the arbness of book lists

book lists, i really don't get them. whether it's 32 books that will change your life or 50 incredibly difficult books for extreme readers or the guardian's top 100 books of all time or just the list that my goodreads literary adventures group wants to read in 2014, they're all so subjective. tho' the guardian isn't as far off as the others. i mean, that 50 difficult books list doesn't even include ulysses. not even i, who have had an entire semester-long course devoted only to ulysses and wrote a 25 page paper on it, have finished the damn thing. then there's my own list of the 88 books i read in 2013 (+ 7 harry potter, which aren't on the list). it's not so much subjective as eclectic. and i'm not recommending that anyone else follow it. i just like that goodreads helps me keep track of what i've read. i'd never have remembered reading all those books. hell, at my age, i hardly remember yesterday.

that said, i do love the book lists on brainpickings. they're often recommendations by theme, like this one of 9 books on reading and writing. especially because no. 9, mortimer j. adler's how to read a book, advocates writing in books as you read them (something which i love to do), saying that it's even essential to do so (with apologies to denmark's libraries). or this one, on the year's best books on writing and creativity. or the best children's, illustrated and picture books of 2013.  quality lists, thoughtfully composed, that i like.

my reading right now (and most of the time) is all over the place. i've spent far too long on this nick harkaway angelmaker book. it was recommended by the same bloggy friend who recommended edna farber's marvelous so big, so i had to read it, even if it wasn't the kind of book i'd normally read.  it is very imaginative and well-written, with lovely and unique turns of phrase, and even features some steampunk machinery, which i love, but for some reason, i'm reading it at a snail's pace. and it's not going to help that liz gilbert's signature of all things just arrived via amazon today, as i'm going to want to dive right into that. and i have to, because in ten days, i have a book club meeting where we're going to discuss it (plus it was my idea to read it for the book club, so i'd better have finished it).

how do you decide what to read? do you read more than one book at a time (that's part of my problem)? does the internet get in the way of your reading? or does knitting? i recently listened to an audio book of a danish thriller while knitting but i wonder if that counts as reading? when do you read? i tend to read before going to sleep, but if i'm enthralled by a book, i read whenever i can. i also often read while i'm eating lunch. i also like to read in front of the fire in the evening, that's probably my favorite reading time, but that can also be social, family time, so i don't always get to indulge in that.

what are you reading right now? and what will you read next? will you consult a list?

a case of friday arbness

my head is full of all sorts of random things, so in the interest of clearing it out so i can get on with some important work on a big project, i thought i'd share them with all of you...

~ there was a little dog with an underbite that was always in front of our main street grocery store when i was a kid. i hated that dog. he was terrifying. i think he belonged to one of the checkout ladies. to this day, when we want to indicate displeasure around here, we stick out our bottom teeth and do the "mean dog" face.

~ discussing ideas is probably my favorite thing to do in the whole world. it helps me think things through and get lots more clarity on the ideas. sometimes, i have so many, they jumble up in my head until i write about them or discuss them with others. i'm super lucky to have a variety of people that i can call on when i need to think things through. husband being the main one of them, but there are others. and they know who they are.

~ i got such a chuckle out of reading this tongue-in-cheek review of the new super heroes set with wonder woman and her invisible jet. in the comments you'll see that some of the other readers weren't quite so charmed. to them i say, relax and don't take things so seriously.

~ speaking of LEGO, this new blog is shaping up to have some intelligent views on our favorite plastic brick. ok, so there are only two posts so far, but both were well-argued and obviously carefully researched.

~ i'm so enjoying my kerosene fragrance sample tin. it's fun trying a new scent every day! i'm wearing copper skies today which, despite its lush description of amber and tobacco, is definitely not me. it starts off with a dusty, powdery toilet paper kind of vibe and deepens into the kind of sickly sweet scent of a chennai slum. i will allow that it probably smells great on someone else with very different chemistry than me. and less memories of sickly sweet chennai slums. kind of amazing how scent can call up memories quite unbidden.

~ our friends at #stuckinplastic reported on some troubling take down notices received by some legographers on red bubble this week. i wonder what the implications of this are on the enormous community of people out there taking photos of minifigs? once we buy them, can't we play with them however we wish?

