Isn't it strange how opposites have this whole relationship thing going. Today is Thursday, obviously, but ALL WEEK I have had this unfounded, hell-sprung rage simmering just beneath the surface. No reason, no provocation, it's just been there, quietly keeping my blood pressure in the stratosphere and my mood in the toilet. Today however, when I woke up to the sound of rain and then the power went out so I had to get ready in the dark and then traffic caused me to be late to work AND I had another 6 week round of computer classes start this morning and the internet was down...I have had the best morning!
I'm happy, cheerful, feeling good about life.
My three computer students are going to be GR8! I have one lady who SWEARS she's never sat down at a computer in her life (who just bought a laptop off of midnight HSN ~2wks ago), is 76 years old, has multiple sclerosis, and is kicking @$$ in this class! I told her how to use the mouse and people, she laid her hand down on it and worked it perfectly....smooth, controlled and precise. I don't remember that EVER happening in this class unless the person was overqualified for my class and quite bored.
I usually devote the second half of the first class to leading them through a mouse tutorial but we couldn't today because of the internet situation. We talked alot, I went over my handout page by page, we had a lot more time to discuss the important keyboard keys...I didn't really miss the internet. I may move the mouse tutorial back to the second class from now on...I'll see how much they remember next week before I make a big change like that though.
It's lunch time, gotta run so I can be back for my desk shift at 1!
afternoon ya'll!
htw
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
meet Chiquita!
This is my Aunt C's new puppy, Chiquita! She is a teacup Chihuahua and is 6 weeks old!
Note: this photo is very nearly taken to scale. She is bit more hefty than the parkay but not by much :)
Thursday, February 14, 2008
two good books
I recently finished Sundays With Vlad: From Pennsylvannia to Transylvannia, One Man's Quest To Live In the World of the Undead by Paul Bibeau. Now, the subtitle is a bit much because what he is actually trying to do is find out how a medieval prince became the most famous symbol of horror in the world, EVER. Some of what he finds we've all seen before, like Vlad's family life and the coincidence of the Dracul last name but some of the gems Bibeau teases from the Dracula legacy are real treasures. I have never read such a good, concise survey of the current trends among vampire communities today. I have no idea if is an exhaustive study, but it seems quite thorough to me. I'd never heard of most of these people and groups and it makes me wonder which might be active here. Some drink blood, others only psychic energy, if the stories are to be believed, but all are v.v. secretive. Also, I found Bibeau to be HiLaRiOuS! He has a description of Ke@nu Reeve$' fame for unemotional acting that had me ROLLING! He also describes his attempts to get into a pair of plastic pants for a vampire party and other equally amusing tales that keep you reading well into the night. This blend of history and humor was a real treat and I recommend it highly. I think it would make a great, interesting book group choice at Halloween so I'm keeping it on my radar to suggest to my own book group when the time comes. It also reminded me that I have never, ever read Bram Stoker's Dracula and that I should ASAP.
The other book I recently finished was Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader. I have to preface this by saying that last weekend I watched the Helen Mirren film, The Queen (2006). I enjoyed it very much and it was absolutely fated that my reserve for The Uncommon Reader came in on Tuesday. There were several desparately British things in the book I would never have understood had I not seen the movie....what an equerry was, for example. The Uncommon Reader begins with the Queen taking a stroll with her herd of corgis. They start raising hell about something and she cannot get them to mind (do they ever, really?) and come to heel so she follows the racket and finds a bookmobile parked next to the palace/castle/big monarch home arrangement. Feeling dreadfully embarrassed about her dogs' behavior, she figures it is only polite to just step in the bookmobile very quickly and apologize for the dogs. Once inside the bookmobile, she is intrigued by all the books and thinks that maybe she should take one out, just for appearances sake and, again, politeness. Never intending to read the book, the Queen imagines that she will just have someone return it the following week when the bookmobile comes back. However, the Queen does read that book...and many more besides, this having some interesting consequences for the staff and even the country.
