A brief break

There is speculation among Jane Austen scholars as to the reason behind the hiatus between her juvenilia, the writings done while she was a teen, and her adult novels.

I have no problem giving the reasons why I will be taking a short hiatus from this blog:

it's called finals. And term papers. And trying to get the financial aid in place for fall term.

So I'll be back May 1st after spring term is over. But there is always the stuff in the archives, if you really want something to read. I recommend the Color Purple posting.

The good news is that the loans I've made on Kiva are already paying back, so after only 2 loans I'll be able to just relend the money I've already lent without putting any more money in. See you later!

the Jane Austen Maids Foundation: Animal House

I don't understand the atrocities human beings can do to animals. The animal actions/causes on change.org just break my heart. Horses being dragged for miles behind a car in Greece and the person responsible laughing about it, starving dogs in the US, poisoned dogs in Brazil, horrific conditions for dogs in puppy mill breeding situations, elephants being abused and left behind bellowing as their other elephant friends are leaving (why they weren’t all removed from the situation by the authorities is beyond me). I can only sign so many of these petitions before I have to switch to the environmental causes or turn the computer off. I feel bad enough when Lars wants to play fetch and I have to do schoolwork or when we’re hanging out on the couch and I stop petting him so he starts pawing at my hand til I pet him again.


So for the next couple of months, the donations will be from a subset (Article 23, Line A) of the Jane Austen Maids Foundation, called the Jake and Lars (and Brinna and Grant and Candy and Nilla and Magnum and the cats that were always running around the barn and my pony Bunny and my horses Whisper, Ziggy, Anna, and Nicky and all the other horses and all the cows and goats and chickens and pigs I grew up with) Foundation. Hereafter to be known as the Jake and Lars (etc.) Foundation.





For my mid month donation, I’m donating to the Center for Biological Diversity, the organization that provides most of the petitions in the things to do part of the sidebar, and who does a lot of work on behalf of endangered species. I'm donating to their polar bear fund, which will help them fight to retain endangered species protection for them. There is currently a lot of pressure from groups who want to hunt polar bears, because evidently a dead polar bear as a hunting trophy is worth about $40,000. I won't put the picture on here since the image of a man with a gun kneeling proudly over a bloody polar bear is more than I can bear.


The next two donations, the May donations, will be to animal rescue organizations not yet determined.


And stay tuned for a page from Lars: he has started following several blogs by other dogs. His favorite so far is aweinerdogblog.blogspot.com. I think it reminds him of Jake. Though he also really likes ewix2.blogspot.com, which is a blog by a dog named Buster about him and his friends.

Site Under Construction

Those of you (all two) who have been reading since that first pitiful post may have noticed a change recently. Don’t worry, you are on the same blog. I chose the original, classic Blogger template because the braid on the header looks like trim women would have used on dresses during Ms. Austen’s time. They would often switch out trim, ribbon, and lace to make an older item look new again, unless they were Lady Catherine de Bourgh (Pride and Prejudice). It’s called RECYCLING.

Anyway, though I liked the green, I was trying to minimize it and make the center larger. I wanted to make the sidebar bigger because not all the widgets I want to use will fit. After one successful try at modifying widget html code, I decided I knew how and started in on the template html code. That didn’t work, and eventually I decided that throwing something against the wall wasn’t going to help either.

But as I was attempting to modify the layout I noticed that if I clicked Next Blog on my dashboard I could look at stranger’s blogs in random order.

Wow!

That ate up some more hours. But it’s far more amusing to me than doing schoolwork, cleaning, and evidently even eating. Who knew that having a blog was a diet plan? If only it worked.

I noticed that some of the blogs had other backgrounds and other websites in the upper left corner. I started looking around online for other options. I was looking for a background that had these qualities:

1.No pink.
2.No bows.
3.No flowers.
4.Looked like it might be dress material, or have elements that could be used in clothing. I wanted to keep the header.
5.Had some green and hopefully some light blue.

One site, shabbyblogs.com, has good stuff which looks very scrapbooky. Not that this is bad, but there was plenty of pink, bows, and flowers. Even the background named after Jane Austen, which was a stack of old books and was actually kind of cool had…

drumroll, please....

- - Drumroll.mp3 Found at abmp3 search engine

a rose.

