January 2008 Archives

David Brooks puts it well. For once this election will not be determined by momentum, and perhaps the nominee will not actually be decided until the convention, at least on the Democratic side. How cool would that be? Perhaps fights will break out on the convention floor like they used to. It would up the ratings at least.

I'm excited to be voting in one of the states involved in Super Tuesday. Massachusetts has a high number of Democratic delegates, behind only NJ, NY, Illinois, and California. Yay for a vote that feels important!

I also think it's cute that Brooks was John McCain's entire press corps a few months ago. I have to say, McCain's determination is pretty inspiring in this age of cynicism about politics.

I've declared the year 2008 as the year I will get to better know Boston and all it has to offer. Along with that, I've decided to try to do new things and not keep reverting back to the same old patterns (such as Netflix every Friday night). So last weekend we got some good Mexican food in Eastie, and this weekend we went to the North End to eat at the legendary Pizzeria Regina . The pizza was good, and as we expected the wait staff was rude and pushed us in and out of there in about twenty minutes. (That's the way they roll there, apparently.) We got dessert at Modern Pastries, an alternative to Mike's, and then hopped over to the Improv Asylum for a few laughs. We saw a guest troupe there from Chicago, three women known as Switchboard. Their accents were impeccable, and they had a strange way of transitioning from one sketch to the next that I never quite figured out. We plan to go back to the Improv Asylum for their mainstage show. Also, they do corporate training: sounds like David Brent/Michael Scott's dream.

In other news, we saw Sweeney Todd last night. Ya can't really beat Johnny Depp singing. I loved it. (We actually meant to see There Will Be Blood, but it was sold out! Guess that's what we get for going downtown.)

Also, Nicholas Kristof is back. It sure is nice to see his name once again on the sidebar of the New York Times website. It does seem like Brooks/Kristof/et al are acting like megaphones for Mr. Obama right now, but I suppose they're allowed an opinion on these matters. According to his blog, Kristof's book is coming out in a year, and it's about women in developing countries. I'm going to put it on my list; perhaps 2009 will be the year of reading books as they come out.

Spent all day today in a training session for Microsoft Project. Our tutor told us a joke I had never heard before:

Question: How many Microsoft engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: Zero. They'll reprogram everything to darkness.

Watch this video from Bill Gates' retirement announcement:

Also, look at this hilarious slide show of a 5-month-old who got her picture taken with most of the presidential candidates. Question: when she is a teenager, will she be embarrassed or proud? Perhaps a little of both.

It feels like a momentous week: tomorrow are the New Hampshire primaries, tonight Stewart and Colbert come back on the air, and....well, that's all I can think of. It's enough to make me excited (although the latter are coming back without their writers, which could be interesting and, dare I say, boring?) I may have more to say about all this later.

My promised comments about His Dark Materials: I don't have too much to say, just a few observations. I loved the first book because it is mainly about rescue and adventure, and Mrs. Coulter as a villain is wonderfully evil. The other two books excited me less and felt-heavy-handed at times. Besides Mrs. Coulter, the villains are not drawn in a complex manner. The priests of the Consistorial Court are clever but shallow, and I can't help but feel that Pullman is lazy in his portrayal of them, almost as if it reflects his limited view of the church and he hasn't bothered to go deeper in his criticism. (I suppose the Spectres are pretty terrifying villains, but they're in another category). My bigger problem with the books, especially with the last one, is Pullman's assertion that Christianity (and perhaps other monotheistic religions) have nothing to say about the flesh or about taking delight and pleasure in the created world. Granted, some sectors of Christianity emphasize the spiritual life more, but Pullman ignores how Christians believe that Christ came to earth in a body, and that we will be raised again in the flesh, and that meanwhile we are to take care of and enjoy God's creation. So, like Dr. Mary Malone, I too can enjoy roasted meat with olives at a restaurant by the sea in Lisbon, but unlike her I can also believe that God created these things. The two are not mutually exclusive. And before you say that I'm having a knee-jerk reaction and interpreting meanings in places that they needn't be interpreted (which no doubt I am), let me say that, from what I gathered, Pullman is blatant in his criticism of the church (and of religion in general, I suppose). So it's perfectly fine to criticize these books from a Christian perspective.

Let me also echo what Evan says about not using "the narrative tropes of his novels as guides for my own life." While I found the first book compelling in its depiction of love, loyalty, and sacrifice, I got less motivation out of the other two books. It's interesting that one of the ultimate messages of the books is that people must live their lives so as to have true stories to tell at the end of them. And the hallmark of Christianity is that it is a story, and it is true.

But, with all that said, I love Pullman's writing style, his descriptions of the natural world, his relatively coherent plot, and his originality. That sentence sounds trite, and I definitely have many more positive things to say about the series, but I'm tired and can't think straight anymore.

In the interviews I've seen with Mike Huckabee, everything is fair tax-this, immigration-that, guitar-this, weight loss-that. What I have been wanting to know, Mike, is this: what exactly is your foreign policy?

Here is the answer to my question. Quite thorough and compelling. I might not agree with everything he says here (God help us if we ever go to war with Iran), but somebody did their research. Brew some tea and take fifteen minutes to read it.

I'm not referring to the new Greenlife Grocery in Chattanooga, which sadly I did not get a chance to visit while I was there for Christmas. No, this title refers to my new direction in life, involving the use of canvas bags for grocery shopping, recycling as much as possible, and getting rid of old electronic devices thoughtfully. The other day I went to Stop & Shop armed with piles of old plastic bags and ceremonially dumped them into the convenient plastic bag recycling bins there. I then used the bags that were left to carry my groceries. I also recently got rid of an old television by contacting the city's TV recycling department and arranging for them to pick it up. (Granted, it's against the law for the regular garbage truck to pick up tv's and computers, but still, it made me feel good inside). As they say at Tesco, every little helps.

I'm reading a lot of books right now, so get ready for some upcoming reviews including the controversial His Dark Materials trilogy. Actually, I probably won't give an extensive review of that one: I'm just going to say I agree with Evan. I'll offer a few of my own thoughts when I'm done. Also, I highly recommend Jhumpa Lahiri. I just finished her Interpreter of Maladies and am in the middle of The Namesake. I was skeptical at first (for some odd reason) but now I'm sold.