Watching the movie and then reading this book combined for one of the most delightful reading experiences I've had in long time. Unprovoked smiles, unexpected giggles and a generally sunny disposition resulted. I was excited enough about it to be extra bubbly while I was telling KT and now she's thinking about doing some sort of film program in the fall with her book group by having them come to the library for an afternoon to watch the movie, then reading the book as the next month's book group selection. I think that will be excellent and maybe, just maybe I'll be a copy cat and my book group can do the same if they are interested...and if my book group even gets off the ground. You never know about these things. Adult library programming is notoriously difficult to get started. You sort of have to resign yourself to some poorly attended programs in the beginning before the habit catches on. Exhibit A - my first horror movie marathon. In the hours between noon and 6:30 I had only 19 people and NO ONE showed up for the horror book discussion :( I'm doing it again this year though, it's not going to throw me, not yet anyway!
all right, it's bed time because I WILL get up early and exercise! KT invited me to meet her at the gym but it would require me to get up ~5:30am and that is so not happening. Sorry KT :( maybe after I build up some stamina I can become an early riser again but I just don't have the energy yet, very sad that I've let myself deteriorate to this condition but it will get better just be patient with me!
night ya'll!
The other book I recently finished was Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader. I have to preface this by saying that last weekend I watched the Helen Mirren film, The Queen (2006). I enjoyed it very much and it was absolutely fated that my reserve for The Uncommon Reader came in on Tuesday. There were several desparately British things in the book I would never have understood had I not seen the movie....what an equerry was, for example. The Uncommon Reader begins with the Queen taking a stroll with her herd of corgis. They start raising hell about something and she cannot get them to mind (do they ever, really?) and come to heel so she follows the racket and finds a bookmobile parked next to the palace/castle/big monarch home arrangement. Feeling dreadfully embarrassed about her dogs' behavior, she figures it is only polite to just step in the bookmobile very quickly and apologize for the dogs. Once inside the bookmobile, she is intrigued by all the books and thinks that maybe she should take one out, just for appearances sake and, again, politeness. Never intending to read the book, the Queen imagines that she will just have someone return it the following week when the bookmobile comes back. However, the Queen does read that book...and many more besides, this having some interesting consequences for the staff and even the country.
Watching the movie and then reading this book combined for one of the most delightful reading experiences I've had in long time. Unprovoked smiles, unexpected giggles and a generally sunny disposition resulted. I was excited enough about it to be extra bubbly while I was telling KT and now she's thinking about doing some sort of film program in the fall with her book group by having them come to the library for an afternoon to watch the movie, then reading the book as the next month's book group selection. I think that will be excellent and maybe, just maybe I'll be a copy cat and my book group can do the same if they are interested...and if my book group even gets off the ground. You never know about these things. Adult library programming is notoriously difficult to get started. You sort of have to resign yourself to some poorly attended programs in the beginning before the habit catches on. Exhibit A - my first horror movie marathon. In the hours between noon and 6:30 I had only 19 people and NO ONE showed up for the horror book discussion :( I'm doing it again this year though, it's not going to throw me, not yet anyway!
all right, it's bed time because I WILL get up early and exercise! KT invited me to meet her at the gym but it would require me to get up ~5:30am and that is so not happening. Sorry KT :( maybe after I build up some stamina I can become an early riser again but I just don't have the energy yet, very sad that I've let myself deteriorate to this condition but it will get better just be patient with me!
night ya'll!
of chocolates, diets, and E-lectricity
So, so, so....let me tell you about the nerve conduction study. I had little pads stuck to my hands and there were wires attached leading to a machine that measured....something, though I don't know what that would be. Then she made little marks on my skin, measured with a tape measure between the marks and touched this handheld thingie with two metal prongs to my skin on the marked spot. I felt an f-ing lightning bolt a tiny zap of electricity, my hand flopped around like a landed fish and the technician made notes. After both hands were done, she pronounced that I did indeed have carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands, which didn't surprise either one of us, but she also said that she was getting equal readings from both hands. This did surprise me because I haven't had feeling in the fingers (except my pinkie) of my left hand since December and I only have numbness in my right hand when I drive and sleep which I can usually just either shake out or hang my hand off the edge of the bed and it goes away. The left hand has remained at a consistent and unvarying level of numbness for going on three months. The strangeness of the human body will never cease to amaze me... It's off to surgery now so they can cut that little "tunnel" open and release the pressure on my nerves. I'm hoping it won't be long because I am tired of this mess, let me tell ya!
