A Gaming Girl's Take on Life

Books to Read Jan '10

2010-01-31T20:45:00.000-05:00

The Cutie by Donald E. Westlake (Antick Musings Review)

Killing Castro by Lawrence Block (Antick Musings Review)

Quote of the Week 01-08-10

2010-01-09T20:41:00.001-05:00

"A man's respect for law and order exists in precise relationship to the size of his paycheck." - Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

Quote of the Week 01-02-10

2010-01-02T20:40:00.001-05:00

"I never took hallucinogenic drugs because I never wanted my consciousness expanded one unnecessary iota." - Fran Lebowitz

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T08:36:00.002-05:00

And the calendar begins anew today for the Western world.

It's normally a time for reflection, renewing oneself, and a whole host of other things that are life-changing like that.

Resolutions are usually the order of the day.

Let's see. I crashed and burned on all of my resolutions/goals last year. So this year, let's keep things a little more simple.

1) Finish my first draft of my novel by March 1, 2010.
2) Save enough to buy my first CD toward a downpayment on a house.
3) Get ahead by at least 1K on my debts.
4) Pay for Xmas with cash only.
5) Save enough to buy an Apple laptop with cash. (half-way there already)

There, those seem a little more reasonable, measurable, and have a firm end date.

Moving the Blog

2009-12-31T21:30:00.001-05:00

Hi!

If I have anyone following me, please redirect yourself to the new blog:
http://agaminggirlstakeonlife.wordpress.com/

Books to Read Dec. 09

2009-12-31T09:08:00.002-05:00

Our Choice by Al Gore (Constant Reader Review)

Peter and Max: A Fables Novel by Bill Willingham (Stainless Steel Droppings Review)

Whole Earth Discipline by Stewart Brand (Tomorrow's Table Review)

Quote of the Week 12-29-09

2009-12-29T22:05:00.000-05:00

"The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them." - Robert Frost

Current Reading Dec. 09

2009-12-27T08:33:00.003-05:00

The books I'm currently reading:

The Art of Seduction
Goedel, Escher, and Bach
Two-Person Game Theory
White is for Witching
House of Leaves
Ghost Road Blues
Food, Inc.
Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!
Nothing's Sacred
The Big Con
Banvard's Folly
The Mystery of the Grail
The GodPlayers
The Snowball
The Shining
The Way of Shadows
The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat
Hobson and Co
Dhalgren
The Murder of Tutankhamen
The Doorbells of Florence
Joystick Nation
Carried Away
Working for the Devil
Devil May Cry 2
Born on a Blue Day
The Devil's Picnic
The Music of Razors
Free the Children.

Not that I'm a Biblio-slut or anything.

50 Best Books for Boys?

2009-12-24T19:44:00.001-05:00

The Art of Manliness set out a list of 50 of the best books for boys to read. As an experiment, (being female and a biblioslut) I decided to find out how many of them I'd read over the years or while I was a kid. Bold means I've read it. Italics means it's on my to read list. Please feel free to play along on your own blog. Leave me a comment so I can come take a look.

1. Hatchet by Gary Paulson - I know this cover so well that I'm sure I read it, but I cannot remember it for the life of me.

2. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
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3. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

4. The American Boy’s Handy Book by Daniel C. Beard

5. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster - Hate, hate, hate, hate, I cannot explain the loathing I have for this book *and* the movie it inspired.

6. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - Mark Twain is a genius. If you haven't read this book, go get it from the library or a used book store immediately.

7. The Last Mission by Harry Mazer

8. The First Edition of the Boy Scout Handbook - The Girl Scout handbook was originally pretty kick ass too. Does it count that I read that one?

9. Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane - I think I read this book and immediately managed to blank it from my mind out of self-defense. Stephen Crane is *not* one of my favorite authors

10. Watership Down by Richard Adams

11. The Johnny Dixon Series by John Bellairs - I loved this series and spent several years (after Harry Potter came out and reminded me of them) attempting to find it again. I still don't think I've found them all again.

12. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain - Huck Finn is better, but this book would be good for a younger reader.

13. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S Lewis - For love of the Lion's mane, read these in the original order starting with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!

14. Canoeing with the Cree by Arnold Sevareid

15. The Giver by Lois Lowry

16. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

17. Heat by Mike Lupica

18. The Call of the Wild by Jack London

19. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

20. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

21. Holes by Louis Sachar

22. The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B White

23. The Outsiders by S.E Hinton

24. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

25. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Worth the read. One of the few classics I think everyone should read.

26. Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

27. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

28. Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen

29. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

30. Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling

31. The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks

32. The Blue Star by Tony Earley

33. The Black Stallion by Walter Farley

34. The Cay by Theodore Taylor

35. Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien - Does having read this multiple times make up for not reading Kipling?

36. The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden

37. The Little Britches Series by Ralph Moody

38. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

39. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

40. The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

41. The Hardy Boys Series - Frank and Joe are so much better than Nancy

42. The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle

43. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

44. The Thief of Always by Clive Barker

45. That Was Then, This is Now by S.E. Hinton

46. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

47. Heart of a Champion by Carl Deuker

48. Blue Skin of the Sea by Graham Salisbury

49. Old Yeller by Fred Gipson

50. The Art of Manliness by Brett and Kate McKay

Overall? I'd say it's a fair list for a normal kid. Me? I was reading adult books by fourth grade. I also cannot believe that The Dark Is Rising series wasn't mentioned. It's right up there with Narnia and LOTR. And it features a man protagonist! Black Stallion (*gag*) made the list, why not Susan Cooper. A lot of these books were being read in the regular English classes while I was in GT. That's probably why I missed them. *shrugs* I'm not feeling any big loss.

Quote of the week 12-22-09

2009-12-22T22:04:00.000-05:00

"Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it." - Russell Barker

National Buy a Book by a Black Author and Give it to Somebody Not Black Month.

2009-12-19T12:52:00.004-05:00

This is an interesting interview with Carleen Brice. (Black Female Author of Mainstream/Literary)

I would love to see books treated as books. So if a book is women’s fiction, I’d love to see it marketed broadly to women, not only black women. What tends to happen is that my books and books like mine have to become popular with black audiences and then cross over. And it’s maddening! It’s maddening to see a book like The Help get marketed to all readers and a book like The Air Between Us get lost in the shuffle. Similar subject matter. One author is white; one is black. Is that the reason why one took off and one didn’t…? Probably not the only reason, but it’s hard to believe it’s not part of the reason. I’d love to see L.A. Banks’ vampire books shoot up the bestseller lists like Charlaine Harris’ books. I’d like to see HBO or some other channel turn them into a series like True Blood.

I’d love to see a white writer called “the new Pearl Cleage” or "the new Attica Locke” instead of always vice versa. I’d love to see book reviewers compare books by genre and subject matter instead of by authors’ ethnicity.

A list of 50 books on Indiebound from Carleen Brice (via The Rejectionist)

Now, I honestly couldn't tell you the race of most of the authors I pick up. (A good bet is white male. I say this as a white female.) I decided to take a stroll through the 50 books she recommends. I'd love to say they all looked great, but they didn't. Problem is, I just don't read mainstream lit. I want genre books. So, if someone were to round up say 50 SciFi books by American Minority Authors, it might be more helpful to me.

Personal rec on this theme : The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker

Still the following did peak my interest. (At least so far as I'm putting it onto my books to read list. Which these days means from the library.)

Big Machine By Victor Lavalle

Quote of the Week 12-15-09

2009-12-15T21:51:00.000-05:00

"Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions." - G. K. Chesterton

Neutraface - Lady Gaga Parody

2009-12-13T21:53:00.001-05:00

Okay, I think the best/worst part of this? They're sexier than Lady Gaga is to me. I'm such a geek.

Quote of the Week 12-8-09

2009-12-08T08:34:00.001-05:00

"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius." - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

How the Hell is this Art?

2009-12-05T21:50:00.002-05:00

rotating kitchen from Zeger Reyers on Vimeo.

The Rotating Kitchen by Zeger Reyers started rotating last Friday and will continue to rotate until February 28th 2010.

The only "art" that was involved in this was the art of the con. 1) They got someone to pay them for the installation. 2) They've got publicity for it. 3) They've got people on the internet watching at and are gathering crowds to watch it in the gallery.

What this is? It's a huge, ballsy con. And for that, I think I love it.

