Maureen’s Comments (group member since Mar 02, 2009)

Maureen’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

patrick!

dan apparently has a certain lassitude in his stocking style in acquiring supplies he promises you, so he may pony up but it won't be until next year. :P

sweet sweet coke zero.
i know. my passion in unabating. :)

we did talk about it, but i couldn't remember it was curtis mayfield. did you say it and i didn't hear you? probably because i was still thinking about the rooster? :P

how do you fall asleep at 9:30? most of the day before it is mental torpor for me so i finally start to feel happy when it's night. and i don't want to miss out on the quiet. :)

i don't think i've gone to bed earlier than 2am in months. usually it's 3 am. :)

patty: oh! you're starting? awesome! well, that certainly helps with my prioritization! you had a beer so that makes you wilder than me! :)

but i definitely will be up later than you! i kind of need some winding down alone time. i was so relaxed, and wound up again so quickly. it was crazy! i doubt this thread will crowd with responses as it did back in the day, but even if it functions as a friday night bulletin board i'm sure it'll be fun to look over. :)

well, i am drinking coke zero. but i was drinking vitamin water before, so i am ripped :P

my favourite beverage in the days of yore was the hog dog water that the skipper so enjoyed.

i have been writing book reviews in my head all day but not writing them down. of course, i had to do other things then but the problem is remembering them later. :) still, there are some things i won't forget. like how much i don't like butcher's crossing. :)

been home from the dork hmmm. too many days now. i have a giant pile of books in front of me, and it's a long weekend here, so i'm going to try to do some prioritizing. :)

hi kids, drunken and non-drunken. i like to dance. and i remembered that it's curtis mayfield on that bran van 3000 song. :)

Hi Jackson:

There's a welcome that gives us some background to the group: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

as for dorkapalooza, it is yearly gathering that some of the group members attend. we get together in real life to celebrate the friendships we've made through the group (which started in 2006 when we were all still on myspace). feel free to poke around other threads to get a sense of what we chat about, and welcome. :)

there's a diatribe against stephen king, and then a defense here. i found these today when i really need to be doing a lot of packing and organizing for the dork, instead. thoughtses?

con-King

pro-King

patty! i'm sorry your plans didn't pan out... was looking forward to meeting jeff. it sounds like this means we should maybe have lasagna night on the saturday, then... nobody wants you to miss out on smarty kate's delicious vegetarian extravaganza!

patty: earlier in the thread on page 1, audi suggested shirley jackson but not a specific title. shel replied that there was already a short story group read in progress (this was march 2009) and suggested audi come join that group, that "they". i don't know if you were part of that group. i imagine that when dan was culling the thread for titles he skipped that because there was no title. hope that provides clarity. i don't actually want to read a shirley jackson novel on its own, although i think moira's suggestion of reading the lottery and other stories as a whole is by far the most attractive. again, because i don't think group reads of short books have much mileage on them. hope that provides clarity on "they" for you. :)

look! it is on the youtube! http://youtu.be/pccO1RBJZL8 :)

i remembered it but i didn't know what it was called. do you know the name of the daffy duck one with chloe? and it's like a mad scientist house? that's one of my favourites. :)

i like the way you think regarding these combos, but i do see your point about the long ones. :) still, i want combos!! there are so many options!

as for wittgenstein's mistress it wasn't that i didn't like it. it was that it was making me extremely depressed and dis-associative. i had wittgenstein's mistress stockholm syndrome. so i had to stop. it was a dark time. thank you for making me realize i should put it onto my "books dangerous to my sanity" shelf. :)

look at you! successful posting is key. i mean if you're going to hit submit, there'd better be pay off. :P

it's true. i should be crowing about shirley jackson. i didn't see an actual title suggested though. i guess because they read a short story? anyway, we should read her all the live long day. that said, i'd love to read some of these authors of smaller novels in combos. like a group read of life among the savages and the haunting of hill house might be interesting. everybody knows i've been dying to compare my cousin rachel and rebecca for years. or maybe same themes different authors? not to derail this one obviously, but it would be great if we could do that sometime rather than committing to a longer work which generall y means a sprawling kind of book that requires a different kind of dialogue? maybe not? maybe the same?

i'm not sure if adrian's not teasing me specifically mocking me for being driven mad by wittgenstein's mistress and never finishing. :P

i got it! and voted for a handful of books. it turns out i read most of my own contributions to the list, and several others suggested. i've been having group reads by myself, damn it! :)

brock will be near me for as long as i am stuck here! it will be nice to have a dork in close proximity. :)

kerry! you are a superstar list updater! matt evison told me he was a-coming but not the dates. i remember the skipper said something about having to go somewhere half-way through? did you get the skinny on that? I AM GUESSING NO OR YOU WOULD HAVE SAID, BUT I AM A LITTLE OVER-EXCITED OVER HERE BETWEEN BROCK AND THE DORK BEING IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS. I WILL BE THERE AT THIS TIME IN TWO WEEKS!!!!

