Bad Business (2004) Robert B. Parker
The danger in reading a Spenser book is that I then want to go back and reread all the other Spenser books. All 28 of them.
But as I reread them just a year ago, I’ll try to restrain myself.
Spenser takes what seems to be a simple divorce case, where he tails a cheating husband, until he finds out that someone else is tailing the woman involved with the adultrous spouse. And things get more complicated from there.
1) PRESIDENT BUSH TO DELIVER FOURTH OF JULY SPEECH IN MORGANTOWN FROM WOODBURN CIRCLE
President George W. Bush will deliver his Fourth of July message mid-morning Monday on WVU’s Downtown Campus, White House officials confirmed today (June 30). A ticket is required to attend the event and can be obtained free of charge by calling the Greater Morgantown Convention and Visitors Bureau at 292-5081 in Downtown Morgantown. More to come on this event Friday.
Okay, I obviously need to make some yard signs for this occasion. Any suggestions (that won’t get me sent to jail)?
ADDENDUM the First:
Gina: Are you sure you don’t want to go to jail?
Me: Yes.
Gina: Well, I can’t cook, but I could bake you a cake with a file in it!
Me: A Word file?
This is why I love Teresa at Making Light.
And other bee parts in the latest flower pr0n.
Not the best of my pictures I admit, but I still like it.
Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell and those who reside there.
And if there wasn’t already enough to be enraged about, “VA funding is short $1 billion this year.”
That’s right, this country is willing to “support the troops“, but only in so much as it means putting a sticker on the back of the SUV, and not, you know, actually giving them pay raises or increased combat pay or keeping open VA hospitals.
How f@ck!ng stupid does he think we are?
After September the 11th, I made a commitment to the American people. This nation will not wait to be attacked again. We will defend our freedom. We will take the fight to the enemy. Iraq is the latest battlefield in this war.
Just to reiterate:
Iraq was NOT involved in the September 11th plots.
Iraq was NOT a terrorist haven until the US invaded.
Illusion (1992) Paula Volsky
Illusion is a good book, however I can’t say I really like it.
The characters are good–very good. Despite starting out as a rich snob, I quite liked Eliste. Her snobbery was quite obviously a product of her upbringing, and beneath it she showed herself to be a decent human being. The same can also be said for her grandmother, and several other characters.
I was surprised by the Bookslut interview with Lois McMaster Bujold:
For quite a few years now I’ve been trying to figure out why speculative fiction still is one of the industry’s most gendered genres. Romance may still take the number one spot, in terms of which sex is most likely to be seen buying and writing the books, but spec fiction runs a close second. While it may be a stereotype, it still contains a nugget of truth: males tend to be overrepresented when it comes to science fiction and fantasy.
I readily admit that I don’t read Science Fiction–it’s just not my thing. But I read a lot of Fantasy, and I’ve never had a hard time finding good fantasy written by women.
I mean, scrolling through the past six months of posts in my book blog I find plenty of women:
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Charlaine Harris
Ellen Kushner
Jennifer Roberson
Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
Pat O’Shea
Jo Walton
Robin Hobb
Lynn Abbey
Diana L. Paxson
And those are just from the books I’ve written since the beginning of the year. Looking through my list of Fantasy authors there are even more women. I fact, I sometimes wonder if women are over-represented on my bookshelves. (Not that it bothers me, but it might be unfair to Michael.)
Now I would not necessarily be surprised to find women underrepresented in Science Fiction, after all women have been traditionally underrepresented in the hard sciences. But I can think of two authors off the top of my head: Marion Zimmer Bradley and C.J. Cherryh.
And as more women study and are involved in the sciences, I would bet that the number of women writing science fiction would also increase.
Next time I go to the book store, I’ll take a harder look at the shelves, to check out the imbalance for myself.
I think that part of the reason I didn’t like Revenge of the Sith that much, is because they failed to suspend my disbelief right from the first scenes.
Good to know I was justified in my irritation.
I must be particularly slow and dense, because I can’t comprehend how Justice Bryer could vote the way he did on two cases that went in opposite directions.
Tell me that this:
No exact formula can dictate a resolution in fact-intensive cases such as this,” he read. “… The determinative factor here, however, is that 40 years passed in which the monument’s presence, legally speaking, went unchallenged.
doesn’t translate as “We’ve done it this way for a long time, therefore it must be okay.”
I’ve somehow managed to forget to read the Arcata Eye Police Reports for awhile.
Monday, June 6 7:49 p.m. When a BB impacted a trailer on Oasis Street, police quickly found a neighbor busily “assassinating slugs” on his porch. The mulleted mollusk murderer agreed to cease demising the slimies.
# Wednesday, May 25 10:53 a.m. A dog was reported overheating in a vehicle parked on H Street, but police found the windows rolled partway down and the pooch well within comfortable thermal parameters.
Tuesday, May 17 12:38 a.m. A 17th Street resident agreed with an officer that this would be a good time to stop hammering.
Yay!
ADDENDUM the First:
However, I could have done without 20 18 stinking minutes of commercials and previews. For putting up with that they should be paying ME.
ADDENDUM the Second:
Eighteen. Eighteen minutes of previews. Star Wars had twenty.
Coreopsis, Purple Coneflower, Daisies, and much more!