Recipe Roundup

2009-12-03T22:06:00.000-05:00

I must try these:

Gluten Free Chicken Noodle Soup from Elana's Pantry

Carrot Banana Muffins from Elana's Pantry

Coconut Chicken Soup from Elana's Pantry

Candied Macadamia Nuts from Elana's Pantry

Edgar Allen Poe Necklace

2009-12-02T21:56:00.002-05:00

This necklace is gorgeous. (via Boing Boing, via Wonderland)

Quote of the Week 12-1-09

2009-12-01T08:32:00.000-05:00

"There is a coherent plan in the universe, though I don't know what it's a plan for." - Fred Hoyle

Books to Read November 09

2009-11-30T15:47:00.003-05:00

Money for Nothing: One Man's Journey through the Dark Side of Lottery Millions by Ed Ugel

White Sands, Red Menace by Ellen Klages (Boing Boing Review)

Nest of Spies by Fabrice De Pierrebourg and Michel Juneau- Katsuya

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer (download) (Boing Boing Review)

Burn me Deadly by Alex Bledsoe

The Anthology of Dark Wisdom ed. William Jones

Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord

Recipe Roundup Nov 09

2009-11-26T09:03:00.003-05:00

Green Thai Curry Paste from Jayefuu

Gluten Free Dinner Rolls from Gluten-Free-Girl

Red Wine Vinegar from Jodi Torpey

Gluten Free Gingerbread from Gluten-Free-Girl

Soft Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies from Giggly Mama & Family

Some really great Tees

2009-11-25T08:19:00.003-05:00

Why go to the mall when you can pick up some great stuff on-line instead? These are a couple of tees that just amuse me:

Velma and Scooby after the Zombie Apocalypse

Space Invaders Autopsy

Quote of the Week 11-24-09

2009-11-24T08:18:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering. - Arthur C. Clarke

A bit of Nano Wisdom

2009-11-08T13:24:00.000-05:00

YOU KNOW YOU'RE AN AUTHOR IF...

You talk to yourself a lot.

You talk to yourself about talking to yourself. (e.g. 'Why do I constantly ask my self random things?')

When you talk to yourself you often talk to yourself like you're talking to someone else. (e.g. 'Have you ever noticed that deliver could mean someones liver?')

After uttering a profound peice of wisdom like that above, you stare at the cookie in your hand with awe and say, 'Holy crap, this stuff is great for sugar highs...'

You live off of sugar and caffeine (the two greatest things ever discovered!)

You'll check your e-mail every day of the week and then disappear off the face of the earth.

You're e-mails tend to be pages long and incredibly random.

When replying to an e-mail, you'll never actually address the point of it.

You tend to collect Bic Sticks off the ground like picking pennies off the ground.

No matter where you are in a room you never have to get up to find a pen/pencil and paper.

The letters on your keyboard are wearing off.

Your friends and family think that you have carpal tunnel syndrome.

People think you have A.D.D.

You think it'd be cool to have A.D.D.

You constantly start talking in third person, present or past tense.

You start thinking about making lists like this and start giggling for no "apparent" reason

Your friends stopped looking at you funny for no apparent reason a loooooong time ago.

And FINALLY, the one way to tell if you're a good writer: You failed English 101.

(copy that into you're profile if you fit one or more of the descriptions)

If you've ever talked to yourself, copy and paste this into your profile.

I call BS on all the situations below

2009-11-06T13:20:00.001-05:00

I found this randomly on fanfiction.net. I think it needs to be spread around some more:

I am the boy who never finished high school, because I got called a fag everyday.

I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.

I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman.

I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.

We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.

I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.

I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.

I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.

We are the couple who had the Realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.

I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.

I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised.

The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.

I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.

I am the woman who died when the EMT stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.

I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I didn't have to always deal with society hating me.

I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don't believe, but because they closed their doors to my 'kind.'

I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love. I am the person ashamed to tell my own friends I'm a lesbian, because they constantly make fun of them.

I am the boy tied to a fence, beaten to a bloody pulp and left to die because two straight men wanted to "teach me a lesson"

--IF YOU BELIEVE THAT HOMOPHOBIA IS WRONG... REPOST THIS--

Books to Read October 09

2009-10-31T21:01:00.001-04:00

Trail of Flowers by Jay Lake
Madness of Flowers by Jay Lake (i09 Review)

Cycler by Lauren McLaughlin (Boing Boing Review)
(Re)Cycler by Lauren McLaughlin (Boing Boing Review)

The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates by Adrienne Mayor

Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation by Mitch Horowitz

Al-Kemi by Andre VandenBroeck

Pioneer Prophetess by Herbert A. Wisbey. Jr.

Women of the Golden Dawn by Mary K. Greer

Stuff I want Just Because Oct 09

2009-10-30T16:57:00.002-04:00

Crochet Vampire BITE silk cashmere necklace (Etsy)

Quote of the Week 10-27-09

2009-10-27T21:00:00.000-04:00

"I have seen the future and it doesn't work." Robert Fulford

Book Review: The Elegance of the Hedgehog

2009-10-22T10:01:00.003-04:00

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery Trans: Alison Anderson

It made me cry.

I can tell you this without regret because it is truly the first time I have been moved to tears by a novel. I think I have fallen in love with a new author.

Superbly translated from French to American, Hedgehog is not a book that lends itself to simple summation. On first glance, it is the story of an intelligent woman who is hiding her light under the facade of a concierge in a building of rich French idiots. No, not idiots, but rather those who have been raised from birth to consider themselves better and more important than the working class. They could be the nuveau riche of New York City just as easily.

She eventually finds two new friends among these privileged residents: A suicidal 12 year old genius and the first new resident in 27 years.

But Hedgehog is not really about that at all. Like Renee this book is hiding its true nature under what seems to be a love story - a true romance. Hedgehog is instead about zen. How a French novel, translated into the less fluid language of American manages to precisely pinpoint the true natureof zen I will never know.

Hedgehog is about the beauty of the moment. It is the heart of life captured in the motion of breath, the hidden life of intersections, and the oddity that is true clarity.

By now my constant readers will know that I decry "literature" and think The New York Times is full of crap. In fact, one would question how this book even made its way into my hands. The only explanation I have is synchroncity and an airport bookstore who's sci-fi section was over-run by Charlene Harris. For the first time I can say without irony - thank you True Blood for helping me find something truly remarkable.

Quote of the Week 10-20-09

2009-10-20T20:51:00.000-04:00

"To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!" H.L. Menken

Quote of the Week 10-13-09

2009-10-13T12:58:00.000-04:00

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. H. P. Lovecraft

Cool Crafting Roundup Oct 09

2009-10-11T16:38:00.003-04:00

by snowynora via Stichgasm!

Chthulu Baby Blanket by Fickle Pegasus via Craftzine

Brimmed Beanie Pattern By Juliene Ford and Jamie Chan via Craftzine

Cabled Balaclava By Nikol Lohr via Craftzine

Quote of the Week 10-06-09

2009-10-06T12:56:00.000-04:00

I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education. - Wilson Mizner

Books to Read September 09

2009-09-30T12:33:00.000-04:00

TALES OF TERROR FROM THE BLACK SHIP by Chris Priestly (Stainless Steel Droppings Review)
UNCLE MONTAGUE'S TALES OF TERROR by Chris Priestly

TAINTED by Julie Kenner

HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY by Audrey Niffenegger (Stainless Steel Droppings Review)

The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (short story collection, multiple authors)(i09 Review)

ARIEL by Steven R Boyett (Cory Doctrow Review)

THE ALCHEMY OF STONE by Ekaterina Sedia (Stainless Steel Droppings Review)

STORIES IN STONE by David Williams (Laelaps Review)

NORSE CODE by Greg van Eekhout (i09 Review)

ZOO by Otsuichi

In Honor of Banned Books Week

2009-09-30T08:10:00.002-04:00

Below is a list of classics that have been challenged or banned. I'm bolding the ones I've read, italicizing the ones I'm reading, and deciding whether or not to put the rest on my reading list just because they've been banned.

