Actorgeek

Hey kids, it's another eBay auction! Check it out!

This time around it's makeup (unused, obvs), so if you've been dying for some new eyeshadow and lipstick, or a makeup bag to give your friend for Christmas, then go on over and take a look! And feel free to spread the word around, too.

xoxo
Makeup Girl

y workstudy job often sees me sitting at a computer desk. My bosses don't much mind if I plug in my headphones and listen to the radio via the internet as I work. Since I work from 2:30p until 5p most days, I catch the second half of Talk of the Nation, all of Fresh Air with Teri Gross (don't get me started), and the first half of All Things Considered on WHYY's live feed. Of all those programs, Talk of the Nation is the most inane; but it's better than my own thoughts. It keeps me in the news loop.

Today, however, was not the usual programing. I didn't actually know I would be tuning into the Fort Hood memorial service when I turned on WHYY, but I had a major mailing to finish today so radio it was.

All of the speakers were polished and nearly perfect, with speeches that covered the expected ground in eloquent ways. I was impressed. But President Obama's speech really struck me.

Please do not get me wrong; I am not an Obamiac. I am a die-hard political radical who loves the way he is pointing with a lot of his ideas, but I am not in love with Obama because he's Obama. I campaigned for someone else until the race narrowed and voted for Obama because he agreed to work for things I was hoping to see happen. So this praise is not because I drank the Kool-Aid. The following is due praise.

The speech President Obama gave was truly masterful. It was one of the best speeches I have ever heard. (I did speech and debate in high school; my favorite event was declamation, and I qualified for Nationals with a speech by Barbara Jordan. Doing dec meant reading A. LOT. of speeches. I've read and heard more speeches than the average duck here.) He pulled a few different ideas together with innovative and comforting transitions. I think he addressed the crowd in a respectful way, calming fears and making it clear that he was in awe of what had been given.

This is a speech to be heard. Even if you don't normally like President Obama, this is a speech to be heard. Political Wire posted video and a transcript. I challenge you to let the video load, then close your eyes for the next 14 minutes and just listen. Don't let the images on the screen or anywhere else distract you. Listen to the way this speech flows. This is a beautiful speech.

It is the largest shame that a such beautiful speech came to be because of a terrible choice.

The end of the service was also particularly touching:

t's probably poor form to say "Dash it all, I need a beer to cool off" at half-four in the morning. Oh well. (Cold beer + computer > computer + cold bath.)

In not-beer-related news, I have a number of invites to Gap's Give and Get sale. This particular shin-dig is invite-only and involves getting 30% off at Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Gap Outlet, Banana Republic Factory Stores, and Athleta. Oh, and Gap donates 5% of your total purchase to a charity of my choosing. My choice--from a limited spread--was Care because of their global poverty-busting focus.

The sale runs from November 12 through the 15th, and the coupons are good online or in a retail store.

I took the liberty of emailing them to folks that might want such things. If you aren't interested, then feel free to disregard. If you are interested but didn't get an email, pipe up (and check your spam folder)! Old Navy has lovely, cheap baby things...and 30% on top of that is not so bad at all. GapBaby is pretty cute, too.

My NaNo word-count is really lovely so I'm going to break from The Adventures of Stompy and Pants and do homework.

These sort of lists keep me motivated, but I think they're terribly boring for anyone outside of my head. So I'm going to be really boring for a bit, because I have an obscene number of pages due very soon. This list is actually sorted in the order that I have declared they are due. (Some of these are drafts that are not officially due until December, but I don't like waiting until December when I know life will explode around then. I'm going to do them now, on a sleepy weekend in early November.)

Make-up paper: 0 of 2 pages

Seminar paper: 16 of 30 pages

Women/Art draft: 0 of 10 pages

Titles analysis: 0 of 4 pages

Women/Religion journals: 10 of 90 pages

Women/Religion draft: 0 of 15 pages

Well now.

Women/Art topic: 3 of 1 pages

Grammar self-analysis: 4 of 4 pages

Idiolect paper: 5 of 7 pages

Comparison paper: 4 of 6 pages

I always forget how many of my internet friends are in Mac-land so I'm not sure how many people this will relate to (beyond Jaimi, who probably already knows about it).

Anyway, this year's MacHeist bundle has been posted...and this year, it's all free! I downloaded the stuff I wanted, and I'm hoping for Mariner Write to open up because Bean just doesn't do it for me.

This is not a bad deal. Not a bad deal at all. OH! PS: 5 days only!

Cue clever and devious plan in...three...two...one!

Sometimes the professor is boring so...

Since I put a fair bit of work and linky text together for a comment on iced_chai's Year of Books post, it would be a shame to leave it in a comment. Basically, she challenged me to come up with 12 books (ie, a year's worth) that have fruits in the titles.

All of these books existed on my radar. Either I've read them before, I've read a review of them, or I've heard a conversation about them on NPR. I didn't have to go digging for anything, really.

In no particular order, I give you a list of books with fruits in their titles:
1. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
2. Lime Tree Can't Bear Orange by Amanda Smyth
3. Cherry by Mary Karr
4. Wild Raspberries by ~ Andy Warhol and Suzie Frankfurt
5. Far Flung and Well Fed: The Food Writing of R.W. Apple, Jr by R. W. Apple, Jr.
6. Strawberry Fields by Marina Lewycka
7. Cranberry Queen by Kathleen De Marco
8. On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
9. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
10. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
11. The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden by William Alexander
12. Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World by Peter Chapman

No, I will not be giving out my writing this year. No, I will not give out last year's novel, either. (Last year, I explored all the many ways Sarah Palin could meet her maker. I don't think it's a good idea to release that.) This year, I'm enjoying the ability to rant my little head off as I nearly kill all my main characters with mishaps. (I said nearly!) Last night's 3000 words were mostly spent ranting about the Phils as my main trio crawls through a wet, disgusting cave. It's a good time.