Picnic or Pique nique

I'm going to a picnic today for a French conversation club I joined, and I might get back late, so I just thought I'd post now. As far as news about me goes, I'm doing well. I'm getting out and meeting local people as well as making some progress on the job front. People may notice I talk plenty about my opinions but very little about my actual life. This is generally because I also have a lot of opinions about people and things in my actual life but try to avoid gossiping. But as many of my friends may already know, if you're ever curious, I'm perfectly happy to talk about how I'm feeling personally with friends. But as much as I prefer blogging to a standard journal, I still don't always want to post everything on a public forum.

This blog's great for casual posts, and I'll continue to post here daily, but I wanted a more professional blog to show to employers if they want an example of my blogging skill. So I'm starting The BitterSea Review, and I'm going to repost all my book and movie reviews there. Currently I don't have any new content planned for this blog other than what I funnel over from here. But if you like to read my reviews and miss them in the deluge of other posts, it might be easier to look there from time to time. The reason these blogs aren't linked is because I prefer to keep my personal and professional blogs completely seperate. If employers find this blog on their own, I'm not concerned, because it's not bad. But it's just not what I'd show.

Pumpkin Pie-nishment

See, it's like Pie and Punishment. Yeah, I crack myself up (and possibly no one else). Yes, I actually made a pumpkin pie made of real pumpkin. It took me four hours to do it. But I did. The most time-consuming part was cutting the pumpkin (one recipe recommended a handsaw. but I had no such thing, so I had to make do with a normal serrated knife) and then scooping out the gunk. I may have been over zealous in the latter, but toward the surface I was unsure what was gunk and what was pumpkin.

I didn't take as many pictures as I probably should have to document the whole ordeal, but here's one picture of the orange goo in progress.

Most Disturbing Product Award

Okay, so this commercial seems to want to get rid of the "parentheses" that form on your face when you smile. The funny thing is, other than the misleading product name, they never come right out and say that these wrinkles makes you look old (as opposed to human). Probably because they can't. I have these dreaded "parentheses," and I'm 24. Though, I suppose in the world of people willing to inject stuff into their face, 24 might be considered old.

But what about this girl?



or this one?



Oh, no! Parentheses! They must need to inject stuff into their faces, stat!

For Adults

Though I'm of the opinion that stuff that's inappropriate for children is often not understood by them. So mostly, it's just funnier for adults.

I quite liked this joke but I was a little surprised as it's more explicit than any of Pratchett's actual writing.

American Gods: The Epic Journey

This is not yet a book review because it's a journey I haven't finished. I think I started American Gods back in 2007. I generally read it on planes since I bought it off another grad student in a yard sale for about a dollar. Great investment, considering how slowly I've read it. It's not so much the length. At 588 pages it's a lightweight in comparison to many of the sprawling fantasy epics I read. But it's a difficult book. It's not necessarily a difficulty of comprehension. It's more along the lines of not wanting to comprehend. After a time life got difficult enough for me and I didn't need literature adding to it. But I've finally picked up the book again. I left off very near the end around Chapter 16 and I'm once again finding my way through the darkness of the next five chapters.

Still, these lines struck me most while reading again (though the first doesn't have the same impact without the context of the story):

"It doesn't matter that you didn't believe in us," said Mr. Ibis. "We believed in you."

and this one just made me smile.

"Are you scared?" asked Mr. Ibis.
"Not really."
"Well, try to cultivate the emotions of true awe and spiritual terror as we walk."

Now, perhaps I'll finally see what the end will bring.

Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth: Book Review

So I wanted to do a video review of this book but who knows when I'll actually get around to that so here goes:

The story continues with our intrepid hero Percy being kicked out of yet another school when he's attacked by mythological monsters in the guise of homicidal cheerleaders. But upon returning to Camp Half-Blood his best friend Grover is in danger of losing his life-long dream to find the wild god Pan, and his equally best friend, Annabeth, is pegged for an almost certainly lethal quest: finding the heart of the Labyrinth. To help them both Percy must use all his skills and wits to stay alive in the not-so-mythical deadly maze.

This is the BEST Percy Jackson book I've read so far. Depending on the fifth book, it may be my favorite. The other Percy Jackson books I have certainly enjoyed, but there's something about the style of writing and pop culture references that made it seem very much a flash in the pan type of book and not sustainable over the years. This one, however, surpasses the campy fun of the first three and qualifies, in my opinion, as seriously well-written children's fiction.