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses by James Joyce (on my to read list)
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
9. 1984 by George Orwell
10. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
11. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
13. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
15. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
21. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
22. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
23. Their Eyes are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
31. On the Road by Jack Kerouac (on my to read list)
32. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
34. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
35. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
37. The World According to Garp by John Irving
38. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
39. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
40. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
41. Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
42. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
43. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (<- I tried. I abandoned this piece of crap)
44. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
45. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
46. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
47. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
48. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
50. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
51. My Antonia by Willa Cather
52. Howards End by E. M. Forster
53. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
54. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
55. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
56. Jazz by Toni Morrison
57. Sophie's Choice by William Styron
58. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
59. A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
60. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
61. A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
62. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
63. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
64. Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence
65. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
66. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
68. Light in August by William Faulkner
69. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
70. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
71. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (Attempted and abandoned. *yawn*)
72. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
73. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
74. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
75. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
76. Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe
77. In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
78. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
79. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
80. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
81. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
82. White Noise by Don DeLillo
83. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
84. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
85. The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
86. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
87. The Bostonians by Henry James
88. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
89. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
90. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
91. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
92. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (see The Fountainhead)
93. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
94. Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
95. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
96. The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
97. Rabbit, Run by John Updike
98. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster
99. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
100. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Quote of the Week 09-29-09

2009-09-29T12:54:00.000-04:00

Nobody believes the official spokesman... but everybody trusts an unidentified source. - Ron Nesen

Quote of the Week 09-22-09

2009-09-22T12:53:00.000-04:00

By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece. - G K Chesterton

Book Review: Sandman Slim

2009-09-16T18:59:00.000-04:00

Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey is a dark, gritty, balls-to-the-wall, unrelenting festival of action and plot twists wrapped up in a package of incredible punk descriptions.

Jim Stark got sent to Hell while still alive. Eleven years later, he got out. Of course he wants revenge. Revenge on the bastards who sent him to Hell and revenge for his murdered girl-friend, Alice. On his way there, he meets up with old friends, makes some new ones, generally pisses off Heaven, Hell, and everyone in between. And for a self-described monster, I don't think I could like him more.

I'd heard about Sandman Slim before I picked up Butcher Bird. Unlike BB, with Sandman there was no awkward "I'll give it one more chapter" moments. It started fast and kept going.

It's not a pretty story. It's not a fairy-tale with nymphs and pixies. It's a Noir-Urban-Fantasy with magic, blood, guts, bullets and knives. There are angels and demons and monsters of all stripes in between populating a very familiar L.A.

Stark has free-will to burn, even if he doesn't always engage his brain before he gets started. Once he commits to an action, he sees it through. He's a refreshingly blunt character who got used to Hell, doesn't particularly care to visit Heaven, but is still human enough to care about his friends. He doesn't care about saving the world, but he will save a friend.

Kadrey's view of Hell is fascinating and both Sandman Slim and Butcher Bird are worth it for those glimpses into that glittering abyss.

If I were pressed, I'd put him on the shelf with Simon R. Green's Nightside Series and Neil Gaiman's American Gods.

Quote of the Week 09-15-09

2009-09-15T12:50:00.000-04:00

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin. - H. L. Mencken

Random Rant: Bathtubs

2009-09-14T19:18:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I was sick this weekend and wanted nothing more than to be able to relax in a nice, warm bath. So I drew the bath and settled in.

HA.

Settled in. That's such a laugh. There are options. I can sit tailor style in the bath and hunch over in order to get my arms and knees in the water at the same time. Or I can lay back, wrap my legs into a pretzel and have my shoulders and my feet in the water at the same time as long as I don't mind having my knees, chest and stomach out of the water.

Seriously, I haven't been able to sit in the bath and have my chest covered in water since I was a child.

People do not "over-estimate" how many baths they'll take, they underestimate how uncomfortable the bloody things are. I'd love to take more baths. If there were an option that let me have my toes, stomach, boobs, and shoulders all in the water at the same time and didn't include 1) needing a ladder to get out of it 2) sitting upright in a walk-in bathtub or 3) having to spend outrageous amounts of money to get the designer who made a bathtub for the NBA suites in Vegas to make one for me too.

Seriously, I'm not even six foot! I should be able to lie down in a bathtub!

ARRRGGGG

Books to Read August 09

2009-08-30T20:47:00.007-04:00

SANDMAN SLIM by Richard Kadrey (Boing Boing Review)(ED. Read Sept. 09)

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (Lilith Saintcrow) (ED. Read Oct. 09)

The Intergalactic Playground: Children and Science Fiction by Farah Mendlesohn (Boing Boing Review)

The Great Influenza by John M. Barry

Cheap: the High Cost of Discount Culture by Ellen Ruppel Shell (Boing Boing Review)

The Affinity Bridge by George Mann (i09 Review)

Soulless by Gail Carriger (i09 Review)

He Died with His Eyes Open by Derek Raymond (Ecstatic Days Review)

Slights by Kaaron Warren

Rag and Bone by Peter Manseau (Laelaps Review)

Quote of the Week 08-25-09

2009-08-25T07:56:00.000-04:00

"Speak the truth, but leave immediately after." - Slovenian Proverb

Quote of the Week 08-18-09

2009-08-18T07:55:00.000-04:00

"I don't have an English accent because this is what English sounds like when spoken properly." - James Carr

Quote of the Week 08-11-09

2009-08-11T07:54:00.000-04:00

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell

Quote of the Week 08-04-09

2009-08-04T07:53:00.000-04:00

"A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them." P. J. O'Rourke

Books to Read July 09

2009-07-31T07:47:00.003-04:00

PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL by Dan Ariely (ed: read 8-30-09)

THE ENCHANTMENT EMPORIUM by Tanya Huff

THE WOMEN OF NELL GWYNNE'S by Kage Baker

UNHOLY BUSINESS by Nina Burleigh (GrrlScientist Review)

WHO'S TO SAY WHAT'S OBSCENE? by Paul Krassner

OUTBREAK! THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EXTRAORDINARY SOCIAL BEHAVIOR by Hilary Evans and Robert Bartholomew (Copycat Effect Review)

LIEUTENANT KIJE by Yury Nikolaevich Tynyanov

Quote of the Week 07-28-09

2009-07-28T07:52:00.000-04:00

"If you live long enough, the venerability factor creeps in; first, you get accused of things you never did, and later, credited for virtues you never had." - I. F. Stone

Book Review: Butcher Bird

2009-07-25T20:34:00.000-04:00

Butcher Bird by Richard Kadrey

I looked at this book four or five times before I actually picked it up. I was ambivalent about it, but I kept running across people talking about it, so I gave it a shot.

It's a little dark, a little twisted, a little Nightside, a little Neverwhere.

After all's said and done, I liked it and I'd read Kadrey again.

I won't say it was an easy read. It's not a candy-book like the Nightside series. There's layers and layers and double crosses. I took short breaks every few chapters, but I couldn't stop reading it. I finished it the same day I started it. Let me tell you that for a biblioslut like me, that's something.

Our main character is Spyder. He's a tattoo artist who has an encounter with a demon and ends up getting his third eye opened with a hardy knock and a pretty blind assassin named Shrike. Along with his partner Lulu and a few others, he gets dragged along onto a quest. It's the sort of plot that I don't want to talk too much about because I don't want to ruin it for anyone. I'll keep it general.

I liked the blending of mythologies. It really works for the frame of the story and lets it be lifted out of the real world into a landscape that doesn't really exist. I love imaginary worlds that are all the more imaginary by being impacted by the beliefs of people. It speaks to the heart of things.

And I grew to really appreciate Spyder and Lulu and even Count Non. I just don't think I'm that fond of Shrike. I don't know what it is that turns me off, but it was enough that I wasn't sure that I was going to continue past the first few chapters. I'm glad I did. The story got rolling just past there and it was worth it.

The biggest issue for me, was the voice at the beginning of the book, seemed out of pace with the world it was talking about. Kadrey eventually found the right balance between grounded and dreamlike.

It's worth the read.

Quote of the Week 07-21-09

2009-07-21T07:51:00.000-04:00

"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something." - Robert Heinlein

Book Review: The Salmon of Doubt

2009-07-17T19:56:00.003-04:00

The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time is a collection of essays, interviews, and the notes of the last Dirk Gently by Douglas Adams.

This is probably going to end up less a review and more an overly-delayed goodbye. Douglas Adams is one of the authors who's death hit me hard. This book only emphasizes the unique voice and vision of him as an author and as a man. It's not a biography in a traditional sense, but it is the best *sense* of the man I think there will ever be. It's history in his words.

There are so many nuggets of humor in this book that it is impossible not to smile. His essays on nature are enthusiastic and poetic. His essays on technology are effervescent. His musings on life, the universe, and everything else are not to be missed.

