Spiffy Title

While going through books at work, I came across this one from Ampersand Books and had a good laugh:

When You Say One Thing But Mean Your Mother by Melissa Broder. A cheesy pun on the common phrase of when you say one thing but mean another. But the title definitely makes you think. It brings to mind relationship problems and mama's boys.

I haven't actually looked at the book to see what the poetry is like or about, but just thought the title alone was worth the mention. :)

Picky Bookstore ^_^

While updating NewPages’s bookstore lists, I came across this website for The Twig Bookstore in San Antonio, Texas. And I must say I love their excerpt from San Antonio Current Magazine:

The ever-helpful Twig staff prominently display books by local authors, and mercifully place the Twilight books on a shelf too high for most ’tweens to reach.

That Twilight reference is funny to me. The first two books aren’t too bad, but really it gets a lot more mature in the latter half the the series and I am all for pushing them towards better forms of literature. Although, can we complain when we have books like Twilight keeping or interesting kids in reading?

Starcherone Books to become Imprint

Recently independent publisher Starcherone Books announced on their homepage that they will become an imprint of Michigan-based Dzanc Books (a relatively young publisher still). Starcherone says that their editors will retain editorial control with Dzanc taking over production and distribution of Starcherone's books. In 2011, Starcherone and Dzanc plan to release The Girl with Brown Fur, and the anthology 30 Under 30 edited by Blake Butler and Lily Hoang.

I am surprised that Dzanc is acquiring Starcherone as Starcherone has been a round for a while well Dzanc is new (though growing rapidly).  For more information on this, you can visit Starcherone's website http://starcherone.com/

Kinda Ironic

So, I am a May baby. Which means basically nothing, but since my birthday is coming up it means I had to renew my vehicle registration and this year I had to renew my driver’s license as well. I find it funny that I had to pay $62 dollars for a piece of paper and sticker whereas the plastic card that is a driver’s license is only $18.

Why are registration feels so expensive compared to license fees? Although, I guess I shouldn’t complain as my grandfather (another May baby) owed $128 for his renewal. Gotta love make, model, weight class, and year produced which causes the amount you owe to change from person to person, vehicle to vehicle.

Carnism = Sexism & Racism

I am not against feminism or anything, but I have to say that some of these people come up with the most absurd theories. The newest one in being that eating meat, or “carnism,” is akin to racism and sexism. At least according to Dr. Melanie Joy. For the scoop, check out the original articles posted on CampusProgress.org. http://www.campusprogress.org/books/5348/how-eating-meat-is-like-sexism-and-racism

In my opinion, why do humans eat meat? It is not because it is some senseless thing we are taught from birth. Meat does bring in needed nutrients (iron, protein, and more) and it was a big staple to our ancestors before farming was invented (can you “invent” farming?).

There is nothing wrong with being a vegetarian or a vegan, but they miss out on the protein and other goodies meat provide. They also have to be very careful and make sure they are eating a well-balanced and supplemental meal (which quite a few vegetarians and vegans actually ignore). You need to make up for what you are not getting by adding meat into your diet.

You don’t need meat everyday. You won’t die without it, but to say that a person who eats meat is as bad as a racist or sexist is too extreme. It’s like those radical feminists who link pregnancy to a parasitic relationship that invades a woman’s body unfairly. (No, I am not making that up, I studied it in a philosophy class in college.)

But read the article for yourself and make your own judgments. I won’t give up eating meat. I am not a racist nor a sexist. Nor am I a total feminist, which makes some of my more radical friends cringe, but hey, not all girls today have to be feminists, right?

Twitter Etiquette – Who Knew?

This article from online magazine Nerve explores the new social networking device Twitter (which, yes, has been around for a while now).

Basically, it tells you what NOT to do when you tweet. And I can definitely agree. Why Twitter about the most inane happenings in your life? It’s amazing how much drudgery is tweeted in 140 characters or less.

To check out the “Nine Essentials of Twitter Etiquette,” click here: http://www.nerve.com/dispatches/cutler/nine-essentials-of-twitter-etiquette/

This is the essential guide for those who tweet and for those just thinking about starting.