The reason I feel is while Riordan still had amusing modernizations of the myths (such as homicidal cheerleaders) he seemed to take them more seriously. There's a reason Greek myths have endured this long and it's always best when writers use that to their advantage. There was far more psychological depth to the characters and their motivations, and I think he was more effectively balancing the humor with the serious. But at the same time it was still an exciting and stirring adventure.

And now for spoilers and horse chickens!

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I was afraid this book would actually be my least favorite because of the love triangle with Percy, Annabeth, and Rachel. I usually hate love triangles (despite having one in my own novel...) Plus, I was originally really dubious of Rachel's character. I didn't like that she introduces herself as Rachel Elizabeth Dare (who does that?!) and they often refer to her by that full name. Plus, in the audio version of The Titan's Curse, her voice was REALLY irritating. But I read this book which I think did a lot to help her character grow on me since her voice was far less irritating in my head. Plus, I firmly believe she turned out to be a good character in the end.

But I'm still a firm Percy/Annabeth shipper.

I was worried about Annabeth's jealousy, but it wasn't too bad because even Annabeth seemed to realize at points that she was being unreasonable and tried to be friendly. That's all I really ask of a person. The other reason I hate love triangles is they often turn good characters into bad ones. I just find it irritating when girls are portrayed (or are in real life) uniformaly jealous and how that often overshadows every other aspect of their personality. But a little jealousy, as long as it's acknowledged and the person does make an effort to fight it, is a perfectly understandable human flaw.

Aside from the romance aspect, I also really enjoyed how Riordan seemed to feel he could finally try to say something important with his fiction. I thought the Sphinx in this book was a great satire on this country's test-obsessed school system "How will I be exceptional without my test scores?!" A little obvious, but still pure gold in my opinion. I had to smile.

The environmental message of the ranch they visited felt a bit heavy-handed to me, but I won't quarrel with the truth of it. I still also LOVED that he had hippalektryons! Horse chickens! Ever since I read as a child that these creatures were only ever found on Greek pottery but never in any stories, I desperately wanted to write a story with them in it. But it never fit into any of my own fiction. So, YAY! Thank you Riordan! You've brought the hippalektryon back to life.

Plus, I thought Pan's death was a very well-done and moving environmental message that we cannot wait for a god to come and fix this.

I also thought that Quintus was Icarus, but for the first time in a Riordan mystery, I was WRONG! Very refreshing. It still wasn't exactly Agatha Christie, but he managed to fake me out.

On a random note, the imagery of when Percy erupts the volcano with the power of his water pressure is amazingly beautiful, and I wish I could draw a picture of how I see it in my head.

So, yeah, if you've been naughty and read the spoilers without reading the book, then I still recommend you read it.

Nerd Love

As someone with an attraction to nerds I relate to this video as much as I'm amused by it.

The Reason I Hate Phones

I'm neurotic. I love talking to people, but phones don't tend to work very well for me. The same dogged persistence that allowed me to write an 800 page novel looks rather insane when calling someone 80 times... But I become increasingly frustrated when I miss people. I tried calling a friend today. The first time I couldn't hear her. The next two times she called the exact same time as me, and Skype won't allow me to answer her and stop calling her at the same time, so neither of those worked.

Then I proceeded to try again several times which will probably mark me as insane.

They do behavioral experiments on rats where they give them a button operated food dispenser and observe what they do. If I were one of those lab rats, I would continue to press the button even after the food stopped coming. I would probably continue to press the button until I died.

Dreams Really Do Come True

I had a dream that I made a pumpkin pie. But pshaw! The only way I'd have to do that is if I forgot to blog.

Wait.

AAAAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!

Seriously, you guys, some alternative NON-cooking punishments would be nice. I mean, I'm making the pie this time because it always makes my sister so happy. Her jubilation at my pain is the only upside. But next time I'd rather do something else. Wouldn't any of you like to see me in pain or humiliated? Come on people; you're supposed to be my friends!

NEW PUNISHMENT RULE: I only have to do a punishment if someone notices I haven't done a blog post and tells me so. Otherwise, I'm not going to punish myself anymore.

District 9

My sister wants to see District 9 today. As I understand, it's about what would actually happen if aliens came to this planet. We would segregate them into concentration camps and do unspeakably horrible things to them.