~ i realized today (yes, i'm a bit slow) that facebook bores the shit out of me.

~ we had this amazing frost all day today (see above photo of of the unicorn sparkle fairy - hey, i made a MOC!). :-) it's the kind of frost that comes from a freezing fog. and it's the first time this winter of ours has had any beauty in it whatsoever. it was a welcome change.

~ it's the child's birthday on sunday. and she's off on a one-day ski trip to sweden at midnight tonight, but will be home to have cake on sunday. i can't believe she's nearly 14.

i think that will about do it, so i shall wish you all an awesome weekend. remember to stop and photograph the frost, will you? and always carry a minifig in your pocket.

arbness

iPhone shot from my train journey to copenhagen the other day.

i'm running on a minimal iPhoto library while my big iMac is in for a big servicing (before its warranty runs out) and i'll admit i feel handicapped by it. i usually start a blog post by knowing what photo will go in it. unless it's a rant. those usually just come right out, photo or no photo. but i have only minor complaints today, no rant, so i give you an equally random iPhone shot. i do love that instagram app.

planet jr. no. 3 seeder

~ it's gotten rather chilly over the past couple of days and i'm missing our warm, sunny days already. there was even frost the past few nights. so i'm back in sweaters and tall socks and not that happy about it. but i'm glad we hadn't gotten out the seeder (above) and planted a bunch of things yet, because the frost would surely have gotten them.

~ there was a dying horse in a pen at sabin's riding lesson last evening. the vet had been out and run all kinds of tests and they couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. but it was clearly in a lot of pain. the vet was going to be coming back at 8 and they would make a decision about whether to put it down. very traumatic experience for the little riding girls to witness. all of them were very upset.

~ one of the joys of living in the countryside is that it's difficult to mouse-proof an old ramshackle house like ours. but i'm happy to report that traps are succeeding where our indoor cat has failed.

~ yesterday, we got our rusty old planet jr. cultivator in the mail from my sister. we'd bought it on eBay, but the seller, being typically americentric (or possibly just unaware that other countries exist), wouldn't ship it to us, so my sis had to be involved. however, that worked out very well, because she filled in some of the crevasses of the package with some fabulous urban decay eyeliners! and now i'm totally sold - urban decay eyeliner rocks. i've got perversion, ransom, binge, electric, stash, mildew and rockstar. with names like those, how can you go wrong?

this is the planet jr. cultivator - one man's rusty bit of metal is another man's treasure.

~ my order of heather moore's fabulous cut out & keep for cloud 9 fabrics is stuck in customs and those jerkies are slow to respond, tho' i provided all of the requested documentation a WEEK AGO.

~ i find it disturbing to convert my life and activities into dollars. a price that seems ok in danish kroner seems really disturbingly high when converted to dollars. i knew gas was expensive, but does it really have to be nearly $11 per gallon?  apparently it does. it makes me want to ride my bike.

~ i think a lot of people are getting fed up with etsy. it seems so flooded these days with crap - either stuff that's not really handmade or stuff that's not really vintage or PDFs of copyrighted material at a deep discount or items using stolen photos. and they're so not choosy about what's on the front page. there was a whole treasury of shipping options on the front page a couple of weeks ago. what? and then another front page treasury which featured a half-used up tin of old children's watercolors (artfully photographed, of course) for $12. really? is that really vintage? and don't even get me started on the people who sells sticks. plain sticks. and the odd tree stump. and then there's the whole fact that they don't take complaints of copying seriously and do anything about them. i did recently put some smaller items in my etsy shop, but i think i may be using just big cartel going forward. if you want to laugh (or perhaps be outraged) about some of the crap that's on etsy, check out regretsy.

and that's all the randomness i've got in me at the moment. i blame it on my allergies. so i'll be wandering off to pinterest now (they claim the app will be here in 5 days, but i'll believe it when i see it).