I put off reading this book because it was the only one that I hadn't and I didn't want the magic to end. For that, I am sorry, because this is a brilliant read. I'm more than pleased that the project was conceived and executed with such love. I find myself gobsmacked by the fact that I do miss someone I never met so deeply.

I will miss his voice, his humor, and his insane sanity. Goodbye, Mr. Adams.

Faster is Not Better

2009-07-15T15:16:00.000-04:00

There's a growing issue at my local McDonald's. (This is not about the quality of the food, the waste or any other large-scale issue. This seems to be completely isolated from the corporate entity and is strictly the owner of my local franchise.)
The issue is speed. The management has implemented a system at lunch time. There is one, sometimes two, order taker(s) at the drive-thru. On the surface this looks like a great idea. There's no difficulty understanding the customer because of the microphone.

The problem is, that the person taking your order is nowhere near the menu. If you haven't got the menu memorized or say the right number, you're SOL. And heaven forbid you want something that isn't a value meal or a special order.
Next, there is a roaming money taker who comes to the car and takes your money or runs your credit card to the window. Here's the next fault line in the system. If they money taker gets off sequence, or heaven forbid you say cash when you meant to say credit the damage is almost impossible. The line is backed up for three or four minutes while they try to sort that debacle out.

Lastly, there's the person who's delivering the food. If you aren't at the window, getting ketchup or sauce for nuggets or sugar for your coffee is next to impossible. Just suck it up and go without.

Now, here are some of the things that have gone wrong with this system in place:
1) Not receiving the items you ordered, even though when you glance in the box might look right, that doesn't mean it is.

2) Not getting condiments. They no longer throw ketchup in the bags. Props for the environmental waste move. Boo for the customer service snafu. (Might be helpful if the girl handing out the food understood the English names for the condiments and sauces. I don't really care if she doesn't speak English as her first language as long as she understands it.)

3) Not getting charged the right amount on your card. This takes ages to fix. All the while the people in the cars behind you are getting anxious and upset because they have finished their transactions while you're waiting to get yours fixed.

The problem is that the management of this location has demanded faster and faster serve times without thinking about the fact that there are going to be more mistakes. The service people are harried and I'm sure they get in trouble when their little "order time" ticker takes longer to complete. They're artificially pushing the times down in the first place. And if you have a long order or a complicated one? Hello, I want to spend more money here and you're acting as if this is an issue.

The faster, faster motto is getting stupid. There's even a radio station that uses "you don't have to listen to slow washed out music" anymore. Their examples of slow and washed out? The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Rolling Stones. Yeah, right, instead you're making me listen to "Hey there Delilah." How is this an improvement?

Needless to say, I think I'm at the top limit of this insanity now. I'm going to have to take my business to one of the other restaurants for lunch or *shudders* bring my own lunch in.

Quote of the Week 07-14-09

2009-07-14T07:49:00.000-04:00

"It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office." - H.L. Mencken

Quote of the week 07-07-09

2009-07-07T07:38:00.000-04:00

"The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity." - George Bernard Shaw

Quote of the Week 6-30-09

2009-06-30T09:11:00.000-04:00

I became a feminist as an alternative to becoming a masochist. - Sally Kempton

Books to Read June 09

2009-06-30T08:48:00.004-04:00

Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente (i09 Review)

The Strange Tale Of Panorama Island by Suehiro Maruo (i09 review)

Falconer on the Edge by Rachel Dickinson (Scientist, Interrupted)

Backyard Ballistics by Bill Gurstelle
Arsenic and Flamethrowers by Bill Gurstelle

Green by Jay Lake (i09 review)

New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear

Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer

Everyone in Silico by Jim Munroe (free download)

Postsingular by Rudy Rucker (free download)

Geek Mafia by Rick Dakan

Causing a Scene: Extraordinary Pranks in Ordinary Places with Improv Everywhere by Charlie Todd and Alex Scordelis

On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Lt Col Dave Grossman (Mind Hacks review)

Columbine by Dave Cullen (Janet Reid, Literary Agent)

The Unseen by Alexandra Sokoloff

Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey

Book Review: Made from Scratch

2009-06-27T17:45:00.000-04:00

Made From Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life by Jenna Woginrich

Made by Hand is a charming memoir/ how-to book from Jenna Woginrich who is a city girl turned country girl. Woginrich has the decency to still have a nine to five job and to work with computers. It's what she does when she gets home that makes all the difference.

She talks about her aha moments and her mistakes in equal measures. This is the story of how she started tending bees, growing her own veggies, keeping chickens and rabbits, and training her dogs. It's also about discovering the pleasure of playing an instrument and the joys of being with friends. It's about the complexities of the simple life that is not so simple. As she says: "How complex is the simple life? Complex enough to make a Buddist-vegan kill a rabbit." You'll have to read the story to understand. It's powerful and worth the time.

Her descriptions are so true and honest that one can smell the bread baking in the oven and hear the dogs barking at the window. And that is also the problem. The memoir bits are so lovely and well-written even at their most difficult, that when she switches over to writing the how-to sections it's a jolt. I wanted to know her so much more than I wanted a how-to on using a needle and thread. I wouldn't have minded a few sources and what she thought of them, but I did not need twenty pages on training sled dogs. I already know how to bake and I know how to sew. I've been buying used for years. Don't tell me that. Tell me how the wax felt the first time you melted it to dip the candles you talked about. Don't tell me how to use the library.

Still, all and all, I found it an enjoyable, quick read. I think it's worth it for anyone to read. If you pick it up at the library, you can skip the how-tos without guilt after all.

Book Review: Crash Diet

2009-06-26T17:30:00.002-04:00

Crash Diet by Jill McCorkle is a series of short stories.

See, I decided that I would break out of my genre and try reading some literary fiction for a change. I went to the fiction stacks and avoided all of the thrillers and serial killers and *shudders* thinly-disguised romance novels and found what looked to be a solid literary author with short stories that harkened back to my days of reading for the lit journal in college. It's the author's fourth book. The inside flap had some excellent snippets from the stories, so, since it was the library, I took the chance.

Oh boy, was I wrong. So, terribly, terribly, achingly wrong that nothing can save me from the unforgivable triumvirate of mistakes I made.

1) Literary fiction short stories. I read for a lit journal. I should know I don't like most of the tripe that the editors love.

2) Southern Female author. I'll grant, I read women writers all the time. It's just that they're writing in genres I like. And honestly, I have yet to read a Southern female writer. (For those non-US readers: Southern writers come from Virginia or below. This author is from North Carolina)

3) The blurbs were by people I don't know. I will give a short story author recommended by Neil Gaiman or Stephen King a chance in a heartbeat. If Poppy Z. Brite says "it scared me" I'll pick it up. Not being in the literary genre, I didn't know the writers of the blurbs. I'll know better the next time. If the NY Times likes it, I'll run the other way.

Now, I have obviously become enamored of silly things like plot and characterization. To paraphrase Mark Twain, stories should be headed to a climax and then a tie up afterward. The stories in Crash Diet are not stories. They are barely even vignettes.

Next, I should care about your characters. This does not mean that I should be willing to testify as to why their psychologist who has two lines should be kicked out of the field. I should also not want to bitch-slap every female in the book.

Again, going back to the most lauded Twain: One should be able to tell the characters from the corpse. Sadly, there is not one story in the book which could not be improved by the following sentences:

"And then the zombies appeared."
"And then she discovered that this was truly Hell."

In fact, they'd be fascinating stories if the women were all trapped in Satre's "No Exit." Because, you know, there'd be an over-arching story involved that started one place and built until the release of emotion when the next victim was thrown in or pulled out for torture.

Never again. I will not make this mistake again. I want plots! I want emotion! I want Dialog! I do not want to listen to the inner ramblings of women who define themselves by their relationships with the men in their lives and cannot seem to form a thought that doesn't revolve around men and how they've been betrayed, battered, or otherwise disappointed. I get it. Men are evil. Women are long suffering. I call bullshit.

Go swallow some more sweet tea or drown in a mint julep. Just leave me out of it.

Quote of the Week 06-23-09

2009-06-23T09:00:00.000-04:00

A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies. - Oscar Wilde

Quote of the week 06-16-09

2009-06-16T08:59:00.000-04:00

The average Ph.D. thesis is nothing but a transference of bones from one graveyard to another. - J. Frank Dobie

Quote of the Week 6-9-09

2009-06-09T08:51:00.000-04:00

History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure. - Thurgood Marshall

Quote of the Week 6-2-09

2009-06-02T20:46:00.001-04:00

Time engraves our faces with all the tears we have not shed. - Natalie Clifford Barney

Silence is the Enemy

2009-06-02T08:45:00.003-04:00

It's not often that I participate in memes, but this one is important.

