Udder Pitcher

This is seriously cool:

Reading

So I just started reading Stephen King's "Under the Dome", and I'm very excited about it. I really love the way Stephen writes - he cares about the characters and really manages to flesh them out. He's one of my favorite writers. I've been doing a lot of reading lately, with great results. I actually ordered "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" by Steig Larsson from Amazon UK because I could not wait until May for it to be published here. This trilogy is amazing, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Another favorite is "The Brutal Telling" by Louise Penny. Great mystery series set in Canada, again with great characters. If you like mysteries, go for this one, but start at the beginning.

What are you reading?

Word of the Year

Via Entertainment Weekly:

"The New Oxford American Dictionary’s word of the year for 2009 is unfriend, which they define as “verb – To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.”

Huh. I feel like “unfollow” is the more common term, but maybe that’s because I’m more of a Twitter/Tumblr person than a Facebook/MySpace one. (Perhaps this is the new Myers-Briggs? Yes?) According to the dictionary’s blog, other terms that were under consideration include hashtag, sexting, funemployed, and birther. Again, why am I alone on preferring “texxxting” to “sexting”? Mine is so much catchier!"

Which is all fine and good, not that I have ever unfriended anyone. The most interesting thing to me about the article was that the dictionary has a blog. Seriously? And you know they post way more often than I do. I can't even keep up with a dictionary. Sigh.

I am a slacker

Gee, it's been a while, hasn't it? I've been sick for a bit, and quite frankly, I haven't seen anything worth blogging about lately. It happens sometimes. But then I read this article from Newsweek about gay characters on television. Basically, the author questions whether the more flamboyant and effeminate characters that seem to be on TV are bad for gay culture because they perpetuate stereotypes. It also points out the cultural differences between older and younger gay men and how they may play a role in how characters are portrayed and interpreted. My personal take is that I think the roles are an expression of reality, and they feel authentic to me. Take 'Kurt' on Glee - it's very clear he is proud of who he is and his coming out to his dad was a wonderful scene. It doesn't feel like a stereotype to me - he is owning his power and is clear on who he is. While that character is not me or my experience, it's very much a great character, which is what I want to see on TV. And having said that, I also would to see other diverse gay men and women on TV too, as long as they have something to say.


Update - Here's a response pretty much showing all the ways the first article was wrong too.