*  *  *

if you want to read more about our bees, go here.

and if you're hungry for blueberry muffins, go here.

is this arbness, molly?

ok, it's pouring down rain, my stomach's not right, i've got to fix myself and drag myself to the hairdresser, where i'm afraid i have an appointment with the owner of the salon, who answered the phone when i made the appointment and i didn't have the guts heart to say that i wanted anyone but her to do my hair, my tea's getting cold, i haven't wrapped my prezzies for blog camp, i haven't made all of the prezzies i wanted to for blog camp due to strange and possible case of H1N1 or is it influenza A (i forget which it is we're scared of at the moment), the laundry's not done, i'm not packed, tho' i must remember to pack plenty of eyelashes, i'm quite pleased that waists are coming back up a bit on jeans fashion, i actually wanted to write this all as only one sentence, i wonder if my stomach will let me make it through the hair appointment without embarrassment, why yes - i have been listening to sondheim again, i wonder how long its been since i plucked my eyebrows, i can't really decide if i'm feeling better or not but at least a bit of humor is returning...

arbness: on lost planes, the fear of not knowing and which bond catwoman would prefer

i sit here at the computer, frieda on my lap, lying on the red curly sheep fleece pillow that is all of the cats' favorite bed, so it seemed appropriate to use a recent photo i took of another catwoman, this one perhaps much cooler than i am as i sit here, wearing my now beloved norwegian sweater which i found in a second hand store for 50kr, a comfy pair of pants and slouchy warm socks. (how was that for a very long sentence?) catwoman is very cool, canny and fearless. 

i am still voraciously reading every article i can find about the disappearance of that malaysian airlines flight and as i write this, there is still no news. what happened to the plane and all those people? how can a plane just disappear with scarcely a trace in today's connected world? and why is it so fascinating to us? why can't we stand the uncertainty of not knowing what happened and where it is? is it the people who are lost? oddly the articles i've been reading in places like the new york times and the guardian have had little mention of the passengers. is it our own fears of flying? i honestly don't have any, despite having some kind of feeling for years and years that i will die in a plane crash. is it just the 24 hour news cycle and endless access to information, no matter where we are, that has us obsessing over the lack of an answer? why are we riveted by this story? i flew malaysian airlines once, from KL to chennai. the worst part was a long layover in KL and no access to a lounge because none of the star(ve)alliance carriers cooperated on one there. alas, my plane carried me safely to chennai, where i didn't really want to be anyway (it being one of the most uncharming places on the planet). but really, where is james bond when you need him? i'm thinking pierce brosnan is the right bond for this case. it seems like it could somehow be a media-driven thing and that seems right up the alley of the brosnan bond. daniel craig is too deep and dark and mysterious (now that i think about it, maybe he is the right bond for this mystery). i suppose in the end there will be some shallow answer worthy more of roger moore as bond than either brosnan or craig. 

and while we're on the subject of bond, i think catwoman would probably like pierce brosnan as well. wonder woman, on the other hand, i'm not sure...

* * *

a couple of really cool articles on the cinematography of the LEGO movie...

here and here.

* * *

rené redzepi on copenhagen in the guardian.

i take it all back

freehand cut feathers made of maps of south africa by peter slingsby

my mail woman with the unnaturally red hair came knocking on the door today. bearing not one but TWO packages. one a total surprise from the fabulous molly (of arbness fame) of heaven cape town and of bloggy fame in the form of oh for the love of blog and the more recent (and less sweary-y) c is for cape town.  she made feathers from one of her father's maps. for me! feathers, maps, cape town - it couldn't get any better than that. which reminds me that i have some stuff to make for some people via some facebook promise to make stuff for people.

the second package contained the beautiful stitched and felted stones i was lucky enough to snatch up last week from the fabulous lisa of lil fish studios. her work is gorgeous and unique and always beautifully packaged. me, i suck at packaging, but i do enjoy when things are nicely packaged.  i almost hated to open it up, but i couldn't wait to see my beautiful stones. they're just exquisite and this photo doesn't even come CLOSE to doing them justice.

so a big thank you to both of you for completely turning around my grumpy, ranty day.  suffice it to say, it was precisely what i needed on this day which had otherwise started on the wrong side of the bed. thank you!!

assorted arbness and some links to good stuff

i bought a 2013 calendar today. i haven't actually had a paper, real calendar in several years, but i found i wanted one. the electronic version i carry in my phone just isn't the same. maybe i was just feeling old school, but whatever it is, it feels right to start penciling (and i am using pencil) onto the smooth paper. what about you - do you have a real, paper calendar or just an electronic one?

