Neglection

I have neglected to up-date any of my dear readers on my Fall into Reading Challenge, which I nearly finished, with the exception of reading The Spartans. In my defense, I did end up reading several books that had not originally been on my list. For example: Peeled, by Joan Bauer. I let my sister talk me into thinking it would be a good book, but the young adult fiction? Yeah, I'm kind of passed that now. I fail to get interested. I also read several other books that I ended up buying myself, and now I'm at the sad, sad point where I am out of books to read. Save The Spartans. :(

It's Not Easy Being Geek

I believe a huge part of my geekhood has been inherited by my father, who at the ripe age of 53 still manages to have the best and coolest new games before I even have a chance to drool very much over them in his new PC Gamer magazines. It's hard being a with-it geek when your father has already beaten the game you wish you could afford.
My dad's newest acquisition is FarCry 2. Unlike the old game, which was pretty fixed in most of its environmental content, this one allows far more freedom. Roam at random and blow things up and do your missions with zest and gusto. No more closed corridors where the only doors are to your next checkpoint or maybe just some extra ammo or health packs. You can explore to your little heart's content. Or really, to my little heart's content. You might be a player that wants to get things done and move on with the job. Either way, FarCry 2 is bound to be a grenade belt of kicks and giggles.

P.S. Do I even NEED to mention the beautiful graphics?

Why I Hate People

Seriously, 12 years of free education has failed to teach someone the very basics of science? I remember learning about rainbows in 4th grade, 7th grade, AND 9th grade, not to mention College geology, but I don't begrudge them if they couldn't afford that. Still, does this person do ANY research? Have they bothered to use Google? Will someone put them out of my misery?!

WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!?!1!

(Go to failblog.org for more great FAIL.)

Get 'Er Done!

I've finished Son of a Witch, which I really liked. Again, it's gritty, but the ending was a-freaking-mazing. I also finished Real Mosquitoes Don't Eat Meat and Other Inquiries Into the Oddities of Nature, by Brad Wetzler. Here's one of my favorite entries:

"What Makes the Moon Look Bigger at Moonrise?"
A: It's called the moon illusion, and it's just that: a trick on your eyes and brain. ...the orb is the same distance from [both horizons]. Scientists have hundreds of explanations many still clinging to a notion Aristotle put forth around 350 B.C.: that the image of the horizon moon is magnified by our lens-like atmosphere. [There is also an] "apparent distance" theory, suggested by Ptolemy in the second century and formulated by Arab phyicist al-Hasan nine hundred years later. . . . When you see the horizon moon, your mind takes into account the terrain in front of it and concludes that it's really far away and, therefore, really big. When the moon's overhead, the cues are gone, and the visual center in your brain is unable to assess it's distance (it's 249,000 miles away, after all) and thus can't determine it's size."

Pg. 19, Wetzler: W. W. Norton Company, Inc. 2005

I love me some good theories, so I thought that was pretty interesting. I'm starting on Einstein in His Own Words now.

Progress

I posted earlier on my choices for the Fall into Reading 2008 reading challenge, which began on September 22. I've realized that I am a bad candidate for reading challenges. Sure, I finished Summer Blowout, by Claire Cook, a rather disappointing chick lit book for which I had higher expectations, and I'm nearly through with Son of a Witch, by Gregory Maguire, which is, of course, reaching all of my expectations and even maybe furthering them, but that's only two books in the last few weeks. I blame The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova. This novel is told from two points of view, or maybe in three, depending on how you look at it. A historian in her late 50's looks back on her teenage life. In doing so, she tells the story from her teenaged point-of-view, but also tells her own father's story in his own words as he recalls his travels around the world in search of the true story of Vlad Draykula, or Vlad the Impaler, as he is also known. This story has me in its little wordy grip and won't let go. But why isn't it on my reading list? Because it's nearly a thousand pages long. I'm a quick reader, but I'm not that quick!

Caution: Contents Will Burn Tongue Off

I recently bought disposable Styrofoam cups a la Starbucks to use when making myself a delicious cup of hot chocolate. I like my hot chocolate Really Hot, and I got a little tired of burning my fingers when pulling a steaming mug of milk from the microwave, so these little cups were a good investment. Except that now, even though my fingers are safe, my tongue is not. I KNOW that I should wait for it to cool down; I KNOW that I will regret that first sip, but I can't seem to help myself. Now I have a scalded tongue and the desire to try again, in case my hot chocolate has managed to defy physics and cool down considerably in the last minute and a half.

Count Down!

One of my favorite shows on Discovery Channel is the awesomely dirty Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe. The host is hilarious; the jobs are horrifying; it's just a great show to watch. Lately I've been getting a bit antsy with it, though. It is currently in its repeat stage, where they play re-runs until the new episodes come out. Sure I'll watch the re-runs but I own them on DVD so they are getting a little old for me. When oh when, I wondered, are my new episodes coming out?

And so the count down begins! 5 days! 5 days until I can see him mangling maggots, and cleaning ewers, and joking the entire way. One of my favorite older episodes is the Monkey Farm one, in which they are in Africa when they come across a place that is taking care of recovering or infirm Capuchin monkeys. Paddie, however, hates Mike and his crew, so they're basically all running in fear of this small mammal. It cracks me up every time!

If you don't have the chance to watch such wonderful episodes as the Bloodworm Farmers, the Lobster Boaters, the Penguin Keepers, or the Snake Exhibit, then I suppose you can entertain yourself with this:



Note to Readers: I WANT THIS KITTY!