Some of my favorite things

Sometimes, you can tell a lot about a person by what objects they collect/display in their home.  How many of you, when you visit someone's house for the first time, the instant you are left alone make a bee-line for the bookcase or the CD/DVD rack to see what your friend reads/listens to/watches?  Come on, I can't be the only snoop around here.

So, this blog is a bit of a self-confessional in which I'll share some of my favorite things with the readers of AnD.  Hopef...Read more

For Leslie Cheung

September 12th would have been Leslie Cheung's 52nd birthday.  Fans all over the world are marking the day.  My feelings are mixed:  I am glad to have discovered such a brilliant artist, but sad to know that he left this world far too soon. 

October 10th will mark the US theatrical release of one of Leslie's films, Wong Kar Wei's  "Ashes of Time Redux".  From what I have read of this reedited film, it sounds like Wong's tribute to Leslie Cheung, one of Wong's favorite actors.  Leslie, if only you were ...Read more

In search of a headshot--Part 2

Here we go again.  Taking the advice of several AnD members, I have enlisted a co-worker and hubby to take some more pics.  Maybe these look a little more like me than the do-it-yourself variety?  You be the judge.  Again, votes on preferences are welcome.  Butter and Ohm, since you know what I really look like--your opinions carry particular weight in this discussion! 

Have at them.

These were taken by my co-worker wearing one of my two favorite tops.

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Waiting for Hanna

I'm here in central North Carolina awaiting Tropical Storm Hanna.  Although I am 100 miles inland, we still have a number of weather warnings directly as a result of this tropical storm.  We have a flash flood watch in effect until this time tomorrow night with 3-5 inches of rain currently forecast (and this could go as high as 10 inches) and a high wind warning, which could knock down trees that will then take out power lines.  The outer rain bands of Hanna began to effect this area earlier this afternoon.  A very heavy rain band is ab...Read more

Maybe we are not as progressive as we think we are

I ran across this amazing story in Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.  Pu Songling (1640-1715), wrote this massive work of over 500 items over several decades.  It was never published during his lifetime, but did circulate in hand-copied versions.  It was first published in 1766. 

The story below says a lot about the sexual tolerance of classic Chinese culture.

THE MALE CONCUBINE

A wealthy gentleman of Yangzhou wanted to buy himself a concubine.  He had inspected s...Read more

The One True Love

The One True Love

My one true love,

Not a person

A name

Or even a face;

Formlessness forever in search of corporeal existence

When I look at him

You gleam with honeyed light

Flowing from his eyes

(unawares)

bathing me in golden sweetness

filling my mouth with delight

I cannot encompass you

Not even when he takes me in his arms

Night after night

In an intimate embrace;

The skin that yields

To my touch

<...Read more

In search of a headshot

I figured, after all this time, it was about time I put up a real photograph of me for a headshot.  For some reason, I'm not a big fan of photos of myself (maybe others feel the same way?), so I have not been too keen to put up anything.  I was playing around with my camera today and I have selected the best of the worst, so to speak.  Vote for your favorite(s) and I'll take your opinions into consideration when selecting my headshot.  Have at it!

Number 1

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Do you believe in angels?

Sometimes things happen that make you wonder.  Sometimes these things happen more than once, then you really sit up and take notice.  Most religions have some type of celestial guardian or helper beings, what we in Christianity and Islam call angels.  In the Middle Ages, there was a lot of speculation about what angels were, their nature, their characteristics, even to things like their size (this is where the query comes from--how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?--posed by Thomas Aquinas, a great medieval theologian in t...Read more

Back from the land of the computer undead

Man, this has been the longest 4 days.  The logic board on my Mac Mini failed without warning Wednesday night while I was out eating dinner.  Before dinner, everything was A-OK, after dinner the puppy was fried and I was left with no computer--hence no email, no address book, no internet, no Microsoft word (and my hundreds of files of my writing, all of which weren't't fully backed up).  Terror doesn't begin to describe what I felt.

My husband set me up as an alternate user for email and internet ...Read more

Who's hot? The good, the bad and the ugly!

All this talk over on Terry Tye Lee's blog about what's hot (and what's not), got me thinking about what I think is hot (and not) here on AnD.  Perhaps its my age, perhaps I'm just odd, but I think there are some hot men (notice I say men) showing up here on AnD.  So, here is my totally subjective list that, at the end of the day, means absolutely nothing, as you will see when you get to the end of the blog.  Take it all as a game.  Ladies, feel free to add your own favorites.  They don't ne...Read more