Queen Mediocretia of Suburbia

Putting the TMI in absentminded

Month: January 2020

  • Recommendation for Improvements to Ancestry.com

    Here are some things I would like to see on Ancestry.com:

  • Census

    I can’t wait for the census. I don’t know why I find it thrilling – perhaps because perhaps because it’s so infrequent, perhaps because it’s a tangible effect of the Constitution, perhaps because even the Virgin Mary had to fill out her census form. I recall the 1990 census as the first census I ever…

  • Review: Parasite

    At first I thought Parasite was the perfect movie to watch on Amazon. Sure, Gary would take advantage of the home setting by giving it a commentary track, but who cares if he talks during a foreign film? It’s subtitled. One half hour in to the movie he announced, “I hate this. There’s –“ “No…

  • The Novel: The Judgement

    On the whole … I liked parts of it. The writing is really poetic in places. Still, no one needs a chapter about the poetry of an oil strike any more than they need a chapter on how to get ambergris out of a white whale. Characters – Perhaps a few too many, and the…

  • Weekly Paint Progess: 1/16

    This week the vases went from this craziness … to this intense drug trip … But then I did some research and found out what I did wrong. I should have started with an underpainting using opaque colors (or opaque black and white, like I did with the teacups). I knew that, but I thought…

  • Gary’s Capacity for Argument

    There are a number of reasons why I get along better with Gary now that he’s retired, and one is because he has found Facebook. Facebook is Gary’s argument outlet now instead of me. And MY GOD how he can argue. While the rest of us stay in our bubble of generally like-minded friends, Gary…

  • The Novel: Chapter 18

    At three pages long, it reads strongly of “Good people are alive, bad people are caught, gotta wrap this up because the paper goes to press at 3 p.m.” It also has a touch of It’s a Wonderful Life, because Our Hero Joe has his long hospital stay paid for by the cast of colorful…

  • Review: 1917 (no Spoilers)

  • Saint Louis Post-Dispatch Subscription

    Reasons why Gary signed up for six months delivery of the local paper at a ridiculous fee: So I’ve only once come inside and winged the uncollected paper at him, and I’ve said only one dry thing about the accumulating trash. (“If you’re worried about snow falling on top of the raccoon’s food you should…

  • I Am Almost Inbred

    I got my DNA tested. Oh, I am so disappointed in my results. Here’s where I’m from: 83% Northern Europe, 17% Ireland and Scotland. The most exotic location I can claim is Denmark. Denmark! I’m so let down. The appeal of America is that we’re all mutts, and here I’m just a result of Britons…