Ablaze

My favorite color right now is maple leaf red. Not the hockey team, but the real thing. The oranges and yellows are pretty, too, but the deep reds and maroons are so gorgeous they make my heart hurt.

If I Only Had A Remedy

I caught part of a show on the History Channel last night that addressed the topic of "high tech" sex. The whole idea of virtual sex just really doesn't interest me much. I mean, isn't one of the great things about sex that it's about as stripped down and real as you can get? Maybe if you're an astronaut on a long mission and billions of miles away from your honey virtual sex might be the next best thing to being there. But I can't imagine it ever being better than the real thing.
Anyway, back to the program. It being the History Channel and all, they also included some information about all the Victorian era inventions intended to quell sexual urges. There seemed to be a lot of innovative variations on the chastity belt concept. There were also some scary, James Bond-ish modern inventions designed to mess up a rapist bad. Things with razors and needles all tucked away inside. Scary.
One interesting fact that I learned was that vibrators were invented in the 1880s as a labor saving device for doctors, who used to treat hysteria by digitally massaging their patients to "hysterical paroxysm". Apparently it wasn't ok for women to take care of this on their own because masturbation was a big no-no. They say the treatments weren't regarded as sexual experiences. Dr. Feelgood, I presume.
The folks at Good Vibrations have an online Antique Vibrator Museum.
All this talk has me thinking about The Black Crowes song Remedy. It's going to be stuck in my head for the rest of the day.
I need a remedy, huh yeah
For what is ailing me, you see
I need a remedy
For what is ailing me
I need a remedy, yeah
For what is ailing me
(nice sexy rock scream here)
If I only had a remedy
You see, I'll find it, I'll find it
You see baby, I want it
You see I'll find it, I'll find it
Oh, I really want, really want it
You see I need it
Oh I really want to tell you all about it
I want to sing and scream
Oh, I feel I just want to shout about it
I need a remedy, remedy, remedy, remedy, remedy, remedy, remedy, remedy yeah.
Remedy that's what I need
Waaaaah, I see it.
The Victorians definitely would have locked up Chris Robinson in a mental institution and in one of their male chastity contraptions.

My Name is Pam and I'm a Yarnaholic

I have already spent $45 this month on yarn this month and that's with two projects (a crocheted shawl and a knit poncho) currently underway that are nowhere near completion. The other night I started making mittens because I felt the urge to do so. Today I left work and drove down to Michaels to buy more yarn for the poncho and picked up three more skeins of something else (Paton's twister) because it looked like it would make a cute scarf.

Crossing Paths Again

It's funny how people turn up in unexpected places. Six or seven years ago when I was living and teaching in Japan I came across a site called Real Japan created by a Japanese-American high school student in Texas. The site was interesting, funny and cool looking. I wrote to the creator and asked her if she would mind if I used the site in a class I was teaching called "Japanese Society in English". She agreed and said she was flattered that her site would be used in a college class. We emailed back and forth a few times, but that came to an end, as those things tend to do.
This morning I was reading through the huge back log of posts I have for the Honyaku mailing list for translators working between Japanese and English. I saw a familiar name on a post by a translator new to the job. It turns out to be the same Alisa from the Real Japan site. Now I'm going to go to class and teach my current students about her site, too.

First Frost

Last night (this morning?) was the first frost of the season. Driving to work along 108 through Madbury this morning I could see stretches of frosted over grasses, stalks and leaves in the areas the sun hadn't reached yet. It's supposed to get into the low 60s today, but when I checked the thermometer out on the porch this morning it read 35 degrees. That's chilly.
I started knitting myself some mittens with yarn I have left over from all the caps I knitted as holiday presents last year. I have white, black and a weird mauve-y pink color. I'll probably make striped mittens. I definitely need something because my hands were numb by the time I made it from the parking lot to the office this morning.
Wow, there's gurgling water noises coming through the pipes in the office, which I guess means the heat has been turned on. No actual heat coming out of there yet and the overhead air vents are still pumping, but a little heat in the office would be nice.

Mixed Up Media

I just noticed after walking by yet another flyer for the Feminist Action League's on campus demonstration protesting hate speech and violence against women that was sparked by a death threat against a female columnist in the campus paper that the large graphic image they are using on the flyer is in the style of Japanese manga. Actually, it looks like an image that was taken from a manga. I guess the protest organizers don't realize that you'd have to search pretty long and hard to find a mass media genre more accepting of misogyny. I spent years commuting on trains in Japanese cities watching men read manga full of big-breasted, tiny-waisted, full-hipped, doe-eyed women getting fucked in just about anyway you can imagine, often with the dialogue bubbles full of protest. (I know, it's not nice to read over people's shoulders, but sometimes there's not much else to do on a train.) I guess whoever made the flyer just thought the image of a screaming woman wearing a collar looked cool and tough.

Go Fug Yourself

My newest guilty pleasure and the only one I'll write about in public.
I blame it all on Shannon.
Actually, I'm not sure I have any other truly guilty pleasures. Well, there's the ice cream, and the trashy tabloids in the check out line, and the tendency to be a product junkie while pretending I'm just not that kind of girl. Ehhh, let's just stop this list right here and now.

It's All Good

Do you ever have those days when everything is pretty much the same as it was yesterday, but it all seems excellent? Well, I'm having one today. Maybe it was just that I had more caffeine than usual this morning, but the sun is out and everything looks beautiful. I thought I might have to work tonight, but I don't. I've got one 2-hour class to teach today and I'm done until Monday. When I get out of here I'm going home to help my honey finish working on the soon-to-be-finished, unfinished furniture. Tomorrow is Apple Harvest Day and the weather is supposed to be good.
I'm not saying everything is perfect, but right now it's all good.