The Medici

So I just finished watching a PBS documentary series on YouTube called The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance. (If you click the link, pay attention to the episode numbers. The first one's on the bottom.)

I rather liked this documentary. Scenes were enacted by live action actors. A lot of the actions were mimed since I suppose they felt the actors speaking might take away from the scene? Sometimes it was unintentionally amusing but it wasn't all silly, and the actors were quite good at facial expressions. Pictured above is the actor who played my favorite Medici: Còsimo di Giovanni degli Mèdici. Not for his funny hat. Though that is awesome. But because, of all the Medici, he seemed the smartest. He was the first of the Medici line and patron to many artists such as Donatello, as well as the brilliant architect and inventor of linear perspective Brunelleschi.

Most importantly, though, he didn't get too big for his breeches. He was a shrewd political mind, who managed to make the city love rather than fear him. I'm not sure if the documentary watered it down, though, or if he really was the least violent of the Medici. But it seemed that way. This isn't to say he was a fluffy bunny. But he didn't slaughter whole towns as an example to others.

Book Clubs and Botticelli

I'm going out to my book club today and I'll probably be too tired to write about how that went after I get back. So I thought I'd mention that I was watching a documentary on the Medicis the other night and it talked about how Botticelli did some of his most famous work, The Birth of Venus and the Primavera under their patronage. But after the death of Lorenzo de Medici he went fanatically Christian under the new regime and burned many of the mythologically themed paintings in his possession. I find it heart-breaking to think we've lost such fine art without even knowing what we've lost. I hold out a hopeful fantasy that Boticelli, in order to seem like he was going along with the new regime, pretended to burn some of his paintings but really kept all of them hidden away and perhaps someday we'll find them. But, yes, I know how unlikely that is.

In any event, at least we still have what was kept safe by the Medicis.

Confounded Politics and Drinking Songs

These kids are singing a national anthem. But for what nation? To be honest I'm not sure myself. I found it on this site. It didn't sound American....

So I made a comment about the British monarchy feeling relatively secure that it would never be read by anyone actually British. But I was WRONG! So let that be a lesson to me and everyone else. The British monarchy is always watching. No, just kidding. (Or am I? Better get our little tin hats.) This just brings home that one should always remember the Internet is a public forum. I like to think I'm pretty good about this and you will see nary an embarrassing photograph or embarrassing incident that I do not feel comfortable allowing all the world to see. I'm probably more paranoid than I need to be concerning most things. But as we've seen, even I slip up a little.

So, in the spirit of fairness, I shall poke fun at both the US national anthem and the British one. But just so no one feels singled out, I'm of the opinion that most national anthems are pretty silly (or disturbing) when you get right down to it.

Now the first on our list is God Save the Queen, but don't worry, I poke fun at the Star Spangled Banner next. God Save the Queen is a very pretty tune, and we even stole it for my favorite patriotic song My Country Tis of Thee. But when I examined the words I had to crack up at that lines "Confound their politics/ Frustrate their knavish tricks." I don't know. I suppose I've lived too long in a country where the national anthem is about blowing things up. But I also find it ambiguous whose doing the confounding or frustrating. God, the Queen, the British people, or all of the above? All of these options seem rather amusing. And how are we confounding them? A well written treaty is a very admirable thing, but seems a bit odd to sing about in an anthem since I generally see anthems as something to stir up national pride. This is basically like saying, "We confuse people. Yeah!" Or perhaps they're using Jedi Mind Tricks? The idea of diplomacy in an anthem isn't bad, but there's just something about it that seems so uniquely British.



God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us;
God save the Queen!

O Lord our God arise,
Scatter her enemies
And make them fall;
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix,
God save us all!

Thy choicest gifts in store
On her be pleased to pour;
Long may she reign;
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice,
God save the Queen!

Okay, but fair's, fair. Our anthem is to the tune of an old British drinking song, is ridiculously long (only the first stanza is usually sung), and it is nearly impossible to sing well without really good range (and drunk people sang this?). And as previously mentioned, is basically about blowing things up. And yes, it's obviously about the flag too. We're very happy the flag is still there. What's that? What about all those dead soldiers? Oh, never mind that, hooray for the flag!



O! say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave

Sorcery and Cecelia: Book Review

This section does NOT contain spoilers or killer tableware.

