boobs.

East Jabrew

My roommates and I have a phrase that we use to describe a particular part of a parking lot that we call 'East Jabrew'. The phrase is used to describe something that is incredibly far away. So far, in fact, that there's no actual geographic location to describe it, so we call it 'East Jabrew'. The parking lot for our dorm is incredibly small, so they have an auxiliary parking lot that's a block away that we can use. The parking lot is incredibly big, and the way that it's structured makes it so that there is a stretch of the lot that goes really far back. This part of the lot is termed 'East Jabrew'. I invite you to use this term as you will.