Last night while Stick was playing the new evolution game Spore, he announced excitedly “Meg! I’ve become sentient!”
Let the record state that I made no response.
Sabado Gigante
I was on Sabado Gigante this weekend! Stick thinks I should probably say that “we” were on Sabado Gigante, but you can probably guess that the guy on his knee, in the Beijing duck restaurant, proposing to me is Stick. (If you don’t want to reread the story, we ran into Don Fransisco at Da Dong Roast Duck in Beijing a few months ago, and he coerced Stick into proposing on Unavision camera.) We’ve been promising to get married in regards to car insurance, but telling our friends and family not to pressure and that it’ll happen when it’s the right time. Don Fransisco, it seems, has some pretty serious powers of persuasion.
Stick just happened to catch it as he was flipping channels, but he managed to get most of the show TiVoed, and I’ll post it the clip once I figure out how to get it off the TV, or when someone else puts it on YouTube. If you happened to see it, the couple laughing hysterically at the whole thing are our dear friends Hugo and Diana. Actually, now that I think about it… it was Hugo who wanted to go to Da Dong and Diana who recognized Don Fransisco… I kind of wonder if they set us up!
“Hey, did you watch Stick’s proposal?” I asked Char, Stick’s stepmom, when Stick’s parents came home the next day, “It’s saved under Sabado Gigante on your TiVo!”
“That little %&$#! He didn’t really propose!” Char said. “He just said ‘I want you to be my wife’… that doesn’t count!”
Related: Stick’s Sabado Gigante proposal!
Posted in Beijing, Raleigh
Tagged adventures with Stick, as seen in Beijing, Beijing:Raleigh, Da Dong Roast Duck, Diana, Don Fransisco, Eric, family, high romance, Hugo, malavette family, Raleigh, Sabado Gigante, Stick
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“History”
Maybe these books werewritten by “professors” or published by a “university”. I would have included a second shot so you can see which “historians” made this category, but the salesgirl told me I wasn’t allowed to take pictures since the store had paid to have the sign designed. True story.
The 440 Is Not A Ring Road
I don’t really like to drive. I think it’s that tiny margin of error between commuting and death that really bothers me. I try to accept that while the rest of the world sees “run out to the store” as one smooth action, I see it as a series of almost insurmountable tasks. Back out, merge, change lanes, park, etc., all done with my white knuckles at 10 and 2.
In addition to not liking the actual driving part, we had paperwork from three states to deal with in order to get me licensed, get our car back on the road, insured and registered in NC. We couldn’t insure the car because we needed to register it in NC, but Stick couldn’t get the car registered without an original social security card, I have my social security card but the car’s in Stick’s name, so we’d have to transfer the title but it’s an out-of-state title, so first we’d have to… nevermind, no one in their right mind wants to read through it all. When Stick called to put me on his AAA card, he was told they don’t cover girlfriends, only fiances. (And if anyone from AAA fraud is reading my blog, you can take it up with Don Fransisco.)
Things are getting better, though. I managed to turn the radio on the other day, and pretty soon passengers will be allowed to talk in the car.
Related: Stick’s Sabado Gigante proposal!
Posted in Beijing, North Carolina, Raleigh
Tagged cars, Don Fransisco, driving, North Carolina, Raleigh, reading, Sabado Gigante, Stick
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Stick Plans For The Future
“When I was looking at job boards,” Stick told me last night, “I found a perfect job for Evil Incarnate.” Evil Incarnate is an ex-boyfriend, the one who bears striking resemblance to my love-hate struggles with Mandarin. I suppose the name says it all.
“Send it along,” I said, “He’s not that all happy where he’s working now.”
“No, the job’s down in NC.” Stick said. (EI lives in Mass.) “Although if he moves down here, we’d have another player for a D&D run!”
