Christmas Eve Eve
Well, I'm all packed and ready to go visit family for Christmas and New Year's. It's sort of like that feeling you get the day before exams -- all prepared, but forced to wait it out until the right time arrives. Of course, visiting family is a lot more fun to anticipate and experience than any of my exams (except perhaps Common Law!). :-)
I haven't written much lately because I was furiously finishing two books that came in at the library at the same time after being on the wait list for months. First,
Memoirs of a Geisha, which was released in film today. It was an engaging story, and over-all I thought it well-written. Knowing very little of Japanese culture, I learned quite a bit. But one never knows how much truth is in fiction, and so I could be easily misled on this point.
The Second book I just finished was
The Historian, like
Memoirs, a genre I wouldn't normally read - this time because it's vampire seekers, but it's been on the bestseller lists for a while, and was highly recommended by my friend Lacie. I enjoyed it as well. A quick read for being 600+ pages long.
Both books left me feeling rather empty in the end though. Their journeys were far more enjoyable than their endings. (Although what can you expect from a book that starts with the premise that Dracula is alive and well.) So I'm glad to have read them, and recommend them for what they're worth. Neither is a "must read" though, in my opinion.
One of the hardest decisions I have to make every year is what books to take with me to read on the plane and while visiting family. Not too much time to read, but I do enjoy taking moments or two when able! This year's winners are:
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Lewis's classic. I want to re-read it before going to see
Narnia with my cousin. Also on tap,
The Devil in the White City, an intriguing book weaving the stories of a serial killer and the architect of the Chicago world fair. Based on the actual events, and highly recommended by another friend. I'm also taking
Girl in Hyacinth Blue, based on the recommendation of two friends, and have set out, but not finally decided whether to take,
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank. Not sure if four books is too much to hope for time to read. But they'll all be quick reads. I've left Aristotle and Calvin at home for the new year.
I'm not sure when I'll have the opportunity to blog again in the next few days. So Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to all.
Ice Day!
Awoke to an snow/ice storm here today. Mostly icy rain all day, so it's best to stay off the roads!
Making productive use of my time though. Here's a list I've been wanting to complete since seeing it on Lacie's blog. Answers are in no particular order except for the preference for books and movies!
Seven Things to Do Before I Die- Dance with my husband (preferably to Michael Buble’s rendition of Sway, not that I have this planned out or anything)
- See Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks at the British Library
- Lead someone to the Lord
- Publish, publish, publish
- Learn to play Liebestraum
- Write my memoirs
- Start a new trend
Seven Things I Cannot Do
- Write with my right hand
- Whistle
- Drive a car that’s not an automatic
- Use a sewing machine
- Change the oil in my car
- Tie a cherry stem with my tongue
- Keep African Violets alive more than three months
Seven Things that Attract Me to My Best Friend [romantic interest, husband, whomever]
- Honesty
- Sense of humor
- Smile
- Loyalty
- Commitment to the Lord
- Love of learning
- Trustworthiness
Seven Things I Say Most Often
- Thank you.
- Okay.
- Really?
- It’s freezing in my office!
- Let’s go get tea.
- See you tomorrow!
- I was reading about . . .
Seven Books (or series) I Love
- Ecclesiastes
- Les Miserables
- Pride & Prejudice
- Mere Christianity, Abolition of Men, and A Grief Observed (anything by C.S. Lewis
- Hamlet (okay, it’s a play, but it still counts)
- A Tale of Two Cities
- What We Can’t Not Know
Seven Movies I Would Watch Over and Over Again
- Pride & Prejudice (1995 BBC version or 2005 Matthew MacFadyen, er, Working Title Films version)
- Clue: The Movie ("There's no body. There's nobody here. Mr. Body's body, it's gone!")
- Singin’ in the Rain (the perfect musical comedy ensemble)
- Anne of Green Gables / Anne of Avonlea (a classic, enough said)
- Les Miserables in Concert at the Royal Albert Hall (okay, not quite a movie, but I have it on DVD, so it counts)
- Ocean’s 11 (If it were legal, I'd love to devise plans like that!)
