Julie/Julia Project, Is she really saving herself?

        The book Julie & Julia by Julie Powell is about a woman living in New York. She is approaching her thirties and her life feels like a wreck. She decides to begin a project which she calls the Julie/Julia project. She is going to cook her way throughout Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child over the course of a year. This is quite insane. With the support of her husband and loyal blog readers, she sets off on this task, in an attempt to save herself.
        At the moment, things seem to have been mostly going downhill. Julie is struggling to finish in time, and overstressed. She is making those around her crazy. There exists still the occasional bright moment, but it is always followed by something bad. I think it is important for her to finish, but I am no longer sure if she is still saving herself, but actually hurting her well being. I feel that her husband has been impacted greatly by this, and might soon lose it and leave Julie. There have been quite stressful moments over the last six months that Julie (and Eric (her husband) too really) have been undergoing the Julie/Julia project. Her husband and her have had many arguments, and though they are resolved in the end, they always leave behind a dent between them. The situation is worsened by their crappy Long Island City apartment that they recently moved into.
       Sometimes things are good though. Her mom having a change of heart and supporting her, donations from her bleeders (blog readers), the occasional wonderful dish, her new-found appreciation of French Cooking and respect for Julia child, recognition from many people, and a handful of other things. This was probably her #1 most difficult/crazy/stressful year of her life. If you look at the positives and the negatives of doing this project, then well you'd have to be crazy to do it. But at least it makes her more than a secretary for a government agency, living in a shitty apartment in Queens with her husband and cat.
        Only six months into the project, Julie Powell's world seems like Chaos. I don't know how she could possibly survive long enough to make it. I don't think Julie can make it without destroying her life without making some kind of big change. How could anyone?

Van Gogh's1 Starry Night Over the Rhone

         The Starry Night is a painting of the village Saint-Remy at night. Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist in the mid through late 1800's. This is one of his many paintings. While he was alive, very few appreciated his work. He was actually not very fond of this painting. I think that Vincent painted The Starry Night in longing for it.
        He created this painting from memory during the day while staying in an asylum. Many of his paintings reflect his love for the night. I think it makes sense that he missed the starry night, and that that was his motivation for the painting. This painting of his differs from others of his. It expresses such a strong feeling and beauty too it. This was one of his few paintings done from memory. I believe this is the reason that this painting of his is so different. It is definitely the jewel of his work in my opinion. I also like many of his other paintings, but he wasn't very fond of The Starry Night himself.
        The Starry Night is my favorite painting of all time. It stands out to me as an immensely beautiful and passionate piece of art. This might be partly because of my own personal affinity for the night time.

All Star Mentor Nomination

             I nominate Nathan's blog post The mind of an aspersion socially. I thought that his post about aspergers syndrome was very informative and well written. It really made me think. He explained what it was in a way that made sense to me, I feel like I understand it much better than I did before. Rather than just leaving it at he smiled when his friend told him he failed his test, he explained why he did that. He didn't do it to be rude, but because of something else that is deeper. I think his post was really well written, and was definitely worth the read. Here is a link: http://chackerian.blogspot.com/2012/01/mind-of-aspergian-socially.html