Posted in Raleigh
Tagged d+d, Evil Incarnate, gaming, job hunting, mandarin, Meg Vs. Mandarin, Raleigh, Stick
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Gustav Alerts
So I’m doing a blog for my mom’s museum, the Gustav Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms.
I had this awesome idea to do a series of posts on a “Stickley in the blogosphere” theme, connecting to posts on personal blogs talking about trips to the museum. It was pretty successful, I found a lot of people blogging about their great day at the museum, which made my mom really happy and reassured her that there’s something in this whole blogging thing.
As part of my search for material, i set up a Bloglines search for blogs mentioning a certain collection of keywords, so that when someone else blogs about SM@CF, I can see it. These are fairly uncommon search terms so it usually turns up worthwhile posts about people who’re renovating Stickley-style homes or who took their kids to a day at the Farms.
This morning, though, I found literally hundreds of bloggers using some of my search terms.
Stupid tropical storm hurricane Gustav.
…Fortunately the storm missed New Orleans and was downgraded, so now I feel better about giggling whenever I see a Gustav headline.
Posted in Raleigh
Tagged awesome, bloggers, blogging on blogging, craftsman farms, my family is crazy, my other writing, Raleigh, search terms, SM@CF, Stick, stickley museum
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Obligatory Election Comments
I really resented the vote-with-your-ovaries movement among Hilary supporters. A woman president would be nice, but I found the idea that women are a cohesive voting group who should all pick Hilary based on gender kind of demeaning. Not entirely sure why this bothered me so much, since I go out of my way to connect with and to support other women in the mostly-male worlds of China expats and videogamers. Hilary is all right, but I’d like more from a presidential candidate than shared bra-shopping experience.
Everything negative that Hilary and the republicans said about Obama’s lack of experience backfired with me. Probably not just me, probably other people disappointed by entry-level jobs and looking wistfully at the positions available to those with more experience. (Am I the only person who cringes at those success stories about slowly working one’s way from minimum-wage mail clerk all the way up to management? I’m not, am I? Tell me a lifetime of waiting for a promotion makes you feel just a little bit dead inside, too.) I think references to Obama’s lack of experience just make a stronger connection to twentysomethings.
Obama’s really made an “us” feeling with this references to growing up struggling, working while in school, and so forth. It would be great at any time to see an alternative to rich old men, but it’s even sharper focus with McCain’s recent goof about the number of houses he owns. That was an unlucky soundbite for McCain, but there’s just no “us” connection with someone who’s got so much stuff he can’t keep track of it all. I know Obama isn’t exactly struggling to put gas in his car now, but he’s been broke in his life. When I mentioned this to Stick, he said that he doesn’t feel connected to McCain even though they were both in the military because McCain was an officer.* And beyond Obama’s message, his use of texting, blogging and Facebook really shows a level of connection to everyday people** and not faceless corporations, without going the faux-folksy Bush route.
I know that an election race is 99% show, but I’m thrilled to see a candidate who cares to put on the show for twentysomethings. I’m a bit worried about whether the Facebook-friending college-age crowd will actually register to vote and show up at the polls, though.
*Hope it doesn’t ruin my feminist rant to add “And my boyfriend thinks…” in the middle.
** Everyday people = Blog and twitter nerds
Related: My last political rant was Parallel Parking For Kerry.
Posted in Raleigh
Tagged China, election, expats, Facebook, lifetime, mail, Massachusetts, my boyfriend, nerd, Raleigh, soapbox, Stick, twitter
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The Amazing Value of Complete Sentences
I interviewed for a job at reading center today, and the interviewer hired me to edit her dissertation.
N.
Barbie just introduced me to N., a Stephen King story, about a psychiatrist and his patient, who might be saving the world or just garden-variety insane. The story is intriguing and it’s been turned into a series of short, comic book-style videos (adapted by one of the Eli Stone guys, too). It’s completely addictive, each segment is so short that you’re left panting to see what happens next.
Warning: The series isn’t complete yet! Be prepared for a cliffhanger!