On other health related news, I've lost 5 lbs this month! 5 down, 195 to go! KT and I have decided that this is the year we are going to be different. I've been having a change of heart where my lifestyle is concerned and so has she so we are banding together to be better people. I lost 180lbs about 4 years ago and I mentioned to KT that I had thought and pondered and managed to trace back my loss of motivation to the 4 or 5 months leading up to graduate school when I honest-to-God admitted to myself that I was going back to school. A whole host of crappy events followed that compounded the problem but, as pansy-@$$ed as that makes me, the very thought of having to do something I absolutely abhored was such a downer.
Now I'm out, not going back for any reason and I believe I'm beginning to get some of that fire back. I'm eating 5-7 fruits and veggies a day, cooking good meals at home, not eating out, and slowly, glacially getting back some semblance of a habit of exercising. KT mentioned that she'd joined this free, online weightloss community and I decided to have a look too. Now, we are both members of SparkPeople and I've been having the best time with it! There is all sorts of stuff to do, pages to personalize, groups and message boards to join, recipes, shopping lists, meal plans, customizable fitness routines, and MUCH, much more. It is like We1gth W@tchers, only free!
After all this talk of the good things I've been doing, I must admit that one of my patrons brought me a small box of Godiva chocolate and I ate the whole box, minus one, since I did have to offer KT some...it WAS Godiva after all :) Back on the wagon on the morrow for sure since this oversight has made me have a yucky suger-overload headache all afternoon.
evenin' ya'll!
On other health related news, I've lost 5 lbs this month! 5 down, 195 to go! KT and I have decided that this is the year we are going to be different. I've been having a change of heart where my lifestyle is concerned and so has she so we are banding together to be better people. I lost 180lbs about 4 years ago and I mentioned to KT that I had thought and pondered and managed to trace back my loss of motivation to the 4 or 5 months leading up to graduate school when I honest-to-God admitted to myself that I was going back to school. A whole host of crappy events followed that compounded the problem but, as pansy-@$$ed as that makes me, the very thought of having to do something I absolutely abhored was such a downer.
Now I'm out, not going back for any reason and I believe I'm beginning to get some of that fire back. I'm eating 5-7 fruits and veggies a day, cooking good meals at home, not eating out, and slowly, glacially getting back some semblance of a habit of exercising. KT mentioned that she'd joined this free, online weightloss community and I decided to have a look too. Now, we are both members of SparkPeople and I've been having the best time with it! There is all sorts of stuff to do, pages to personalize, groups and message boards to join, recipes, shopping lists, meal plans, customizable fitness routines, and MUCH, much more. It is like We1gth W@tchers, only free!
After all this talk of the good things I've been doing, I must admit that one of my patrons brought me a small box of Godiva chocolate and I ate the whole box, minus one, since I did have to offer KT some...it WAS Godiva after all :) Back on the wagon on the morrow for sure since this oversight has made me have a yucky suger-overload headache all afternoon.
evenin' ya'll!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
a few crapE days
Thursday when I locked up and trudged out to the car to head for work, I had a flat tire. It had just enough air for me to drive 4 miles at 30 mph with my hazards on to air it up at the gas station, then I immediately visited the place where I've been buying tires/getting repairs for the past 12 years. I had a giant nail in my tire, had to buy a new one (finally maxing out my credit card in the process), then high-tailed it in to work only 30 minutes late.
My weekend was very Peter Gibbons-ish, in that I did absolutely nothing and it was everything I knew it could be :) Sunday night I did have dinner with my friend Elizabeth then we went to see Cloverfield; a third viewing for me, the first for her. She, sadly, is not a Cloverhead so I just have the one convert on my record...thanks KT!
