The Friday Four, Part 4

~1~

I am so beyond excited about this:

Joss Whedon had a couple of weeks of downtime after filming wrapped for The Avengers.  So he called up some friends he'd worked with a time or two before, invited them over to his house, and filmed a new adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing.  Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof...and Shakespeare!  It doesn't open until June, but I can't wait!

~2~

I'll eventually get around to writing up a longer post (or several) on my book clubs (yes, that's plural - I regularly attend two and I'm on the email list for a third).  But since I'm writing this on a Thursday night having just gotten home from one, I have to say how much I look forward to and enjoy those two evenings every month.  The amount of time spent discussing the book varies from a few minutes to sometimes an hour or so, and the rest of the time is filled with fun and friends and good conversation and getting to know some great women better.  Thanks, ladies!

If you have the opportunity to join a book club in your area, I highly recommend giving it a shot.  Every group is different; some will do more cerebral literary discussions and some will end up being more of an excuse for a girls' night out.  And neither one of those is a bad thing!  It just depends on what you're looking for and finding a good fit.  If there isn't one around...consider getting a few friends together and starting one of your own.  Seriously, they are some of the highlights of my month.

~3~

For those of you who are my facebook friends, this isn't new news, but our cute, cuddly, purring-machine of a cat caught a rabbit the other day.  And then she ate the rabbit, a good portion of it that night and then most of the rest the next day.  All that's left in our window well where she was storing her kill is one of the rabbit's feet that she bats around like a toy, the fluffy tuft that was its tail, and a bloody rabbit skull.  It's a bit gruesome.

My boys, however, are inordinately proud of their cat and have suggested changing her name to Killer.

Evan tucking Scrimper in for her nap.

~4~

And another project I'm excited about:

Anita Sarkeesian just released the first in her series on "Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games." When she first announced this project on Kickstarter, opponents ignited a firestorm of incredibly vile, violent, threatening, sometimes pornographic internet harassment. I'm grateful that she stood up, exposed her harassers and their despicable posts, images, and messages, and continued on with her research. I'm really interested to see the rest!  (You can check out some of her earlier videos on her website Feminist Frequency, too.)