whispered words of wisdom

book review

2009-12-21T19:59:57Z

Title: Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
Author: Atul Gawande
# of Pages: 288

Summary (from amazon.com): Gently dismantling the myth of medical infallibility, Dr. Atul Gawande's Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science is essential reading for anyone involved in medicine--on either end of the stethoscope. Medical professionals make mistakes, learn on the job, and improvise much of their technique and self-confidence. Gawande's tales are humane and passionate reminders that doctors are people, too. His prose is thoughtful and deeply engaging, shifting from sometimes painful stories of suffering patients (including his own child) to intriguing suggestions for improving medicine with the same care he expresses in the surgical theater. Some of his ideas will make health care providers nervous or even angry, but his disarming style, confessional tone, and thoughtful arguments should win over most readers. Complications is a book with heart and an excellent bedside manner, celebrating rather than berating doctors for being merely human.

Opinion: Similar in style and flow to Better, Gawande lays out the trial, tribulations, and decisions that come with being a doctor. While he holds medical professionals responsible for their faults, he doesn't let readers (and patients) forget that faults are normal, faults are human, and that doctors can and will practice medicine as opposed to perform it, with a variety of results. I did enjoy reading this particular set of stories to those in Better, as they touched more upon his personal experiences as a doctor and surgeon well as the experiences we have as patients.

Now Reading:
Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist is on hold for me at the library, but with the holiday season usually comes gift cards to bookstores, so who knows?!

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muffledlaugh @ 2009-12-17T09:56:00

2009-12-17T14:58:22Z

Go here to see the trailer for Iron Man 2!

Considering how much I loved the first one and love RDJ in general, I'm actually really looking forward to this. Sequels tend to be hit or miss, but this one could end up being really quite good just considering the trailer. I could do without Mickey Rourke's accent and his plastic surgery making his face look like claymation, but I'll take what I can get.

Special thanks to jccohen for pointing this out to me :)

book review

2009-12-09T16:02:48Z

Title: Say You're One of Them
Author: Uwem Akpan
# of Pages: 384

Summary (from amazon.com): Nigerian-born Jesuit priest Akpan transports the reader into gritty scenes of chaos and fear in his rich debut collection of five long stories set in war-torn Africa. An Ex-mas Feast tells the heartbreaking story of eight-year-old Jigana, a Kenyan boy whose 12-year-old sister, Maisha, works as a prostitute to support her family. Jigana's mother quells the children's hunger by having them sniff glue while they wait for Maisha to earn enough to bring home a holiday meal. In Luxurious Hearses, Jubril, a teenage Muslim, flees the violence in northern Nigeria. Attacked by his own Muslim neighbors, his only way out is on a bus transporting Christians to the south. In Fattening for Gabon, 10-year-old Kotchikpa and his younger sister are sent by their sick parents to live with their uncle, Fofo Kpee, who in turn explains to the children that they are going to live with their prosperous godparents, who, as Kotchikpa pieces together, are actually human traffickers. Akpan's prose is beautiful and his stories are insightful and revealing, made even more harrowing because all the horror—and there is much—is seen through the eyes of children.

Opinion: This collection of 5 short stories is perhaps one of the most shocking and sobering books I've come across in a long time. Akpan forces his readers to experience the violence of war through the eyes of Africa's children. Each story is unique to a specific area of Africa, but all of the tales are told with childlike innocence, confusion, hope, and fear. Stories of child prosititution, slavery, and racial/religious termoil aren't ones we hear that often in the States, but to consider that Akpan's tales are based in reality makes this particular book all the more relevant.

Now Reading: Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande

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book review

2009-12-01T14:50:06Z

Title: Ink Exchange
Author: Melissa Marr
# of Pages: 352

Summary (from amazon.com): This urban fairy tale, a sequel to Wicked Lovely, is impossible to put down. Leslie lives with a father who has given up on life, a drug-abusing brother who allowed his dealer to rape Leslie in lieu of payment, and a burning desire to banish pain and fear from her life. Unable to confide in her best friend, Aislinn, she devotes herself to working to pay the family bills and to get the tattoo she believes will help her reclaim her body. What she doesn't know is that the art she has selected will bind her to Irial, the king of the Dark Court of Fairy. He removes her emotions like fear, panic, or anger, and uses them to nourish the fairies of his court. What Irial doesn't expect is his growing love for Leslie and her desire to make her own choices. In Leslie, Marr has created a damaged, wounded character who still comes across as being incredibly strong. Irial needs to care for his court, knowing them too weak to win a war, but his feelings for Leslie make him unwilling to do what needs to be done. The lesser characters are also well drawn: Rabbit the tattoo artist, his father, Gabriel, and also Aislinn, Keenan, and Seth from Wicked Lovely. While reading that book first would give more shades to some of the characters, it isn't necessary to appreciate the intricate world that Marr creates.