Yesterday on the way in, while on the last CD of Scott Smith's The Ruins, the CD skips a time or two then the whole damn player died. It won't eject the CD, won't play the CD and when I press the button to play it, it displays "No CD" right next to the words "CD in". The same thing happened about a year and a half (and the end of the audio warranty) ago so I'll have to shell out to have it replaced. Meanwhile, the gd CD is stuck in the player and I had to pray all the way to work that the book wouldn't be checked out so I could find out in what horrible ways the rest of the tortured would die. It was there and I shirked my duties and snuck off in the corner for about 20 minutes to finish the book. I won't be seeing that movie on the big screen, I assure you, but I might watch it when it comes out on DVD. I just don't enjoy torture porn. I've never watched Saw, Captivity, or Hostel (or any of the sequels) and don't plan to. I don't even have that much curiosity to see what they change from the book...I just can deal with the cutting, ya know? Ick.
Here's what Stephen King (via Amazon) had to say about it:
"...what's waiting in the jungle isn't just bad, it's horrible. Most of The Ruins's 300-plus pages is one long, screaming close-up of that horror. There's no let-up, not so much as a chapter-break where you can catch your breath. I felt that The Ruins did draw on a trifle, but I found Scott Smith's refusal to look away heroic, just as I did in A Simple Plan. It's the trappings of horror and suspense that will make the book a best seller, but its claim to literature lies in its unflinching naturalism. It's no Heart of Darkness, but at its suffocating, terrifying, claustrophobic best, it made me think of Frank Norris. Not a bad comparison, at that."
What a red letter day yesterday was! The GrOsSeSt thing happened to me, the grossest thing since the incidences when I worked at a vet clinic for 8 months.
We are in the middle of a big weeding push at the library, getting rid of some moldy old tomes, and I had a stack of pockets deleting barcodes (we just cut the back page with the pocket and barcode out so the books can be put in the Friend's of the Library booksale, SOP for most public libraries I think) when I felt dampness on my palm. I said under my breath, "why are these wet?" and looked down. To my absolute HORROR, there was something there that could be identified as one of only 2 things, a)a wad of phlem or b)the world's biggest, hugest, most ginormous bugger!
Our volunteer is an elderly gentleman with a chronic cough and I WAS THE UNLUCKLY RECIPIENT OF HIS SPUTUM OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!
Well, Ibegan to sob teared up and began to whimper as I ran for the industrial sized container of hand sanitizer present at all times at the reference desk. I was scrubbing with Lady Macbeth-like fervor at the invisible bugger cooties on my hand when co-worker Daxx the Magnificent naturally wanted to know what was wrong. I managed to tell him in a muffled scream, "Look at the top pocket, bottom left hand corner." Daxx strolled over, took a peek, and said, "Yep, that's what that is...." He's so droll sometimes I swear.
I wrapped a tissue all over the scene of the crime and just about that time, Mrs. D came out for her shift on the desk and asked if I'd like her to finish the deletes. I said yes but further warned her that there was a pocket in the stack with a tissue on the bottom and that for her own good she should not remove OR move the tissue in any way. I fled for my office and a thorough hand washing followed by more hand sanitizer.
It was COLD when it touched my hand people! EWWWWW!
Reader's Advisory Roundtable went pretty well this morning but most of the other books presented didn't capture my imagination like the two that I picked for myself. One lady did read one that sounded awesome, Terri Blackstock's Last Light, so I may add that to my gargantuan, never-to-be-caught-up-on-much-less-finished reading list.
All right, I'm headed off to sleep right after I finish off this giant butterschnapps hot chocolate. It's 20 something freakin' degrees outside right now so I had to have a hot cocoa while the electric blanket gets toasty :)
night ya'll!
htw
My weekend was very Peter Gibbons-ish, in that I did absolutely nothing and it was everything I knew it could be :) Sunday night I did have dinner with my friend Elizabeth then we went to see Cloverfield; a third viewing for me, the first for her. She, sadly, is not a Cloverhead so I just have the one convert on my record...thanks KT!
