New Identity

Blogger somehow co-opted my toddler's identity for my posts. It merged accounts somehow, and I couldn't get them unmerged. Hence, the previous couple of posts were by 'JoMo' but were really written by me. Then again, I write MOST of his posts on his blog. Whatever.

I'm back.

Left and Right

Just a little test on whether I'm left or right brain dominant.

Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz The higher of these two numbers below indicates which side of your brain has dominance in your life. Realizing your right brain/left brain tendency will help you interact with and to understand others. Left Brain Dominance: (10) Right Brain Dominance: (9) Right'>http://www.intelliscript.net/test_area/questionnaire/questionnaire.cgi?q=right_brain_left_brain_2">Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz

Looks like neither half dominates! No wonder I get confused.....

Move on down

Need to add another post or two to move this map down.....

Boy, it seems like I've been to more than 20% of the world's countries, but I'm just not very good on Africa and South America.... and most of Asia, actually.

Now's not a great time to travel, since we have an 18 month old!

Maybe I'll write some more soon, but I'm pretty busy maintaining my son's blog!

I'm baaack!

Not sure for how long, but here is a map of where I've been (approximately... I think I've been to more US states actually).

What's your worldview?

A quiz shared by my friend Kim on her blog.

Here are my results:

You scored as Cultural Creative.



Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.

Cultural Creative 75%

Postmodernist 63%

Fundamentalist 44%

Romanticist 25%

Existentialist 19%

Modernist 13%

Materialist 0%

Idealist 0%


A bit bizarre, but hey! The only problem: you have to wade past all the truly off-the-wall "quizzes" (most of which seem to involve deviancy-de-jour) to get to this one.

English Quiz

This is an amusing one, especially if you're British! It tests to see what proportion of various American dialects are prevalent in your speech.

American English Test

Here's how mine came out:

Your Linguistic Profile:

55% General American English

20% Yankee

15% Upper Midwestern

10% Dixie

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Guess I'm a bit of a mutt, in that my mom is from PA, my father from VA, I was born in DC, but moved to Long Island, NY, when I was 2, then back to VA when I was about 8, then went to school in MD and university in NJ, followed by 14 years in CA, and 7 years now overseas--5 in the UK--before marrying a man from TX and OK! Phew! Just not sure where the "Upper Midwestern" came from....? Maybe the few years my father spent as a child in MI??

More geography madness!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.... Things have been hectic around here! Life has really changed now that Mike has a job. We be adults now.

We did manage a lovely break over the Easter long weekend in North Wales. Mike and I visited several castles--Harlech, Caernarfon, and Conwy, and also my hometown of Llanberis! They have a fascinating Welsh Slate Museum there. I know that sounds odd if you haven't been there, but the town is surrounded by slate quarries. My ancestors left there the middle of the 19th century and moved to ... Slatington, Pennsylvania, to start a slate quarry there. So for me, it was a bit of family history. Mike thought it was very cool. We visited a graveyard and found lots of my family names -- Hughes, Williams, Parry -- and... GRIFFITH! Lots and lots of Griffiths.... ! We found several John Griffith's (Mike is really John Michael). We found tombstones with his brothers' names on it too. And tombstones which indicated that Griffiths had married Williamses and Hugheses.... So I guess we are just in a long tradition!

We also visited Portmeirion, the village and gardens which inspired our dishes (they're actually made in Stoke-on-Trent) and where the 60s cult TV show "The Prisoner" was filmed. We also, thanks to a great deal on LateRooms.com stayed in Ruthin Castle, where I stayed with my family when I was 10!

One last little tidbit.... My friend Peter led me to this site, where you can take a geography quiz and 'represent' your country (and state, if from the US) in a global competition. It's fun, for the geekier among us! Just go here to play.

Where is the shredder?

When I was growing up in DC, there were, as you've no doubt heard, various scandals. Some involved documents that either were shredded by the guilty or . . . weren't -- to their mortification. Shredders were a bit of a new phenomenon then. I don't think many of us had seen one. But this atmosphere produced a saying among my peers, "Where's the shredder?" which could be provoked by all sorts of situations (not least of which was getting essays back and SAT results...).

Now shredders are all grown up. You can watch some of their work on this website. (Hat tip: TigerHawk.) Just tell it what you want to see shredded. Personally, I liked watching the couch disappear, although that brought to mind some weird sci-fi flick.

Purpose-Driven Hostage

I doubt that Rick Warren will expand his range to include this title, but it could serve as the title for the story of the woman held hostage by Atlanta murderer Brian Nichols. She won his trust by, among other things, reading to him passages out of the Purpose-Driven Life.

Read it in the Guardian, or the more complete transcript on CNN.

UPDATE:
A remarkable editorial in the Wall Street Journal by the marvelous Peggy Noonan on the same topic: "Flannery O'Connor Country."