Sunday, August 9, 2009

Autopilot; no control

I realized I was being dumb yesterday. What was throwing me in Doctor Zhivago is, like every other Russian novel I've read, they refer to Yurii by first name/paternal name. I feel so dumb for not realizing it earlier! For those of you lost, it's a Russian deal--instead of giving a child their own middle name, they add a 'ivich' or 'ova' or a few others I don't remember to the father's name and there you have it. What gets added depends on gender and the name. The example that's at the top of my head is 'Ivanova' from 'Ivan'. Sooo. Yeah. I feel like an idiot.

And we had a fair sort of deal for the locale for the last three days. The day I went I was wearing my 'Carl Sagan is my homeboy' shirt, and there were tons of people asking me who he was. When Jackii was eating, the guy sitting across us was grilling me. I told him to look up the television series 'Cosmos'... I told quite a few people that... which they should. It's a real eye-opener. And I guess science isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it's not a straight-out dull-as-ditch-water science documentary. It's actually incredibly interesting, and puts theories like evolution or Einstein's theories into a light that even I can understand. And he doesn't explain it the way you remember your idiot or possibly high science teacher would (ninth grade was hell) he actually makes it interesting. At one point he explains a Japanese war between two samurai clans (one was the Heike, I don't remember the other) and leads that perfectly into an explanation of evolution. Every episode is like that--it flows seamlessly. And he wrote these things himself! Genius is what I think of Carl Sagan. (So, anybody want to buy me the Cosmos DVDs? I don't think the library will let me take them out ever again. I think I used up the allowed times for the rest of my life) But... crud. I was actually going to go further with this, but Dinosaur Comics distracted my train of thought.
Oh wait. Okay, so I admit part of the reason why I've watched it so much is because Carl Sagan's voice puts me to sleep. He's not boring, he just has a very... soothing voice. As my dad puts it, in jest I think, "the voice of an angel". Meg isn't sure what she loves more, "Carl Sagan or the entity that is his voice!" (These things really have been said in my presence. Lots of Sagan love, here.) And, as a pop culture note, you know that movie Contact? I never saw it, but I read the book, which he wrote.
So remember this. Watch Cosmos! AND THANK ME. Nah, 's cool. But do yourself a favor... God, I hate that phrase. When people say it on commercials I just want to punch them.

Ps. Kurt Vonnegut lookalike came by yesterday and bought more tomatoes, and hot peppers. He's spicing life up!
Pps. Today I brought my SP and More Friends of a Mineral Town to work. That's right, in between customers, I was playing a farming game whilst on a farm. I haven't played it since I got Tree of Tranquility, so it was a little strange getting re-used to. Like, when I came home at night--"WHO IS THIS STRANGE MAN IN MY HOME!?" Oh, right, my husband. Huh.
Ppps. Sometimes when I play Tree of Tranquility, I get upset my life will and never could be like that. It's the ideal life for me, I don't know about you guys.

9 comments:

  1. Dear Angela,
    I dearly love you and reading your fascinating thoughts in blog form but you'll have to forgive me for never putting anything intelligent in my comments because you're a smarty mcgee and I am not. See, most of the time, I read your posts and think "This would probably be hilarious/genius if I had any idea what she was talking about". This is no critique of you, of course! Just keep being your own you! But, in case you were thinking to yourself "This Emma chick is stupid. Why do I pretend to like/respect her?", I apologize. That was my purpose, not to insult you but to say sorry I'm such a dummie. Mea Culpa (or however you spell it).

    Sincerely,
    Emma

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  2. Dear Emma,
    yeah right... I'm definitely not valedictorian material : P

    I thought Mia Culpa means my dear? In the V for Vendetta comic when the pedophile preist is getting all hot over who he thinks is an underage girl he says mia culpa... Well, I don't know. I'm not exactly a Latin scholar, here.

    Bolly,
    Angela

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  3. Dear Angela,
    Pfft! Clearly you're too intelligent for class rank. I was #1 and I've never heard of that Russian Paternal name thing. So, what does that tell you?

    Mea Culpa means I'm sorry or Apologies, I believe. I've heard it used that way, at least. Maybe there's different meanings in the different spellings. Then again, "Culpa" means "fault" in Spanish. So, maybe it means "My Bad". Yeah, my dad just said it means "Through my own fault".

    I thought bolly meant "cool" or "awesome" in 20s lingo. It's definitely not a valediction (that's the opposite of salutation. Neat, huh?) But, I suppose you can do as you please...Oh, do I have your permission to use it, or would that make me a copy cat? Speaking of which, I watched this movie that was set in the 30s and in it the guy was like "Wow. He's the cat's pajamas", which was apparently a real phrase they used back then. It makes me giggle, so I thought I'd share.

    I think you're the cat's pajamas!
    Love,
    Emma

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  4. Dear Emma,
    I read it in the beginning of The Brothers K.

    Really? So why was he apologizing? "Sorry I totally think fourteen-year-olds are hot, but I am gonna wreck you"?

    yeah, they also called the back seat of a car the 'struggle buggy'. As in, "That sheba who was the bee's knees caught me in the struggle buggy".

    I think you're the cat's meow!
    Delightfully,
    Angela

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  5. Dear Angela,
    I hope he was apologizing for that! I asked my dad and he said he'd never heard of "Mia Culpa", and he was an altar boy back when they had to know the service in Latin, so I think he's trustworthy! Maybe you should look it up in V for Vendetta again...

    I just like calling things and people the cat's pajamas because, really, Cats...in PAJAMAS?! That's so BOLLY!

    Yours Truly, Madly, Deeply,
    Emma

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  6. Dear Emma,
    I would, but I think bears ate it. Your bears?

    Who puts cats in pajamas? Haha

    Your favorite bearcat,
    Angela

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  7. Dear Angela,
    My bears do enjoy their anarchic graphic novels, it's true! So, maybe. But, to be honest, if they have it, you DON'T want it back!

    Cool people, that's who!

    Your favorite bear owning, cat putting in PJs chick,
    Emma

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  8. Carl Sagan is dead! The 1920's are past! As I, too, someday hope to be!

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  9. Uhm... Hey, Sevvy. Cool that you've decided to follow me : )

    ReplyDelete