* * *

normally i think mindfulness is a load of fluffy crap, but some of the advice in this post spoke to me.

and i always make my bed.

in fact, i start making it even before i get out of it.

* * *

literature makes you weird. and amen to that.
anything that makes us think outside of our accustomed modes of thought is most welcome.

* * *

interesting piece on etsy on npr (and also on wired). i have my doubts as to how well they actually "investigate" those sellers selling chinese crap. and we know they don't do anything about copycats. and don't even get me started on what they allow as "vintage." and the former CEO's quote about "curating his entire life with handmade" made me throw up a little bit in my mouth. i basically have trouble reconciling the hipster idealism with the actual practice on the site - empty plastic child's paint sets sold as "vintage" and rustic furniture churned out in a factory in indonesia. i'm not convinced that etsy is the answer.

arbness between coughing fits

i haven't got the heart to clean the outside of that window. those are frieda's muddy pawprints on it and i can't bear for them to be gone. not quite yet. i did, however, clean the inside of it, which you probably can't really tell by looking at this photo. maybe in the spring.

if the "recipe" calls for a box cake or store-bought dressing or jello or box pudding, it's not a recipe.

we finally saw star wars: the force awakens today. i enjoyed it, but i wasn't wowed. if you ask me, it all felt a bit too familiar...remote desert-y planet, cute, quirky droid containing a big secret, everyone tries to get their hands on said droid, guy in black helmet with voice modifier in torment, wise-cracking indiana jones type shows up, a visit to an out-of-the way quirky pub run by a woman who is ET's cousin by the look of her,  big battle where against incredible odds, a ragtag fleet defeats the baddies, ending left wide open for continuing sequels. along the way, echoes of lord of the rings with the odd horde of nazis thrown in. it's an odd mish-mash symbolically. highlights? adam driver as kylo ren, that badass rey girl, finn the former stormtrooper and carrie fisher as general leia.  and of course, harrison ford as han solo. there is comfort in familiar things. 

i hadn't had a bad cough in a several years, but i've got one again now. it keeps me from sleeping any appreciable length of time in a row. it gives my stomach muscles a good workout. and i'm very grateful it didn't happen a month ago, because if i'd had to cough like this right after my back surgery i'd definitely have insisted on being taken to the vet to be put down.

that's come up a few times of late.

i spent a lot of 2015 not sleeping enough and it seems to have continued into 2016. i hope to remedy that soon.

numbers 1 and 4 on this list are so much me. i'm going to try to remedy that this year.

arbness and funny things

this is a funny thing i saw on the beach

~ i just heard on the radio that swedes are flocking over to denmark to stock up on alcohol. now, we're used to that, what with their restrictive state-owned liquor stores, but normally, it's not rubbing alcohol. apparently the H1N1 flu scare has gotten to the swedes and they've emptied their own pharmacies of rubbing alcohol and those alcohol-based hand-washing products, so they're coming over to denmark to buy up ours. the guy on the radio said we had plenty as danes had not yet begun to hamster that sort of thing. i love that danish way of putting the squirreling away of things.

my beach creature's shadow

~ i read recently that there is now a drug to "cure" shyness. and you wonder what's next? read some more here. jelica had read this too and we talked about it at blog camp and we concluded that shyness actually serves a purpose and perhaps shouldn't be "cured."

here's my beach creature w/my beloved (and slightly dilapidated) south african havianas

~ snark has now been officially defined and analyzed, by no less than the guardian. i love the guardian. but i think i'll be a bit careful about about being snarky from now on.

my beach creature poses fetchingly by the beach blanket

~ you can get a commodore 64 emulator for your iPhone, for those moments when you're feeling all retro, which, as we know, is very trendy.

~ and speaking of trends, the unemployed just might be the new fashionista trend-setters. at least in san francisco.

~ the maldives are feeling climate change. but will it be enough to call the world to action? i fear the netherlands will have to go before anyone will really pay attention.

~ we're looking at two different farm properties with possibilities. this one and this one. the latter is ready to move in to (tho' lacking a barn for the horse we want to get) and the former has many possibilities, but requires lots of work. hmm. what to do? and how do you decide?