Opinion: This book was meh. That meaning it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good or exceptional in any way either. In fact, I'd even say that at certain points it was downright boring. I guess it was the right book choice for me after I just finished the incredibly heavy What is the What. That being said, Ink Exchange did have it's interesting moments and I really did enjoy all the descriptions of the tattoo and the tattooing process, but I guess I never really cared much about the character of Leslie, which was essential to 'getting' this book. I'll probably finish out the series just because I'm already two books in and it at least seems like each new book will touch on new characters and their links to the older characters as opposed to just continuing the first story.

Now Reading: Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan

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One of these days I'm gonna break through...

2009-11-30T15:06:01Z

Film: Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire
Director: Lee Daniels
Starring: Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey
Length: 110min

Plot (from imdb.com): Claireece Precious Jones endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. Abused by her mother, raped by her father, she grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed. So what better way to learn about her than through her own, halting dialect. That is the device deployed in the first novel by poet and singer Sapphire. "Sometimes I wish I was not alive," Precious says. "But I don't know how to die. Ain' no plug to pull out. 'N no matter how bad I feel my heart don't stop beating and my eyes open in the morning." An intense story of adversity and the mechanisms to cope with it.

Opinion: I went to see this with my mom and sister on Sunday afternoon and upon leaving the theater realized that *this* movie should be the one that has young women lined up in droves to see. Unfortunately, it is only in limited release nationwide and even then only offering up to 4 showtimes a day, at least at that particular theater. Graphic, harrowing, and yet extremely hopeful and moving, this film is the story of one young girl's tormeted life, her abilities to cope, and her desire and strength to seek something better. The actors were phenomenal, with Gabby Sidibe and Mo'Nique giving stunning performances like never before. Even a completely de-glitterized Mariah Carey put on a good show. If it happens to show up in your area and you are not made uncomfortable by images of and allusions to abuse (both physical, emotional, and sexual), I definitely recommend seeing it.

book review

2009-11-23T15:13:42Z

Title: What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, A Novel
Author: Dave Eggers
# of Pages: 560

Summary (from amazon.com): Valentino Achak Deng, real-life hero of this engrossing epic, was a refugee from the Sudanese civil war-the bloodbath before the current Darfur bloodbath-of the 1980s and 90s. In this fictionalized memoir, Eggers makes him an icon of globalization. Separated from his family when Arab militia destroy his village, Valentino joins thousands of other "Lost Boys," beset by starvation, thirst and man-eating lions on their march to squalid refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, where Valentino pieces together a new life. He eventually reaches America, but finds his quest for safety, community and fulfillment in many ways even more difficult there than in the camps: he recalls, for instance, being robbed, beaten and held captive in his Atlanta apartment. Eggers's limpid prose gives Valentino an unaffected, compelling voice and makes his narrative by turns harrowing, funny, bleak and lyrical. The result is a horrific account of the Sudanese tragedy, but also an emblematic saga of modernity-of the search for home and self in a world of unending upheaval.

Opinion: I thought this book was both fantastic and tragic at the same time. Eggers painted a picture of not only Valentino's life and experiences, but potentially those of thousands of other boys displaced and lost to civil war in Sudan. The tales of Valentino's triumph and will to live, as well as his hope and faith that his family is still alive is moving while heartbreakingly juxtaposed against the tragedies he faces during his new life in America, a place that was supposed to be an escape from the troubles and hardships of his past. A fantastic book definitely worth reading if you get the chance.

Now Reading: Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

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muffledlaugh @ 2009-11-17T11:02:00

2009-11-17T16:02:20Z

When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams—this may be madness. To seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.