Yesterday I finished reading Sorcery and Cecelia, and I ardently adored it! On a random side note, though, it seems I cannot hear the name Cecelia without thinking of this song, so it's been stuck in my head for weeks. Rather annoying as I don't know all the words. But I just thought I'd pass on the disease to someone else if they click the link.

This epistolary novel is a correspondence between two cousins: Cecelia Rushton (a.k.a. Cecy) and Katherine Talgarth (a.k.a Kate). Kate is in London for the Season while Cecelia is left to languish in boredom at home. Or so she thinks until both cousins are unexpectedly drawn into a vicious intrigue among three powerful wizards concerning a chocolate pot that can mean the difference between life and death.

Now, I've always loved Jane Austen and I've always loved fantasy, but before this book putting them together seemed as dubious to me as chocolate and onions. As I said before, the first few pages threw me off with their off-handed mention of wizards and the many names similar to Jane Austen's books. But I felt the novel soon took on it's own unique voice which is usually my primary concern whenever I read any type of Jane Austen spinoff. Though it helped immensely that this boook did not feature any actual Austen characters, particularly Mr. Darcy. The trouble with such spinoffs is it feels like all their possibilities have been played out to the fullest already and then some.

I was also relieved to find the language to be believable for regency times, but not too reminscient of Austen. A series of Jane Austen mysteries I've read before were enjoyable but often had the problem of stealing lines straight from Austen's novels. Rather than seeming like a clever homage, it got to be so common that it usually made it seem like the author couldn't think of any other regency turn of phrase.

The language in Sorcery and Cecelia, on the other hand, was either well researched or the authors at least read more than just Austen's books from that time period. There were many phrases I didn't recognize or was tempted to look up later, which is why I enjoyed Austen's books in the first place. I love being immersed in the language of a different time and Sorcery and Cecelia does this immensely well in my opinion. Regency scholars might disagree, but for the average layman like myself, the language was perfectly believable.

As for the fantasy element, I was admittedly skeptical of the idea of an enchanted chocolate pot but Wrede and Stevermer manged not to make it as ludicrous as it sounds and by the end I took it seriously enough. I suppose I could say it's the type of fantasy I've always preferred, character oriented and not epic. No orks invading the rectory. But I feel like the Regency romance aspect was only nicely flavored by the fantasy and not the other way around. I probably still would have liked the story even without the fantasy element, as amusing as it was, but I wouldn't without the regency element. Maybe that's just me.

As for the romance, I loved it. Parts of it were slightly perdictable but in a charming way and not an annoying one. I suspect this is when you know who likes who, but you're not sure how they'll get together and that's what makes it worth reading. It made me feel warm and gooey inside just like a good Austen book.

Now for a few spoilers and dangerous tea accesories. BEWARE!

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I mean it! This will be like reading the book's tea leaves! Go now if you don't won't to be spoiled. Yeah, that's right, you who haven't read the book, shoo! This is a huge spoiler!

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Okay, okay, so when Cecelia finally breaks the chocolate pot, I thought that was a bit too easy. The men really WERE being stupid if that's all that needed doing. But at least she got into a lot of trouble for it like getting sick and then trapped in the garden which led to kissing James Tarleton. So it's all good.

Health Care

Well, I try not to be too political on this blog, but the comments character limitations won't let me reply with everything I've written (see comments on Monarchy and Mosquitoes for full debate). So here's a blog post dedicated to my thoughts on health care.

For anyone curious why we're talking about health care, I'm referring to this post on Ælfhere's blog. So most of this is addressed to him, but I don't mind anyone else reading it.

I would like to preface this with the fact that I'm really not usually a very argumentative person, and sincerely respect your responses even if I may not entirely agree. The only reason I continue to hold my point is because you have thus far responded in a perfectly civilized manner (such a rare thing on the Internet) and I truly appreciate that. Also, before you get too fed up with me, I'd love to know how you found my blog. Like I said, I never imagined people I didn't know read it.

