"For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers." - President Barack Obama

Cheney pulls back muscle, in wheelchair for inauguration

I immediately thought of Mr. Potter from It's a Wonderful Life.

"Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about...they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him. But to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well, in my book he died a much richer man than you'll ever be." - George Bailey.

Movie Quote Quiz

1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
2. Pick a quote from each one of them (use IMDb.com for help)
3. Tag friends who would know the movies
4. No googling/IMDb searching when guessing
5. Guess all the ones you know even if someone already guessed it (but don't read their answers to get your answers - that's cheating). Everyone who guesses the movie will get their name by the quote. The person with the most correct guesses out of the 15 wins.
6. If you played on facebook/blogger, you can't play on here and vice versa

The Quotes - I don't have much hope of people guessing many of these correctly, just because I like random movies, so I tried to throw in a few obvious ones, too.

1. Why would a reviewer make the point of saying someone's not a genius? Do you especially think I'm not a genius? You didn't even have to think about it, did you?

(Note: It was hard to pick one quote from this movie! But I figured I should pick lines said by only one character, not a conversation.)

2. "No, I like you very much. Just as you are."

3. "I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow."

4. "It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. I've outrun Imperial starships. Not the local bulk cruisers mind you, I'm talking about the big Corellian ships now. She's fast enough for you, old man. What's the cargo?"

5. "How do I look? I mean, do I look Amish?"

6. "Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest so long as I live on! I killed you. Haunt me, then! Haunt your murderer! I know that ghosts have wandered on the Earth. Be with me always. Take any form, drive me mad, only do not leave me in this dark alone where I cannot find you. I cannot live without my life! I cannot die without my soul."

7. "You're mistaken, Mr. Darcy. The mode of your declaration merely spared me any concern I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentleman-like manner. You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it. From the very beginning your manners impressed me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit and your selfish disdain for the feelings of others. I had not known you a month before I felt you were the last man in the world whom I could ever marry!"

8. Character #1: "Jesus is never mad at us if we live with Him in our hearts!"
Character #2: "I hate to break it to you, but He is - He most definitely is."

9. "Your son has been pretending to be a substitute teacher, lecturing the students, uh, giving out homework, uh. Mrs. Glasser has been ill, there was some confusion with the real sub. Your son held a teacher-parent conference yesterday and was planning a class field trip to a French bread factory in Trenton."

10. "No! I'm madly in love with you and it's not because of your brains or your personality."

11. "It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage."

12. "Of course I have a secret identity. I don't know a single superhero who doesn't. Who wants the pressure of being super all the time?"

13. "Good. Someday, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But, until that day, accept this justice as a gift on my daughter's wedding day."

14. "I killed two people. One was...yesterday? He was just a boy and I led him into quicksand. The other was...well, before Aqaba. I had to execute him with my pistol, and there was something about it that I didn't like."

15. "Neighbors bring food with death, and flowers with sickness, and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a knife, and our lives."

The Terrible Trivium.

Soja, I found that passage from The Phantom Tollbooth I was referring to, that I said I loved.

Now, I don't know that any child could appreciate this passage more than someone reading it as an adult. I'm referring mainly to the last four paragraphs.

Who hasn't been beaten down by the the Terrible Trivium?

The Terrible Trivium
--From The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

The Humbug whistled gaily at his work, for he was never as happy as when he had a job which required no thinking at all. After what seemed like days, he had dug a hole scarcely large enough for his thumb. Tock shuffled steadily back and forth with the dropper in his teeth, but the full well was still almost as full as when he began, and Milo's new pile of sand was hardly a pile at all.

"How very strange," said Milo, without stopping for a moment. "I've been working steadily all this time, and I don't feel the slightest bit tired or hungry. I could go right on the same way forever."

"Perhaps you will," the man agreed with a yawn (at least it sounded like a yawn).

"Well, I wish I knew how long it was going to take," Milo whispered as the dog went by again.

"Why not use your magic staff and find out?" replied Tock as clearly as anyone could with an eye dropper in his mouth.

Milo took the shiny pencil from his pocket and quickly calculated that, at the rate they were working, it would take each of them eight hundred and thirty-seven years to finish.

"Pardon me," he said, tugging at the man's sleeve and holding the sheet of figures up for him to see, "but it's going to take eight hundred and thirty-seven years to do these jobs."

