News! Awards! All the Good Stuff!!

First off, do you read lit blogs? (hint: if you're reading this, you read at least one!) Do they impact your book buying decisions? If so, please head over to the fabulous Literary License and take this survey to tell the world! :)

Secondly, I get a slew of press releases and information people want me to pass on to you in my inbox. I don't actually have the opportunity to post about them very often, but I thought that some of you might be interested in this one as I know quite a few of you enjoy Masterpiece! PBS Engage is featuring Masterpiece's award winning executive producer, Rebecca Eaton, as part of an ongoing series called 5 Good Questions. If you have questions for Ms. Eaton, please visit this post and leave a comment with your question! This is a new to me blog, but it looks pretty fantastic.

Next, the wonderful S.Krishna tagged me for this award. You have to earn the award by answering a bunch of questions, so here goes:

7 Things I Did Before:(the wording on this really confuses me...does it mean 7 Things I've done? 7 things I used to do?)
1) Taught English in Japan
2) Got abandoned at the Mongolian airport
3) Lost money in Las Vegas
4) Volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club
5) Stood in the longest line of my life to see Darlton at Comic Con
6) Dressed up as a maiko
7) Worked as a telemarkter

7 Things I Do Now:
1) Read
2) Blog
3) Watch some TV--I didn't really start watching TV until I lived in Japan...go figure.
4) Work with adults in improving their reading skills
5) Contemplate my future
6) Sponsor children through Compassion International
7) Go to church

7 Things I Want to Do:
1) Go back to Japan for a visit or maybe even for a longer period of time
2) Visit Australia and all of my wonderful friends there
3) Speak another language fluently
4) Write a book
5) Study more history
6) Make a positive contribution towards literacy
7) Surrender more fully to God's will

7 Things That Attract Me to the Opposite Sex:
1) Love for God
2) Intelligence
2) Depth
4) Humor
5) Compassion
6) Down to earth
7) Integrity

7 Favorite Foods
1) Potatoes
2) Suki Yaki
3) Yaki Niku
4) Teppanyaki
5) Lasagna
6) Shabu Shabu
7) Stuffing

7 Things I Say Most Often
1) Cool
2) For sure
3) Yeah
4) Have a wonderful day
5) Yay
6) What?
7) I agree.

Okay, seven is too high a number for these things!

And finally, the delightful Sheri of A Novel Menagerie gave me this award!

This award was created by Joanne of Book Zombie for the blogs you can't wait to see updated. Look, I have at least 20 blogs in my favorites folder, so in attempt to keep some mystery here, I'm only going to share 4 of them with you!

The Book Lady's Blog -- Rebecca is such a great writer! She always has something interesting to say as well.

S.Krishna's Books -- she loves chick lit, other good books, and LOST. Seriously cool girl!

Caribou's Mom -- I just love Wendy. I think she's wonderful and she has great taste in books.

She is Too Fond of Books -- Dawn's blog has such great warmth and she shares about so many different books. I think she's tops.

That's it!

Is Your City Literate?

I came across this ranking of the most literate of the big cities in the United States and was sad to see that the major cities near me did not make the list, though my hometown of St. Louis most certainly did! (yay for St. Louis!)

The top ten are:

Minneapolis and Seattle (tie)

3. Washington, D.C.

4. St. Paul

5. San Francisco

6. Atlanta

7. Denver

8. Boston

9. St. Louis

10. Cincinnati and Portland, Ore. (tie)

Read the article to see how they ranked. What do you think? I think it's interesting that in cities with a high number of bookstores, online book buying is also high. I also think I need to move to one of these cities. Southern California....what's up?!?

Banned Books Week Sept. 28-Oct. 3

Banning books is a terrible practice.

I couldn't be more against it, because I believe in freedom. I believe books are the gateway to understanding, and I don't think one free person has the right to tell another free person what to read.

I'm against it because I want to read what I want to read. In the past, people wanted to read the Bible and let others read it, too. They were burned at the stake, tortured, and imprisoned trying to accomplish this goal. I'm so thankful for their hard work and sacrifice now, though, because I can read the Bible. Books of all kinds are gateways into another world. They destroy barriers and help us see each other as just a little more human.

I might not personally choose to read all of the books on the banned books list, but the absolute glory in that is that it's my choice.

The freedom to read what you want is a wonderful gift. Let's read what we want this week and live dangerously by reading a book someone wanted to ban...

Lots of other bloggers are doing much better jobs of celebrating this week...reading a book a day or spotlighting books on the list. Be sure to check some of them out. (If you are doing something, leave me a comment and I'll link to you)
Sandra at Fresh Ink Books has a survey.
Devourer of Books is spotlighting some books off the list with reviews.
Just a Reading Fool is reading and reviewing a book a day.
Bluestocking is reviewing three books off the list.
A Reader's Respite is also highlighting books off the list, including this one.

I'm Enraged!!

Most of the time I try to stay positive on the blog, and that's because I try to stay positive in life. But sometimes I read things and I can't see straight, I'm so enraged!

