where have all the kitties gone?

Wow, I haven't written in here in a while.

Mark's okay and recovering nicely. We had a funny moment today because we are going over to my parents' house for dinner tonight, and Mark wanted to see if we could have crab. So I called my dad and asked him what was for dinner, and mentioned that Mark wanted to eat some crab. My dad said, "Crab?! He's still recovering from surgery! Maybe next time!" So no crab for Mark!

No, I have no idea why crab is bad for you after surgery. Something about the air, probably.

My parents have been really sweet about asking after Mark. They fretted about him almost as much as his own parents did. Somehow that comforts me.

Kaitlin even asked to talk to him, and it's fun hearing them talk to each other. It was her birthday a few weeks ago, and I gave her a set of 3 "girly" books - A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, and Anne of Green Gables. It also came with a gold locket. I actually wanted to give her a set of Chronicles of Narnia, but I didn't want to get her the giant paperback because she might be overwhelmed by it, and I couldn't find a cheap enough set that I could justify buying. So I decided to go with the girly when I realized that most of the books I'd gotten her had boy protagonists, and I wanted to balance that out a little. Anyway, she's reading A Little Princess right now, and she says "I love it. All my friends want me to bring it to school to read."

I got my visa photos today from a place a couple blocks from my house. They actually didn't make me want to rip them into shreds. So yay - my parents have bought the tickets to China, and we are very close to going! I just realized, though, that I don't have any good clothes to go to China - I have no idea what the weather is going to be like, except milder than their hot, humid, rainy summers. I'm thinking just seeing if I should stock up on casual pants, t-shirts, etc. I can't wear anything like tank tops, because then my parents will think I'm showing too much skin. How much underwear should I bring? What sort of shoes should I pack?

recent media consumption

Yesterday we watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which is based on a book of the same name by Hunter S. Thompson, the guy who coined the term gonzo journalism. I haven't read Thompson's work, so I have no opinion on that, but the movie I just didn't get. It seemed like one introspective trip that is, because of the drugs' effects, taken outside. It's weird. Mark likes it because it reminds him of his experiences in high school and college.

I finished John Hodgman's Areas of My Expertise, which should be read in Hodgman's voice for the best effect. He's my favorite of the recent crop of Daily Show correspondents, and every time the Mac commercial comes on I have to rewind and watch it again.

I recently bought San Francisco magazine, because I was desperate for something to read on the train ride home. You would think that I would learn my lesson sometime about buying magazines, but no, you'd be wrong. They redesigned their magazine from a normal format to an oversize format - kind of like W, the fashion magazine. The most recent issue has a good, long, thoughtful investigative article about why black people are leaving San Francisco (for Oakland! and Stockton!), the effect of which is totally ruined by the next twenty pages of its special advertising section for new real estate for SOMA and South Beach. The investigative article makes good points about how the only way black people in San Francisco can make any decent money is by selling their property to move somewhere cheaper, right? The advertising section starts out with the following sentences: "Who is moving to SOMA? In a word, everyone."

Anyway, I work in the area in where the advertisers are selling their condos, and if people are dumb enough to spend close to $1 million for a two-bedroom condo atop Safeway, and right next to the 280 freeway, and across from the train station that runs every day until 1am, then they totally deserve those condos.

I realize that magazines are beholden to advertisers, but they really couldn't have put that special advertising somewhere else? Who are these people writing for anyway?

I started Can't Stop Won't Stop, but I think I'm going to have to start over. There's just way too much information for me to process at once. And I suspect I'm going to go on a music buying spree afterwards.