I love listening to Sound & Spirit.

Even without all the other things I love about XM radio, I’d keep it just so I could continue to listen to Sound & Spirit, which isn’t available locally. (That’s become a mantra recently. “No, WV public radio doesn’t have THAT show either.”)

Anyway.

This week’s show was on courage, and I found it very interesting. I never knew that courage meant something else in medieval times. I mean, I knew that its etymology is French (and Latin), meaning, “from the heart,” but I never thought of courage as relating to… er… well…

I’m suddenly thinking that I’ve missed an awful lot in some of the books I’ve been reading over the years.

For your edification, the traditional ballad: My Husband’s Got No Courage in Him

Blood Pact (1993) Tanya Huff

Surprisingly, I like Blood Pact a lot more than Blood Lines, the last book, although it was quite different than the previous four. In this book they battle not magic, but science: a group of researchers are reanimating the dead.

I say surprisingly because the researchers were creating zombies. Vicki, Mike, and Henry kept speaking of Dr. Frankenstein, but really, it was zombies.

I HATE zombies.

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Blood Trail (1992) Tanya Huff

Okay, I did have a very strong drink to celebrate the end of the semester, so that may have been part of the reason why I laughed out loud several times last night while reading this book. Or, it could be that the book was actually amusing. Your call.

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Blood Lines (1993) Tanya Huff

In the third book in the Victory Nelson Private Investigator series, an ancient mummy is released from his bindings and takes up where he left off–gathering power and souls for his God. Several strange deaths draw Mike Celluci, and then Vicki Nelson and Henry Fitzroy onto the case.

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Sometimes Kat reminds me of a dragon.

I don’t mean to insinuate that I have actually seen a dragon—I haven’t. Nor am I saying I believe that they exist—I don’t.

It’s just that sometimes, the way he moves his head reminds me of how I imagine a dragon would move. And sometimes he looks at you as if he’s seriously considering using his fiery breath to turn you into a crispy snack, except that it would require too much effort. And besides, then he’d have to go hunt his own food, and that would definitely be too much effort.

orology
noun
The study of mountains

Turned in my paper. Probably should have sat on it another day and looked over it once more. But.

I really just wanted the semester to be over, and that did it.

Now, off to do some more relaxation!

Assuming all goes well, other than some minor changes for my paper, I’ll be done for the semester after my presentation this afternoon.

Of course, Michael isn’t done until next week, but the worst for him should be over by Friday.

I’ll try not to gloat too much tonight, as I recline on the sofa with a book, dark chocolate, and strong whiskey.

I have been working on my paper and presentation.

Really!

And I don’t know why I’ve been reading all these vampire books either. Just one of those things.

Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan

The series Runaways came up as a recommendation for me several times, and it looked interesting. However, I am wary books with of teenage characters, because if they’re not well done, I find them intolerably annoying. Luckily, the characters in Runaways may be teenagers, but they were interesting, and the angst was low-level and, to be honest, understandable.

Runaways Vol 1: Pride & Joy

Runaways Vol 2: Teenage Wasteland

Runaways Vol 3: The Good Die Young

Blood Price (1991) Tanya Huff

I’m embarrassed to admit how long I’ve had this book without reading it. In fact, it’s been so long that I’m not even certain precisely how long it has been, but I’m thinking I picked it up in ‘94 or ‘95, along with its two companion volumes. (The price was $3.99, if that tells you anything, although I got it used.) Not that I didn’t try to start this book before. I did. A rather long time ago. However, the first chapter is rather gruesome, and I thought the book was going to be horror, so I put it back for later. It’s just that later took a lot longer to get here than I expected.

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Sunshine (2003) Robin McKinley

I picked this book up for two reasons. First, because I liked the cover, and second, because of the quote by Neil Gaiman. Yes, I know lots of people who love Robin McKinley’s writing, and yes the blurb looked interesting, but the cover and the blurb were enough to keep me from putting the book back on the shelf after I picked it up.

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Monday lunchtime is a good time for quizzy goodness.
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fabulist
n.
1. A composer of fables. 2. A teller of tales; a liar. [French fabuliste, from Latin fabula, fable.]

I finally e-mailed my professor and found out how to exclude cases in SPSS.

Which means that I need to do all my analyses again.

And remake all my charts.

Plus finish my presentation.

And my paper.

See ya next week!

And it’s time for a roundup of keyphrases that brought people to my website.

plush germs
and
rabies

folktales the old woman who is also a witch and missing pets
That’s too bad when the witch’s pets run off.

easter elephant toy
Okay, I thought the Easter Elephant was just something my dad did to screw with our heads (also: Christmas Elephant, Birthday Elephant, Valentine’s Day Elephant)

senic pictures of hungry
See also: Heroin chic

zombie defense
and
zombie defensive kit
See! It’s not just me who thinks we need to prepare.

tiddly duty
Am I missing something here?

how non-fiction book covers are made
By taking pictures of non-fiction items.

ogg ambient darth vader free
Wha?

a really really good moonlight one that is really really really short
I think you want to buy a noun.

what are some non-fiction book names?
What aren’t?

women stomping on bugs
That’s very… interesting.

evangelical unitarians
Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?

