Empress of the World » Trivia

Post #546

Sara — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 05:18:46 +0000

1. First I have to repost these great work-in-progress photos that Erica put up of the story we’re doing for the Snow Stories anthology.

It’s about getting lost, and getting un-lost.

2. I don’t have a gym story this week, but I have a couple of snippets:

Dude on treadmill, breathing heavily, to his trainer: “Now, I expect my stomach to be gone when I get off this thing!”

Trainer: “Uh uh, I am not responsible for what you do when you’re outside this room.”

Dude: “Well, that ain’t gonna work!”

And there was a bald guy with an eyepatch on the next weight bench over. We were resting between sets, also breathing a bit heavily. He got his breath back: “It ain’t fair we have to work so hard!”

3. I will not explain why I know this, but hey, if you ever just happen to be obsessively cleaning out your house and take a whole lot of things to Goodwill, and then you realize, possibly after someone else in your house informs you of the fact, that one of the things you donated really, really should not have been given away, there is a thing you can do. If you still have your donation slip, and it has not been very long since you have made said donation, you can go to the Manager and fill out a form called “Donation In Error.” And then, if it hasn’t been too long, and nobody’s, you know, bought the thing, then you can have it back.

4. Oh, and in case you haven’t seen it already, Free Rice is, to me at least, way more addictive than Sudoku.

More pre-travel panic, etc.

Sara — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 03:20:19 +0000

Today I woke up at 3 am, convinced that I had booked my flight to New York for the wrong day.

I hadn’t, but I couldn’t get back to sleep, either.

So it was a good thing I had an audiobook. A LONG audiobook. I’m currently listening to George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones, in part to see how someone who’s incredibly vicious to his characters does it. I’m really glad I’m enjoying it, because it means that I’ll have listening material for months to come.

Now I have three suitcases of differing sizes laid out on the bed, and I am torn between the desire to be fancy and the desire not to take so damn much luggage for once.

Also I am seized with the irrational fear that if I pack my favorite fancy clothes in the giant suitcase, it will get lost and I will never see said clothes again. Maybe I’ll just take a few fancy items and stuff them into the little carryon.

In sum, Internet, I am very excited about going to NCTE/ALAN (it will be my first time!) but also, I am preoccupied with the trivial.

Trivia redux: thrift score

Sara — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 16:44:04 +0000

So it’s a good thing that I didn’t buy the Kindergoth bag, because then I wouldn’t have still been looking at Goodwill the other day, and then I wouldn’t have found this one:

Which, when it’s not at Goodwill, nicely broken-in with some schmutz on the bottom, possibly makeup, that proves to be mostly removable with the application of hot coffee (I just sort of thought, huh, the coffee’s the same color as the bag, so it won’t mess with the dye, and since it’s hot it’ll probably be good at getting off the stain) — is this.

I have asked this before but I am endlessly fascinated by it: what are your favorite thrift scores??

Dear Internet, here is a trivial question.

Sara — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 07:50:25 +0000

Should I go back to Ross Dress For Less and buy this bag? It is cheap, and I am deeply amused by its Goth-by-way-of-kindergarten-teacher aesthetic, and by the fact that one of the eye sockets of each of the skulls has a tiny rhinestone inside. But I am unsure as to whether the whole skull trend is, like, totally played out already.

Advise me, Internet!

That one career meme

Sara — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 22:41:55 +0000

1. Costume Designer — hurray! Katrina would be proud.
15. Computer Trainer — Another one I’ve done. And still do.
16. Animator — See above re: if I could draw.
17. Pet Groomer — Only Snag.
18. Multimedia Developer — “Developer”? Is that where I tell the people who actually can animate what to do?
19. Personal Trainer — “Do as I say, not as I do.”
20. Social Worker — See above re: psychologist.
21. Plasterer — Um.
22. Addictions Counselor — Sweet! Just like Waylon to Bubbles! (Sorry, obligatory Wire reference.)
23. Makeup Artist — If I wore any.
24. Magician — I’d make myself disappear.
25. Foreign Service Officer — If I knew more languages.
26. Professor — Considered this one seriously, too. Library school didn’t take as long.
27. School Counselor — If I could pick the students.
28. Comedian — No.
29. Casting Director — Yes.
30. Activist — Intermittently. Mostly via writing.
31. Graphic Designer — I think I’d love this, actually. With a bunch of training. And probably a new glasses prescription. Except, do you have to know how to draw?
32. Artist — See above re: cartoonist.
33. Print Journalist — I prefer fiction. Then again, so do some print journalists.
34. Critic — I am supremely unable to be objective.
35. ESL Teacher — See above re: Foreign Service Officer.
36. Foreign Language Instructor — And again!
37. Communications Specialist — I don’t even know what this means. PR?
38. Writer — Finally!
39. Musician — If there were more call for rusty violinists and untutored altos.
40. Computer Animator — Why does this test persist in thinking I can draw?

Vita brevis, ars longa

Sara — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 05:19:43 +0000

Earlier this evening I identified a Pieter Brueghel painting that was in service to swank up a wine label. I was vaguely displeased with myself for not remembering the name of the painting, and also surprised that I was the only one at the table who recognized it as Brueghel. I forget that not everyone is all up in the Northern Renaissance. A search reveals that it was Peasant Dance.

And the same search revealed that there is also a Brueghel painting available as a table lamp.

I am now sort of tempted to buy both the wine and the lamp, and juxtapose them. I wonder what else you can get Brueghel paintings on?