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     These days, we're always being told to simplify.  Simplify your life, simplify your wardrobe, etc.  While not all of the articles which preach the message of simplification offer completely practical, praiseworthy, or necessary advice (like those "get rid of all your clothes and buy all new ones and just have a uniform... for everything... with basically no exceptions; where's the fun and personality in that?), there is still a lot to be said for the general idea.  We live a very complicated life, and there are little things that we can do to make a huge difference overall.      For instance, I have decided to cleanup my Facebook.  I don't plan to start unfriending people left and right, but I do plan to "unlike" a ton of pages.  Why?  If I remember correctly, "liking" a page wasn't a big deal.  The only result I remember is that it would show up on my "about" page that I liked coffee, U2, hedgehogs, etc....

Staring out the window to see gray skies, grayish rain, gray pavement, and gray airport stuff is actually really relaxing and soothing to the eyes after an all-nighter. Hangin' in an empty gate is the best way to kill time at the airport.  You can mutter to yourself and make jazz hands without creating a scene and annoying other people.  (The jazz hands are a non-negotiable if Spotify decides you're going to listen to "Zoot Suit Riot.") Pulling an all-nighter before flying is only a problem when you get to the right terminal 2.5 hours until boarding.  So much for a relaxing book.  Here's when the whole "screens stop you from sleeping" is actually a good thing. The B Terminal of Dulles is the best.  End of story. The Jawa Sandcrawler things that take you from the baggage claim to Terminal D don't look as much like Jawa Sandcrawlers from the outside as they feel from the inside.  It is with great sadness that I write this. Those people who wear...

When it's "only" 2am and none of your friends are on Facebook, the time has come to whisper, "We're not in college anymore, Toto." Mint-flavored Turkish Delight is truly terrible, unlike the rose-flavored kind, which is definitely delightful. Packing at this hour is maybe not the best idea, but it's definitely better than packing an hour before you need to leave the house-- which I have done twice before. Don't do it.  Just don't. A Royal Christmas gets a thumbs-up from me.  It's kind of everything I wanted to see in  The Prince and Me but didn't-- almost.  I mean to delve into this more in my continually-being-added-to-and-edited cheesy Christmas movie series of posts. But if you are at all into Hallmark movies, or chick flicks that involve a tiny and made-up country, by all means watch this movie. Reading a bit of a Turkish fairy tale today made me wonder: the Magic Carpet in Disney's Aladdin ... is the carpet even in the o...

       As I have mentioned in my "About" page, I began this blog nearly a month ago for the purpose of getting back into writing.  I am very happy to say that this blog, coupled with the toddler I nanny, have definitely helped me get my mojo back!  The proof is in the fact that I was up until 4am last night because I had too many ideas that I had to get onto paper/hard drive before I lost them.  This is the first time in way too long that this has happened.  This used to be nearly every night of the week: I spent many nights in high school working on my stories by the dim, dim light of the alarm clock so my parents wouldn't know I was still awake.  I have spent much of the last few years taking things in, researching completely random stuff, but now things are finally coming out.  I'm not going to say that I'm working on the great American novel, because that's a bit of a stretch.  The important thing is that I'm doing...

(Pun naturally intended)      The other night I opted for an audiobook instead of music as I made my dinner.  The audiobook was, of course, a collection of Grimms' Fairy Tales.  As I ate, I did something I knew I should have done a long time ago: started making a list of all the tales I know I've read.  I realized I can only clearly recall fewer than 80 of the 210 easy-to-find-in-English tales.  Of the several hard-to-find-in-English, I can recall two, but that's a higher percentage.  (Side note: I need to get me a copy of the Jack Zipes edition, as his DOES have these tales that for some odd reason did not make it in the English copies until the twenty-first century.  One of those stories was very long, but really good!  I have no idea why it didn't make it!  I mean, yeah, there were princesses marrying animals and having offspring with the said animals, but that's hardly news in the fairy tale world.)    ...

     With only 19 days left to the year, we have already begun seeing all the memes and all the posts that serve no purpose other than to "year-shame," as it were.  You know the type-- the same thing happened last year.  I cannot say I am a fan of these, partly because I get so sick of seeing them by the 4th appearance of such a meme, and partly because I feel that they are not only useless, but harmful.  We hear people talk about "kindness," and "gratitude," about "positivity" and "self-care."  So tell me, how does this year-shaming reflect any of these popular virtues?      I am not contradicting the fact that some years are more difficult than others.  This is not my point.  My point is that there is a difference between honesty (admitting that you have had a genuinely rough year due to illness, the death of a loved one, etc.) and purposeful, intentional, peer-pressure-driven complaining to the world a...

     This post is a hodgepodge of random recommendations. Try something new!  Or don't. Pomegranate Leinenkugel is the bomb.  It's light, but not watery.  It has a fruit flavor that is neither overpowering, nor sickly-sweet. Wegmans' coconut shrimp with Thai basil sauce is also amazing.  It is absolutely scrumptious, and the sauce is spicy but not insanely spicy.  Tip: it's also a little cheaper than their shrimp cocktail, oddly. Last night I watched a few episodes of Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath .  It was a fascinating show, but also terrifying.  I previously had zero knowledge of Scientology and presumed that it was a Christian denomination (I mean, they call themselves a church, so I thought that was a fair assumption), but watching the show, they consider man the highest being, and there is neither prayer nor worship.  I am not sure how that makes a religion.  It is very interesting to watch this docu...

Dear Readers,      This post is to announce that in the near future, I plan to begin a slew of posts regarding none other than cheesy Christmas romance movies: Lifetime, Hallmark, Netflix, the works.  Last night I started putting together a list of all the cheesy Christmas movies I've seen that were made in the last 12-ish years.  The list is 14 titles long-- and counting!  I plan to give summaries, totally judge the movies, and hopefully analyze them as if they were pieces of literature.  I have also begun a post on the worst chick-flick I have ever seen.  Sadly, I realized that to make it anywhere near the analysis I have planned in my head, I will have to watch the movie yet again, so that one might not be ready before Christmas.      Some of the titles I will talk about are: The Spirit of Christmas The 12 Dates of Christmas My Santa      Get ready for the sappiness, the cheesines...

     I hope the title of this post isn't too misleading, since I do not at the moment intend to write a lengthy post on the topic subject of Star Wars as a coming-of-age story.  One could write a whole book on this, and I'm sure somebody already has.  Rather, I am interested to gather some statistics.      About three years ago, it became clear to me that there are young people in this country who somehow never saw Star Wars until college or later, and when they saw it professed that they didn't really get it.  It made me sit back and think about how everyone I knew who was a Star Wars fan-- or who at least had some sort of place in his heart for the films-- had seen it for the first time as a child.  Is this a common theme, or is it only a coincidence?  Parts of the story only make sense as I rewatch the films for the first time in ten years, so why do they especially resonate with the young?  Clearly, Luke ...

     This post is a test.  I will possibly keep this as my actual blog, but maybe not.  I am trying to figure out what to name it, how the design should be, etc.      Hang in there.