-- Miguel Cervantes, Don Quixote, Man of La Mancha

muffledlaugh @ 2009-11-12T12:51:00

2009-11-12T17:53:03Z

Nov 2009: Chrysler Building from 42nd St.

muffledlaugh @ 2009-11-09T10:24:00

2009-11-09T15:25:08Z

I lost someone very close to me and afterward I believed I could have saved him had I been a better friend to him. But everyone disappears, no matter who loves them.

-- Dave Eggers, What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng

Happy Guy Fawkes Day/Night!

2009-11-05T19:04:13Z

Now I kinda want to go and buy some fireworks in Chinatown after work today ;)

Today is also my 4.75yr anniversary :D

muffledlaugh @ 2009-11-04T09:24:00

2009-11-04T14:27:34Z

Nov 2009 - Grand Central Terminal, 42nd St

book review

2009-11-01T21:48:08Z

Title: The Abstinence Teacher
Author: Tom Perrotta
# of Pages: 368

Summary: (from amazon.com): Tom Perrotta knows his suburbia, and in The Abstinence Teacher he carves out an even larger chunk of his distinct terrain. Set in the northeastern suburb of Stonewood Heights, Perrotta's sixth book takes on the war between the liberals and the evangelists. When single mother Ruth Ramsay, the sex ed teacher at the local high school, tells her class that oral sex can be enjoyable, the Tabernacle of the Gospel Truth church begins its crusade. Believable or not, the school agrees to an abstinence curriculum and in marches JoAnn Marlowe with her blonde hair and pumps to instill in Ruth the tenets of the new program. Gone are the days of rolling a condom over a cucumber; now Ruth is required to promote restraint, which she does wearily and halfheartedly. These are heady days, when students rat out their teachers and the local soccer coach—Ruth's daughter is on his team—is a divorced ex-druggie and active Tabernacle member. When Tim leads the team in prayer, Ruth wrenches her daughter from the circle and the hostility between the opposing camps grows. Who is bad and who is good? Ruth's youthful promiscuity rises slowly to the surface, while Tim's struggle to stay sober makes him constantly confront his past. He's lost his wife and daughter—also on the soccer team—to his addictions, but now he's clean and married to a Tabernacle girl. His Jesus-loving ways, however, are in direct conflict with his desires, rendering him the most complex and likable character. When he loses his own battle with abstinence at a poker party, the finest scene in the novel culminates with his keying Jesus across the hood of an SUV parked in the drive. Ruth would gladly have sex if it would only come her way, and she also drinks on school nights. A less well-drawn complement to Tim, Ruth is a tolerant liberal with a newly toned body who plays therapist to her gay friends, but who can't accept that her children are interested in Jesus.The lesson is that everybody must give up something. Even Ruth's ex-lover, once a pudgy trumpet player, no longer eats to maintain his abs of steel. So what is lost when we cannot succumb to our desires? Who then do we become? The book is rife with Perrotta's subtle and satiric humor (the Tabernacle is seen as a place of diversity, while the punks, Deadheads and headbangers of Tim's past are all predictably the same), but these questions get lost as the plot winds down. Issues of sex and religion that have shaken the town become, in the end, the story of what Ruth and Tim's newly forged relationship will soon become.

Opinion: This book was alright. It didn't 'wow' me, but was still entertaining enough to keep me reading. The culture war stuff was interesting, but seeing as I've seen it, along with many of the characters (ex-wild child having a tough time going sober, mildly promiscuous liberal who feels lost) before, I had a hard time really connecting with the story at all. What I thought was going to be a look at the conflict between the main character and the imposing 'moral police' that was slowly taking over her town and how it effected her life and family, turned into a pretty predictable sort-of love story, as two opposites find themselves attracted to one another and spend half the book figuring out the how's and why's. The ending itself was a bit anticlimactic, but honestly, at that point I stopped caring about the fate of Ruth and Tim, and would have rather read more about Tim's struggle with Tabernacle, as well as Ruth's interactions with her newly religious daughters.

Now Reading: What is the What by Dave Eggars or Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

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muffledlaugh @ 2009-10-27T16:07:00

2009-10-27T20:10:19Z

Which character from any film, television show, or book would you most like to take on a date and why?