Ok, first of all, I promise I'm not a raving feminist. But I am a woman and I do not believe that women have equal standing in the world. I've talked about this before in regards to literature written by women, etc. I just read two very important news items that enforce this truth and make me grateful for just how much we do have in the United States.

Afghanistan is seriously messed up but nothing proves it more than imprisoning women because they were victims of rape. I mean, really? It's hard to believe such injustice is possible.

Russia has deeper problems than the ones we're currently facing. Apparently, Russians believe sexual harrassment is necessary to ensure the survival of the human race. Oh, really? Because we're having a huge shortage of births in the world, so the best possible answer is to force women to have sex they don't want to have. To make them think they must have it to keep a job. For the pleasure and satisfaction of men.

I read a really great book earlier this year that touched upon this issue. In Somebody Else's Daughter by Elizabeth Brundage, one of the men owned a porn company. He struggled over how he felt about women throughout the book--lying to his daughter about what he did, but at another point in the book, saying men were superior because if there was a war, they would win. Later on in turn, his daughter was sexually molested by a man that may well have been one of his customers.

And that's the point isn't it? The things we do...they are not in isolation. We lie and the effects are felt deeper and further than we know. We cheat on our taxes and someone else ends up on the street. We give a donation, and a village is saved. Our kind word makes someone's day and they share a kind word etc. and so on.

I'm as guilty as the next person of this..of seeing only how things affect me of not realizing that my life, my actions..they are part of a bigger whole.

Would that the men raping and imprisoning women or bending them to their will would see it, too.

(HT: Children Foreign Policy Blogs)

Just One of those Things...

For some reason, this reminds me of those churches that give iPods for attendance.

Heartbreaking Story from Myanmar

If you have a roof over your head and family to love, you are so very very very blessed.

This, I cannot fathom.

Please pray for all the broken hearts and lives.

(btw, tomorrow is review day. I have like three book reviews and a website review coming at ya!)

About the Economy

In many ways, I'm like a little kid, I don't really like going to bed all that much, though I love sleeping.

So last night, just when I was about to go to bed, I decided to read an article about the economy. Well, the basic idea was that the world is about to collapse, and now's the time to get yourself to a farm and learn how to survive, baby! I have these creepy moments in life where I think this is all about to happen...call them some glimpses of spiritual vision...where I realize just how much we rely and depend upon the temporal. (I'm not saying I'm psychic or anything like that, I'm saying I have moments when I think I can see more clearly through to the heart of life--past all the clutter that normally clouds my vision. I hope you know what I'm talking about)

So, I do think it could happen. That the economy would collapse and so would technology and we will be plunged back into some sort of dark age. I've enjoyed this fictional series by Terri Blackstock about this happening. Of course, in the books, the family conveniently lives by a lake. Guess where I live? The desert! I have no idea how to survive! I completely rely upon technology for so many things, that I'm sure if this were to happen, I'd be one of the first to die off.

I do wonder what would happen if something like that happened...where we lost electricity or something like that. I think it would be terrifying, and yes I think it would be best to live on a farm near a lake.

Whenever I read tales of survival I always wonder if I have that in me...do I have it in me to survive something very very hard? Does this country? Our constant instant gratification and lack of practical skills makes me think the answer is no. In the past, yes, but now? No.

So I had to hunt down a bunch of articles on the economy to see what was up last night and then spend some time worrying because even though it doesn't help at all, I'm amazingly good at it. I don't understand economics, but I do understand reaping what you sow.

Thoughts?

Nothing But Red

Do you remember hearing about the honor killing of Du'a Khalil last year? It was broadcast on CNN, a young seventeen year old Iraqi girl being killed for bringing shame to her family. It was especially chilling because people just stood there catching it on their cell phones. It was horrific because it was a modern stoning...the kind of thing we like to think has gone out of fashion. It was heartbreaking because Jesus wasn't there to say, he who is without sin cast the first stone.

Joss Whedon wrote a moving and memorable post about it and a project was born to raise funds and awareness for the group Equality Now. You can read about Nothing But Red here.

If you were born into and living in a different culture Du'a could have been you, your sister, your daughter, your friend. We need to stand with the oppressed women of the world and fight for them.

On Memoirs

When I see a book that looks interesting (good cover, nice title), but discover it's a memoir, I automatically cringe.

I don't know why but this type of book simply does not appeal to me. It's not that I'm not interested in the lives of real people, in fact it may be that I am interested in the real lives of real people. I've now read about a couple of more memoirs that were completely imaginary and I can't help but wonder if the genre will survive under such circumstances.

One of my favorite books, of course, is a fake memoir. But at least I knew that going in. :)

How about you all? What are your feelings on this topic?

Duch

I clicked on this title on yahoo's homepage.
"Khmer Rouge Torture Chief Weeps at Killing Fields"

It intrigued me. Was it for real? Could someone who had been responsible for so many senseless deaths truly feel remorse now?