Funny Times Comic

I think this comic expresses how a lot of us feel about our jobs at some time or another. If we weren’t crazy when we started, we sure are now.

comic from The Funny Times website on their “About the Funny Times Staff” page.

Human Vultures

As I get older, it becomes increasingly clear that death, or the prospect thereof, turns humans into vultures. Now, not every person faced with the death of a loved one (or relative) turns into a money-grubbing, back-stabbing, hoarder and thief, but it seems to be a more common occurrence.

When my great grandmother was moved from her house to a nursing home, certain children swooped in on the empty house and began removing valuables without their siblings (or mother’s for that matter) consent or permission. Valuable things went missing, no one would admit that they were the ones who actually took it. Finger pointing and blame went all over and it just became ridiculous.

Even more ridiculous was trying to divide the property after my great grandmother’s death. Certain daughters believed they were entitled to more regardless of the constructs of the will.

Having heard and seen other families go through the same (or worse) inheritance struggles has only cemented into my mind the belief that death brings out the worst in people. What I find really amusing is when children start yelling at their parents for wasting away “their” (the kids’ not the parents’) money. How is it the children’s money when it is the parents’? Simply put, inheritance. As parents age, many children begin contemplating inheritance and what they can expect when their parents kick the proverbial bucket. It is disgusting.

But, I suppose the children who are straightforward and openly take stuff and start claiming their parents’ property is at least more honest than the underhand ones who sneak and steal. Recently, a neighbor’s wife was hospitalized with cancer. Her children don’t even visit her, but they go to her house and take her stuff. One child even steals money out of her purse. The father put his foot down and said they can’t take it, but what do they care? They come in and take it anyways. Besides, their dad is 85, he’ll be dead soon, too, so why does he need the stuff.

One son-in-law actually said that to his face. Unbelievable. As if having his wife of 50+ years in the hospital dying of cancer isn’t enough, he is faced with ignorance and greed from his children who should be giving their love and support.

Inheritance. Whatever. It is money for nothing. It doesn’t rightfully belong to anybody but the originators. I can understand getting back that which you have gifted to the deceased, but to go in willy-nilly and claim everything of value in sight is just plain, old-fashioned greed in any book.

My grandparents are doing their best to divide up the assets and to give back gifts before they die in order to help stop silly things like this from happening. But you never really know what will happen after you die and how the people around you will react.

Unfortunately, every family seems to have a vulture of some kind lurking in their midst, making an unhappy event even worse.

Condoms Blamed for Rape . . . ?

While updating the blog list for work, I came across this interesting blog article. Just when you thought the Catholic Church couldn’t get and crazier, add in Italy’s interesting safe-sex policy of installing condom vending machines in high school and you get one hot potato on your hands and the Catholic Church expressing their outrage.

About as good as expressing outrage over condom use in third world countries. Seriously.

http://technorati.com/politics/article/condoms-blamed-for-rape-really/

I don’t believe this is necessarily promoting sex before marriage or underage cavorting, this is just being realistic. Teenagers (not all, some) will have sex before leaving high school, so you might as well get them in the habit of practicing safe sex, right? But then again, this is a hot topic everywhere. Just what should we or shouldn’t we teach our children about that 3-letter word and its consequences?

I am all for informing them and letting them know the consequences without them experiencing it firsthand (i.e. teenage pregnancy, STDS), but I suppose the method of believing they won’t and keeping them in the dark works too, right?

New Blog

So, I am a crappy blogger, I admit it. So, due to some chemical imbalance in my brain (and a lot of insanity) I have started a new blog.

That doesn’t mean this blog is dead in the water. I just couldn’t justify putting all the new stuff in this blog because it really doesn’t fit what this blog was supposed to be about to begin with. Not that I actually have kept with the idea very well anyways.

But if you are interested in Asian drama, anime, literature, and music, then check out the new blog at:

http://asianaddictsannon.wordpress.com/

Peace out!

Ah, Cartoons!

