Musing's musings

Where I slept, 2009 edition

As another blogging friend reminded me, since the year is winding down it's probably a good time to post the "Where I Slept" results for 2009:

1. Home (most of the year)
2. Chicago, Illinois (three separate occasions: February, for the 2009 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; June, for the start of my summer vacation; and October, for a friend's wedding)
3. Edwardsville, Illinois (February, for a work-related conference)
4. Clarksville, Tennessee (on the way to my dad's 70th birthday party)
5. Decatur, Alabama (for my dad's 70th birthday party)
6. Hayward, Wisconsin (June/July, on my summer vacation)
7. Peosta, Iowa (on two occasions: July, during my summer vacation; and again in October for a mini-retreat)
8. Springfield, Illinois (July, on my summer vacation)
9. Pingree Grove, Illinois (July, on my summer vacation)
10. Livonia, Michigan (July, on a long weekend getaway)
11. Washington, DC (August, for the fall meeting of the Grants Resource Center)
12. Galena, Illinois (October, on a mini-vacation after a very big proposal deadline)
13. Poplar Grove, Illinois (December, for a weekend visit with an old college friend)

Sleeping Around: 2008

Shamelessly stolen from Josh's place, this is my best recollection of places (other than home) where I spent the night last year:

1. Peosta, IA
2. Chicago, IL
3. Las Vegas, NV
4. Cedar City, UT
5. West Yellowstone, MT
6. Ogden, UT
7. Las Vegas, NV
8. Chicago, IL

One retreat, one professional conference, my annual summer vacation, and a Chicago theater weekend.

So many books, so little time

It's no surprise to my regular readers that I love books. Kind of an occupational hazard for anybody in any of my fields of study, though I had the addiction long before I got to school.

So I was pleased to find this meme over at Andrea's. It's a list of books that users of Library Thing most frequently mark as "unread." (And methinks I may have to check out Library Thing sometime when I have some time. The idea of being able to get my library cataloged and have a record of it stored someplace where it could be retrieved in case of disaster is appealing.)

You play this game by putting titles that you've read in boldface, underlining the ones you had to read in school, and italicizing books you've started but haven't finished. Put an asterisk (*) beside books you liked and would read again (or have already) or would recommend to others. Follow me below the fold for my list.

I seem to have stumped y'all

A few weeks ago, I grabbed a movie meme. The idea was to pick 15 of your favorite movies and post a quote from each one. As readers identified the quotes, you were supposed to cross them off.

But y'all only got six of the 15. As I haven't had a comment on the post in question for more than a week, I figure it's safe to reveal the answers. I guess I've got an odd taste in movies, or at least I picked ones that aren't familiar even to my legion of readers. So here we go:

1. You know what I hate the most about being a public figure? ...The public. (Carol Bensen, Peter's Friends)
2. I love inscriptions on flyleafs and notes in margins. I like the comradely sense of turning pages someone else turned and reading passages someone long-gone has called my attention to. (Helene Hanff, 84 Charing Cross Road)
3. I am upset, I am uptight, I am up to my nipples in Southern Comfort, and you're trying to take advantage of me. (Arnold Beckoff, Torch Song Trilogy)
4. I reckon the folks'd be a sight happier if I died like a soldier. Can't say I would. (Samson Posey, The Dirty Dozen)
5. You must also know that I shall be with you every day that is granted to me from now on. Every evening I shall sit down to dine with you. Not with my body, which is of no importance, but with my soul. Because this evening I have learned, my dear, that in this beautiful world of ours, all things are possible. (Lorens Lowenhielm, Babette's Feast)
6. This is a non-riot hearse. And if it were a hearse there would be silence in the backseat. (Joe, The Princess Diaries)
7. I just want you to feel you're doing well. I hate for people to die embarrassed. (Fezzik, The Princess Bride)
8. A girl? So I can't play. But then again, I am black, so maybe I can. You're problem's gonna be deciding which one of your narrow-minded stereotypes is gonna kick your lily-white ass. (Julie Taylor, Latter Days)
9. How's that for blasphemy. I dressed my maids as Amazons and rode bare-breasted halfway to Damascus. Louis had a seizure and I damn near died of windburn... but the troops were dazzled. (Eleanor of Aquitaine, The Lion in Winter)
10. Must we ride in this thing? Wouldn't we be more comfortable on pogo sticks? (Uncle Willie, The Philadelphia Story)
11. What is it with this man? Did I kill a relative of his in battle, perhaps? His boy, God forbid? (Captain Jonathan Aubrey, Master and Commander)
12. I'll have the sweat of that hairy man's brow, thank you. (John, Longtime Companion)
13. Now listen here, you mullet. Why don't you just light your tampon and blow your box apart? Because it's the only bang you're ever gonna get, sweetheart! (Bernadette Bassenger, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert)
14. You got authorization from Aunt Ginny? (Daniel Kaffee, A Few Good Men)
15. Rehabilitated? It's just a bullshit word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a shit. (Ellis B. "Red" Redding, The Shawshank Redemption)