Thank you for your thoughts. You've certainly answered my challenge, though, from your description, I feel it sounds like the monarchy is just something Britain is stuck with since breaking down the system now would be more trouble than it's worth. I know countries that ceased having monarchies ages ago obviously don't have to share properties with the disposed parties. I've visited castles in Europe that belong entirely to the government, but understandably it would be an ugly battle if Britain tried to take everything away. Though, I'm curious what is the current function of the crown jewels? Are they just for the royalty to wear? Admittedly it would be ridiculous for the prime minister to wear them (rather amusing image, though). But once again, I would just imagine they'd be on display in some museum. Still, I do acknowledge that many governments, mine included, spend a lot of money on maintaining the look of government. That is always what I imagined the monarchy were for, and it would seem silly for present day Britain to revolt against the monarcy since it's no longer telling them what to do.

But just as I seem ill-informed concerning the intricacies of your monarchy, you seem ill-informed concerning our health care system. Here is my argument with all my sources which you're free to check for accuracy. The percentage of uninsured Americans in 2008 according to our Census Bureau is 15.4 percent. (http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/hlthin08/hlth08asc.html) So, broadly speaking, yes, "most Americans can get it." (Whether they can keep it is an entirely different matter). I suppose it's relative whether you consider 46.3 million uninsured people to be worrisome or not. I see that the current population of the United Kingdom is about 61,113,205 (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/uk.html). So that would be about 75% of the UK.

Here is the actual proposed health care bill: http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090714/aahca.pdf

It's VERY long but I challenge you to find ANY mention of "death doctors" under ANY name. The binoculars button is a word search if that helps. I don't know what you read, but the bill does NOT cover abortion (I have my own feelings about this but they are irrelevant to this debate). Most importantly, the bill does NOT require people to have government run health care. I admittedly don't know a lot about your NHS, but I don't think this is the same. The public health care would be ONE option only. All current health care companies would continue to run. Everyone who already has health care would be unaffected unless they chose to change. Health care simply wouldn't have the monopoly they currently have. The health care companies have the strangely conflicting argument that govenment health care won't be as good but that they also can't possibly hope to compete with it if people have a choice.

If the bill's too long, here's the president's speech where he summarizes what is and is NOT in the bill: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/09/obama-health-care-speech_n_281265.html

I have also run into the stereotype of the health obsessed American before. I find it hilarious my nation, a nation with one of the world's highest obesity rates, home to McDonalds, is often stereotyped as obsessed with health. I promise you I'm not (luckily nor am I obese). I don't need to be the world's healthiest human. As for dental care, the thought never crossed my mind. I'm not sure I've ever had dental insurance and many people don't. Most my dental care consisted of being a guinea pig for a bunch of university students learning how to be dentists because that's the cheapest thing to do here. Dental and eye care are often separate insurances. One may have basic health insurance and not have these covered. I confess to not having even bothered to check if they'll give us dental or eye care. All I want to know is that I won't go bankrupt if I break a leg or develop some condition. But MOST importantly, I also want the peace of mind that I can get insurance if I have a pre-exisiting condition. I have a friend with epilepsy whose health insurance has run out and she recently lost her job (as many Americans in this economy have). And here's the story of a man who would HAPPILY pay for health care if they would only sell it to him, but they won't because he has a disease. They won't even just charge him more. They just won't sell it to him:



I could go on longer, but this is already probably trying your patience. If you've gotten this far, thank you very much.

Sushi!

I will be meeting people and getting sushi today. Not sure when I'll get back so just thought I'd make an early post.

Monarchy and Mosquitoes

What do the two have in common? Mostly they're both on my mind recently. I was savaged by a mosquito recently that even bit the bottom of my foot! And I watched a documentary on the House of Windsor last night. But I think there is slightly more of a link between the two. As far as I can tell, they have similar leeching qualities. Now, I've no personal problem with monarchies, particularly as I've never lived under one myself. I rather enjoy reading about their eccentricities from a safe distance. But it continues to baffle me that perfectly reasonable people continue to foot the bill for what is basically a trumped up mascot for their country who has no real political power. I suppose we pay celebreties more than they deserve, but at least that's not tax dollars.

But I'm a reasonable person. Honestly, it wouldn't bother me to live somewhere like Britain because I don't believe the queen would have any more power over me there than she does here. I doubt anyone reading my blog feels any ardent attachment to monarchy, but if they do, I'd love to hear any reasoning behind keeping them in power, other than to watch their overpriced human drama.

9 : Movie Review

Normally I'm not a fan of the star system for rating anything because I feel everyone assigns different meaning to numbers of stars and I generally err on the side of giving too many stars to anything I don't like. But I think 9 is firmly two stars. Out of ten possible stars. And those two only exist because visually the movie was dark but beautiful. But the story is nowhere near equal to the imagery.