This made my day. Serious chuckle alert. Mainly because the cartoons themselves are more fun than the commonly misspelled words.

But don’t take my word on it, check out the poster here (available for purchase)

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

The perfect gift to give the annoying person whose spelling drives you crazy ;)

80s Generation Turns 30

It’s hard to believe, but if you were born in 1980, you’ll be 30 this year.  It is shocking to realize that the people born in my decade are starting to turn 30.  It is peeking just around the corner.  Not that 30 is by any means old (although it probably seemed that way when we were children), it is just kind of weird to think about.

It’s also weird to think about the 90s children are in high school, graduating high school, and some are even in college range and are getting ready to graduate college.  I spent the 90s in elementary school and middle school.  Hard to believe the babies born in that decade are as old as they are now.  I still think of my cousins born in 1996 as babies, but they’re turning 14 this year.  14!  I remember them from when they were just 4.  hard to believe it’s been ten years already.

You know, the sad thing is, looking back as we 80s children approach 30, more than half our lives (so far) consist of school. Kind of pathetic in a way, if you think about it – especially if you regard the downturn of education.  But I shouldn’t get started on another rant about education in Michigan and the US in general.

But anywho, Happy 30th 1980!

Literary World Floundering?

Major publishers have made cutbacks, literary magazines have changed publishing frequencies.  For as many new magazines and presses that are starting out, many are throwing in the towel and calling it quits.

And why is this?

M-O-N-E-Y!

Well, some of it has to due with personal health and commitment issues (mainly for online, but for some print magazines as well). There are a lot of magazines folding due to the fact that subscriptions are down and they cannot keep publishing if they can’t even break even. Some magazines that have been housed and supported at universities find their funding sources cut off, meaning they have to scramble to find a source of income to keep publishing.

It is really sad. Contests have been suspended, some magazines that paid contributors for publishing their work have had to either cut down the amount or stop paying altogether.

Despite the floundering of literary publishing, the staples are still around, from the Hudson Review to The Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review to Shenandoah. There are also new magazines springing up (many of them online, but some new print magazines such as Paul Revere’s Horse) that hope to challenge the decline that is being seen.

There are also new presses popping up, hoping to succeed where traditional publishing seems to be struggling. Digital media, e-books, POD – they are jumping onto the digital revolution, believing more people will flock to electronic media versus traditional print media.

Give me a musty old book anytime, I hate reading online if I can avoid it, but there are a lot of people taking to the new digital age.

Quote of the Day

"My goal in life is to be an echo."

~Matthew Schmeer, editor of Poetry Midwest

I think the quote is really cool.  To be an echo, to be something that reverberates and lasts beyond the initial saying/moment.  Though, on the downside, to be an echo is to be only a repetition of something else, and usually and incomplete one at that. But still, my cool quote of the day.

Happy New Year

Another year has come and gone.  It seems odd to think that we have started a new decade. It is even odder to know that at the age of 24, I have already seen 4 decades come and go. I was born in the mid 80s (1985) to be exact. Grew up in the 90s. High school and college took up most of the beginning of the new century and 2010 sees me out of school and working hard.

A lot has happened. A lot has changed. And yet many things have stayed perpetually the same.  Even though I have a degree under my belt, I still occupy the same room in my grandparents house that I have lived in for the past 22 years.  Money is still a problem as is health care and insurance.  Bills are numerous and paycheck-to-paycheck living is still going strong.

But there are still many good things.  My sister is happily married and expecting her first baby and has a job that utilizes both her Spanish major and her human services minor.  I have 3 new younger siblings and my dad is permanently stateside for the first time since I was a child. Good things, really.

Here is hoping that 2010 will see more good things, but dark clouds lurk on the horizon. Money woes, health care issues, social security conundrums.  I am not too sure that there are many answers or solutions to these problems, we an only take them in stride and hope for the best, which is hard at times.

I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I have decided this year to keep a promise I have made to myself ages ago.  It's about time and maybe something good will come of it, maybe not.  We shall see what the cards of fate hold in store for us in the future.

Many blessings for a prosperous 2010.