NY Times Review of Twilight

I haven't followed the books. Before today I had no reason at all to care about Twilight. But then I read the New York Times review and I think I need to take a stand, even before having seen the film.

Basically, the Times insulted my sense of morality. It started like this: Vampires kill people and suck their blood, but really it's all a metaphor for having sex. The vampire is probably conflicted, doesn't want to suck blood, but he feels an uncontrollable urge, and eventually he gives in. So if drinking blood is like having sex, then Twilight is the vampire movie for the chastity crowd.

OK. Simple enough. (And as I explained this to Hilary, she said, "Well yeah, the vampire's a vegetarian." Oh. Is the metaphor really that well understood? I had never thought about it. And plus, she tells me that the author is LDS. Oh. Am I really that disconnected?) But then the reviewer said that the movie was totally lacking precisely because the vampire doesn't kill the girl or have sex with her.

The reviewer didn't use those exact words, but that's what she was saying. She was saying, "Teenagers have sex. That's what teenagers do. Why make a movie about teenagers who don't have sex?"

Maybe I'm putting words in her mouth, but I really think that's the message she was trying to convey. Maybe one of you can tell me what you think.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/movies/21twil.html

Reading, reading, reading

I must have the most boring pleasure-reading menu on the planet. The last several books I've read have all been non-fiction:

The Omnivore's Dilemma
Boys Adrift
The Siege of Mecca
Class 11
(Plus a bone-dry 800+ page textbook)


And you know what? I've read all of those in the last 3 months. And in addition to those, I read The Fist of God, which is fiction set during the first Gulf War. And that's all in addition to what I have to read at work and the newspaper that I read every morning.

I've never been an avid reader. I can't even remember reading an entire book in college--mostly I got by just taking notes during lectures and divvying up assignments in study groups.

The only reason why I'm reading so much now is that I have a total of 3 hours on the Metro each day. But why am I drawn to non-fiction? I wonder if I'll keep reading when I move out to Herndon.

Latest Issue of the Washingtonian

The newest issue is now out on shelves. My story is on the last page. I took a few copies of the magazine to church and everyone was very excited to see the article. And Matthew the photographer was nice enough to put up some extra pictures for us.

http://www.matthewworden.com/Nate/

...Unfortunately, it looks like that link is no longer valid. I hope you all got the pictures you wanted.

Mayumi Aziza Ayer

Born on 24 May 2008, 6 pounds 9.5 ounces, 21 inches long.

Hil had been having contractions pretty regularly since Thursday. And then she was up all Friday night timing her contractions. I tried to be supportive, but I fell asleep sometime after midnight. (Sorry! But she also slept a little...) In the morning she called Dr. Samman who told us to come in.

We arrived at the hospital at 7:30 AM and Mayumi was born at 3:01 PM.

Mommy and Baby are doing fine. They'll be coming home tomorrow. Look for updates soon.

Published again and flying a kite

A couple entries ago I wrote about some self-defence lessons with the youth, and that piece is being published in the Washingtonian. At least, that's what editor Bill O'Sullivan told me yesterday. It will be in the First Person column on the last page of the magazine, probably next month. I'll let you know when I see it.

Maybe if I'm going to try getting something published, I shouldn't post it on a blog until after I get paid for it...

On Saturday Hil and I finally went out to try that kite I built for her.

The day started off at the graduation ceremony for the Unified Services University of Health Science. Our friend Mason, a lieutenant in the Navy, was graduating from medical school. Glo later met us on the Mall with the kite. She said that on two separate occasions, kids had approached her and told her it was a cool kite.

It's a box kite, 3 feet tall, 9 inches wide and deep. I built it by hand from 1/8" dowels and wood glue. The panels and tail are polyester and hand sewn. The string is plain old package-wrapping string. The kite ended up being quite sturdy, but I was afraid it was too heavy to fly.

But as I stood on the National Mall holding onto the kite, a sudden gust of wind pulled the kite from my hands, and the kite hovered at eye level. I ran out the string and the kite rose so fast that the string burned my fingers.

The kite flew amazingly well. It required no effort at all to get it aloft--you just had to hold it at arm's length until the wind picked up, and then it rose on its own. Once it gained altitude, it could spin in tight circles or figure-eights with a slight pull on the string. It was very nimble for such a bulky kite. I was worried that maybe the design was unstable--I thought that box kites were supposed to just kind of float instead of perform acrobatics.

We were the only kite-flyers on that stretch of Mall and a few times small crowds would form and watch the kite.

Happy birthday Hil.

Cherry Blossoms

The cherry blossoms are in full bloom in DC. Hil and I have extremely busy, so it's been difficult to actually get out and see them. A few Sundays ago, as soon as we had a free minute, we rushed out to the tidal basin and snapped a few photos right before the light disappeared entirely. I had to digitally lighten these photos a little. I hope it doesn't show.

In other news, I finally picked up American Born Chinese from the library. It's fantastic. Go and read it. It'll probably take you just an hour or two to finish it, depending on how much time you want to spend just admiring its simplicity.

In other other news, we've had plenty of events going on in the area. We've been to the Kite Festival, Anime Marathon, and Korean Film Festival all within just the last month. I made Hil a kite for her birthday. I'll put up pictures of that soon.

Self-defense and another article submission

I taught another self-defense class at church, and I have another one coming up later this week. I wrote this little 600-word story on it and submitted it to Washingtonian. Let's hope you're reading this on the back page of next month's issue.


(I've decided to delete this post now that it's being published. You'll have to look for the full story in the August 2008 issue of Washingtonian Magazine.)