It’s hot (current Morgantown temperature, 88 F) so everything feels sweaty and droopy. It’s one of those days when I’d rather sit inside and write about my flowers than go outside and tend them. It’ll be a little better later in the day, but still not condusive to sitting on the porch looking at the plants.
And for what it’s worth, currently Tom and I are the top two google hits for Flower Pr0n.
Of our feline residents, Kat is the smarter.
Unfortunately, he apparently wasn’t smart enough to tell the difference between a cast iron doorstop and a real cat. It took him about five minutes to get close, while in the meantime, any noise would cause him to levitate straight up and then back, as if he was about to be attacked by the ferocious creature.
(more…)
The Last Unicorn (1968) by Peter S. Beagle
Although I’ve read other books by Peter S. Beagle, I had not read The Last Unicorn before. It’s mentioned as a classic, and I kept bering disbelief that I had never read it. So I finally picked up a copy and read the book.
Don’t forget to vote Saturday the 25th on the bond issue.
ADDENDUM the First:
Disappointing.
Unsurprising, but disappointing never the less. How we expect to pay our bills in the future is beyond me, but then my fellow state residents have already shown themselves more than willing to vote against their self interest, as is evidenced by the last presidential eletion.
And as coal companies continue to dump their pension plans, state finances are not going to get better, as those who spend their lives working are now left with no retirement, and are going to require more and more support by the state. (You think are Medicaid bills are bad NOW…)
I just don’t understand how people can be so short-sighted.
Another case of mad cow in the US. Reassuring words from the government.
“This animal was blocked from entering the food supply because of the firewalls we have in place. Americans have every reason to continue to be confident in the safety of our beef,” he (Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns ) said.
However…
The animal was a “downer,” meaning it was unable to walk. Such animals are banned from the food supply.
What is unsaid here is that only downers are pulled from the food supply. Only cows that are visibly ill are tested.
Which means that if a cow is not visibly ill, it enters the food supply. It becomes burgers and steaks for humans, while the more “non-traditional” parts are rendered into animal food.
And people wonder why I don’t eat mammals…
Whispers of the Dead (2004) Peter Tremayne
When I first came across the Sister Fidelma mysteries I was almost certain I was going to like them. Sister Fidelma is a nun and a lawyer in 17th century Ireland. Written by an Irish scholar, the stories are full of wonderful historical detail and are history lessons as much as mysteries, which is perfect, since I love history and mystery.
One in 10 UK websites fail to work properly on the open source Firefox web browser, a study shows.
Some 100 leading consumer sites were assessed by web-testing firm SciVisum.
It astounds me–yet doesn’t surprise me–that businesses would fail to meet web compliance standards. I mean, can you imagine a business that failed to allow 10% of potential customers through the door? Yet by failing to employ web standards, that is precisely what these businesses are doing.
I can’t understand how someone who is being paid good money to design web pages can fail to meet web compliance. It’s sheer stupidity–unfortunately it’s a rather common stupidity.
I teach the two sets of web design course we offer. One series of courses on HTML, and the other series on Dreamweaver, and something that I emphasize repeatedly in every class is to check a website in multiple browsers before posting. I’m sure that people get sick of hearing me say it, but it seems that it really can’t be said enough.
You have people sitting in their offices creating pages in Front Page that load great in Internet Explorer over a T1 line, and then never bother checking to see how the page loads in other circumstances, such as using Safari on a Mac, or using like Mozilla or Opera, or accessing the page over a dial-up connection.
When I teach my classes I emphasize all of these things, and also that the whole point of the Internet is that it should not matter what computer you are using, or what browser you are using, the page should be accessible to everyone.
Of course I also emphasize content over style, and strongly advise avoiding flash and javascript, so it’s quite clear I’m in the minority.
Some of this may be due to the fact that I work for a university in a rural state. Many of those accessing our websites will be coming in over a dial-up connection, most likely using an old computer, because that is what is available to most residents. (You may think I’m exaggerating, but last time I was in my mom’s 5th grade classroom, the majority of the computers there were using Windows 95 and 98.)
But these dial-up connection, old computer consumers are the very people who should be the very people Internet Commerce should be targeting. If you live in a small town, then the Internet may be the only way to access a variety of goods. Even living in Morgantown, which is pretty cosmopolitan for WV, there is a limited selection of goods available in local stores compared to what I can find elsewhere, and so I make a lot of purchases over the Internet. I find it unlikely I’m a rarity.
By failing to meet compliance standards, these web designers are not just ignoring, but actively excluding a number of potential customers.
How stupid is that?
ADDENDUM The First:
What say we change that title from garbled nonsense to English?
Luscious Lemon Desserts (2001) Lori Longbotham
For the past couple of years I have been searching for the perfect lemon cake recipe. As a rule I prefer cakes from scratch, but when it comes to lemon cake, none of the cakes I made seemed quite as good. In my quest I’ve ended up with several cookbooks on baking and cakes. I’ve found several recipes that were good, but not quite what I wanted. So when I came across Luscious Lemon Desserts I figured that if I was ever going to find the perfect lemon cake recipe, it was going to be here.
New design day here and on the main page.
If you don’t already know about it, check out Freecycle.
We live on a busy street, and have had success with placing things on the curb with a “FREE” sign, but not everyone has that option. Plus it’s good to know where things are going.
Players may now only wear cabbage by presenting a doctor’s note in advance.
…
Mr Park said he was glad he helped to clarify a rule, but that he was planning to stop using cabbage anyway.
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