So I then found hotbliggityblogs, and after scrolling thru 21 pages of backgrounds, finally found one I can live with. I am evidently very picky. But this one has buttons and ribbons, and the colors would be appropriate for a woman to wear in Ms. Austen’s day. It’s female without being girly. I will probably be messing around with it still, so if this looks different every time you decide to check in, don’t worry. It’s the same blog, just under construction.

Idolin' away

I have never been a fan of American Idol. The only time I watched the show before this year was accidentally at the end of Season 2. I wanted Ruben Studdard to win, and later I found out that he did.

If only I could do that with my lottery tickets.

I just wonder if the classic musicians, the ones the “Idols” cover, which are some of the musicians with the longest careers, would have made it on American Idol. The Rolling Stones or Elton John, for instance. The show is really only looking for marketability, not necessarily overall musicianship. Would David Bowie have made it to Hollywood week? Henry Rollins? Iggy Pop? All talented (in my opinion), original musicians.

This year, I was suckered into the maelstrom. At least it took nine years to pull me in. I kept watching this year because of Crystal Bowersox, Siobhan Magnus, and a woman named Lilly who amazingly did not make it to the top 12. They are all original and non cookie cutter contestants. Okay, and maybe Casey James’ hair. Or for that matter, the rest of him.

But after this week’s episode, my short lived hallucinatory episode of Idol fandom has ended. The reason? The cold sore that is Tim Urban will not go away.

For his song for Rolling Stones week, out of a song list spanning decades, he chose a song about a girl who is under his thumb and does whatever he wants. AND he made it into a bad reggae song. Jane Austen would not approve. And neither do I. I probably had more flames erupting out of my head than all of the 3D dragons in the world.

During his performance of an Anita Baker song, he seemed to forget to blink. A coworker of mine thought he looked like a monkey. Yet he stays, week after week. He wasn’t even chosen for the top 24, yet came back cuz another contestant dropped out. Didi Benami, who has at least a modicum of talent and a cool first name, went home. Michael Lynche, who has more talent, persona, and personality in his little finger, almost did. America (at least the part that votes for these contestants) keeps letting Tim Urban stay. America, the beautiful. Somewhere between one shining sea and the other shining sea lie Tim Urban’s dimples.

So my Idol time is over. I'm done. Good luck, Mama Sox. May the Austen force be with you.

And maybe next time, I’ll actually say what I really think.

Will you be my friend?

I'm cleaning up the right side by moving some stuff into the blog archive instead.  Though I don't have a Facebook page (and evidently I need one for Lars to have a dogbook page, I checked), there are some other sites on which I'm registered.  So if you want to be my friend or casual acquaintance, then follow me on this blog.  Just kidding.  You don't have to follow me here to be my casual acquaintance.  You could also join me here:


If you knit or crochet: 
http://www.ravelry.com/

user name:  ddlikestoknit

this one has some cool groups on it.  you can also keep track of your knitting books, projects, and supplies.  I haven't attempted yet the daunting task of entering all my supplies, but it will be useful to finally have everything recorded in one place.


If you read (hopefully Jane Austen, of course):
http://www.goodreads.com/

username: ddlikestoread

I also haven't entered in all my books, but if I had this tool earlier, maybe I wouldn't own 3 copies of The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.  There are also really great groups on this site, such as the Gilmore Girls group (which focuses on reading the immense amount of literature mentioned on that show).   Though Ms.  Austen is not very well represented on this list, I still have read enough of the titles throughout my lifetime to put me on Rory level.  That's an accomplishment to brag about.  I think.


If you listen to music:
http://www.lastfm.com/

username: ddlikesmusic

No description necessary.  It's got music.  Really.

Facebook (or lack thereof)

I am always surprised by people's reactions when I say I don't have a Facebook page.  I have decided upon a stock answer:

I am ridiculously shy and socially inept.

I also unplug.  Meaning that when the television, the computer, the microwave, the toaster, etc.  are not in use, they are unplugged to save the phantom energy.  In other words, we do not always have to be plugged in to everything. 

I don't like my picture being taken, and I am not sure I understand why I should plaster it all over the internet.  This blog is for me, and I have kept it going more than most journals I have kept. I've found that I like it.  I know people read it, and that's great.  I hope you continue doing so.  But I have no wish to get the most friends or followers.  Or even a lot, really.  That's why I haven't bothered with a hit counter for this.  After all, Ms. Austen only wrote letters, and very few pictures remain of her.