I'll let the founder of it, Sheril Kirschenbaum speak first:

Today begins a very important initiative called Silence Is The Enemy to help a generation of young women half a world away.Why? Because they are our sisters and children–the victims of sexual abuse who don’t have the means to ask for help. We have power in our words and influence. Along with our audience, we’re able to speak for them. I’m asking all of you–bloggers, writers, teachers, and concerned citizens–to use whatever platform you have to call for an end to the rape and abuse of women and girls in Liberia and around the world.

In regions where fighting has formally ended, rape continues to be used as a weapon. As Nicholas Kristof recently wrote from West Africa, ‘it has been easier to get men to relinquish their guns than their sense of sexual entitlement.’ The war has shattered norms, training some men to think that ‘when they want sex, they need simply to overpower a girl.’ An International Rescue Committee survey suggests 12 percent of girls aged 17 and under acknowledged having been sexually abused in some way over the previous 18 months. Further, of the 275 new sexual violence cases treated Jan-April by Doctors Without Borders, 28 percent involve children aged 4 or younger, and 33 percent involve children aged 5 through 12. That’s 61% age 12 or under. We read about their plight and see the figures, but it’s so easy to feel helpless to act in isolation. But these are not statistics, they are girls. Together we can do more. Mass rape persists because of inertia so let’s create momentum.

Here is the blogger coalition site.

There have been a multitude of other posts, each with their own focus and voice. I don't have much to add that hasn't been said, so I'll highlight a few of the most interesting ones:

Greg Laden has an interesting post:

In a culture like the one described above, where rape of women by men is "normal" and "typical" and "happens all the time" one can certainly feel badly for the women, but can you, should you, actually intervene?

My own answer to the question is substantially different from that of the person who first told the story I relate above. The answer is: "You are asking a stupid question in a stupid way, and need to step back and think about what you are saying."

Rape may well be a "normal" and "day to day" occurrence in this culture, simply by virtue of the fact (= tautology) that it happens all the time. But there are two reasons why one should not fail to intervene.

Tara Smith talks about the difference of rape in wartime and rape in peace and why we don't talk about either.

Scicurious talks about feminism and rape.

Martin R. asks What is Wrong with those Men?

Jessica Palmer after providing some good resources says:

Can we change what is happening in Africa? I don't know, but I do know that the internet is a pretty powerful tool for mobilizing a community of caring individuals. Think about your own loved ones who have been the victims of sexual violence (statistics indicate that most of us know a victim of rape or sexual abuse) and then imagine if the pain they went through were routine, even expected. Imagine that women in your country could not run daily errands without risking being raped. That prepubescent children were commonly raped multiple times, including by their schoolteachers. That the police charged with keeping order were themselves perpetrators of sexual violence. It's hard to imagine, but I wish it were even harder - I wish it were unimaginable. Let's do our best to make it so.

Janet D. Stemwedel is not giving up on making a difference

Zuska offers her perspective:

I was assaulted by someone I know. I would not call him a monster, though what he did is monstrous. Calling perpetrators of sexual assault monsters makes it seem like somehow we can cut them out of a crowd, easily identify them somehow, know them as in some way different from the more general group of average men. Yet this is not the case. The next time you are in a crowd, look around you. Can you tell who, in that crowd, are the men who have molested their daughters or sisters or cousins or nieces? Of course you can't. They look like every other man. They come from every walk of life, every social class, every type of occupation.

Sciencewoman provides some concrete activities to help:

+ Call your congressperson. Congresspeople, in fact. Look up their contact information here. Tell them you have been compelled to contact them to find out what they can do to stop sexual violence against women and children in all forms, and abroad as well as in this country.

+ Donate money (or time, if you have the skills) to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders). They provide medical care to the children and women Kristof reported on, and to countless other women and children in war-torn countries across the world.

+ Donate money or time to your local women's shelter or to the National Domestic Abuse Hotline 'cause as much as we want to think this is a furrin problem, it ain't (although perhaps it's not so grevious here).

+Spread the word about this blog effort - through telling your own stories to friends and family, or through getting involved in your community shelter projects.

+Join in (with your own story, or not) on your own blog. A bunch of bloggers far more eloquent than me (updated list here) are donating any blog traffic money collected in June to MSF, and more traffic means more donations. We'll be joining in, although details are still fuzzy (as we really don't make enough to make our traffic donation worth while - so need to figure out a multiplication factor) - I'll post an update with the final plan. In the meantime, visit the list and read their posts on this topic, or look for their tweets with hashtag #silencehurts .

You can join the Facebook group.

Donate to Doctors without Borders.

And now, I'll offer my voice to this.

One of my friends was raped. Her own father said she deserved it. Let me state firmly for the record: NO woman asks to be raped.

I have worked with women who turned to drugs and alcohol to cover the pain of sexual abuse.

Rape is by it's very definition non-consenutal. It is not about sex, it is about power. And no child should ever have her own family turn thier back on her because of something out of her control. Rape is evil, insidious, dehumaizing, and scarring.

I never want another 3AM phone call from a friend in tears. You can help.

I urge you with every fiber of my being, do something. Even if it's just spreading the word in your own blog.

Books to Read May

2009-05-31T19:05:00.004-04:00

Uranium by Tom Zoellner (i09 Review)

Hunger by Jackie Kessler

The Girl She Used to Be by David Christofano(Fictionistas Review)

The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite by David Kessler

The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen (Adventures in Ethics and Science Review)

The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro (Out on June 2) (i09 information)

Land of the Lost Souls: My Life on the Streets by Cadillac Man

Obelisk: A History by Brian A. Curran, Anthony Grafton, Pamela O. Long, and Benjamin Weiss

Blithe Tomato, by Mike Madison (Google Books Link)

Triumph of the Heart: The Story of Statins by Jie Jack Li (Science Based Medicine review)

This is Not a Game by Walter John Williams (i09 review)

Kabuki: The Alchemy by David Mack (Stainless Steel Droppings Review)

Maria Mitchell and the Sexing of Science: An Astronomer among the American Romantics
by Renée Bergland (Adventures in Ethics and Science Review)

Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America -- and Found Unexpected Peace by William Lobdell (Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) Review)

Amigurumi by Elisabeth Doherty

The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker (Lilith Saintcrow Review)

Stuff I want for No Reason from May 09

2009-05-30T20:26:00.002-04:00

Gosh, this is going to be even more random than usual this time. I can just sense it.

TAC-15 'Tactical Assault Crossbow' (via Boing Boing Gadgets) (on YouTube)

SIM card Spy Ear (via Boing Boing Gadgets)

Datamancer Art Deco Keyboard

12 Gauge Shotgun Glasses

Quote of the Week 5-26-09

2009-05-26T12:50:00.000-04:00

"The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive." - Robert Heinlein

Fake Plastic Fish Challenge 1 Week's worth of plastic

2009-05-25T07:39:00.013-04:00

5/18/09
1 snack Cheetos bag (plastic and foil fusion)
1 snack Doritos bag (plastic and foil fusion)
1 soup container (which will become an African violet pot soon)
1 plastic spoon
1 plastic fork
1 polystyrene take-out container (not sure if this plastic. In fact I have no idea what polystyrene is made of beyond "chemicals")
1 plastic bag (too dirty to recycle)
1 packet of soy sauce

5/19/09
1 styrofoam plate (Styrofoam is plastic... right? I think... It's not natural...)
1 wax paper liner from the deli (not sure where this falls)

5/20/09
1 McD's coffee cup top
1 Sweet and Sour dipping sauce container

5/21/09
bulk Q-tips box
1 McD's lg. soda and cover
1 Sweet and Sour dipping sauce container
2 Cheetos snack pack bags

5/22/09
2 Cheetos snack pack bags
1 plastic Fresh City bag
1 plastic food container from Fresh City
1 plastic soup cover from Fresh City
1 plastic fork

5/23/09
1 deli bag from turkey breast slices
1 plastic water bottle I found in the trunk.
wrap from a sleeve of oreos
3 plastic tag hangers from clothes
1 plastic shopping bag from clothes
1 plastic water bottle

5/24/09
1 veg sticker on pepper
polystyrene tray for corn
shrink wrap on corn
plastic tape on box of canned green beans
shrink wrap on 6 pack of tuna
tomato box
shrink wrap on twin pack of eggs
potato bag and clip
bag of fish guts (blech)

5/25/09
1 Boston Market dish and cover
1 Soup container cover

Analysis Questions:

What items could I easily replace with plastic-free or less plastic alternatives?
- take shopping bags with me for clothes shopping
- take cloth produce bags shopping
- do not buy bulk packs or pre-packed veggies
- do not buy bulk packs of tuna wrapped in plastic
- go inside at McD's and use the cover of the chicken nuggets to hold the sauce
- use reusable forks and spoons at work
- keep a bottle of soy sauce at work
- take reusable containers for the deli

What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic-free alternative doesn't exist?
- Sweet and sour sauce
- Plastic water
- Chips

How many of these items are from "convenience" foods that could be made from scratch with less packaging but might take more time to prepare?
- Take out food.
- Oreos
- Mmm.... everything else is an ingredient

What items are essential and seem to have no plastic-free alternative?

