| The Incredible Shrinking Woman | |||
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Thursday, October 23, 2003 ( 1:54 PM ) Melody This is huge... I think Today Amazon is announcing this new Search Inside the Book feature. I feel kind of lost because I'm in publishing, and yet I had no idea this was coming. Someone just told me that it came up during a meeting while I was on vacation in August. I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet. At least at first glance, it looks like this could provide a much more comfortable book buying experience for Amazon customers. I think most people still like to go to brick and mortar bookstores to purchase their books because they can touch and test the merchandise. I use Amazon pretty frequently to purchase fiction, but if I'm buying a reference book, I will use Amazon as a research tool and then travel to a bookstore to get a feel for the layout and contents. Since I'm already at a bookstore with a book in my hand, I usually buy it there. If I could get a good feel while online for the amount of coverage a book will contain on a topic in which I'm interested, though, I'm not sure I'd have any need to hold it in my hands first before buying. # Wednesday, October 22, 2003 ( 1:13 PM ) Melody Ain't that America? As a born Hoosier, I'm kind of obligated to adore John Mellencamp, but now that he and his wife have written this open letter to President Bush, I like him even more. Personally, I didn't think his song From Washington last year was any great musical feat, but I did think it took guts to criticize the current administration when the majority of his fans reside in the corn belt. He took a lot of flack for that, and he hasn't recanted or even back-pedaled at all. In honor of his courageous statements, here are the lyrics to my favorite John Mellencamp Song: Jackie Brown. Not upbeat, but a beautiful song regardless. Maybe Mellencamp is our generation's Johnny Cash. # ( 9:19 AM ) Melody Say it isn't so! Noooooo, Elton! I thought you had more self-respect than this. You're a real artist. Vegas? Come on. I know you love those glasses, but Vegas is the cheesiest town on earth, with the possible exception of Branson, Missouri. # Tuesday, October 21, 2003 ( 9:51 AM ) Melody I want to believe Stealing this blogging idea from Mac at The Go Fish this morning because it's Halloween-y and because I've been thinking a lot about spirituality lately anyway. Do you believe in ghosts? I want to believe in ghosts in the same way that I want to believe in angels, but of course, angels are different than ghosts. I want to believe that someone I can't see is looking out for me-- guarding my path, keeping me out of harm's way, occasionally stepping in to ensure that I don't make all the wrong decisions. I want to believe that the people I love don't ever leave me entirely, that my grandmother, for instance, has been there to see me graduate from high school, college, start my career, that she's proud of me, that she forgives me for not being there the night she passed away, even though she asked for me. There's a line in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's famous poem "How Do I Love Thee?" My mother read this poem to me when I was a child, and I always loved it, but I didn't truly appreciate it until I was much older. The line: I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints Lately I've been thinking that maybe that's the answer. Maybe when we die we're transferred like energy into love, and we live on in the hearts of our loved ones and deepen their love for others. I can think of worse ways to spend eternity. # Monday, October 20, 2003 ( 1:24 PM ) Melody The Way We Were Visited my old stomping grounds this weekend for the first time in 7 years. For those of you who don't know, I spent my junior and senior years at a residential high school located on the campus of Ball State University. The dorm has changed a little, but the atmosphere is the same. There were kids everywhere playing euchre, having geeky conversations about philosophy and literature. I found me and Kate in a class picture that was hanging on the wall in the lobby. It's hard to believe more than 10 classes have graduated from there now. We were in the 3rd. Favorite memories from the Academy: -late night runs to Tasty Chinese with my residence counselor and far too many other classmates crammed into the back of her car -lying in the dark gossiping with Kate until the wee hours of the morning -playing Dr. Mario on Corri's Nintendo every afternoon after check-in at 4 o'clock -smoking a corncob pipe on Smoker's Hill with my friends -harrassing Katy's ex-boyfriend George by telling him my penis was bigger than his -evening chats about poetry with Christopher in his office -holding my teacher's labrador retriever Boon's head in my lap while we discussed Jeanette Winterson's Oranges are Not the Only Fruit during my independent study with Mrs. Haines -lying on my stomach in the grass doing my homework in the quad -Buying popcorn-flavored jellybeans with Katy down in the Village Why did those days go by so fast, and how does it seem so long ago? # |
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