Submitted By blue_mariposa88

View 2283 Answers

Easy - Batman.
Why? Because it's fucking BATMAN.

book review

2009-10-26T14:15:47Z

Title: Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
Author: Atul Gawande
# of Pages: 288

Summary (from amazon.com): Surgeon and MacArthur fellow Gawande applies his gift for dulcet prose to medical and ethical dilemmas in this collection of 12 original and previously published essays adapted from the New England Journal of Medicine and the New Yorker. If his 2002 collection, Complications, addressed the unfathomable intractability of the body, this is largely about how we erect barriers to seamless and thorough care. Doctors know they should wash their hands more often to avoid bacterial transfer in the ward, but once a minute does seem extreme. Using chaperones for breast exams seems a fine idea, but it does make situations awkward. "The social dimension turns out to be as essential as the scientific," Gawande writes—a conclusion that could serve as a thumbnail summary of his entire output. The heart of the book are the chapters "What Doctors Owe," about the U.S.'s blinkered malpractice system, and "Piecework," about what doctors earn. Cheerier, paradoxically, are the chapters involving polio and cystic fibrosis, featuring Dr. Pankaj Bhatnagar and Dr. Warren Warwick, two remarkable men who have been able to catapult their humanity into their work rather than constantly stumble over it. Indeed, one suspects that once we cure the ills of the health care system, we'll look back and see that Gawande's writings were part of the story.

Opinion: Both parts inspiring and unsettling, Gawande's essays shine light on the barriers to better patient care, and the doctors that have the strength and character to bust right through them. From discussions about the dilemmas facing doctors when dealing with malpractice suits or the ethics behind doctors assisting in any capacity in capital punishment, Gawande reflects with both a critical eye to his own performance, as well as the hope and perspective of what needs to be done to make it better. I think the best part overall about this entire collection of writings is that it forces layman readers to considering medicine as an imperfect science filled with both social and scientific aspects, and doctors as imperfect people who constantly strive to do better.

Now Reading: The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta

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muffledlaugh @ 2009-10-23T18:49:00

2009-10-23T22:51:15Z

Oct 2009: Lion in front of the New York Public Library, 5th Ave

book review

2009-10-20T14:26:21Z

Title: Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets
Author: Sudhir Venkatesh
# of Pages: 320

Summary (from amazon.com): As a young graduate student fresh off an extended stint following the Grateful Dead, Venkatesh began studying urban poverty. With a combination of an ethnographer's curiosity about another culture and some massive naïveté, he gathered firsthand knowledge of the intricacies of Chicago's Robert Taylor projects. Early on, he met a megalomaniac gang leader known here as J.T., who became his mentor. Venkatesh observed and learned how the crack game works, and how many have their fingers in the pie and need life to remain the way it is. He observed violence, corruption, near homelessness, good cops, bad cops, and a lot of neglect and politics-as-usual. He made errors in judgment—it took a long time for his street smarts to catch up to his book smarts—but he tells the story in such a way as to allow readers to figure out his missteps as he did. Finally, as the projects began to come down, Venkatesh was able to demonstrate how something that seems positive is not actually good for everyone. The first line in his preface, "I woke up at about 7:30 a.m. in a crack den," reflects the prurient side of his studies, the first chapter title, "How does it feel to be black and poor?" reflects the theoretical side, and both work together in this well-rounded portrayal.

Opinion: I thought this book was a fantastic look at the effects of gangs, drugs, economics, and poverty on the microcosm that was urban Chicago. Venkatesh's book is great in that it is both a in depth sociological study of poverty and gangs, as well as a first hand account that many sociologists and ethnographers had or will ever get a chance to experience. Written is a sort of memoir, this book was an inside look at urban poverty and both the fear and need of gangs within public housing and I thought Venkatesh pulled no punches and took no sides when describing what goes on in this 'underground economy'. Definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the study of poverty, gangs, and urban economics.

