The Tudors

Showtime is coming out with a new series, called The Tudors. It starts Sunday. (Filling in the 10 p.m. time slot since The L Word's season just ended, which I also watch.) I'm rather excited, since I studied Tudor England in grad school. It was my thing. The series is about young Henry VIII (he was tall, thin, strong and 16th-century-hot). When it comes to the Tudors, I'm more of a Henry VIII-girl than a Queen Elizabeth I-girl, so of course I'm excited and hoping that it's done well. It looks sort of soap-opera-y, but that's okay, his life was kind of soapy. Married six times, killed two of them... sounds like Dynasty to me.

Cell Phones

I just read a report that cell phone use while driving is considered to be more dangerous than driving drunk. I know talking on cell phones impairs your response time, but more dangerous? Really?

The one issue I have with this study is that their "drunk" drivers matched the legal limit of 0.08%. My thought on this is how many drunk drivers have had only one or two drinks? While, yes, at or above 0.08 is legally drunk, for the average person at that level they've just arrived at drunk. That's why it's the lower limit of drunk/upper limit of sober. I wonder how drunk drivers would fare as their blood-alcohol content increases.

This isn't to defend driving with a cell phone. It's obviously dangerous.

What I mean is that "driving with a cell phone" is a finite status. (You are or you aren't. You can't be talking on the phone to a greater degree than someone else who is also talking on the phone). Driving drunk has degrees. You can have a blood-alcohol content of 0.08% or one of 0.2% and function very differently. Comparing cell phones and drinking is apples and oranges.

My point is I'd argue that someone with a higher blood alcohol content would be more dangerous that a cell phone operator.

A Mapley Street

The other day the opening lines of "Talk of the Town" were running through my head:

We grew up not far from here
An oaky street, the country air
Porch lights, breezy nights
Dreamin’ dreams of that girl so right

The lyrics are so evocative of my own childhood except for the fact that my street was lined with maple trees instead of oaks (and for the part about dreaming of the perfect girl). The images and memories conjured by this song always makes me think of summertime sleepovers, bikes with banana seats, and running around after dark in a safe neighborhood where I knew everybody.

Things have changed. The maple trees that once lined the streets of the neighborhood where I grew up have succumed to their 80-year lifespan. They're all gone now. The first few fell down on their own and the rest were subsequently removed, lest they fall too and crush someone. But more than that has changed in the years since I grew up. No parent I know today would allow their child or pre-teen to roam their neighborhood after dark at will, unchecked. It's not that the world is a scarier place than it was back then, it's that we are unhappily more aware that it can be scary (thank you, media fear-mongers).

I don't know what my point is. Maybe just that I miss the ignorant security of my childhood. Or my sweet green bike with the banana seat, the white wicker basket and the tassels on the handlebars.

Fact of the Day

I hate being cold, just about more than anything. Cold is beyond merely uncomfortable, it's painful.

Hi, I'm Jen and I'm a Half.com addict...

I can't stop. Books and CDs both.

One of my favorite things to do is browse the $2.99 or less CDs. However, the problem with those is that I already have most of the good stuff available. That's the reason the good stuff is there: everyone has it already. The other stuff is there because it often doesn't qualify as "good" and no one wants it. But every once in a while, you find a gem.

With regards to books, I usually have something in mind that I'm lookig for. It's harder to browse for books, I think, because I like to flip through them, read the back, etc. Music is easier on Half because I have a huge laundry list of stuff I know I want, stuff I need to flesh out my collection, stuff I've heard of but don't want to spend a lot of money on to try.

I could go and find something right now to buy. It's that easy. There's that much stuff. One search leads to another: Hmmm.... What Bad Religion do they have? (I really need a copy of Suffer). Oh, what about L7? I've been planning on getting some. And some more Squirrel Nut Zippers, the one with "Hell" on it. Or some of the older Jimmy Buffett that I don't have? And I still want to pick up Richard Shindell's The Courier or Elvis Costello's Your Aim is True if I can get either for a good (cheap) price. Oh, and Rubber Soul. I love "In My Life," so I want a copy.

I have to stay away from that site. It's too easy to get sucked into spending $25 bucks without a second thought.

Need... more... Foo Fighters...

"I Love Kung Fu"

The conference I just went to on Tuesday and Wednesday was boooooring. It's a good thing we got a good, free curriculum from them, because otherwise it would have been a waste. The night before, I had mentioned to Frieda that there was a website with quotes from Office Space.

She and I spent a good part of the day texting quotes (and other conversation), which made my day more interesting. Last night she told me she had sent me 65 texts that day.

Currently Reading

A re-read of one of my faves, a novel that's sort of a science fiction/comedy of errors combo: Bellwether by Connie Willis.

Back at it

I am trying to commit to a work out schedule to get ready for the summer bike season. Since the baby, it's been sort of hit-or-miss. I might be dedicated for a period of weeks and then just... stop. Adding to the challenge is that my elbow -- I think it's tendonitis -- is still bothering me. I probably do need to make an appointment with my orthopedist, but I've been putting it off. I think it's going to be like the carpal tunnel/ulnar neuropathy of my pregnancy: there was nothing that would be done. I really think he'll just tell me to rest it. Hard to do when there's a 25-pound sack of potatoes that needs to be picked up all the time.

So instead of lifting, I have to contend myself with walking/running on the treadmill. And as the weather gets better and I get my gear in order, I'm hoping to be able to hit the bike trail. That means I need to get the Monkey a helmet and hope that he'll tolerate riding in a bike trailer. Again, the skeptic in me surfaces: Somehow I doubt it.

But I've decided that since this whole return to fitness thing essentially coincided with the beginning of the month (actually, the day before), the goal is to do work out in some fashion three days a week minimum. If I do that for at least a month, I can buy myself this poster for my gym that I've been wanting for a while now. I've been wanting to get it since I was really into lifting about three years ago.

I already have the "Growing Old is Not for Sissies" posters. This will complete the gym "art," except for maybe a few mirrors at some point.

What I'm listening to now

In my CD player:

• Aslyn -- Lemon Love
• Social Distortion -- Social Distortion
• Zac Brown Band -- Home Grown
• Will Hoge -- Black Bird on a Wire
• Garbage -- Bleed Like Me
• (For the life of me, I can't remember what's in the sixth slot in the CD changer in my car. So I guess that doesn't really count as listening to it, anyway, huh?)