Dujour means seatbelts!

[geekchick]

Today is Sweetmorn, day 38 in the season of Discord, 3268.

I officially can't be trusted anymore, as I'm now indubitably "over 30".


More birthdays should be like this (except for the nearly 50-degree temperature drop over the course of 3 days and the rain). Woke up to another ecard, a sweet note from wolfy, and a copy of the first Los Lobos album from Steve which came in the mail yesterday, then a large part of the afternoon was spent at G Street Fabrics with anotheranon ogling pretty silks and velvets. I must teach myself to use a sewing machine one of these days; I think once we're both employed again and the budget isn't so tight, I might treat myself to a low-end sewing machine and some lessons. I was feeling like I sucked because I was half an hour late for the appointed meeting-up time (pretty late even for me, who is habitually late), thanks to construction (who does road work on Sundays in the rain?), forgetting that I wasn't just low on gas, I was almost *out* of gas, and then having an accident occur in the middle of Seven Corners right before I got there. (Seven Corners is pretty much exactly that; it's a truly horrendous, confusing intersection of several major roads that looks like this.) Luckily (for some value of such), traffic was equally bad everywhere else it seems, so I didn't suck as much as I thought I did. A quick trip into B&N after the fabric store yielded a copy of Guns, Germs, and Steel, about which I have heard many positive reviews. Hey, someone on Amazon calls it "Liberal Revisionist Lunacy", so it must be good. ;)

Last night was a nice, low-key evening. Had about eight people over for dinner and the decadent white chocolate raspberry cheesecake Chris bought me at The Cheesecake Factory. He also, elsewhere of course, obtained the stuffed rabbit from Holy Grail; we were trying to decide if we had enough time to rig it up on some wire to come flying at our guests when they came in the door last night. Luckily for said guests, we decided we didn't quite have enough time. ;) We ended up watching "George Lucas in Love" and "Josie and the Pussycats". I resisted watching that movie for a long, long time because I was sure it was going to be stupid and not funny. Instead it turned out to be stupid and very, very funny. Upon reflection, if it had both Parker Posey and Alan Cumming, how bad could it have been? (Don't answer that.) Dujour is the new Backstreet Boys! Anyway, had a very nice, relaxing evening with some of my favorite people in the world; the only thing missing was that all of my favorite people weren't there.

And on a final note: Duh? =)

Take the What High School Stereotype Are You? quiz, by Angel.

Comments

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday! Sounds like you had a pretty good birthday, all told. Cheesecake Factory...mmmmm...haven't been there in a long time. How was "George Lucas in Love"?

[geekchick]

Thank you! =) I did have a nice, low-key birthday, which is exactly what I'd been hoping for. "George Lucas in Love" was fun, especially since we had a bunch of "Star Wars" geeks in attendance. It's not terribly subtle though. ;)

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

I'm now indubitably "over 30".

Well, at least this wasn't a round-number birthday...

first Los Lobos album from Steve

(nod of agreement at musical tastes)

(pretty late even for me, who is habitually late)

Heh. We should hold a contest... my friends here have been known to give me 30-min early bogus arrival times in order to get me there in synch...

a copy of Guns, Germs, and Steel

A USGS guy at last week's bear-shooting course raved about that book, over lunch...

At any rate, glad that it was a good weekend for you ;-).

[geekchick]

Heh. We should hold a contest...

Oh good lord, no. *laugh*

my friends here have been known to give me 30-min early bogus arrival times

I don't know that my friends don't do that, but it would probably make life easier. ;) At least this year, unlike last, I wasn't late for my own party.

A USGS guy at last week's bear-shooting course raved about that book, over lunch...

I'll lend it to you when I'm finished if you'd like. Several folks on one of my mailing lists have raved about it, and I made it a point to look for it today. Between this and the novel a friend gave me, I should be set for differently-geeky reading material for a while.

glad that it was a good weekend for you

It was indeed, although I wish a few other people had been able to join me.

(As an aside, do I need to be frightened? *snicker*

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

At least this year, unlike last, I wasn't late for my own party.

I can imagine doing likewise...

do I need to be frightened? *snicker*

(giggle) I promise that your birthday present won't tick, and it will be nothing to fear. It should complement something else that you already have ;-)...

[geekchick]

it will be nothing to fear.

I remain skeptical. =)

It should complement something else that you already have ;-)...

I'm trying to imagine what it is that you could possibly know about, all things considered. The suspense is killing me! *grin*

[geminigirl]

Heh. I got caught in front of Potomac Yards today for no apparent reason. And had no problems heading uptown even though we'd been warned and warned about the protestors.

The weather has just been horrible today...you're right.

Happy Birthday!

[geekchick]

Thanks!

So it wasn't just me, traffic sucked everywhere for no apparent reason other than maybe a little bit of rain? I'd been thinking of going downtown today earlier in the week but decided against it because of the widely-reported protests; sounds like it might not've been so bad after all (well, except for the rain and the chill).

[geminigirl]

Yep. Traffic just sucked. Rte. 1 through Alexandria wasn't bad...then, where it curves, just before Target...boom...stopped.

I went straight up 14th street to where I needed to go, and then over near Logan Circle. Tomorrow is supposed to be worse though.

And the weather...ick. I went from windows open and fan on to heat.

[points.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday! I rummages around for the perfect present, but all I could find was this piece of... oooh... string....

[crouchback.livejournal.com]

GGS was, IMHO, largely a rehash of William McNeill's PLAGUES AND PEOPLES. The whole brouhaha over GGS is reminding me of the brouhaha over Goldhagen's HITLER'S WILLING EXECUTIONERS, which was in large part a rehash of Browning's IDEOLOGY OF DEATH. Younger, hipper scholar takes someone else's ideas, jazzes 'em up a little, and then gets a lot of media attention.

Still was interesting, but not as interesting as Israel Finkelstein's THE BIBLE UNEARTHED, in which, among other things, the evidence for the existence of King David was severly challenged. Salon had a great article on it entitled King David was a nebbish (www.salon.com/books/feature/2001/02/07/solomon/).

[crouchback.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I forgot how Livejournal works. www.salon.com/books/feature/2001/02/07/solomon/ for the link.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I haven't read Ideologies of Death, only Ordinary Men, in which he offers a radically different interpretation of reserve police battalion 101 from what Goldhagen presents in HWE. If Goldhagen has stolen all his ideas from Browning, Browning nevertheless wasn't using them himself in Ordinary Men.

I was intrigued enough by this comment to look at your live journal, which I found quite interesting, especially where you talk about setting up a new gaming campaign. I like to chat with you about this. Please get in touch.

[crouchback.livejournal.com]

*grins sheepishly* I was actually thinking of ORDINARY MEN. Mea Culpa.

I thought Goldhagen was tremendously derivative of ORDINARY MEN, although, as you note, he did put a far different interpetations on things.

I'll happily get in touch when I'm back in Boston. Doesn't look like that will happen until October, though.

(I had a lot more public on my page than I thought! Well, the DND entry is still there, but the rest of it is gone.)

Re:

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

Goldhagen's research certainly overlapped Browning's significantly, and may well have been derived from Browning's, but IMHO it's the spin they put on it that matters, and that is, indeed, quite different. Goldhagen strikes me as a very obnoxious and arrogant man (and one of my professors reported receiving a similar impression in person), but I think he is good historian, even though I know several people who disagree.

I look forward to hearing from you.