Yesterday on the way in, while on the last CD of Scott Smith's The Ruins, the CD skips a time or two then the whole damn player died. It won't eject the CD, won't play the CD and when I press the button to play it, it displays "No CD" right next to the words "CD in". The same thing happened about a year and a half (and the end of the audio warranty) ago so I'll have to shell out to have it replaced. Meanwhile, the gd CD is stuck in the player and I had to pray all the way to work that the book wouldn't be checked out so I could find out in what horrible ways the rest of the tortured would die. It was there and I shirked my duties and snuck off in the corner for about 20 minutes to finish the book. I won't be seeing that movie on the big screen, I assure you, but I might watch it when it comes out on DVD. I just don't enjoy torture porn. I've never watched Saw, Captivity, or Hostel (or any of the sequels) and don't plan to. I don't even have that much curiosity to see what they change from the book...I just can deal with the cutting, ya know? Ick.
Here's what Stephen King (via Amazon) had to say about it:
"...what's waiting in the jungle isn't just bad, it's horrible. Most of The Ruins's 300-plus pages is one long, screaming close-up of that horror. There's no let-up, not so much as a chapter-break where you can catch your breath. I felt that The Ruins did draw on a trifle, but I found Scott Smith's refusal to look away heroic, just as I did in A Simple Plan. It's the trappings of horror and suspense that will make the book a best seller, but its claim to literature lies in its unflinching naturalism. It's no Heart of Darkness, but at its suffocating, terrifying, claustrophobic best, it made me think of Frank Norris. Not a bad comparison, at that."
What a red letter day yesterday was! The GrOsSeSt thing happened to me, the grossest thing since the incidences when I worked at a vet clinic for 8 months.
We are in the middle of a big weeding push at the library, getting rid of some moldy old tomes, and I had a stack of pockets deleting barcodes (we just cut the back page with the pocket and barcode out so the books can be put in the Friend's of the Library booksale, SOP for most public libraries I think) when I felt dampness on my palm. I said under my breath, "why are these wet?" and looked down. To my absolute HORROR, there was something there that could be identified as one of only 2 things, a)a wad of phlem or b)the world's biggest, hugest, most ginormous bugger!
Our volunteer is an elderly gentleman with a chronic cough and I WAS THE UNLUCKLY RECIPIENT OF HIS SPUTUM OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!
Well, I
I wrapped a tissue all over the scene of the crime and just about that time, Mrs. D came out for her shift on the desk and asked if I'd like her to finish the deletes. I said yes but further warned her that there was a pocket in the stack with a tissue on the bottom and that for her own good she should not remove OR move the tissue in any way. I fled for my office and a thorough hand washing followed by more hand sanitizer.
It was COLD when it touched my hand people! EWWWWW!
Reader's Advisory Roundtable went pretty well this morning but most of the other books presented didn't capture my imagination like the two that I picked for myself. One lady did read one that sounded awesome, Terri Blackstock's Last Light, so I may add that to my gargantuan, never-to-be-caught-up-on-much-less-finished reading list.
All right, I'm headed off to sleep right after I finish off this giant butterschnapps hot chocolate. It's 20 something freakin' degrees outside right now so I had to have a hot cocoa while the electric blanket gets toasty :)
night ya'll!
htw
random things heard at CVS
--from the next aisle...
"Honey, you wanna hold the buttpaste?"
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
you know I HAD to take a peek at the utterer!
It was a mother with a not-quit- infant-not-quite-toddler-either child in the buggy, chewing on a box of Boudreaux's Butt Paste. She went on to say, "That's right sweetie, chew that butt paste. Eat it up."
I'm not ashamed to say I wasfreaking mildly creeped out.
"Honey, you wanna hold the buttpaste?"
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
you know I HAD to take a peek at the utterer!
It was a mother with a not-quit- infant-not-quite-toddler-either child in the buggy, chewing on a box of Boudreaux's Butt Paste. She went on to say, "That's right sweetie, chew that butt paste. Eat it up."
I'm not ashamed to say I was
Monday, February 11, 2008
Book Awards Reading Challenge
So, here are #'s 9 and 10 of the challenge, courtesy of my work for Reader's Advisory Roundtable! For instant gratification (and because I think they were really good books):
Downs, Tim. Plaguemaker. Westbow Press, 2006. 
