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.

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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)

I’ve finally updated to Movable Type 3.2, which very little, except that they’ve majorly modified the templates and stylesheets, so if I want to update my site, then I have to rebuild by formatting from the ground up.

Again.

I’ve finished with the books portion, which means that at some point I’ll have to redo here as well.

I’m not looking forward to it.

So if you come by, and things are very strange, give it a few minutes, and it should get better.

Should.

If it doesn’t, listen carefully. You should be able to hear cursing and screaming.

That’ll be me.

ADDENDUM the FIRST:
Commenting? HA! Apparently we’ll have no commenting here.

(grumble grumble)

ADDENDUM the SECOND
Good enough.

That’s as much as I want to look at this today.

I came across a comment in passing that gave me pause to consider what I’ve been writing here. Specifically, I don’t review a lot of books I don’t like.

There’s a very good reason for this–I don’t read a lot of books I don’t like.

When I pick up a book I don’t like, I tend to abandon it; typically thinking, “Well, maybe I’m just not in the mood for this right now. Perhaps I’ll come back to it later.”

So here are some reviews of some books that I started and abandoned. Please feel free to tell me if the book gets better later, and I should really slog through fifty more pages, because the payoff will be worth it.

Read about the Abandoned Books

Meant to post this the other day. Forgot.

I cannot come to your party because…

Reminds me a mini poster I still have filed somewhere. 101 easy ways to say no.

So I’m doing the Walk 100 Miles in 100 Days thing again this year, and we’re up to week three.

Because I work on a computer all day long, I keep track of my miles in a spreadsheet.

Because I’m a geek, I made a chart of those miles.

I was hoping that I’d see trends, days I’m likely to slack off, things like that. However, so far, it looks like I’m pretty random.

Shocker, that.
(more…)

Swords of Haven (1999) Simon R. Green
Omnibus edition of: Hawk & Fisher, Winner Takes All, The God Killer

Swords of Haven, the omnibus edition containing the three Hawk and Fisher books, Hawk & Fisher, Winner Takes All, The God Killer, is a very odd book.

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Sorry about the lack of witticism, but I really HATE gorram daylight savings time.

Every morning this week the alarm has gone off, and I’ve barely been able to drag myself out of bed. You’d think it wouldn’t gotten better by the middle of the week. You’d have thought wrong.

However, Monday, Michael and I did have this fun exchange.

Me: I HATE daylight savings time. Have I mentioned that before?
Michael: Once or twice.
Me: I’m just all zonked out and stupid. I hate it.
Michael: It could be worse. You could be cranky.
Me: Like one is better than the other?
Michael: Well. Yes.

Yeah, I know that’s three books in as many days, but two of them were comics, so I hardly think that counts. Cuz I don’t have a book problem, and denial isn’t the first sign of anything.

Besides, it’s not like that time when I read 27 Spenser books in five days.

Today is a good day to go through my referer logs.

The Top 10 Search Terms:
vlad taltos
html clock
female fantasy authors
random quiz
centipedes
plush germs
taltos
grass jelly
pr0n
merovingian line

Okay, the centipedes bother me, because I HATE centipedes. (shudder)
Also, I’m certain that people looking for actual pr0n were quite disappointed by the flower pr0n.

Now for the odder things:

male chest
Please go here: See the category “Covers Gone Wild”

reading/short passages about secrets on shoes
That’s me. International woman of mystery and secrets on shoes.

fairy tale told the opposite way
Told the opposite way of what? Start with the moral and end with “Once upon a time”?

pictures of euthanasia requests
Okay, that’s screwed up.

funny folk tales that no one has heard of before
If no one has heard them before, then they’re not folktales.

fairy tales translated to italian
Why are you searching in English?

what do a photosynthesis really do
A photosynthesis is the little man that lives in plants and changes them into vegetables.

phoenix guards if i
…completed my search terms I’d get better results

www. holle kitty partying.
Is this a typo or a perversion?

folktales that involve real folktales not just make believe
Maybe you’re not understanding what a folktale is.

spinach police uniforms
That must be one of those new, city trends.

Here’s an interesting study:

Finger length predicts physically aggressive personalities

I particularly liked the quote from the author of the paper.

Dr. Peter Hurd initially thought the idea was “a pile of hooey,” but he changed his mind when he saw the data.

However, the research only holds true for men.

Either I’m losing my mind, or I’m listening to an instrumental Ozzy Ozbourne cover on XM’s Beyond Jazz channel.

Maybe it’s just a sign that I should go take a long hot shower and try to relax some more.

The Grand Tour (2004) by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

If you’ve already read Sorcery and Cecelia, then you’ll need little or no encouragement to pick up The Grand Tour. Cousins Kate and Cecelia are taking the grand tour of Europe on their honeymoons. Within almost no time, they are caught up in intrigue involving ancient magical artifacts, and a secret group that was active during Napoleon’s reign as Emperor of France.

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