Now Reading: Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande

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muffledlaugh @ 2009-10-20T10:14:00

2009-10-20T14:16:27Z

Sooo...Gerard Butler hosting Saturday Night Live = best thing ever.

book review

2009-10-15T14:03:07Z

Title: Wicked Lovely
Author: Melissa Marr
# of Pages: 352

Summary (from amazon.com): Wicked Lovely takes place in modern-day Huntsdale, a small city south of Pittsburgh whose name evokes the Wild Hunt of mythology. High school junior Aislinn and her grandmother have followed strict rules all their lives to hide their ability to see faeries because faeries don't like it when mortals can see them, and faeries can be very cruel. Only the strongest faeries can withstand iron, however, so Aislinn prefers the city with its steel girders and bridges. She takes refuge with Seth, her would-be lover, who lives in a set of old train carriages. But now Aislinn is being stalked by two of the faeries who are able to take on human form and are not deterred by steel. What do they want from her?

One is Keenan, the Summer King, who has been looking for his Queen for nine centuries, bound by the rules and rituals that govern his quest. The other is Donia, a victim of those rules, consigned to the role of Winter Girl when she failed Keenan's test, yet still in love with him. Certain that Aislinn is the woman he must marry, Keenan shows up as a charismatic new student at her high school, unaware that she sees his true form. He's determined to court her and is puzzled by her rebuffs. Suddenly, none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe is working anymore, but things aren't going as Keenan expects either. Both will have to change, make startling compromises and enlist surprising allies if they want to break free from the wicked game that has ensnared them. Their greatest challenge will be to avoid the fatal traps laid by Keenan's mother, the Winter Queen. She will lose her power if Keenan finds his mate, and she will do anything to stop this.

Opinion: Reading this book I immediately noticed similarities to Holly Black's faerie tale series, but there were definitely differences that distinguished this book from similar stories of it's kind. The most striking difference and what makes the story itself unique is that the heroin in this case, wants more than anything to remail mortal - she wants nothing to do with the faery world and her creepy suitor. Where Marr suffers unfortunately is with her writing - her use of pronouns are all over the place to an extend you're not sure who is taking and who she's talking about, her sentences are either too elaborate and poorly structured at times, though both don't detract a serious amount from the flow of the story. It's a pretty good series, one that fans of Black's series will definitely enjoy, and one that I'll probably continue to read in time.

Now Reading: Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande or Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh

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just the day before the weekend...

2009-10-09T15:49:37Z

from thefridayfive:

1. At what age do you think it's appropriate for someone to get their driver's license?
At the age in which they are able to take and pass the driving tests applicable to their state/country.

2. At what age do you think it's appropriate for someone to first drink alcohol?
At the age in which they understand the effects of alchol on their body and behaviour.

3. At what age do you think it's appropriate for someone to become sexually active?
At the age where they can understand and recognize the importance of sexual health, understand and practice contraception and safe sex, and when they can understand and deal with the emotional consequences of their actions.

4. At what age do you think it's appropriate for someone to vote in elections affecting national and/or local government?
At the age when they can and do show an interest and understanding of government, the platforms of the candidates in question, and the issues facing their country.

5. At what age do you think it's appropriate for someone to be conscripted for military service?
The same age they decide to vote.

book review

2009-10-07T00:14:42Z

Title: Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties
Author: Michael Lesy
# of Pages: 352

Summary (from amazon.com): Michael Lesy’s disturbingly satisfying account of Chicago in the 1920s—the epicenter of murder in America—could be fiction, but it’s not. “Things began as they usually did: Someone shot someone else.” So begins a chapter of this sharp, fearless collection from a master storyteller. Revisiting seventeen Chicago murder cases—including that of Belva and Beulah, two murderesses whose trials inspired the musical Chicago—Michael Lesy captures an extraordinary moment in American history, bringing to life a city where newspapers scrambled to cover the latest mayhem. Just as Lesy’s book Wisconsin Death Trip subverted the accepted notion of the Gay Nineties, so Murder City exposes the tragedy of the Jazz Age and the tortured individuals who may be the progenitors of our modern age. .

Opinion: Besides not getting to read the concluding pages for each case because of the vandalism of the library book I had, this book was otherwise really interesting. I love reading about famous/infamous murders, Chicago in the early 1900s, and early American gangsters and corruptions within law enforcement - and this book had it all, cleverly written and followed along a time-line from the first case of a man planning to kill his wife, to the three deaths of prominent mob members. Would definitely recommend this book to those who enjoyed things like The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson and other nonfiction books of that nature.

Now Reading: Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr or The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemmingway, depending on the library. Right now, I'm re-reading To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

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re-structuring

2009-10-05T16:50:17Z

I decided some re-structuring of my journal was in order, so I did a friends cut.