The Black Plague, riding the backs of rats, swept over Europe in the 1300’s and became infamous as one of the most devastating pandemics in human history. Worldwide deaths were estimated at 75 million people….it is believed that 30-60% of the population of Europe perished during that time and the massive death toll changed the course of the development of Western civilization. Outbreaks of the plague have occurred over the years since the 14th century, but never with such deadly results. Fast forward to the present day. FBI agent Nathan Donovan is investigating what seems to be a fairly average murder case until the techs discover the fleas. Now the clues are mounting up and Nathan is in a race against time to stop the destruction of the U.S. and the world as they are threatened with the pestilence once again, only this time it is a genetically engineered, more lethal killing machine.
This was the first faith-based thriller I’ve attempted to read since Tim LaHaye began his Left Behind series nearly thirteen years ago and I must say that the difference is refreshing. Downs knows how to write a thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat and the Christianity is no where near as aggressively proselytized as it is in the Left Behind books. Donovan’s interactions with his ex-wife and his attempts to get information from the elderly Mr. Li are by turns funny and poignant without approaching cloying. This novel made me consider themes of forgiveness, selfless love and personal sacrifice while at the same time I wondered if I had enough duct tape at home to seal off the windows and doors in case of a pandemic. I think that’s a pretty tall order for one book. I’ve obviously been reading the wrong Christian/Inspirational fiction if I’ve been missing this!
Groot, Tracy. Madman: A Novel. Moody Publishers, 2006.
Tallis arrived in this little Palestinian town on the shores of Galilee looking for the Decaphiloi, League of Ten Friends, an Academy of Socrates begun by his master Callimachus several years ago. The progress reports from the school stopped arriving several weeks ago and Cal sent Tallis to find out what went wrong. Upon arriving in Hippos, Tallis discovered the school had been disbanded three years before. No one in town would talk to him; no one would profess to know anything about the once thriving Academy. Who sent the progress reports? Who collected the money Cal sent for supplies? Why did the school disband with no word to Callimachus? Of the ten teachers, he found news of only four: a murder, a suicide, a priestess in the cult of Dionysus, and one madman. The hills of Kursi and the tombs found there are home to the madman and the town is becoming increasingly frightened of the whole area. As Tallis investigates the disappearance of the school and the background of the madman, other forces are just as purposefully determined that he will not find out the truth about either one.
I found this novel hard to put down from the very beginning. The historical detail Groot includes about biblical Palestine truly evoked a real sense of time and place without seeming hokey. There were many elements of this story that I found comparable to Robert Harris’ gripping novel, Pompeii, with Madman giving you the same barren landscape, menacing hills and breathless tension. The people in the story know that something bad is going to happen and Groot made me just as nervous about it as they were. The Christianity in this book was subtle and powerful without being overwhelming. There were many scenes in the book which dealt with personal sacrifice, love of all kinds but most especially the topic dealt with in Madman seemed to be “choice”, choosing between good and evil, selfish and selfless, the high road and the low. I don’t know how these authors can walk such a thin line between powerful and paltry, but Tracy Groot has done it. She has taken the biblical story of the Gerasene demoniac and rendered it into a story that makes you think instead of one that preaches at you.
The Black Plague, riding the backs of rats, swept over Europe in the 1300’s and became infamous as one of the most devastating pandemics in human history. Worldwide deaths were estimated at 75 million people….it is believed that 30-60% of the population of Europe perished during that time and the massive death toll changed the course of the development of Western civilization. Outbreaks of the plague have occurred over the years since the 14th century, but never with such deadly results. Fast forward to the present day. FBI agent Nathan Donovan is investigating what seems to be a fairly average murder case until the techs discover the fleas. Now the clues are mounting up and Nathan is in a race against time to stop the destruction of the U.S. and the world as they are threatened with the pestilence once again, only this time it is a genetically engineered, more lethal killing machine.
This was the first faith-based thriller I’ve attempted to read since Tim LaHaye began his Left Behind series nearly thirteen years ago and I must say that the difference is refreshing. Downs knows how to write a thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat and the Christianity is no where near as aggressively proselytized as it is in the Left Behind books. Donovan’s interactions with his ex-wife and his attempts to get information from the elderly Mr. Li are by turns funny and poignant without approaching cloying. This novel made me consider themes of forgiveness, selfless love and personal sacrifice while at the same time I wondered if I had enough duct tape at home to seal off the windows and doors in case of a pandemic. I think that’s a pretty tall order for one book. I’ve obviously been reading the wrong Christian/Inspirational fiction if I’ve been missing this!