What was the problem? It didn't have a point! You watch it, and think it's working up to a point. But it's not. It's just depressing with a fake light at the end of the tunnel. In the end, everything is the fault of the main character, but they act like that's okay. The characters who are supposed to be closed-minded and "wrong" actually were right all along. Things would have been better if the main character had never met them. Except it's as if the movie doesn't realize this? My recommendation is not to see this movie. Or if you must, wait and see it for free. I was happy to spend time with my sister and out of the house, but otherwise this was not worth the price of admission. The trailer is right when they said "We had such potential, such promise, but we squandered our gifts." That's this movie in a nutshell, potential to be dazzling with it's breathtaking CGI squandered on a lame story.

9 - 9 - 09

My sister and I are going to see the movie 9 today. I thought I'd blog before we leave in case we get back late.

The Babes in the Woods: Book Review

No, not the horrible children's story but rather my book club book. I know some people seem to prefer my spoiler reviews, but I just don't feel right giving the spoilers of a mystery story. Still, I'll endeavor to give a more engaging review than the non-spoiler ones usually are.

The story itself is in a series of novels focusing on Chief Inspector Wexford, a British police officer in a town called Kingsmarkham. In this tale Wexford is told of some missing children and their babysitter, believed to be drowned in a flood that has swept the area. Wexford doesn't believe the children have drowned, but the more he looks into it, the more twisted and bizarre the case becomes. The house was left in perfect order before the parents arrived home, no forced entry, the beds made, a the children's coats are even missing, as if they and their babysitter only left for an outing. Except none of them ever returned.

I admit the book didn't seem too promising to me at first, but I feel it got better. It starts with some crazy religious ceremony in the woods. Of course, I knew that had to be part of the mystery, but I didn't feel invested in it, crazy religious ceremonies not being my primary area of interest. Still, I perked up when I found the book takes place in Britain (something I might have guessed from the name "Wexford" but didn't") and the author is British herself. I tend to favor the British style of writing over the American. Maybe I'm just a snob that way, but I just prefer their turn of phrase to ours.

Flipping through the book, I had also glimpsed a line something like "Please, find my darling children!" which seemed a bit over the top to me. But I soon learned that the character who utters that line is a bit over the top herself, which made me feel considerably better about it. The religious thing, as I expected, served a purpose, but I couldn't really guess exactly what until very near the end.

The main character, Chief Inspector Wexford, was okay. He wasn't exactly as much of a personality as Holmes, but he wasn't a complete camera. However, sometimes I would get a little disoriented when the author would change character perspectives, particulalrly if it was a different police officer because they tended to think similarly to Wexford. In addition to that, I felt that his family life was often a plot device to help him figure out the mystery, but perhaps his family are better developed in the other books. It's a very old series that's been around since the 60s, but this book is new (from 2002) and the writing didn't seem dated, so the author has adapted well enough to the times. Otherwise, Wexford was at least a believable and credible main character, very human, a rock surrounded by rather crazy suspects.

As for the actual mystery, I did manage to guess some aspects of it, but it was a bit like a game of clue where you might know it's Colonel Mustard, but you don't necessarily know if it was in the drawing room with the candlestick or in the parlor with the knife. And you may never know what his motive was in the first place. Luckily, unlike Clue, I did eventually get a motive, but it was admittedly not exactly what I was expecting, though I had narrowed down the suspect before they named the person. Actually, in a way, I was both right and wrong about who was responsible for the crime. At the same time it wasn't out of the blue. There were clues that could have helped you guess at everything. The mystery just had so many facets that you weren't likely to guess all of them.

So, I did like it enough to stay up later than even I usually do to finish it. Do I recommend it? Well, if my review intrigued you, I'd say try reading to the part with the first meeting with the parents of the missing children. If you're not interested by then, you probably won't be later.

Oh, and if you do read this book, do NOT read the summary first. It reveals something that doesn't happen until 1/3rd of the way through the book and pretty much eliminated several possibilities for me right off the bat.

Well, that's all for now. If you got this far, I hope it wasn't just because someone tied you to a chair with your eyelids taped open. Thanks for reading!