There is a Dogbook, a Facebook for dogs.  I have been thinking about Lars having his own page.  I mean, if a five year old child can have a Facebook page, than my dog can.  For those of you with cats, there is probably a Catbook, though I haven't heard of one.  It should be called Petbook, so that exotic pets can talk about how many friends they have too.

April is Script Frenzy Month!

Last November was National Writing Month. I started a story about Leila the Dragon but have no idea where the journal ended up. At least I finally found my cell phone from the last time I lost it.

Now the same group is running a Script Frenzy in April, to write a movie/TV script, graphic novel, etc.


So I’m going to tackle the movie I’m always talking about. The one with my boy John. The one that puts him in a Jane Austen book. My favorite movie, which actually hasn’t been made yet. Of course, I still have to finish this term, so I may be actually pushing the frenzy off til May.


The basic plot (and I’m considering this copyrighted cuz it’s here in this blog) is based on Persuasion, the Jane Austen novel featuring a hero named Anne Elliot who is a little older than most of Ms. Austen’s heroines, at close to 30. She is persuaded by her family/friends to refuse a marriage proposal as a young girl because the young man “has no prospects”. In other words, they consider him a loser. Of course he isn’t, and ten years later shows up successful, and still attractive. Unlike most of Ms. Austen’s lead characters, Anne Elliot’s father is minor nobility, and was at one time rich but has not managed his money carefully and so the family needs to economize. They move to Bath since it is cheaper to look like a big spender.  Bath is a city which Anne, the only level headed person in the whole family, does not like because everyone there is basically on a holiday.  They sublet the family estate to Captain Wentworth’s brother in law, which is how Captain Wentworth comes back into the picture.  Of course, he realizes Anne is still sterling quality and they are happy ever after. 


Switch to 15-20 years ago…

Anne Elliot grew up in a family headed by a famous singer a la Barry Manilow type. She meets a young waiter who claims to be an actor. The family frowns on the romance, because he “has no prospects”. Fast forward to today. Due to alcoholism and a manager that has been siphoning off money, Anne’s father is forced to take a nightly performance engagement in….

you guessed it:

Vegas.

In the meantime, Nick Wentworth has become a successful actor (you know who). I named him Nick since in the Sure Thing, while John and what’s her name are hitching cross country and she is pretending to be pregnant to get rides, he states the baby should be named Nick. There’s John's reference to his previous movies (see post on 03/02).

The trick will be to flesh out some of the secondary characters in a way that stays true to Ms. Austen but makes them more accessible to modern audiences, and maybe a bit more nuanced.  Anne's older sister, Elizabeth, is very focused on appearances, as is Baron Elliot, which is why Anne is not very valued in her family (she is not beautiful to their standards and doesn't think superficial things are as important as they do).  Elizabeth currently is a model.  Catalog shoots with aspirations of grandeur.  Just a touch of pathetic, actually.  Dreams that never actually came true, though she fancies they have.

One thing I do know:  Anne will not be played by a skinny tall beautiful actress.  Jane Austen did not look like Anne Hathaway.

Knitting Books that Lars thinks I should have

Knitting Art: 150 Innovative Works

Knitknit

Paper Metal and Stitch

Unexpected Knitting

Stitch Alchemy

That's all, folks!

The official National Women's History Month is now over, but in reality every month is women's history month.  I'm going to close it out with the artist who has been displayed all month, Elizabeth-Louise Vigee-Lebrun (1755-1842).  She is one of the most successful painters of all time, yet I had never heard of her before this month.  She studied with her father and also by practicing painting in the style of the great artists of her time (her self-portrait is modeled on a famous painting by Rubens), married another painter with the last name of lebrun (though he doesn't matter), was the official painter for Marie Antoinette which enabled her to be one of the first women to be admitted into the French art academies, and escaped France just before the revolution and traveled extensively painting.  She painted mainly portraits, painted about 1000 paintings during her lifetime, and also trained other painters, including her daughter, though her daughter died before she did. 

Peace Bringing Back Plenty (1783)

Picture on left:

Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat (after 1782)

on right:

Marie Antoinette and Her Children (1788)