What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?
- bring my own lunch (*sobs*)
- no shopping at BJ's

What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?
- water bottles (This is a cheat as I haven't bought water in months and am just getting rid of bottles that are hiding in the house)
- produce bags - just have to get down to the sewing machine.

What other conclusions, if any, can I draw?
- I need to get my parents (other shoppers) involved in this too.
- It'd be lovely if the fruit and veg didn't have plastic stickers on them.

Flash Fiction Amusement

2009-05-22T13:00:00.003-04:00

Okay, I have to admit it, the only reason to go to Amazon these days is to read the reviews on products. It's the best place to find the explosive creativity of constrained length. That being said, here's one of the best entries:

Tuscan Whole Milk

(via Nathan Bransford - who should be happy that he wasn't the *last* person on the net to find this.)

Amusing and Fearlessly Brutal Review of the Honda Insight

2009-05-20T14:16:00.001-04:00

Jeremy Clarkson has written one of the most entertaining car reviews I've ever read. Let's just say he puts the "brutal" in "brutally honest"

And the sound is worse. The Honda’s petrol engine is a much-shaved, built-for-economy, low-friction 1.3 that, at full chat, makes a noise worse than someone else’s crying baby on an airliner. It’s worse than the sound of your parachute failing to open. Really, to get an idea of how awful it is, you’d have to sit a dog on a ham slicer.

If you click on the title you can read the whole thing. Or click here

Quote of the Week 5-19-09

2009-05-19T12:49:00.000-04:00

"Take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then say it with the utmost levity." - George Bernard Shaw

Subject: ESCR under attack - CONTACT NIH TODAY!!!

2009-05-18T08:10:00.002-04:00

I've gone and commented. I support stem-cell research. I think it is valuable and necessary for the development of some incredible medical technology, including the alieviation of certain types of blindness, the possibility of curing certain froms of parapalegia, and the key to Alzhiemer's and other diseases.

That's what I think. What do you think? Go and comment. The new guidelines are in draft form at the NIH

Forwarded message from Don Reed, national stem cell research advocate--

Dear Stem Cell Research Advocate:

The next 8 days are crucial in the stem cell research struggle.

Here's why.

Remember when President Obama signed that document removing the Bush stem
cell restrictions? That same day he called upon the National Institutes of
Health to draft a new set of guidelines for scientists wanting federal
funding.

Those guidelines have just been issued. see
http://stemcells.nih.gov/policy/2009draft.htm

The next 14 days are the comment period for the new guidelines for stem cell
research, which American scientists will have to live with if they want
federal funding. This is the public's only chance to shape those guidelines:
which can be improved-or made worse.

Unfortunately, there are problems with the proposed guidelines!

Not only are the guidelines far more conservative than we had hoped, but
opponents of the research are systematically flooding the comment process.

Conservative religious bodies, have launched a national campaign to attack early stem cell research by mass emails to the NIH.

*"The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) launched a new
"Oppose Destructive Stem Cell Research" campaign today, equipping citizens
to contact Congress and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to oppose
embryonic stem cell research ." -- WASHINGTON, May 6
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ www.usccb.org/stemcellcampaign

Is their anti-research campaign having an effect?

Dr. Wise Young of Rutgers University , ". of the 6000 plus comments that NIH
has received concerning the draft guidelines, 99% were from people who
opposed embryonic stem cell research."-Carecure Forum
http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/showpost.php?p=1039001&postcount=12

Imagine what the enemies of research will do with a statistic like that!
Think of the State Senators and Representatives who have to fight for stem
cell funding-they will be hammered-no politician ever wants to stand alone.

Supporters of stem cell research must be heard.

To prevail, we need to do three things:

Inform ourselves,

Act individually,

Reach out to our networks

.
First, read this message all the way through; it contains background
information from the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research
(CAMR), and other sources.

Second, send your message to the government. Click on the comment box you
will find at the following url:
http://nihoerextra.nih.gov/stem_cells/add.htm

Third, SHARE THIS LETTER-or write your own-- email all your contacts.

Any statement of support has impact. One sentence can make a difference.

Click on the following to contact National Institutes of Health:

http://nihoerextra.nih.gov/stem_cells/add.htm

Your comment can be as short as "I support embryonic stem cell research, and am glad some of the restrictions are being loosened." That matters.

Anyone who clicks on the comment box, and writes in a sentence-that message
will be tallied as one citizen in support. Of course, you may say more if
you want. If you are a long-term research supporter, your letter will be put
in the expert witness category.

But if you want to get more involved in shaping the guidelines, that would be
helpful. The guidelines are politically very timid, and must be
strengthened. Problems are:

a "grandfather clause" is needed to insure that every stem cell line already
approved under the previous stringent guidelines will be eligible;

alternate sources of stem cell lines such as SCNT should not be excluded from funding, and more. (see CAMR comments below.)

But every patient advocate in America must at least click on the comment
box, and make a statement in support of early stem cell research.

Click on the following to contact National Institutes of Health:

http://nihoerextra.nih.gov/stem_cells/add.htm

This affects everyone in America, and the world. MORE THAN ONE PERSON IN A
FAMILY MAY COMMENT. Every adult friend or family member should click and
make a comment-- as well as every scientist, medical student, every teacher,
every parent-everyone who has a reason to want stem cell therapies and
cures.

Here it is, one more time: http://nihoerextra.nih.gov/stem_cells/add.htm.

Or, send a letter (ideally on letterhead) to: NIH Stem Cell Guidelines, MSC
7997, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda , Maryland , 20892-7997

But whatever you are going to do, do it now. There is very little time
before the May 26th deadline.

We have worked hard, many years. We are so close. We must not falter now.

Click on the button, send your comments in-do it today, please.

And thanks. You make the difference: you are one of the overworked few who
change the world.

P.S. Here is a sample letter from Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR)

You can copy and paste into Comment section of NIH comment form and edit as appropriate for you.

Embryonic stem cell research holds great promise for millions of Americans
suffering from many diseases and disorders. I am not a scientist, but I
have been following progress in this field with great interest. Significant
strides have been made over the past decade, and the final guidelines issued
by NIH must build on this progress so that cures and new therapies can get
to patients as quickly as possible. The final guidelines should not create
new bureaucratic hurdles that will slow the pace of progress.

I am pleased that these draft guidelines -- in Section II B -- would appear
to permit federal funding of stem cell lines previously not eligible for
federal funding and for new lines created in the future from surplus embryos
at fertility clinics. However, as drafted, Section II B does not ensure that
any current stem cell line will meet the criteria outlined and thus be
eligible for federal funding. It will be important for the final guidelines
to allow federal funds for research using all stem cell lines created by
following ethical practices at the time they were derived. This will ensure
that the final guidelines build on progress that has already been made.

I also believe that the final guidelines should permit federal funding for
stem cell lines derived from sources other than excess IVF embryos, such as
somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Sections II B and IV of the draft
guidelines do not permit such federal funding and I recommend that the final
guidelines provide federal funding using stem cell lines derived in other
ways. If not, it is essential that the NIH continue to monitor developments
in this exciting research area and to update these guidelines as the
research progresses.

Thank you!

Quote of the week 5-12-09

2009-05-12T12:48:00.000-04:00

"Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles." - Frank Lloyd Wright

A collection of cool crafts

2009-05-07T08:19:00.001-04:00

Howie Woo's "Killer Crochet" (via Craft) - he does things like rayguns and bombs. They just happen to be made of yarn and huggable.