Groot, Tracy. Madman: A Novel. Moody Publishers, 2006.
Tallis arrived in this little Palestinian town on the shores of Galilee looking for the Decaphiloi, League of Ten Friends, an Academy of Socrates begun by his master Callimachus several years ago. The progress reports from the school stopped arriving several weeks ago and Cal sent Tallis to find out what went wrong. Upon arriving in Hippos, Tallis discovered the school had been disbanded three years before. No one in town would talk to him; no one would profess to know anything about the once thriving Academy. Who sent the progress reports? Who collected the money Cal sent for supplies? Why did the school disband with no word to Callimachus? Of the ten teachers, he found news of only four: a murder, a suicide, a priestess in the cult of Dionysus, and one madman. The hills of Kursi and the tombs found there are home to the madman and the town is becoming increasingly frightened of the whole area. As Tallis investigates the disappearance of the school and the background of the madman, other forces are just as purposefully determined that he will not find out the truth about either one.
I found this novel hard to put down from the very beginning. The historical detail Groot includes about biblical Palestine truly evoked a real sense of time and place without seeming hokey. There were many elements of this story that I found comparable to Robert Harris’ gripping novel, Pompeii, with Madman giving you the same barren landscape, menacing hills and breathless tension. The people in the story know that something bad is going to happen and Groot made me just as nervous about it as they were. The Christianity in this book was subtle and powerful without being overwhelming. There were many scenes in the book which dealt with personal sacrifice, love of all kinds but most especially the topic dealt with in Madman seemed to be “choice”, choosing between good and evil, selfish and selfless, the high road and the low. I don’t know how these authors can walk such a thin line between powerful and paltry, but Tracy Groot has done it. She has taken the biblical story of the Gerasene demoniac and rendered it into a story that makes you think instead of one that preaches at you.
Happy Reading!
htw
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Cinematical goodies
This will be released Feb 27th in France but has no U.S. release date set yet, but I will so be there when it does!
via Cinematical, as usual :)
In other Cinematical news, my boy del Torro is still in negotiations about directing the film version of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. In an interview, del Torro told Total Film:
'"You know the beauty of The Hobbit, if it were to happen ... is that The Hobbit, out of all the books, is the one that resembles more a fairytale. I loved this very Hitchcockian idea of a very proper, prissy character with a very limited universe being taken on a journey where danger and pain and loss ultimately enhances his view of the world.' Sounds good to me! We'll keep our ears open for more Hobbit news."
I saw this preview at the Hannah Montana fest that was last weekend:
Friday, February 8, 2008
look @ this!
This shark's head is 1 meter wide (that's over three feet people!) and it is 17 feet long. I'm glad it's living on the bottom....
hmmm?
I won't say anything about this, just lay down the facts and let them percolate....
Simon Clark / Death's Dominion / c2006
Isaac Asimov / I, Robot / c1950
Inside Flap Description
The three laws of Robotics:
1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey orders givein to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
With these Three Laws of Robotics, humanity embarked on perhaps its greatest adventure: the invention of the first positronic man. It was a bold new era of evolution that would open up enormous possibilities--and unforeseen risks. For the scientists who invented the earliest robots weren't content that their creations should remain programmed helpers, companions, and semisentient worker-machines. And soon the robots themselves, aware of their own intelligence, power, and humanity, aren't either.
Simon Clark / Death's Dominion / c2006Inside Flap Description
The Law:
Do no harm to Humanity.
Allow no harm to befall Humanity due to your action or inaction.
Modern scientists have proven Dr. Frankenstein right. They have discovered a way to raise the dead. Unlike Dr. Frankenstein's monster, these gentle creatures docilely serve their masters, but the living have begun to despise the dead among them. They are disgusted by their creations, and the government has set out to systematically destroy every last one of the "monsters." The monsters cannot fight back--it's not in their nature to defend themselves. That is, until one of the creatures retaliates against humanity with shocking brutality. In the war between the living and the dead, a new leader has arisen.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
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