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Japanese Paper Cutting Books

On Monday I turned 38, so over the weekend I indulged in a little birthday shopping for myself by heading out to Mitsuwa and the Sanseido Book Store with the family.  They didn't have Cotton Time in stock (one of my favorite Japanese craft magazines) but I did find a nice selection of paper crafting books which included origami and these excellent paper cutting books. . .

I couldn't resist the mix of modern and traditional designs in this first book (ISBN978-4-277-75344-9).  I especially love these graphic leaves, but there are some cute animal silhouettes, garden scenes and much more.

The next book (ISBN978-4-569-69235-7) has a lot of fun ideas too, but it was these flowers that really drew me in. 

Of course I had to pick up some Japanese chocolate while I was there.  I'm curious about the Lotte Matcha Chocolate -- although one of the ingredients is a bit strange -- bayberry extract?  And that KitKat bar is chestnut flavor -- should be interesting.  (Look for reviews of these in the future over at the Chocolate Blog!)

The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is marketed as a book for teens, but don't let that stop you from running out and getting this book for yourself. The story is incredibly engaging, the characters endearing and the themes are thought provoking.

In a nutshell, it's a book about Nazi Germany told by Death. Sounds strange, but the device is used well and enhances the story without intruding too much. Otherwise, the tale is rater straightforward although there are little asides thrown in here and there that make it different -- nothing Vonnegut hasn't done before.

While I fell in love with the characters, I also loved the honest portrayal of the German citizens -- torn by the Nazi dictatorship -- living in fear, trying to do the right thing, wondering what the right thing is when they can hardly take care of their own families. It puts things into perspective in a way that you might not expect.

So I highly recommend this book and not just for teens.

Stargazing . . .

Last night was the last lunar eclipse that we will be able to see in the US Midwest until December 2010, so I was quite excited that the skies were clear all day.  At around 7pm the stars really started to come out and Orion was bright and easy to spot in the Southern skies -- the moon was full and bright.  The earth started to take a bite out of the moon at around 7:30 and by 9 the moon was illuminated by the refracted light that filtered through Earth's atmosphere -- it was an incredible sight! 

The moon glows orange during a lunar eclipse and the stars seem to shine even brighter.  Saturn -- faintly gold in color -- was clearly visible to the bottom left of the moon:

As a kid I wanted to be an astronomer and now with Maddie going through a phase where all she wants to study is Space and the planets -- I'm right back there. . . looking through a telescope with my uncle.  I think I've found a new hobby.

These pictures were just taken with my little digital camera -- no tripod, which explains the poor quality.  I think if I had taken the time to set up a tripod (in the one degree temps -- yeah, right!) I would have gotten some really nice photos.  Maybe in 2010!

Stitching Progress

Not too much has been going on here because I gave myself a bit of carpel tunnel syndrome in my left hand.  Just about everything I do with that hand is somewhat repetitive -- work, crafting and playing DS.  Oh yeah, could it be that I was playing a lot of Mario Kart on the DS last week?  I'm sure that is what set off this recent bit of pain, but now that I read up on carpal tunnel a bit on the web, I see that I've had symptoms for a while now -- especially pins and needles in the  hand in the middle of the night.  Hmmmm. . .

So, I took a forced break from crafting for a good part of the last week and it is feeling somewhat better.  I knit a little on a new sock for Maddie Sunday night though and the pain started creeping back. 

One thing I can do because I mostly use my right hand is cross stitch, so I've made some progress on Strawberry Garden.  The snow is really coming down today, so I'm going to try to take a bit of a break from work this afternoon to do a little stitching while curled up under a blanket.  My local printer had a machine breakdown, so my patterns aren't here to work on anyway.  We'll see how far I get!

Time to Vote!

Yes, it's super Tuesday and I'm ridiculously excited to vote!  Now this has been a long time coming, let me tell you.  When I turned 18, I didn't run out and register to vote.  In fact, I don't remember when I finally did, but it probably wasn't until I was out of college.  I think our educational system does a terrible job of imparting the importance of this action to our children. 

As you can see, I'm voting for Barack Obama.  That I'd vote Democrat was a given -- I'm a proud Democrat despite believing in many of the original ideals of the Republican party -- that pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality that got lost somewhere.  Now I see the Democratic party as my only hope for many things that I find important, such as peace, prosperity and a healthier environment. 

Why Barack? Well, I can't say that there is all that much to differentiate him from Hillary Clinton.  They agree on so many of the issues that I think either would be good at the job.  However, at this point in our history, I think we need a leader -- someone to inspire us again in the greatness of our country.  I believe Barack has that gift.  Just the thought of him winning the presidential election brings tears to my eyes.  He personifies hope to me.  Hope that this country can be mended, unified and will once again stand tall as the leader of the world. 

No matter what you believe, use your power.  Believe me, for many it was hard won -- so don't take the opportunity lightly.  Go Vote!

More Winter Reading

I enjoyed Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky so much that I was sure to pick up Fire in the Blood as soon as I saw it at the library.  It's a really lovely book and did not disappoint.   It's a love story, or more aptly put, a story of passions.  Her style is so easy and engaging, that I'm sure you will enjoy this book as much as I did.

After that it was time for a little sci-fi.  If you haven't read the Mars trilogy, I highly recommend it!  I read Red Mars several years ago and enjoyed it very much, but never found a used copy of Green Mars until recently.  (Now to find a copy of Blue Mars!)  So, I just re-read Red Mars and I'm a good ways into Green Mars.  Both are just incredible, but don't take my word for it.  Red Mars won the Nebula Award and both Green Mars and Blue Mars won the Hugo.  Quite impressive.

So, what are these books about?  Well, they are mostly speculative fiction about the colonization of Mars -- including questions of science, ethics and social structures.  Really well thought out and beautifully executed.  If you like sci-fi -- give these books a try.  (And if you don't know if you like sci-fi -- give it a chance.)

Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma was up next.  I've been looking forward to reading this book and it was even better than I thought it would be.  Of course there were some passages where it seemed that he could have used some editing -- he had a tendency to restate things a bit too much -- but parts of the book really were fascinating.  The section on fast food was informative and disturbing (all that corn!), the pastoral section gave me hope, and the "big organic" section was eye-opening, but the hunter-gatherer part of the book was my favorite.  It gives you a whole new appreciation for our genetic predisposition to this form of eating. 

If you are at all interested in knowing where your food really comes from (or could come from with some effort), or just in finding out what alternatives are out there, read this book.  I guarantee you'll learn something you didn't previously know about food.

Right now I'm working my way through Green Mars and looking forward to reading Pollan's next book -- In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto -- which is sitting on my shelf waiting for me.