Octopods are fascinatingIt appears that the only way to motivate myself to write in this bedeviled thing is to make rather large, silly lists. Since I haven’t been in a terribly silly mood this spring, it has indefinitely fallen by the wayside, but THINGS have happened, many THINGS. As a result, you, gentle reader, are entitled to one (1) fanciful picture of an octopod, and a list.

  1. Mawage…that dweam wifin a dweam

    2. Not mine. My brothers are both engaged. The middle child’s wedding will soon be upon us and it should make every prince and princess in Alabama swoon with delight. There are hundreds of people to manage and what seems like dozens of lead-up events, and I’m already tired. The baby boy, no longer a baby of course, asked his betrothed at Pat O’Briens famous pub during the height of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. I laughed at him when he told me, but I was present and never was there a more happy couple. Love was in the air even as Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” blared over the loud speakers and we danced ridiculously, and there was much rejoicing (and quite a few hurricanes).

  2. Slayage

    3. How is it possible that I had not watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer before this? I think we’re on Season 4 now. I’m not one to weigh the relative merits of romantic, or even rather unromantic, male leads (except for in Veronica Mars, to which I say LOGAN), so I’ve mostly just been enjoying the characters. Almost every fictitious soul that arrives on the scene annoying the ever-living-daylights out of me turns into a character that I would miss if s/he were gone later. (Except Faith, screw redemption.)

  3. Knitting

    4. I’ve been knitting since October, and I rather enjoy it. I made some scarves and a hat and a shawl. Now I’ve moved on to a much more challenging circular blanket, so we’ll see if it sticks. I hope so. Knitted things are pretty.

  4. Babies! Of the fictional, alien sort

    5. This season when Olivia, the lead female character on Fringe, got pregnant, I got ill about it. I just get tired pregnancy being one of the only things that happens to female characters (along with falling in love and raising kids). All of these things are great things if you want them, and the majority of individuals seem to want them, but it is not the only thing of which ladies are capable and it is certainly not the plan of Olivia while she was busy saving the world as a bad ass operative this season.

    All of that to say, that I came across this video blog called Feminist Frequency about how women are represented in pop culture, and I really enjoy it so I wanted to share. She’s talked about the Bechdel test, and the Oscars, and marketing to girls and boys. She recently began a series called Tropes vs. Women, my favorite so far being on The Smurfette Principle. She hasn’t made a video about Alien/Chosen One pregnancies in sci fi and fantasy, but she did share a link to a chilling remix video about them set to Mary Poppin’s “Stay Awake”. (I don’t even want to talk now about how Amy Pond is having/had a time-head baby raised by the creepiest aliens since the Weeping Angels. Grrrr.)

  5. Minneapolis

    6. I’m going to Minneapolis next week for MLA. If you know anything awesome to do in the area, let me know. I probably will not visit the Mall of America. My body hates shopping.

  6. Tornados

    7. My home area of the state (the one I’m from, not the one I live in) was hit pretty hard in the tornados last week, as was my adopted home from grad school, Tuscaloosa. If you’re still looking for ways to help, my alma mater has a great page that lists many, many ways to do so.

    Image ganked from Kirsten Miller who stole it from William West/AFP/Getty Images, but did not link.