I forgot to mention yesterday a bit of a conversation I had with my friend Kim.

It seems she discovered her neighbor spray painting his white urban attack vehicle orange.

Here’s the result:
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So I promised that I’m going to start writing more, somehow managing to completely forget the fact that I have a HUGE GARGANTUAN MONSTER end-of-the-semester project looming over me.

One that requires that I learn how to use SPSS in two weeks. (And I’ve got one week left.)

Perhaps I was a bit premature in promising more writing. Unless of course you want me to write about data analysis. (and how much is it TOTALLY SUCKING!!)

(!!!!!!)

Hmmmm… Perhaps not.

Today’s slightly disturbing incident: Going into the bathroom and seeing a latex glove in the trash.

It’s a funny thing, having your weblog under your own name. Knowing that what you write is going to be out there for anyone to read with your name right there.

Including future employers and possibly litigious current co-workers. (They might not be litigious now, but if I wrote down what I was thinking they’d probably be.)

Which is too bad, because as I may have mentioned before, y’all are missing some of my best snark. However, writing about morons at work isn’t great for continued employment, so I refrain.
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Ex Machina Vol 3: Fact v Fiction (2006) Brian K. Vaughan

Now that I’m all caught up on Ex Machina, I suppose I have a six month wait or so before the next collection comes out. Luckily, I have one or two other things around here to read.

Fact v Fiction delves a little more into Mitchell Hundred’s past, although it’s his past prior to becoming the Great Machine, rather than after the accident that gave him his ability to talk to machines.

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Ex Machina Vol 2: Tag (2005) Brian K. Vaughan

Tag continues the story of Mitchell Hundred, also known as The Great Machine, and current mayor of NYC.

Like the first volume, the story jumps back and forth in time. This time the past focuses upon his campaign for mayor of NYC, and how he became involved with the NSA. We still know little about the time between when he had his power thrust upon him and when he began to use those powers.

Read More about Ex Machina Vol 2: Tag

Dead As A Doornail (2005) Charlaine Harris

Dead As A Doornail is the fifth book in Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire series, and full of complications and murder and danger. Someone is killing the double-natured, and since Sookie’s brother Jason was bitten, he’s in the same danger as the rest.

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Raven’s Strike (2005) Patricia Briggs

The sequel to Raven’s Shadow, Raven’s Strike picks up where Raven’s Shadow left off. Tier and Seraph, and their children Lier and Jes are headed back from Taela. They are still traveling with the clan of Rongier the Librarian, and Hennea, who was separated from her clan when she was kidnapped by Volis.

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This excerpt was at the end of an article I was reading. I found it rather… interesting.

Every effort in the school now is to cultivate (girl’s) minds at the expense of their bodies. They consequently have a sickly life, if perchance not cut off in early girlhood; they make poor mothers, are unable to nurse their children in many instances with a tendency to some of the most distressing complaints, and disease is propagated in their children. Much of this arises from the popular mistake that young misses must study algebra, chemistry, scientific botany, Latin, and perhaps Greek and Hebrew, but the time they are fifteen, in order to become ladies. They have no frolicking girlhood–because it is plebeian to romp out of doors with freedom, as nature intended in order to strengthen and perfect their delicate organization. A knowledge of domestic economy is decidedly vulgar, and belongs to poor kitchen girls, whose red cheeks, round arms, splendid busts, and fine health are perfectly contemptible…More active play and fewer books, pudding-making in place of algebraical equations, with free exercise of their feet, which were actually designed for walking, would produce a race of women in our midst, such as now cannot be found, in regard to figure, capacity and beauty.
Editorial: Female education. Boston Med Surg J. 1852; 46:187-188.

Found in: Pediatrics (1989) 84(4) 716.

It’s amazing that the human race survived the 19th century.

1. Type in your birthday (minus the year) in the search bar at Wikipedia 2. List three interesting facts, two births, and one death that happened on your birthday.

July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining.

Facts:
251 – The battle of Abrittus is won by Goths against Romans. Roman Emperors Decius and Herennius Etruscus are killed.
1858 - The joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace’s papers on evolution to the Linnean Society.
1963 - ZIP Codes are introduced for United States mail.

Births:
1725 - Comte de Rochambeau, French soldier (d. 1807)
1869 - William Strunk Jr. American grammarian (d. 1946)

Deaths:
1894 - Allan Pinkerton, American private detective (b. 1819)

Also? Canada Day

(via Erin)