I know, I know: Cuts suck, and I suck for doing one.

I'm sure those of you who I decided to cut can give me eleventy-one reasons why I shouldn't, but it's not about that. Some of those cuts are of journals that haven't updated in ages, some not. And it's not that if I cut you I don't like you or whatever - I wouldn't have added you in the first place if I didn't like you - but rather, I haven't felt a connection between us or really 'clicked' with you during our time together. Mind you, I've continuously read your journals and I've appreciated the time you may have taken to read mine, so hopefully there are no hard feelings - I truly do wish you all the best.

That being said, all complaints/bitching can be directed here.

muffledlaugh @ 2009-09-29T12:20:00

2009-09-29T16:22:13Z

This little tidbit from Wired made me laugh this morning: Top 10 Unanswered Questions in Geeky Movies.

My favourite was #3: Gremlins: Feeding after midnight - Don’t get them wet; OK, fine. Don’t expose them to sunlight; sure, why not? Don’t feed them after midnight; um, how’s that again? If you can’t feed them “after midnight,” at what point during the day does it cease to be “after midnight” so you can feed them again? For that matter, how does the mogwai know what time zone it’s in? Suppose I get my mogwai in New York and then take a vacation to San Francisco — should I not feed my mogwai after midnight Eastern Time or Pacific Time? And what about Daylight Saving Time? Considering the consequences, these details seem pretty important.

LOL, geeks.

book review

2009-09-25T13:34:47Z

Title: Ironside
Author: Holly Black
# of Pages: 336

Summary (from amazon.com): In the realm of Faerie, the time has come for Roiben's coronation. Uneasy in the midst of the malevolent Unseelie Court, pixie Kaye is sure of only one thing -- her love for Roiben. But when Kaye, drunk on faerie wine, declares herself to Roiben, he sends her on a seemingly impossible quest. Now Kaye can't see or speak to Roiben unless she can find the one thing she knows doesn't exist: a faerie who can tell a lie. Miserable and convinced she belongs nowhere, Kaye decides to tell her mother the truth -- that she is a changeling left in place of the human daughter stolen long ago. Her mother's shock and horror sends Kaye back to the world of Faerie to find her human counterpart and return her to Ironside. But once back in the faerie courts, Kaye finds herself a pawn in the games of Silarial, queen of the Seelie Court. Silarial wants Roiben's throne, and she will use Kaye, and any means necessary, to get it. In this game of wits and weapons, can a pixie outplay a queen?

Opinion: I thought this final installment of the series was just as well written and intriguing as the first two, however I found myself a bit unsatisfied with the ending. That's not the say that the ending was bad or poorly executed, but it was all a bit anti-climactic, I felt. There was so much tension building throughout the story that I expected a bit more than the 3 pages or so of a conclusion, and a happily ever after that left things open if Black decided to continue to write in this series. All in all though, a very entertaining YA fantasy series that was probably far more mature than critics might have given it credit for.

Now Reading: Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties by Michael Lesy

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haven't done one of these in a LONG time...

2009-09-18T15:59:05Z

from thefridayfive:

1. If there was one thing about your body you could change, what would it be?
I would probably want my breasts to be slightly smaller. I don't hate my breast size, but I suppose if there were a sure-fire way of decreasing them at least one cupsize without surgery or drastically changing any other part of my body, I would probably do so as they've made a lot of things much more difficult for me in the long run at their current size.

2. Would you rather lose 10lbs or 10 points off your IQ?
10lbs, clearly. But if the question is would I rather be smarter and fatter as opposed to skinnier and stupider, I'll always choose fat and smart. ALWAYS.

3. When you look in the mirror, are you happy with what you see?
Relatively. I think I'm average looking, nothing too special. Yes, there are parts of my body that I'd like to change, but then again there are parts of my body that I think are absolutely fabulous, would never change at all, and would actually be upset if they changed.

4. Have you ever dyed your hair?
Not completely, but I've had highlights done before.

5. How often do you weigh yourself?
Once a year when I go for my annual OB/GYN checkup - oddly enough, that's next month.

muffledlaugh @ 2009-09-17T11:02:00

2009-09-17T15:03:22Z

The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.

-- JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring