Two quizzes from Erik that may or may not make sense:

You're Texas!

You aren't really much of your own person, but everyone around you wishes you'd go away, so you might as well be independent.  You're sort of loud-mouthed and abrasive, but you do have a fair amount of power.  You like big trucks, big cattle, and big oil rigs.  And sometimes you really smell.  But it's not all bad, you're big enough to have some soft spots somewhere in all that redneck madness.
Take the Country
Quiz at the Blue Pyramid

I think I might be insulted. I like cows, but I don't like oil rigs and I certainly don't smell, unless I've been at the gym.

You're The Guns of August!

by Barbara Tuchman

Though you're interested in war, what you really want to know is what causes war. You're out to expose imperialism, militarism, and nationalism for what they really are. Nevertheless, you're always living in the past and have a hard time dealing with what's going on today. You're also far more focused on Europe than anywhere else in the world. A fitting motto for you might be "Guns do kill, but so can diplomats."


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

I'm vaguely familiar with this book, but I'm not interested in war, and I try not to dwell on the past. But this does remind me of something that happened yesterday. Mark and I went to a car show (where I did the hard-sell on the Prius for him) which was being held downtown at this convention center. He warned me on our way there that there was a white-power demonstration (and counter-protest) happening downtown at the same time. Creepy, to be sure. On our way to the show we managed to skirt the parade--though we could hear the drums a few blocks off, and there were barricades and lots of police around. But on our way back to the car Mark (newsman he is) wanted to take a look. I didn't really want to, but I was willing to oblige him. Then, still a block or two off, I saw the swastika banners. I immediately turned around and started crying and cursing, and we cut through a building to cross the block. I had this instant visceral reaction to that flag. It's the first time I've actually seen one live in use. I just got so angry. I probably would have had the same reaction--or worse--if I'd seen any Klansmen; we didn't get that close. There appeared to be a pretty large counter-demonstration--apparently the counter-demonstrations are always bigger than the thing they're protesting, which I suppose is comforting. And I know these morons have the right to assemble peaceably--I certainly don't want to take that away from anybody--but it really upsets me that people can still be so ignorant. How many millions of people have died already? I guess it's a naive thought. I must spend too much time with my head in the clouds...

On a less-serious note, I am becoming rather obsessed with the TLC show Clean Sweep. Another show based on a British model, people whose houses are filled with junk are forced to sort through their lives on television, while their rooms are made over for maximum efficiency. It culminates in a big garage sale. I find it so comforting to see people who are worse packrats than my family. (On second thought, I think my uncle and his wife NEED to go on this show--they've singlehandedly filled my grandparents' basement with CRAP.) My favorite episodes feature married women in their thirties who still own every single stuffed animal they've ever received. It's unbelievable. It really makes you reevaluate your life. The thing the organization experts focus try to drive home is that if you're not using something and it's not particularly valuable to you, why do you hang on to it? So in honor of the show, I stopped at Goodwill this morning to drop off the huge bag (clothes, stuffed animals, various tchotchkes that haven't seen the light of day in more than a year) that had been sitting on my bedroom floor for over a month. And next weekend Mark and I plan to tackle his closet. He has shirts that I KNOW he hasn't worn since before we started dating. (Sidebar: poking around in his closet yesterday, I found his junior-varsity satin wrestling jacket, from 1986 or so. It was pretty funny. I like that his weight was on the left sleeve--he was in the 167 weight class back then, pre-puberty. That kills me.) And dare I mention the boxes of preschool report cards he inherited from his parents (who kept every scrap of paper EVER)? That will be for another weekend--I have a dust allergy, you know...