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!

Because I Rock

I could survive for 1 minute, 16 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

The Nerd Herd!

As my day off, Wednesdays are usually full of naps, reading, and surfing the web. Thus I found "Chuck," on Hulu. I'd heard about it, but I wasn't too sure it was my kind of show. And then I saw an advertisement on Hulu's TV home page for it. "Chuck. He's not shaken, he's nerd." Immediately, I was hooked. I watched all available episodes (4, or was it 5?). Although I don't know the back story specifics because only the last few episodes of season one were available, I can say that he somehow has all sorts of secret government information downloaded in his mind, thus dubbing him the nation's most prized possession, or "the Intercept." Numbers, letters, faces, pictures: anything can set him off into a "flash," where he recieves instant information from his little brain.

The totally awesome thing about this show is that Chuck is a normal geek guy working at a "Buy More" store in the "Nerd Herd" area. His friends bet on the roll of the dreidel; they decide who is to be the Assistant Manager by staging an underground fighting cage; they drink grape soda "on the rocks." In other words, they kept me laughing. It's meant to be a comedy, with a little action on the side. Check it out, and see the Nerd Herd for yourself!

On Another Note

My sister has made me aware of the Fall Into Reading 2008 Book Challenge, and I figured I could do with one of those. I'm not making any promises, since I have my plate full with school, work, and extra-curricular activities, but I will make a list, and since I was notified so late (it starts today, and I found out about it today), I will probably begin in a couple of days. If you want to learn more about it, go here. She has the information and links and whatnot. I plan on doing 12, but I only have ideas for seven at the moment, so I will list those, and re-post this after I know what I really want to read.

1. Einstein In His Own Words

2. Real Mosquitoes Don't Eat Meat

3. Son of a Witch

4. The Spartans

5. Dave Barry Talks Back

6. One Thousand White Women

7. Hunter's Prayer: A Jill Kismet Novel

Again, I will add five more when I discover what else I would like to read. Until then, Fall Into Reading!

I Am Getting Old

I might just be 21 years of age, but I feel much older. Yesterday I was sitting down at my little utilitarian laptop desk, which is made to rest comfortably over you whether you are in bed, or sitting on a couch, but I mostly use it on the floor because otherwise my dog tries to knock it over in her frantic push for attention. Anywho, I sit cross-legged, with my legs under the little table, and yesterday, as I stood to go get myself a soda from the fridge, I realized that my knees were very unhappy. In fact, one refused to support me, and so I just stood on one leg, flamingo-style, in the middle of my room and gave myself a pep talk before forcing myself to endure the pain and WALK, DANG IT!

I've had to deal with "foot falling asleep" issues as well, which is not fun because I never learn. When your foot is numb, it can't really hold your weight. I've fallen at least three times before I made this easy deduction. I think the best plan of action is to get up every thirty minutes or so and walk, just to make sure that I don't stiffen up, or have several limbs that have decided to nod off. But this entire experience has made me feel as though my real age is closer to 80, and that's just depressing.

I Underestimated

I know that iPods have been the thing for forever, but they always seemed so expensive and not worth it to me. But with my new iPhone, which has an iPod on it, I decided to go for it. Might as well have some awesome songs to jam out to when I'm away from my laptop. Let me just say: it would have been totally worth it to buy an iPod when it came out.

It's like being in your own little bubble-world, where your music surrounds you in a cocoon of awesomeness. I can't help but put that extra sway to my hips when I'm listening to Paramore's Crushcrushcrush, and I have to battle the urge to scream along with Flyleaf while taking my dog for a walk. Plus, the added "Don't Bother Me" factor is perfect for me. :)

Finicky Hurricanes

I know that since I live on the coast of the great Gulf, I should accept the fact that hurricanes are a part of life. And I do. But would it be too hard to ask that Ike make up its mind? Seriously, first it was headed right for me, so I evacuated, and it changed course. Despite my evacuation inland, it was suddenly heading straight for me again. Not only that, but it was getting ready to obliterate the town I was further going to evacuate to.

So I had to grab all my crap, plus two dogs and a pet rat, and go back to my town, which was closer to the coast, but further from the storm's predicted path. I was expecting rains and winds in my hometown, since it was closer to Ike, but I hear it's all sunshine and roses there. I am exceedingly happy that I don't have to worry about my apartment flooding and my essentials that could not be moved getting ruined, but the inaccuracy of what we do understand of storms and meteorology in general annoys the heck out of me.

I Am Annoyed

There are so many ways that I like to unwind and calm down after a pretty suck day. I've always read constantly as a means of entertainment and escape, and gaming usually puts me in a good mood, especially if I can get together with a group and kick some trash. For awhile, I would rent two or three movies every few days and settle back to watch. Lately, tho, I've been listening to my favorite play lists on playlist.com. I'm pretty eclectic when it comes to my music, so I've divided them all up into categories: Hard Rock and Alternative; Country; Electronica and Synth Pop; relaxing and upbeat music.

One of my favorite bands in the hard rock category is Flyleaf. Not only do I love the lead singer and her amazingly high pitched, screaming voice, but I really dig their songs. One of my favorites is a little known (re: not played on the radio) hard rock shout match called "Justice and Mercy." It has suddenly disappeared off the face of the playlist.com archives. I searched and came up empty. :( This means I'll have to buy it from iTunes, and that's why I am annoyed.

Geeky Reading

Sure reading itself is a bit of a nerdy hobby, but I've leaned to accept the geekiness that it lends me. But sometimes, the books themselves increase the geekiness tenfold. Case in point: the two books that I have been reading lately. Magic: The Gathering-Shadowmoor Anthology and Magic: The Gathering-Eventide.

Just one look at the front of Eventide, and you'll recognize that it basically fits every geek boy's fantasy art. The books are based on the card game, which I am slowly changing my opinions about. Some people like to read or play computer games to perk their little bad days up; others like to play card games where their imagination can take them far and kick some trash along the way.

The Anthology I read first, basically a whole set of stories introducing creatures from the world iof Shadowmmoor. Cinders, Boggarts, Elves, Kithkin, Merrows: all of them strange in their own way, and mostly vengeful, terrible enemies to each other. In fact, each story seemed to end in some horrible twist that made you realize that Shadowmoor is a dangerous place to be anything, including a Treefolk.

Eventide takes the charcters and creatures from the Anthology and expands on them, explaining a little bit about how the world once was, and why it now is. It introduces a few new characters, and kills off many, many more. Full of elemental magic and plots of Shadowmoor domination, Eventide has kept me turning pages in an effort to find out what those crazy beings will think of next.