The Bitten Apple

The Girl Who Loved a Warmer Story

2012-01-01T12:47:00.000-08:00

Image courtesy of Ann's Needlework As Hollywood's film version of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo tops the local marquees over the holidays, I have to wonder why the Americans felt the need to remake a three-year-old movie that the Swedes had already done a perfectly fine job with. It's a mystery, but then so is the popularity of the Millennium Trilogy at all, in my opinion. I wrote this post

Vanilla Tales

2011-12-04T14:20:00.001-08:00

Image courtesy of UCLA Biomedical Library, Spice Collection Once upon a time, vanilla was my term for anything ordinary, mainstream or unembellished. I used the word disparagingly, with contempt for all things that swam downstream or failed to stand out. But that was before I understood vanilla. Vanilla, my friends, is anything but ordinary. In fact, vanilla is exotic, legendary and

Someone Else's Dream

2011-11-27T11:54:00.001-08:00

(Image "Masquerade" by Thomas Barbey) Last night I had the strangest dream. I woke up from it sobbing in grief, but it wasn't my dream. Of course, it was a bubble from my own subconscious, but it's just flotsam, or empathy, for an old acquaintance I spoke with last night on the phone. Should I tell you my dream, or should I tell you the horrible Job-like story of my acquaintance's life?

The Story of S: Found In Translation

2011-11-26T14:17:00.000-08:00

My grandfather (center) I was never into genealogy; that was my dad's thing, but he somehow managed to get me involved, one way or another, over the years. Pappaw's WWI Journal For example, when I was a teen he had me transcribe the little journal my grandfather Edwin Albert Anderson kept while he was trudging across France in the winter during World War I. I painstakingly copied out those

Curiosity and Peculiarity

2011-09-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

One of the many cabinets of curiosities are Bonnier de la Mosson at the Bibliotèque centrale du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris. I want to go there someday.In all the years since the kids and I wandered through the exhibit called "Strecker's Cabinet" at Baylor University's Mayborn Museum, I have been fascinated with cabinets of curiosity.In fact, if you've ever been in my home,

Still a Few Drops in the Well (I Hope)

2011-09-11T14:38:00.000-07:00

After watching and listening to 9/11 stories on PBS and NPR for a week, I feel almost guilty to be publishing a non-9/11 post on this day, 10 years after nearly 3,000 people died in a terrorist attack. It's because my own 9/11 story is small and utterly insignificant; I comforted a little crew of children in a tiny rural elementary school in California as we waited for more news. I answered

Paradigm Shifts

2011-07-30T15:18:00.000-07:00

It's only thanks to Chomsky that I even know the word "hegemony"This morning, I visited a blog, Sey-Gep Hes, and read a post ("One of the Most Bizarre Cultural Practices in All Human History") that discusses race issues from the point of view of someone who is part Native American.In addition to having a lot of interesting things to say, the writer was discouraged that he's gotten few responses

The Hunger for a Good Read

2011-07-17T20:08:00.000-07:00

All I really want is something good to read, but you'd think I was asking for the moon. After dabbling in the precarious stack of books by my bedside, I finally read one that caught my attention, The Hunger Games. In fact, I then quickly read part two of the trilogy, Catching Fire, and ordered the third, Mockingjay, within minutes after reading the last page. It seems strange that, after a

Inventing the Future

2011-05-23T06:56:00.000-07:00

Image courtesy of toomanybookstoolittletime.wordpress.comI'm reading Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood. I discovered quite by accident that there is a sequel to Oryx and Crake, that that unsettling ending isn't the end of the story after all.As with Stephen King (sorry, Margaret, for comparing you to such a mainstream author), I have discovered Atwood's formula. But instead of making me lose

Why It Takes Me Awhile to Write a Presentation

2011-05-03T12:05:00.000-07:00

Because nothing is simple in my mind. Work assignment: write a presentation.(Image courtesy of chemistryland.com)But first, these types of thoughts have to run through my mind and find a place to settle along with the task at hand."We trace the historical development of the business presentation genre over the last century, examine the influence of the PowerPoint software tool, and consider the

May Day

2011-05-02T00:05:00.000-07:00

These little sprouts were hibiscus starts by the time I transplanted them today.Thank goodness Spring has arrived.In hopes of Spring, a folded away the down comforter and exchanged it for a fresh cotton quilt. When I pass through the room and see the expanse of this quilt and the sheer white curtains dancing above it in the breeze, I want to lie down and daydream.In hopes of Spring, I set out for

The Algebra of Selling Yourself

2011-03-05T07:59:00.001-08:00

Image courtesy of apoorplayer.netWork is supposed to take up 40 hours of each week, right? We sell 40 hours of each precious 168 hours of our lives in order to survive. It's less than a quarter of our time, so it's not a bad deal really, considering what people once had to do to survive.Then we sleep, what?, 7 hours a night, if we're lucky and insomnia doesn't plague us. That's 49 hours a week,

Rides & Residences

2011-03-01T19:09:00.000-08:00

(Image courtesy of Pioneer Valley Local)Thirty years pass, water under the bridge, then the wonders of social networking allow for this exchange, each colorful term a tiny door that could be opened to reveal a wondrous vista.She writes: "Did you know several of my stories lately have begun with, 'I once dated a hot-air balloon pilot...' I always have to stop there and let people comment on that

Slow Fast Food

2011-02-09T20:58:00.000-08:00

Image courtesy of lataco.comWell, now that I've revived the blog, I have to decide what to do with it. There are so many directions to go that I just can't decide.Maybe it could be a spot for restaurant reviews, in which case I should tell you about Naan of the Above in Arcata, where I had lunch today.It's sort of a stationary mobile restaurant. I mean, it's on wheels like a taco truck but tidier

Back

2011-02-08T19:19:00.000-08:00

After a six-month silence, here I am, back again. With such little activity, it's likely there are no more readers of the Bitten Apple out there.During this time, I have archived all the posts I ever wrote since the inception of this blog in 2008, saved them all as Word files, began the project of printing them out into book form, for no better reason than a person would have for saving an old

Horror in the Laundryroom

2010-08-14T09:42:00.000-07:00

(Image courtesy of filmsinreview.com)I can still remember the first slasher films I ever saw, although it's taken me an hour and a lot of random internet surfing to remember the title, Silent Scream.All I really remember are a lot of terrifying moments in a big rambling seaside house. And then a horrible screaming madwoman escaping from an attic, all wild black hair, wild eyes and wildly swinging

Migrations

2010-08-09T20:20:00.000-07:00

I get to blog at work now sometimes.Blogging at work is a Special Project. My boss will wander into my cubicle, ask how I'm doing and then say the words I love to hear: "I have a Special Project for you."It's always something fun and interesting, something outside the box. One day, I took a client sightseeing. One time, I rummaged through boxes to find something. One day, I proofread a press

Gambling

2010-07-27T16:11:00.001-07:00

Many months ago, I made a wager, of sorts.I passed my perfectly reliable car along to my son, whose precipitous entree into adulthood meant he needed my help. And I began driving an older SUV that I bought cheap last fall.I gambled that I would finish school and become gainfully employed before the SUV began to wear out and need a lot of work.The race is on.I'm working now and paychecks come in

I Write Like...

2010-07-14T22:28:00.000-07:00

...H.P. Lovecraft, apparently, writer of the sci-fi sub-genre "weird fiction" and whose "protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality and the abyss." I write likeH. P. LovecraftI Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!