#99: Watch 10 documentaries.

Completed 01.02.11

I've actually already watched 12 :]


#1: Stupidity. I blogged about this one here.



#2: The Yes Men Fix the World. Love, love, LOVE the Yes Men! I didn't like this movie as much as their first one (The Yes Men), but they never disappoint.



#3: The Business of Being Born. Such a great, powerful movie about the healthcare industry and birth. Anyone having a baby, or thinking of ever having a baby, should see it.




#4: The Garden. This is about a community garden in the middle of L.A., and the fight in the community to keep it. It's so infuriating, when the landowner tries to evict them, even though he's not going to do anything with the land!



#5: Super Size Me. Yep, I just got around to watching this. Mom had netflixed it and we watched it while on our summer road trip. I don't know what to say about it. I mean, I kinda already knew all of it, and I don't eat McDonald's anyways (or much fast food at all).



#6: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train. Basically a biography of Howard Zinn, one of my favorite authors/activists/historians/intellectuals. A great man, with an inspiring life, whom we lost a year ago.



#7: Into the Arms of Strangers. About the kindertransport during the Holocaust, something I didn't know about. Thousands of children were sent to live with families in England to escape the war and Holocaust. Very interesting.




#8: Babies. Made me think a lot about life, growing, learning, culture and bonds.



#9: No Impact Man. About a family's attempt to live one year totally sustainably in the middle of New York. At the end, they realize how much they came to really really like. Some things, like not having a fridge or toilet paper, were a bit much for them to handle, but others they kept.



#10: Born Rich. This movie is about what you would expect. The children of money talking about their lives, spending money frivolously, owning multiple houses, there's so much pressure and problems in their lives, blah blah blah. It's made by a kid who was also born rich (Heir to Johnson & Johnson), looking at and talking about topics that are usually considered taboo in their worlds, but as an outsider, it just seemed predictable.

#37: Alter 10 items of clothing

Item #3: a V-neck sweater turned mini-skirt, or "hip huggie" as it's called on the site I got the tutorial from.



I used a sweater I've always liked, but it was a little short. I love it even more as a skirt! The only problem with the tutorial, is it's meant to make basically a hip warmer, or a snuggie for your hips to be worn over pants, not intended to be worn out of the house as actual clothes. As such, it's meant to just slide on and off, so I had to alter the patter a bit to add a zipper to hold it up so I could wear it over leggings without it sliding down (after a walk with the dog where I realized it slipped down to halfway off my butt).


If you're interested, the tutorial I used can be found here.

#73: Read 30 books, Part II.

The second five books:

6.

Amazing Grace by Johnathon Kozol. This is the second book of Kozol's I've read. It is a look at the lives of children living in the South Bronx, exploring issues like education, drugs, crime, living conditions, religion, etc. It was very good, but also pretty disheartening. It's hard to read about all of these problems, and not know any of the solutions. I developed a lot of white guilt whilst reading this book, realizing that just by existing, I contribute to these situations.

7.

Secret Lives of U.S. Presidents by Cormac O'Brien. I read this book over the summer, mostly while on a cross-country road trip with my mom. My mom and brother also read some of it during the vacation. (It also prompted my mother and I to try to name all 44 presidents. We missed 9. "You forgot Jimmy Carter--you were alive then!" "Yeah, I was, I think I even voted for him!") As a history dork, I totally loved it. I am a suck for silly, random factoids about historical figures.

8.


Bad Sex: We Had It So You Don't Have To by the writers of Nerve.com. This book is pretty much what it sounds like. It was enjoyable. A good summer read.

9.


The Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut. This was a re-read. A very quick re-read. I read it in a day and a half. Vonnegut is one of my favorite writers, and this is sort of an autobiography of his, with his usual random reflections on life.

10.


When You and Your Mother Can't Be Friends: Resolving the Most Complicated Relationship of Your Life by Victoria Secunda. This was passed on to me by my mother, who found it very helpful to reflect on issues in her relationship with her mother. I read it, but didn't relate to really anything, since my mom and I have a pretty good/totally awesome relationship. But, I guess, it was interesting from a sociological point of view, learning about the different types of mother/daughter relationships, and what kind of people those relationships create.

#7, #43, & #71.

#43: Go on 5 vacations. Vacation #4, 12.26.10-12.30.10, Robert, Chance and I went to Marquette (where we used to live until a year ago) to visit his Mom and friends, and I made a day trip down to Escanaba to see my friend Barbi. We stayed at the hotel I worked at for 2 1/2 years, and it was great getting to see my old co-workers, because they really were my friends and family when I lived there. We had a great time seeing Robert's mom and her boyfriend, and a few of Robert's friends. The dog really loved all the extra snow, and jumping around/climbing snow mountains, and he was such a good travel dog, very well behaved.

#71: Walk on the beach 20x: One morning I took Chance down to the shore of Lake Superior. He had a lot of fun exploring the lake, beach and rocks. We also jogged down the beach, thus knocking off another one from item #7: jog 20x.

Chance really loved playing on the beach, and I felt so happy to be there. Being back at Lake Superior, I just had this feeling that I was "home". I spent so much time on that beach the almost four years I lived in Marquette, and it was always where I was happiest, most at peace. It's where I went to reflect, write, called loved ones that lived far away, gain perspective. I miss it so much. Like Deb from the hotel said, "Lake Superior gets in your blood."

Ice along the shore. Lake Superior doesn't really start to freeze over until February or March. It's so large that it doesn't start to warm up in the summer until about August, and conversely, takes a long time to cool down, so it takes a long time to start freezing.

Frozen rocks and a view of the lighthouse at McCarty's Cove.

My cute little guy in his winter sweater. Love those big ears.

Pure beauty.

Rock island at McCarty's Cove (not the same ones pictured above). In summer of 2009 my mom and I waded out to these rocks, the water so cold our bones hurt. But the water line receded and a little land bridge allowed Chance and I to walk out to them.