Crochet roses from Planet June

How to Press Oil Cloth from Oilcloth Addict

Pretty pillowcase pattern from Karlee Fuchs

Demystifying the Double Crochet Stitch from Kim Werker

Crochet cuffs from My Happy Little Life

Adorable well dressed crochet bunny from fuzzymitten

Make your own body cream from Lilith's Apothecary

How to fuse plastic bags from Craft

Worm Composting Bin from Craft

Checkerboard Lace Scarf from The Purl Bee

Hexagonal Stacking Boxes from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories

Develop Film with Coffee and Vitamin C from Photojojo

Coil Basket from plastic bags from The Lucky Ladybird Craft Site

Make your own glue from rice from No Plastic For A Year

Glass Photo Etching from Gold School

Make a Knife from a Cigarette from Boing Boing Gadgets

Horny Toad Roomba Cozy from Mamaquilla

Lace Mobius Cowl from Give me a purl!

Lithium levels in drinking water and risk of suicide

2009-05-06T08:02:00.003-04:00

Okay, the summary is this, researchers looked at the natural lithium in drinking water as compared to suicide rates. Their conclusion:

We found that lithium levels were significantly and negatively associated with SMR averages for 2002–2006. These findings suggest that even very low levels of lithium in drinking water may play a role in reducing suicide risk within the general population.

Now, it's interesting. And it needs to be replicated. it has implications for all sorts of uses, from calming the general populous to calming prison populations. I doubt that these researchers are thinking of anything that manipulative. These things always come from some member of government mis-reading and interesting correlation as a causation.

For my part, as soon as I saw the title of the article, I thought "oh, no, did you learn nothing from the Miranda fiasco" and started looking for hands of blue on the researchers. (If you haven't seen Serenity, why not? Go rent it right now.)

(via Greg Laden)

Quote of the Week 5-5-09

2009-05-05T12:35:00.001-04:00

"A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward." - Franklin Delenore Roosevelt

Books to Read for April

2009-04-30T09:37:00.002-04:00

Street Gang: The Complete Story of Seseame Street by David Pescovitz

Food Matters by Mark Bittman (Treehugger Review)

Revolution in a Bottle by Tom Szaky (Treehugger Review)

His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik (Boing Boing Review) (Suvudu Free Library)

Cool Stuff I Want for No Reason

2009-04-29T09:38:00.005-04:00

X-treme defense pen

Nuclear-grade duct tape - now *this* is what Mac used to build that space-shuttle

Space-ship vase "Rememberance of the Future"

Magnetic Duct Tape

Quote of the week 4-28-09

2009-04-28T09:35:00.000-04:00

"God runs electromagnetics by wave theory on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the Devil runs them by quantum theory on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday." - Sir William Bragg

Schnifty Solar Powered Stuff

2009-04-26T09:17:00.001-04:00

Veranda Solar Flat Pack, Exapandable Panels (Treehugger Report) (Salon Report)

Kid's Horizon Renewable Energy Science Kits (Treehugger Report)

Book Review: Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk

2009-04-22T12:52:00.000-04:00

Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk

Palahniuk is the author of Fight Club, Choke, Rant and several other books. If you've read my previous reviews, you'll know that I always enjoy his books. I have yet to not finish them in one sitting, which for a biblioslut like me is a big accomplishment. I was thinking about what makes his writing so engaging and I realized that it's the purity of the voice. His writing is unmistakably his.

Palahniuk is an experimental fiction writer. There's no easy way to classify what he writes. It's not exactly urban fantasy, it's not magical realism, but it's most definitely not straight up "literature". (I have yet to find a modern piece that considers itself "literature" which is worth the bother of picking up at the library book sale for ten cents, just to support the friends of the library.) Palahniuk is the only author for whom second voice passages and almost incomprehensibly shifting time lines actually work.

Lullaby is at its heart a story about a journalist, Steator, who is also a father who wants to do the right thing. He discovers an awful and wonderful power that lets him kill with a thought. The power that killed his wife and child. He needs to control that power and through that need connects with three other people. The book is about need, love, power, relationships, control and society. It's the voice of an anarchist who is part of the system and I love that. I love the rocketing, dreamlike shifts in time backward and forward. I love the assumptions that need to be rethought chapter after chapter. I love the fine, watch-maker precise structure and the delicate gossamer lacework of the words that make up that structure.

Lullaby is partly about family, partly about ethics, and one-hundred percent about getting into the mind of someone who is and is not different than all the working scrubs that you meet every day. It's about how power corrupts even those who believe they're using it for good. And it's about choices and concequences. Real, immediate, consequences that lead to broken bodies and broken hearts, and living on because living is the only way to make sense of those things.

Read it. It's a rough dream with a detailed voice that leads you through shattering discussions. It makes you think about how you relate in the world and to yourself and what exactly you would do if you had a power. One lonely, dangerous power.

Quote of the week 04-21-09

2009-04-21T09:33:00.000-04:00

"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right." - Isaac Azimov

Quote of the Week 04-14-09

2009-04-14T09:32:00.000-04:00

"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field." - Neils Bohr

Amazon Rank

2009-04-12T20:12:00.003-04:00

Amazon Rank

amazon rank
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): amazon ranked

1. To censor and exclude on the basis of adult content in literature (except for Playboy, Penthouse, dogfighting and graphic novels depicting incest orgies).
2. To make changes based on inconsistent applications of standards, logic and common sense.

This is related to a firestorm of internet activity. The problem? Amazon.com decided to de-rank a whole host of GBLT books, and beyond that a whole bunch of erotica books. This de-ranking means these books won't show up in searches or on best-seller lists.

See the following links for more information:

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
Unfunny Business
Twitter #AmazonFail

MetaWriter

Open letters and articles:

Landale
Denver Examiner: Online Censorship? Amazon Strips Rankings of Gay and Lesbian Books
Luke Waterfield
On Amazon Failure, Meta-Trolls, and Bantown
Dear Author
The Petition
Church of the Customer
Gawker
AP
I heart digital life (German)
Thickculture
Jezebel

Book Review: The Screwtape Letters"

2009-04-11T21:19:00.003-04:00

The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis are a collection of "letters" from Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood on tempting an unnamed young man in early WWII England. Screwtape is a demon and so his arguments are necessarily on how to weaken faith in a Christian god and how to twist those things that might seem small into a larger flood of unexamined sins.

Now, this is, obviously, written by an English Christian scholar, and bares all the hallmarks of Christian morality. However, I would say that this is not as offensive as one might think. CS Lewis, lovely Christo-Pagan that he is, conceives of God not as only Jesus. He takes a long view of God (The Enemy, in Screwtape's parlance) and thus is willing to discuss Socrates and Aeschylus next to Paul. In fact, he says "The 'Gospels' come later and were written not to make Christians, but to edify Christians already made." I find this refreshing. So many Christians seem to believe that anyone who was born before Jesus must simply not exist or be damned. (Remember everyone: Jesus was Jewish.)

The letters cover everything from conversion, to "being in love", to the company one keeps. There are a few parts where Lewis obviously had difficulty completely inhabiting the mind of a demon and these are the bits where Screwtape's admiration and desire to be in Heaven as opposed to Hell seem to leak through. Then again, those slips might be deliberate. There is a possibility that Lewis was hinting that it is the desire of all beings to be in Heaven.

It is also his contention that Lucifer left (was not thrown out of) Heaven because he could not conceive of love without gain. That is to say he couldn't understand the theory of unconditional love. The whole book is filled with such an interesting point of view and casual asides, that I'd love to be able to write to the author and discuss them with him.

All in all, I think that is The Screwtape Letters' greatest asset, that it makes one want to discuss what one read there and expand upon the things that are found there. I assume that there are scholarly works that have been written on the subject, but I'd much rather invite myself over for tea and discuss Screwtape and Aslan and the rest of Lewis' world with the man himself. Who knows, maybe someday I will.

There's also an epilogue of sorts to the book, which makes me want to find the other essays he wrote in Screwtape's words.

In "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" - an essay that was originally printed in The Saturday Evening Post - CS Lewis skewers politics, education, and hipsters. Posed as a toast to graduating devils before their first postings as Tempters, it's full of snide asides at the Labour party, the educational equality measures, and several other forms of society. It ranges from how the word "democracy" is used to pull people down as opposed to pushing them up to how those aesthetic prigs who are self-righteously religious are as guilty of the sin of pride as anyone else.

