Category Archives: Random Neuron Firings

Hey, are you busy?

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Just askin’. Because it’s Saturday, and there should be some relaxing in your future. Yet, I am busy, for good reasons and not-so-good reasons.

Good Reasons:

  • I’m fixing to bake a 3-layer marble cake. It’s Jon’s (my future son-in-law) birthday feast tonight, and that’s his fave dessert. I do love cooking/baking/general culinary fun. It’s one of exactly three things in life I’m good at. Update, 12:25 p.m. – it’s done. Yay! On to the lasagna…
  • Jakey is coming tonight, too. Yay.
  • I’m putting the finishing touches on some choreography I started last night.
  • Simone is coming over to help assemble the lasagna. (Hmm…I think I’ll call Helen and invite her, too…)

Not-So-Good Reasons:

Oh wait. I said I was going to try to be more positive about B***on Uni*****y. Scratch that.

So I read a review on the new Brendan Fraser movie, Inkheart. Critics aren’t too thrilled with it, but it doesn’t matter. I usually don’t much care what critics have to say, as I have often liked movies that they panned. Meh. (But I will admit it is a slippery slope, transferring a book to the screen. You drag along lots of people’s contextual baggage.)

Anyway, I’ve read two of the books in the trilogy (Inkheart and Inkspell). They are very good juvenile fiction. I lost interest after the second one, but I might pick up Inkdeath and add it to the stack of about 14 books that I have to get around to reading.

Last night, I finished the first book in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I wanted to read it before I saw the movie, which I will rent when it comes out on DVD. I love vampiric stuff, as many of you know, so it was an enjoyable read. I’ll start the next one tonight.

Don’t you just love to read?

Fink out.

Photo credit: New Line Cinema (IMDB)

Everything old is new again

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Remember when VISA was called “BankAmericard” and MasterCard was “Master Charge?”

I remember when my dad brought his first credit card home. He told my mom, “Now you can put it on the Master Charge if you don’t have enough cash with you.” Such simple, innocent words.

I remember putting clothes on layaway in high school, using my weekly allowance and money from my waitressing job to pay down the balance. Remember layaway? The store kept the items until you could afford to pay for them. When the bill was paid, you got your stuff. My, my, how far we’ve come….

The consumer debt problem in this country is something I don’t have time to get into this morning, and I’m no financial analyst, but I got eyes. It’s going to get much worse before getting the tiniest bit better. And I’m not throwing stones at anyone, mind. Many of us are guilty of that impulsive credit card purchase; I’m the first to admit it.

But the trend is reversing, believe it. Could we soon see the days when retail commerce runs on a cash-only basis? I think the answer is, “sooner than you think.”

I read an article this morning with a quote from a woman in New Jersey who had just dissolved some personal debt. She said that “her family was only living according to their means and not spending anything extra.”

Imagine that.

Fink out.

A happy day

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OK, how’s this?

  • It’s a rather cold, but still happy morning in Ohio. I turned off my reading lamp at 10:58 last night, and when I looked at the clock again, it was 4:06. That’s a good night for me.
  • I have auditions for DT features today…looking forward to that.
  • I found out more about the quantitative issue (see yesterday’s post) from a friend in PA last night. Nice to know some stuff that will give me direction.

And finally, this will hopefully brighten your day:

And the tradition of musicians in the Fink family continues (what am I thinking???)

Happy Wednesday!

To quote John Lennon…

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…I’m soooooo tired.

Tired of what? Tired of quantitative research — the not-understanding-it part. Remember when I said that I was going to make sure I understood my statistics problem by the end of the day? Well yeah. That was a big fat lie.

I really have to question being expected to know enough about analyzing a quantitative study (that is, research that uses numbers, formulas and statistical data) to write for 2 hours about it, when none of my coursework dealt with statistics in any significant manner. In fact, I haven’t had a statistics class since doing my masters work back in 2001 or whatever. But hey, I’m always up for a party. Count me in.

Would I be a terrible teacher if I let my students watch the inauguration today? Thing is, the “big” part (the swearing-in and inaugural address) starts at noon…right when high school choir meets. Hmmmm. And it just isn’t the same watching video snippets of it later, you know?

Meh…I dunno. They need the rehearsal. Why am I so easily distracted these days? Why am I seemingly unable to form a single cogent thought? Why was I still awake at 1:45 a.m.? Why do I possess violent, angry sentiment toward my present educational situation?

I think now that I shall quote H.L. Mencken:

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.

Yeah. That sounds nice.

Fink out. (Yarr!)

Cutting out some fat

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Heh, I wish it was that easy, don’t you? A lil snip here, a lil nip-tuck there — voilà. Well, actually, it is that easy, if you have the semolians. Alas. Anyway…

I have decided that, for the time being, I am going to bow out of all my social networking sites. Not because they’re not fun, mind. But because they get in the way. So, Twitter and MySpace are gone; I’m just waiting to close out a comment conversation or two, and then Facebook is bye-bye as well.

I’ve done this a couple of times before over the last 2-3 years. I’ve been asked, “Why don’t you just let your profile sit?” Two reasons: 1) an outdated profile would bug me to death, and 2) I’m not disciplined enough to stay away. So, out with the trash it goes.

I only have room right now to squeeze four things into my life: family/friends, school, Dinner Theatre rehearsals, and studying for comp exams. There is simply no space for anything else. (Well, except for RtB and email…those things are constant, like breathing and complaining about my salary.)

It’s not a huge deal. I mean, I’m not singing It’s a Long Way to Tipperary or anything. I just need to focus right now, and I have to cut out things that interfere with being mom, wife, Grammie, teacher, pal, writer, choreographer, director, and student.

Off to read David Elliott. *yawn*

Fink out.