hurray for a) shel and b) alan! i am looking forward to a) seeing you again and b) meeting you for the first time. :)

aw man, neil. bummer not to see you again. and chris! hopefully you can meet up with patty so she can hug you for us. :)

as for being a presence here, yes, please! you are sorely missed. emonk's good vs bad writing thread has been popular, and the sex game (ahem).. but i think patty called for a group read recently, and i suspect that might be just what the doctor ordered.

but we will miss you!!!!

thanks for posting that kerry! i'm wondering if i should post a message on facebook because i'm not sure everybody checks goodreads, or gets email notifications on this thread... of course, i'm not friends on facebook with everybody on the list, but maybe i could ask the skipper (who probably has everybody?) to pass it on? i'm thinking about neil who hasn't rsvp'd one way or the other but is usually able to come...

les! i'm really sorry i'm not going to get a chance to meet you. i generally show up on the even numbered years, so here's to future meetings. :)

just wanted to remind everybody that the book exchange we do every year is one of my favourite things about the dork, so i hope people are planning on packing a few books to add to the pile when we get there... :)

also, micha mentioned that since she is close by she can pick up some stuff, and i asked her if she knew of a bulk food store where she can get spices as i hate having to buy whole jars of stuff just for the week. i mentioned powdered cumin, oregano, basil, bay leaves... as i need those for black bean hummus and lasagna.

do we have a final headcount for who is all coming and when? i know brock said he was coming for three days at some point but i never saw an update...

jimmy! ha!(please don't photoshop a beard on me. :P)

i think i'm pretty down with thoreau's wandering jim. you can have a beard but not get it in the way of your lips. it's more like a neck warmer. :)

fyi: it sounds like ms. smarty kate and me are collaborating on lasagna when she arrives... should we have it birthday night? not sure if we want to put her the work the minute she walks in the door on friday (though i remember the skipper did that with me on my arrival at the dork in 2008. once again THANK HEAVENS FOR PATTY!!! :)

ha! i came over to discuss food logistics, and i find elizabeth anticipating me! yes! i would love to help bake. and i do think you should bring both of those snobby ingredients! i've never used that cocoa, but i love mexican vanilla! last time, i brought a few things: a hand/stick blender, and a pastry brush. oh, and i also brought two things of maple syrup since i heard that had gone woefully wrong the year prior... if anybody wants me to bring anything from canada, let me know. maybe i should go back and read the big house's kitchen supply list to see what extra will need (update: i did, and i don't see a mixer listed which might make baking a real cake difficult -- not sure if my hand/stick mixer would be good in a pinch but we could just make a bunch of different kind of brownies if all else fails. i bring it to make black bean hummus...) fun baking times! should i make the bacon brownies??? i can't remember if kerry bakes or not, but i'm sure she'd be happy to be put to work. or make her party mix! :)

adrian! i am sorry about your financial difficulties but am envious about athens and your papou! had i known you were going i would have made sure you earned a bunch of coin by throwing together some impromptu performances of the selected greek tragedy scenes of the rockford files! you would have cleaned up -- i can already see the tragic mask for gandolph fitch (character played by isaac hayes!!!).

smartykate! i have been coy these past days but i can confirm that i am making a dance mix because i will also be coming to the dork this year so we can overpower them without our laughs! i am so excited to meet you finally! though vexed that adrian won't be there to jeuje my black swan tutu. :P i'll be there from the monday 23rd to sunday morning the 29th. :) i probably should have written that in the dork '12 thread. i would prefer people not bring us back on topic by critiquing the worthiness of the bad writing in these two paragraphs. :P

JESUS' SON! YES!

adrian! shall we brawl over gladys? because i think you could show that verb fairy a few moves. and how did you know i was preparing a dance mix for the dork? i'm with patty: you need to come and show us your can-can, and your cha-cha. :)

the alice book looks fascinating. maybe i should send it to alan moore in light of the whole "before watchmen" hubbub. :P

dan: i take microsoft word very seriously. not a surprise to me his name is not edward appleworks5.

Margaret wrote: "Kindred spirit! I mean, IAW everything else you said, but especially that. :)

Also, I would read Gladys in Grammarland like a shot, if only I could get an e-book of it. I think it would be perfect for my upcoming long plane trip. I feel that a Verb Fairy should take an interest in everyone's education. Also an Its/It's and Your/You're Fairy."

can we please add the aw vs awe fairy?

and hurray for your abiding love for trixie! my favourite book about her is the happy valley mystery (in which she gets the silver ID bracelet from jim that i still covet), though it's closely followed by mystery in arizona (where i learned how to pronounce the gila in gila monster) and the mystery on cobbett's island which had that nice sailor boy, pete. also memorable is the hudson valley mystery, which thankfully informed me one can get poisoned by the cyanide in appleseeds in waldorf salad, and which sustained my belief that eating fruit was not for me. :)

have you noticed that there is some musician who goes by the name dan mangan? i don't think he's the real dan mangan. :)