And the things that he discusses are as relevant today as they were the day they were written. The following gem could have been as easily written last week in the NY Times as it was in 1960:

I am credibly informed that young humans now sometimes suppress and incipient taste for classical music or good literature because it might prevent their Being like Folks; that people who would really wish to be -- and are offered the Grace which would enable them to be -- honest, chaste, or temperate, refuse it. To accept might make them Different, might offend again the Way of Life, take them out of Togetherness, impair their Integration with the Group. They might (horror of horrors!) become individuals.

This is, of course, one of the things that most frustrates me about the people I tend to work with; that they so want to follow the crowd that they cannot form their own opinions, but rather only parrot those opinions of their minister, their favorite politician, or in fact their favorite blogger. Their herd instinct makes me want to shake them, and yet, I find myself less than willing to vilify them for it. They seem to me to just be scared.

In reading this post-book short "toast" as it is framed, I find myself wondering if perhaps Susan Penvensie (from The Chronicles of Narnia) was not barred from Narnia because of her fondness for men, but rather because she set herself on the path of becoming a normal girl of her time. If she had stuck true to the things she had learned in Narnia as Queen Susan the Gentle, in other words, stayed true to the values she learned there, she would not have been left behind. Then, again, perhaps it was a gift in the author's eyes. Susan, by not being killed when her family was will have time to return to those values and to Aslan's way. That, however, is something to be discussed more fully when I finish re-reading the Narnia books.

The Screwtape Letters are fun, snarky, and all together a painless way to get your dose of philosophy. They are a quick read, even if they are written with words on a higher than 6th grade reading level. I suggest you read them, whether you're Christian, Pagan, Atheist or anything else. It will give you a good look into the human mind and how it interacts with faith. It will also give you a very good understanding of how to actually manipulate people. Granted, cousin, you and I don't have the advantage of being a spirit, but there is still a lot to be learned in these pages about the manipulation of language and the obscuring of moral choices with rhetoric. Read them, think about them, and then come back here and discuss them.

Quote of the Week 04-07-09

2009-04-07T09:31:00.000-04:00

"The wages of sin are unreported." - Unknown

Quote of the Week 03-31-09

2009-03-31T12:03:00.002-04:00

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." George Bernard Shaw

Books to Read for March

2009-03-30T13:32:00.002-04:00

Wired for War by P. W. Singer

The Crooked Letter by Sean Williams (free Download)

Budayeen Nights by George Alec Effinger
When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger
A Fire in the Sun by George Alec Effinger

Fashion Geek: Clothes Accessories Tech by Diana Eng

KOP by Warren Hammond
Ex-kop by Warren Hammond

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

The Wall of America by Thomas M. Disch

The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons, and Growing Up Strange by Mark Barrowcliffe

Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero by E. Paul Zehr

Six-Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War by Jeffrey A. Lockwood

Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum by Richard Fortey

Unmasking Europa: The Search for Life on Jupiter's Ocean Moon by Richard Greenberg

Cool Stuff I Want for No Reason

2009-03-29T14:00:00.004-04:00

C3PO Thumb Drive - he's so cute. They have Han Solo as well. - $29.95

Ninja Star push-pins - $12/pack

Microsphere bracelets - I swear this is from a vampire book I read somewhere.

Airplane shaped thumb drive - $24

Samuri Sword Umbrella - $29.95

Space Invaders ice cube trays

Shark Attack Tea Infuser

Dental Fit Vamp Fangs - I'll be honest, I've wanted these since the 90's. Just because damn it.

Classically Trained Atari tee-shirt - my 2600 still works!

Arcade buttons - 16 pounds. *sighs*

Tetris Tiles - I just have to figure out how to work these into my bathroom.

Tetris ice cube trays

AK-47 bullet ice tray

Quote of the Week 03-24-09

2009-03-24T12:02:00.002-04:00

"To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent." Robert Copeland

Photos Mummies, Medicine, and More

2009-03-19T12:34:00.003-04:00

These are some of the cool photos and links I've come across in my reading. They're worth the look. These are mostly medical, so if you're creeped out by that, you might want to take care.

Photos from the National Museum of Health and Medicine on Flickr (Wired article) (Boing Boing article)

A group of side-show performers from Ringling Brothers from the Eugenics Archive

Monster Mummies of Japan as found on Pink Tentacle

Quote of the Week 03-17-09

2009-03-17T12:00:00.002-04:00

"Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship." Harry S Truman

Free Music

2009-03-16T10:24:00.002-04:00

Most of these links came from Hey, It's Free! I can't make any promises that they're still active.

But come on, free music. You've got to take a look.

25 Free Tracks from Pizza Hut

Bally's Fitness Workout Mix

Officer Roseland's new album Stimulus Package - You get a dollar to either donate to the Mr. Holland's Opus Fund or keep for yourself. That's better than free.

The Damnwells album One Last Century.

A Remix of Ziggy Stardust

A Mix Tape from Urban Outfitters

Keystroke Captures over the open air

2009-03-15T10:17:00.000-04:00

This is actually pretty scary.

Researchers have discovered that it is possible to record keystrokes with very simple technologies and a little bit of code.

Vuagnoux and co-researcher Sylvain Pasini were able to pick up the signals using an antenna, an oscilloscope, an analog-digital converter and a PC, running some custom code they've created. Total cost: about US$5,000.

This means, no one has to actually compromise your computer security system. They just have to have a clear way to view soeone typing in real time. This is probably of larger concern when using a laptop then locked securely in your office building where you can't even get radio reception.

If pulling keystrokes out of thin air isn't bad enough, another team has found a way to get the same kind of information out of a power socket. Using similar techniques, Inverse Path researchers Andrea Barisani and Daniele Bianco say they get accurate results, picking out keyboard signals from keyboard ground cables.

Their work only applies to older, PS/2 keyboards, but the data they get is "pretty good," they say. On these keyboards, "the data cable is so close to the ground cable, the emanations from the data cable leak onto the ground cable, which acts as an antenna," Barisani said.

And this takes care of those folks who are safely ensconced in their offices where they can't get cell-phone reception.

All in all it's a fascinating article and some techniques that I really want to see replicated and defended against.

Cooking Links Collection

2009-03-14T09:50:00.003-04:00

There are some incredibly good cooks out there and they've got information for the rest of us. Me, I'm a fairly good cook, but I have a limited menu. This is how I've gone about expanding my abilities.

Squawkfox has two excellent tutorials. One is How to Cook Quinoa the other is How to Soak Dried Beans.

Gluten-Free Girl has an excellent website and I can't wait for her new cookbook. I don't have celiac, but I like recipes and she has several fascinating reads: How to Make Gluten Free Gravy - which even has a video, Lemon-Pecan Biscotti, Gluten and Dairy-Free Banana Cream Pie, Ginger-Molassas Cupcakes, Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies, Gluten Free Buttermilk Biscuits, and a complete Gluten-Free Thanksgiving.

There's a lovely Stuff Grape Leaves recipe from The Dinner Files. Wish I could eat it, but I'm allergic to grapes. (Weird allergy of the week that one.)

And last, but not least, in Honor of Pi Day, Adventures in Ethics and Science has a Violet Custard Pie that just fascinates me.

2009-03-13T09:45:00.001-04:00

Princeton hosted a contest to find beautiful photos of science related photos.

In their words:

The resulting assembly of images presents a fascinating and beautiful cross section of the arts and sciences at Princeton. It celebrates the aesthetics of research and the ways in which science and art inform each other.

Go take a look here.

Quote of the Week 03-10-09

2009-03-10T10:58:00.001-04:00

"If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to." Dorothy Parker

Quote of the Week 03-03-09

2009-03-03T10:55:00.000-05:00

"Of course the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you--if you don't play, you can't win." Robert Heinlein

Books to Read Februrary 2009

2009-02-28T12:09:00.003-05:00

The Science of Star Wars by Jeanne Cavelos

Rule Number 2 by Heidi Squier Kraft

The Ghostly Men by Franz Lidz

Where Have All The Leaders Gone by Lee Iacocca

Quote of the Week 02-24-09

2009-02-24T10:50:00.002-05:00

"Laughter is the closest distance between two people." - Victor Borge

Quote of the Week 02-17-09

2009-02-17T10:41:00.001-05:00

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." Galileo Galilei

Quote of the Week 02-10-09

2009-02-10T10:26:00.001-05:00

"The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people." G. K. Chesterton

Quote of the Week 02-03-09

2009-02-03T10:24:00.001-05:00

"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness." Friedrich Nietzsche