Dream Journal #4

I had a dream that I and some other nerdfighters went to John's house to help him demolish his moldy basement walls. I was apparently very good at demolishing walls in my dream, but this may have had something to do with the fact that they were far flimsier than real walls. There were also walls behind the walls. Then John painted the new walls green and put jungle themed wallpaper on them.

Lazy Sunday

I spent most the day reading my book club book, so not much exciting news from me, but it did make me think about how unrealistic I find some aspects of crime drama. In the book I'm reading the investigator tracks down a boy a thirty year old woman got in a fight with when she was a teenager. The boy is otherwise completely unrelated to the case. Of course, it conveniently leads to a possible clue, but it just seems so unlikely that they would follow-up on some school-aged quarrel.

I find the same thing in all the crime shows I enjoy watching. They always seem to have an inordinate amount of time on their hands (unless the plot calls for them not to), and they also seem to have enough money to buy high-tech equipment like flashy holograms for their departments. I guess we know where all the tax money goes in these fictional worlds.

Associations

I've been reading my book club book, which isn't turning out to be so bad, but I came across a pretty strange association for it. While searching the book cover online I noticed a Wikipedia article on the actual original children's story. I encourage anyone to look it up if they ever want to be appalled at how terrible some stories can be. It's up there with The Little Match Girl for everyone's favorite pointlessly depressing stories. It's like the original Series of Unfortunate Events before they invented humor. But the funny thing is that it was illustrated by Randolph Caldecott. The very man that the Caldecott Medal is named for.

Too many books...

Okay, there can ever really be too many books, but when I read for pleasure, I like to read one book at a time. Sometimes I read quickly and sometimes slowly. It depends on how I feel about the story and not the difficulty. I hate feeling like I have to rush through anything. But I seem to have bitten off more than I can chew and they're all a bit time sensitive. Currently, I'm trying to read:

Because I heard Hank Green review it ages ago and heard good things about it from a friend of mine. Patricia C. Wrede is also a fond and nostalgic memory from my childhood because of Dealing with Dragons. I've actually started this book and quite like it. You can't argue with the elegance of and Austen-esque style. At first the mentions of magic bugged me since they seem out of place, and I'm still not sure how I'll feel about it. A lot of the names: Elizabeth, Charlotte, Fitzwilliam, and Georgina (not exactly like Georgiana but remarkably close), are also stolen striaght from Pride and Prejudice which also threw me off a little at first. At first, I wasn't sure if they meant the same characters or not, though now I'm pretty certain they don't. But I'll withhold judgment on those things until I get a little farther. Anyway, given a choice, I'd probably just continue with this book but there are two others I really need to finish soon as well. Still, this one is also on hold for someone else, so it's due back the 18th.

I've been trying to read the fourth Percy Jackson for months and already got side-tracked by Nation and had to return this to the library (or have my kind sister do it since I was out of town) and check it out all over again. I was listening to the audio but one of the character's voices really annoyed me and she's already an annoying character so I decided to switch to text. I still have a sneaking suspicion it won't be my favorite Percy Jackson book, but I still want to find out what happens. It's due back to the library on the 24th and I also can't renew it.

This book is for the book club I signed up for. I like mystery, but I haven't read any straight mystery for a long time, and this isn't the kind of thing I'd usually choose on my own. Of course, I haven't really started it yet. I'll try to just think of it like a CSI episode. I hope to one day write some mystery stories, so it'll be good to study the genre. But you'll notice this is the only adult book on the list. I read a lot of adult fantasy and sci-fi, sure, but I often have trouble with adult books in other genres. I always feel like they take themselves too seriously. All the same, I have to finish this the soonest since the book club's on the 16th.

Wow

People amaze me sometimes. Not always in a good way.

Words in August

I wrote 3,704 words in August for my newest novel. It's fascinating, but the research slows me down a bit. I can research beforehand, but I'm not the type of person who really knows what I'm going to write before I sit down and do it. One little detail can mean a half hour of research. I suppose I could also just mark spots to research as I write but I hate leaving blanks.

So...

...I never put up pictures of my visit to Denison so here are some.



These are the awesome friends I went to visit and Denison's best residential house, though sadly stripped of its rightful title as the Honors House.



Nope, not a postcard. This is actually a picture of the campus.



The best English professor I ever had lies here.



Also, surprisingly not a postcard but an actual picture of the village of Granville



Yes, that is actually a bowl at the bottom so doggies can have water too.