- Mickey Blue Eyes (the funny run; "Eat cookie!"; "Die, piggy, die!")
A good day . . .
And how did I know today would be such a good day?
Easy. On my drive to work I was thrilled to learn that the local deejay must have read my blog. Of the five or six songs that aired, three rank on my all-time favorites list: Josh Groban's
O Holy Night, Clay Aiken's
Mary, Did You Know?, and (although not the song, but the singer) Harry Connick Jr's version of Jingle Bells. Fantastic! :-)
Even a trip to the dentist couldn't ruin my bright mood.
I'm in the midst of reading
In My Brother's Image, a fascinating account of twin brothers, survivors of the holocaust, who were divided by faith. One became a Catholic priest; the other, true to his Jewish roots, felt the other betrayed all they had survived. Fascinating, yet tragic. Highly recommended personal account from repercussions of the holocaust.
Must have been a slow news day today. Among the headlines featured on Drudge: the Pope advocated that "virtuous" living is not boring and GLAAD is raving about the new gay cowboy movie. Shocking turns of events that no one would have predicted, to be sure.
Oh, and Peggy Noonan and George Will are to the usual high form discussing illegal immigration and government (over)spending, respectively. Highly recommend both.
Pa-rum-pa-pum-pum
Okay, I'm sure that's not how it's spelled, but for once (and probably the only time in my life), I don't care enough to look it up. Turning on the car to come home after a semi-long day at work, what should greet my ears but yet another rendition of our favorite carol of all,
Little Drummer Boy.
But I refuse to let one song ruin my mood or take up any more space on this blog.
Il Divo's version of
Ave Maria is currently playing on my computer. To be followed shortly by Josh Groban's
Believe and
O Holy Night. Thank you playlist!
I'm constantly amazed by how much there is to blog about, but when I sit down to right very little comes to mind. I can't talk about my work (even anonymously, I just wouldn't do that; and we're a bit past the anonymous point at this time).
See generally the saga of A3G's colorful
Underneath Their Robes blog, RIP; oh, and the law clerk that was fired after posting detailed analysis of cases his/her chambers was involved in. Beyond the professional ethics though, it's just not in my nature.
Same thing for my personal life. I don't mind sharing little tangential things, but don't expect to get to know the "real" me and the sordid (such as they are) details of my life being broadcast to anyone unfortunate enough to stumble upon my humble little slice of cyberspace.
I'm giving myself until January to begin writing again. Having published three articles (well, one student note and two articles) on various aspects of international criminal law, it's time to start the fourth. Suggestions, anyone? :-) As background, I believe that the "conservative" crowd (and "conservative Christians" in particular) have missed a well-spring of opportunity by so roundly fleeing the establishment of an international criminal court. That being said, I'm no globalist either, and all-too-aware of the dangers posed. I'm just more of a realist when it comes to certain things like genocide, mass torture and other crimes against humanity. The whole issue of aggression is another issue, though, to be sure.
So here's my initial thought for current research: Trying the Judged: International Criminal Proceedings Against Members of the Judiciary. The focal point would, of necessity, be the Nuremberg trial against the judges and lawyers (featured too fictionally in
Judgment at Nuremberg, but with a great speech by Spencer Tracy at the end); then a historical look through the current IST proceeding in which defendant number 2 is the former chief justice of Saddam Hussein's Revolutionary Courts. And to answer two immediate questions: yes, I prefer legal history to modern legal analysis at times, and no, I haven't a clue what the thesis will be yet. I've talked it over with another internationally-minded friend from law school, and we may be able to co-write it. Think anyone besides loyal family and coerced friends would read it? :-)
Off to wrap Christmas presents . . . . (yes, that's how eclectic my mind can be at times - good thing I don't blog more often!)
It's that time of year . . .
In my previous post, I quoted the lyrics to two of my favorite Christmas carols.