"Is that so?" replied the man, without even turning around. "Well, you'd better get on with it then."

"But it hardly seems worth while," said Milo softly.

"WORTH WHILE!" the man roared indignantly.

"All I meant was that perhaps it isn't too important," Milo repeated, trying not to be impolite.

"Of course it's not important," he snarled angrily. "I wouldn't have asked you to do it if I thought it was important."

And now, as he turned to face them, he didn't seem quite so pleasant.

"Then why bother?" asked Tock, whose alarm suddenly began to ring.

"Because, my young friends," he muttered sourly, "what could be more important than doing unimportant things? If you stop to do enough of them, you'll never get to where you're going."

He punctuated his last remark with a villainous laugh.

"Then you must -----" gasped Milo.

"Quite correct!" he shrieked triumphantly. "I am the Terrible Trivium, demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs, ogre of wasted effort, and monster of habit."

"What kind of overconfident nemesis are you?"

"I knew something was wrong with me that summer, because all I could think about was the Rosenburgs and how stupid I'd been to buy all those uncomfortable, expensive clothes, hanging limp as fish in my closet, and how all the little successes I'd trotted up so happily at college fizzled to nothing outside the slick marble and plate-glass fronts along Madison Avenue."

--The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

Right On.

"Let's be honest. Sometimes there's nothing harder in life than being happy for somebody else." --Carrie Bradshaw

Oh, Sex and the City. I had forgotten how much I loved you.

Senseo! Computer Crashes!

Soooo...remember how I was having problems with my iMac? Yeah. Last night the thing went K-A-B-O-O-M and now I have to reinstall all of my software, etc. I managed to save some of my music and files, but most everything else is gone. Oh, well. I had too much crap music on it anyway; I kind of like starting over. But my computer crashing is more proof that I fail at everything.

Although, I do think I won this Senseo Gourmet Coffee maker (something else I discovered on freestuff).

!!! It says I should receive one in 2-3 weeks, but I'll believe it when I see it, knowing my luck. But how awesome! I don't even drink coffee, but it's so cute, I must have it on my counter! I hope I get a red one, but I doubt it.

And to think I almost didn't finish the survey-thingy for it, because it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r!

"Where do you go,
With your broken heart in tow,
What do you do with the leftover you?
And how do you know,
When to let go,
Where does the good go,
Where does the good go?"
--Tegan and Sara, "Where Does the Good Go?"

How much do I love Tegan and Sara? Quite a lot.

Favorite Artist of the Moment: Butterfly Boucher.

At the moment I'm listening to a lot of indie/non-mainstream music.

A lot of the music I'm listening to has been featured on Grey's Anatomy, which has the best soundtrack ever heard on television.

The show gives a lot of play to women and indie artists. It's an awesome show, but I'd watch it for the music alone. (You can just look up who has had songs featured on it, though. This Amazon page is a good starting point.)

A few of my favorite artists at the moment (whom you should check out):

Snow Patrol
Tegan and Sara
Jem
Psapp
Lisa Loeb
Brandi Carlile
Emiliana Torrini
Ivy

But my absolute favorite artist at the moment is the fabulous Butterfly Boucher. This woman writes her own songs and plays all of the instruments. Amazing!

I've heard about five songs from her album Flutterby, and they are all hits, in my opinion. I don't write about music v. well, I just know what I like, so you'd be better off reading how other people describe it. But some of the songs are upbeat and fun, and some are v. haunting.

My favorite song by her at the moment is "Never Leave Your Heart Alone." There's a point in the song where her voice gives me chills. Obviously, this song is not one of the upbeat ones!

"And it's open
For distraction
You found all the words you need
Well I found nothing
I just grumble
'cause I don't know what I feel

The moral to the story goes
Never leave your heart
Never leave your heart...alone

Run for shelter
An umbrella
Fights the rain but not the wind
And I'd be silly
To start preaching
'cause I don't know which point to make!

The moral to the story goes
Never leave your heart
In a box
Locked up
With cold cold ice
Never leave your heart
...Never leave your heart...alone

Am I frozen?
But it's summer!
Is that rain or is that me?
Yes I'm melting
Please be happy
One day soon
We might just swim

The moral to the story goes
Never leave your heart
In a box
Locked up with cold cold ice
Never leave your heart
...Never leave your heart
...Never leave your heart alone"

--Butterfly Boucher, "Never Leave Your Heart Alone"