Whose line is it, anyway?

Via Mustang Bobby, a new movie meme. Look up 15 of your favorite movies on IMDb and pick a quote from each. List the quotes in a blog post. When someone correctly identifies the movie in question in a comment, cross off that quote. Answer in comments, please, and No Cheating!.

Here are my quotes:

1. You know what I hate the most about being a public figure? ...The public.
2. I love inscriptions on flyleafs and notes in margins. I like the comradely sense of turning pages someone else turned and reading passages someone long-gone has called my attention to.
3. I am upset, I am uptight, I am up to my nipples in Southern Comfort, and you're trying to take advantage of me.
4. I reckon the folks'd be a sight happier if I died like a soldier. Can't say I would.
5. You must also know that I shall be with you every day that is granted to me from now on. Every evening I shall sit down to dine with you. Not with my body, which is of no importance, but with my soul. Because this evening I have learned, my dear, that in this beautiful world of ours, all things are possible.
6. This is a non-riot hearse. And if it were a hearse there would be silence in the backseat.
7. I just want you to feel you're doing well. I hate for people to die embarrassed.
8. A girl? So I can't play. But then again, I am black, so maybe I can. You're problem's gonna be deciding which one of your narrow-minded stereotypes is gonna kick your lily-white ass.
9. How's that for blasphemy. I dressed my maids as Amazons and rode bare-breasted halfway to Damascus. Louis had a seizure and I damn near died of windburn... but the troops were dazzled.
10. Must we ride in this thing? Wouldn't we be more comfortable on pogo sticks?
11. What is it with this man? Did I kill a relative of his in battle, perhaps? His boy, God forbid?
12. I'll have the sweat of that hairy man's brow, thank you.
13. Now listen here, you mullet. Why don't you just light your tampon and blow your box apart? Because it's the only bang you're ever gonna get, sweetheart!
14. You got authorization from Aunt Ginny?
15. Rehabilitated? It's just a bullshit word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a shit.

Extra credit if you can identify the character who spoke the line in question.

Another book meme

Via Brian at Incertus, another book meme. Here's how it works:

• look up page 123 in the nearest book
• look for the fifth sentence
• then post the three sentences that follow that fifth sentence on page 123.

Well, the nearest book would be the one I had in my hand when I read Brian's post, which is Christopher Leslie Brown's Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism (University of North Carolina Press, 2006). Page 123, which I had just read perhaps 15 minutes before I stumbled across this meme, comes from Chapter 2, titled "The Politics of Slavery." Here are the requisite sentences:

"[quoting Edmund Burke]...Freedom to them is not only an enjoyment, but a kind of rank and privilege." "In such a people," he concluded, "the haughtiness of domination combines with the spirit of freedom, fortifies it, and renders it invincible."

Because the prevalence of slave ownership distinguished the American colonies from the British Isles and because slave ownership seemed to explain why some North American colonists were inclined to reject imperial authority, slaveowners received particular abuse from those British commentators unhappy about the emerging divide between American rebels and the British government.

More fun with the iPod

Again via my friend Josh, the iTunes* meme:

1. How many songs total: 4,088
2. How many hours or days of music: 11.2 days
3. Most recently played: Five for Fighting, "Michael Jordan"
4. Most played: Jason Mraz, "Mr. A-Z"
5. Most recently added: Pine Leaf Boys, "Zydeco Gris-Gris"
6. Sort by song title:
   • First song: John Michael Talbot, "Abba, Father"
   • Last song: Ton Koopman, Variatio 9 from J. S. Bach's Goldberg Variations
7. Sort by time:
   • Shortest song: "He that Dwelleth in Heaven" from Händel's Messiah is the shortest actual song at 11 seconds. The shortest track is Rob Thomas saying "iTunes Originals" at 5 seconds.
   • Longest song: Jason Mraz, "Welcome to Schubas" (medley), at 34:15
8. Sort by album:
   • First album: Abba, "Abba" (from which I have only two tracks)
   • Last album: I Musici, "9 Concertos" is the last actual album. The last track to show on this sort is a Capitol Steps clip I downloaded from their web site, "These Boobs Were Made for Gawking."
9. Search the following and state how many songs come up:
   • just like: 1 (Marty Haugen, "Let Justice Roll Like a River" from Wondrous Love)
   • fuck: 3 (Jason Mraz, "10,000 Motherfuckers" from Selections for Friends; Lewis Black, "Fuck, New York, Los Angeles" from The White Album; and Eric Idle's "FCC Song All Fucks")
   • book: 51 (all 48 tracks from Daniel Barenboim's album Das Wohltempierte Klavier, Book 1; The Cambridge Singers, "Lute-book lullaby" from Christmas Night: Carols of the Nativity; Sting, "The Book of My Life" from Sacred Love; and Enya, "Book of Days" from Shepherd Moons)
   • fat: 5 (Bill Cosby, "Fat Albert (Buck, Buck)" from The Best of Bill Cosby; John Michael Talbot, "Abba, Father" from City of God; "My Heart is Inditing: Kings Shall Be Thy Nursing Fathers" from Händel's Coronation Anthems; The King's Singers, "Fatal la parte" from The King's Singers' Madrigal History Tour; and Patrick Doyle, "My Father's Favorite" from the soundtrack to Sense and Sensibility)
   • springsteen: 0

*I did the searches in iTunes, but used my iPod's music library instead of the very limited selection I actually have in iTunes on my computer.

In lieu of actual content

Given that I'm (a) cold and (b) depressed as shit, I'm stealing this meme from Emily at Incertus:

Clearly I need to get out more. If only the Department of State would cough up a shiny new passport for me...

Well, and winning the lottery or getting on Jeopardy! would help, too. Not sure I'm going to get a third invite to try out for the latter, either, given my less-than-stellar (according to me, anyway) performance on tonight's online tryouts. How in hell could I forget Nina Totenberg's name?

Sleeping around

(Both title and concept shamelessly stolen from my friend Josh.)

The idea for this meme is to list all the places that you slept last year. To the best of my recollection, here they are (not including various locales in cars, airplanes, trains, or other modes of transport, or quick naps here and there):

• Home
• Washington, D.C. (the Hilton Garden Inn on 14th Street, if I remember correctly; I was there for a conference in March)
• Colmar, Alsace, France (the Hotel Turenne, just off the Grand' Rue; research trip)
• Fontenay sous Bois, France (suburbs of Paris, at a Holiday Inn that's convenient to the RER line; also for the research trip)
• Los Angeles, CA (technically Universal City, at the Hilton Universal City; a training workshop)
• Cable, WI (the Telemark Resort, for a family trip)
• Washington, D.C. again (the Westin near Dupont Circle; another conference in September)
• Portland, OR (the Doubletree Lloyd Center; a National Science Foundation conference)
• Chicago, IL (the Willows Hotel; the first part of my Christmas trip with Dave)

Friday Random 10, God, it's hot edition

Here's how we play our little game: Take out your iPod or other musical device. Put it in "random" mode. Hit "play." Write down the first ten tracks that come up--and no fair putting in ones you think will make you look cool, or omitting ones that make you look like a total dork.

Here are mine for today:

1. Stacked Actors (Foo Fighters, There is Nothing Left to Lose)
2. Argue (Matchbox 20, Yourself or Someone Like You)
3. Rise Up (Nemesis, Rise Up)
4. Coventry Carol (The Cambridge Singers/John Rutter, Christmas with the Cambridge Singers)
5. Homeland Security (Lewis Black, Rules of Enragement)
6. Everlasting Grace Is Yours (David Haas, Where The River Flows)
7. Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36, iv. Allegro molto (Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique/John Eliot Gardiner, Beethoven: Nine Symphonies)
8. Because Our Love Is Real (Erasure, Nightbird)
9. Snakes in Schubas (Jason Mraz, Selections for Friends)
10. Gaîté Parisienne: Allegro (The Boston Pops/Arthur Fiedler, Gaîté Parisienne)