As soon as I finish this post, I am going to put up Christmas decorations (sans arbre). As such, I have the requisite Christmas-only radio station playing in the background and a candle burning with appropriate holiday scent.
But I am taking this moment out of my day to discuss how many
utterly annoying Christmas songs there are out there. And there are variations to the pet peeve - some songs are and will always be annoying (
Feliz Navidad); some songs are okay to listen to a couple of times each season, but seem to be replayed on the hour and
quickly lose their appeal (
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas;
The Chipmunks' Christmas Song); and some songs are lovely, but have some truly horrid versions out there (contrast Josh Groban's rendition of
O Holy Night with almost anyone else's).
And why is it that the radio stations play the same songs over and over and over? I was in the car a total of maybe 45 minutes yesterday and heard 4 versions of
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and 3 versions of
Silent Night. There have got to be literally thousands of appropriate songs for this time of year, and I have yet to hear a single version of some of the best.
Thus, as I am typing this little blog, my computer is busy burning a cd of my favorite selections from my various Christmas cds so that I can listen to "only the best" on this otherwise merry day.
Stepping off my soapbox, and storing it away for another day. . . .
Time Flies . . .
and if you're not careful, you'll miss out on life's greatest moments.
Okay, okay, a bit sappy, but I figured I needed something approaching the profound as the opening sentence of my first post in almost two months. I've been lurking. Keeping busy with work, visiting friends, sprucing up my new apartment, and generally no longer having easy access to the internet.
So much has happened. I was fortunate enough to miss having to blog on the rise and fall of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers (was that just a few weeks ago??). Others, namely Charles Krauthammer, said it so much better than I ever could, what was the point of mediocre repetition. And now we have the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito. A better judge would be hard to find. But it's going to be an uphill struggle to get him confirmed.
My mom and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving together. And for that I am truly grateful. Nothing better than spending time with loved ones and taking a moment to appreciate the important things in life.
We saw
Walk the Line, the new semi-biographical depiction of Johnny Cash. True confessions? Before seeing the movie, I remember having heard "A Boy Named Sue" and could tell you that he was known as "The Man in Black," but that's about all. The movie was one of the best I've seen in a while. A mere fraction of the heartbreak that must have occurred in the real events is depicted, but to good form. And, it turns out, he really did turn his life around and commit to walk with the Lord, warts and all. So my latest mini-obsession has been following up on his life and music. Autobiographies are always somewhat biased, but he didn't seem to gloss over the life he once lived, and for that I am impressed. His style of singing isn't my favorite in the world, but there's something in the lyrics that sure do resonate. Even for someone who has only been in a police station once, to be fingerprinted for the bar exam! :-)
I'm mid-way through the book
Memoirs of a Geisha, and hope to finish it before seeing the film. That shouldn't be a problem because I've no one to see it with, and so it will be a while! The book is good thus far. Very informative of a culture about which I know next to nothing.
And, in closing for this Friday morning post, it's that time of year when Christmas carols take over your listening pleasure and control the mind if you're not careful. I've already heard
Feliz Navidad and
Little Drummer Boy enough times to last the rest of the decade, but I do not wish to focus on the negative. Here's a bit of joy from my two favorite carols of all time.
O Holy NightO Holy Night, the stars are brightly shining.
It is the night of our dear Savior's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Til He appeared, and the sould felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks, a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
Oh, night divine! Oh, night when Christ was born!
Oh, night divine! Oh, night! Oh, night divine!
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we;
Let all within us praice His holy name.
Christ is the Lord that ever, ever praise we.
Noel! Noel! Oh, night, oh night divine!
Noel! Noel! Oh, night, oh, night divine!
___
and, from an even older lyric:
O Come O Come EmanuelO Come, O Come Emanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emanuel shal come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And deaths' dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
___
Admittedly, I only included my favorite verses of each, but since this is my blog, I will take the liberty. Until the next post, I remain firmly embedded under His mercy. As do you.