While reading, I discovered this little tidbit.
"Detained in 1999 and now a Christian.."

And I thought, whoa!! Now a Christian?!?

So I did a brief bit more research and discovered that yes he's now a Christian.

Sort of like our own modern day Paul. I'm embarrassed I didn't know about this before.

What do you think?

Bits'n'pieces Around the Web

If you haven't noticed, you can now access the blog by going directly to http://www.myfriendamysblog.com If you wish, please update your links. But if you don't, that's ok too, because if you go to the old address it will still bring you here.

I feel all cool and important now that I've lost the blogspot. Just kidding.

RC at strangeculture blog wrote an excellent post on the shocking death of Heath Ledger. You can read it here. I especially liked/related to this bit:

"Sometimes when celebrities die, even though we don't know them, we have formed a unique intimacy with them over time. Even though they wouldn't miss you if you died, you certainly miss them, are shocked that death would take them, or intrigued at how these people and the people around them are effected by death."

At the risk of becoming Brody Harper's personal advertising page, Connersvine has a blog now.

If you're a parent, Kat is hosting Parent University on Thursdays. This week the topic is teaching your child faith. It looks to be good, so check it out!

And, over at Inspired to Action, we will be starting a book club reading my January non-fiction read, Justice in the Burbs.

Soooooo....don't say I never told you anything.

Sometimes it takes 93 years to get a Christmas card...

So that's what happened to all my mail!

There's a novel in there somewhere.

11 Month Old Baby Dies of Rape

Laura (of TexasinAfrica and one of our wonderful Inspired to Action writers) made me aware of the devastating situation for women in the Democratic Republic of Congo in this I2A article.

This news article headline made me almost vomit.

Makes you want to get on your knees and pray for a solid day doesn't it? Why not do it?

Bangladesh.....

On the river island of Majher Char near the southern coast, survivors said all bar half a dozen of the island's 70 children had been taken by the storm. Many of these bodies will never be found.

It breaks my heart to read about the situation in Bangladesh right now. I hope you'll stay updated and in prayer for the poorest of the poor in this country.

ETA: If you need a name to pray for, please pray for Shampa. Her Compassion project has been affected by the storm.

Trafficking at Home

If you don't think the sex slave trade is a problem in the West, think again.

Finnish Shooting

I admit, I was surprised to hear of a school shooting happening in another country.

What do you think of the statement, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people?"

I have two thoughts on this topic.

1) True. There was an incident in Japan when an eleven year old schoolgirl killed a classmate for making fun of her in internet chatrooms. Apparently, she used a small knife.

2) Guns make it easier for people to kill people.

About that Radiohead release....

Yuck.

I know, I know. I shouldn't be surprised that most people wanted something for nothing. But it still sort of disgusts me.

WGA Strike

I've been semi following the news about the Writers Guild of America strike. It's interesting to me, because let's face it...without writers we don't have television shows or films. They have to start somewhere. Also interesting is that in current times, writers for tv shows can be a bit like stars themselves if they write for a well loved or cult show. Writers keep blogs for some series as well. (I usually read the Grey's blog for example)

Apparently this strike has to due with writers not receiving any residual income from downloaded shows or other alternative ways these shows are sold. Which, to tell you the truth, I can understand why they're on strike. I think they should receive something if the studios are receiving something. I mean, they even gave up their proposed increase on DVD sales to try to get a deal. I guess ultimately, I don't really understand the hold-out. Fair is fair.

The unfortunate thing is that this strike will affect far more than you and me missing our favorite shows. Once the scripts run dry, quite a lot of people will be out of work. Apparently, the late night shows are already dark. (I don't watch them, so I don't know this for myself) Heroes is contemplating wrapping up the season in December and horror of horrors 24 only has 8 episodes written so far. All of the other people who work to bring us entertainment will have nothing more to do. And we are going to receive an onslaught of reality television and game shows.

Obviously this is the point of the strike. The writers need to show just how indispensable and worthy of the extra income they are. But the fact that it affects the jobs and lives of so many other people makes me uncomfortable.

So then, darling blog readers what are your thoughts on unions and strikes? Do you feel the writers have no ground to stand on? Or are you fully backing them? Or do you just not care?

Fire, Fire, Fire

It smells like fire and smoke here. Even in the building. I hope I don't burn down.

The winds started this weekend, for me, at about 1:30 am. Strong, gusty winds that wouldn't let me sleep very well. I woke up Sunday feeling all congested and sick again...I blame the wind. I think it stirred all that dust and junk into my respiratory system.

So I feel sick. And people are losing their homes in alarming numbers. One headline read: fire is zero percent contained. Southern California which is at times beautiful is going to be wasteland. And where in the world are all these people going to go?

Trafficking in Florida

I posted about Human Trafficking for the 40 Day Fast and during my debriefing said I would continue to post about it.

I read this news article and learned about another horrific form this terrible crime takes. Children/teens are kept as household slaves within a community that views it as a sort of foster system. It happens in this country.

Please read the article and pray for all of those enslaved.