Exhausted

Working in the evening while also taking care of a toddler all day can be a bit draining.  That being said, I am on break and the stress of getting a book read in a few days while also working and taking care of a toddler is gone... yay!

Until August...

he is so adorable... I am not bias

While on vacation, I tend to watch movies during the day... something I cannot do usually during the Semester and so I revel in it during the Summer.

What did I watch today?

When the Levees Broke

It is a four part documentary about Hurricane Katrina and if you've not see it... watch it, it is amazing.  I had the privilege of visiting New Orleans in February of 2005.  I remember the excitement I felt when I realized I finally had the opportunity to visit a city I dreamed of traveling to since I was young.  It was amazing and I had a lovely time looking at old buildings, soaking in the living history of music, and of course coffee and beignets at Cafe Du Monde. I remember a group of us (I was there for work) went out to dinner after a day of meetings and found ourselves in a neon lit Bourbon Street club at around midnight (it was drag queen night) and the performers were fabulous. We had such an amazing night, but apart from the glitz, the touristy feel of Bourbon Street... we walked the French Quarter and stared at the beautifully designed old houses... I loved New Orleans, I still do.  

Fast forward to January 1st 2009. I accompanied my parents to a football game in New Orleans, but we stayed outside the city and on our way in... I saw the creepy remnants of Six Flags and the FEMA trailers where people still lived and I was heartbroken. The documentary is powerful...and it illustrates the level of suffering and the ability to endure that makes New Orleans such an asset to American culture.  

History vs. Popular Thought

I will never understand the genuine (not joking...because joking is one thing) disdain for the French with the excuse that they were somehow cowards militarily...I realize it generates from a complete lack of knowledge of history, but even without looking at their prowess in the late 18th and early 19th centuries...the French fought in both world wars, people died, people were tortured and risked everything... and to diminish that is inappropriate and disrespectful. Adam found a disgusting "memorial day menu" at a restaurant where they used their menu to pretty much crap on French people and its evident that the person who wrote this menu has no concrete understanding of French history at all.  We should never debase those who fought alongside our own troops to free Europe from such a devastating period...French citizens and members of the military consistently fought against the occupation and died for it... anyone who honestly treats those people's sacrifice as lesser when they struggled against oppression on their own soil should take a moment to cherish the fact that they've never had to experience what it was like to be occupied by a foreign force. Other countries in Europe were occupied... look at Austria and Belgium and how their populations also responded to the Nazi threat... it was harrowing and horrifying for so many people, an experience we have no relation to at all.

550,000 people military and civilian died from France in WWII... that is not a cowardly sacrifice and we should never degrade or diminish the suffering of someone else because we think our guns were bigger/better....thats horrible.

Some of the destruction in France during WWII

I forgot to mention the over two thousand French soldiers who gave their lives to help us here during the American Revolution.

Side Projects

I wrote a book review of Diane Setterfield's Bellman & Black

See it Here

It is Late.

Officially on break after a pretty long and eventful Spring Semester. I am glad of it, I think a few more weeks of the chaos would have done me in. After surviving and obtaining a 4.0, I can breathe a bit, attempt to get into PhD programs and just do less...lol.

I did stay up until almost 3 AM watching Jane Austen. I always think to myself after watching any early 19th century film...that I would have so much liked that style of clothes better HAH.
I have no clue why, you wouldn't dare catch me in a dress now, but something about the light fabrics, the capped sleeves, and the empire waist... appeals to me.

Also, Aunt Petunia is in the older version of Persuasion....I prefer that one, I do not know why... I rather like the newer one done by the BBC a few years back, but...ehhh I really like the older version for some reason. 

Wow it is late and I have a five year old's bday party to attend tomorrow. 

In a Moment of Procrastination...

Every big reader has an obsession book or set of books...the one they revisit, go over and over again...begin to analyze and mine is Harry Potter.
It is funny because when Harry Potter the series first emerged on the scene I scoffed at it and refused to read it, after all I was an adult and these books were for 10 year olds.
I have since got over that hump and acknowledge my full obsessive love of the books.

I have my own wand, scarf, and socks even.... so yea.... there is that.

Today, in an attempt to avoid reading about the doom and gloom poetry of medieval France, and because my son is watching Goblet of Fire, I thought about something that struck me as odd in the Fourth book.

The Goblet of Fire in all its glory!

In the fourth Harry Potter book, the plot setup follows the occurrence of the Triwizard Tournament, an event that promotes wizard relations and friendship through placing three school aged wizards through a number of mentally challenging and dangerous tasks...the winner gets the triwizard cup and a cozy thousand gallion prize...not bad for facing dragons, weird sphinx riddles, and scary merpeople.  My conundrum begins when underaged wizards including Fred and George Weasley attempt to enter their names in the tournament (there was an age limit placed due to the dangerous nature of the tasks) and everyone cheers them on and thinks is a gas, but when Harry Potter's name is called (the fake professor moody places his name in the cup in order to set up an elaborate plan to revive Lord Voldemort), everyone turns on him and treats him like dirt, even his best friend Ron (who is jealous mind you).  Just made me wonder, is it Potter's own personal fame that caused most of Hogwarts to turn on him or is it just kids being kids.

Nevertheless, it does not really matter.   This all comes from my own avoidance of work lol.