What, A Linkdump?

You thought I'd stopped doing these, didn't you?

For the record, I have no opinion on Disney buying Marvel. Aquaman is not a Marvel character. Except for Captain Britain, sadly canceled, and the Shanower/Young Oz adaptations, I'm not buying any Marvel at all. So I haven't got an opinion. We'll just have to see how it plays out. I hope the Oz adaptations continue, though.

Seven Great Sci-Fi Moments from The Muppet Show.

Ouch: Radioactive Wasp Nests found at Hanford.

If you missed some San Diego Comicon 2009 news, Check here and it might have been covered.

Hmmm, while killing the Caps Lock key will help some people (like myself, who disables it as soon as I get a new system), there are legitimate uses for it, even in modern society.

We really need to make some Crunchy Frogs for an Androgums meeting.

Swipe file: Fantastic Four #49 and the cover of the novelization of The Three Doctors.

I am absolutely ready to try vat-grown meat. I have no problem whatsoever with this idea, and I'd be willing to be first in line to try it out.

This is why we shop at Costco. Shareholders want to be kings, but Costco rightly focuses on the important people: customers and employees. And frankly, I'd rather be a shareholder in a company like Costco than some store that offers cheap and crappy products made by third-world slave labor.

Pug for the in-laws.

Superman is an EVIL Socialist!

I admit, it's kind of odd to imagine a time when even hospitals were considered welfare by the extreme right, but then, I find the current extreme right's attitude that health care is a privilege reserved for the wealthy to be hard to understand as well.

A Sunday Review

TV this week:

• 10 Dollar Dinners: "Bird on a Budget" - Pity I don't like chicken, because she really sings the praises of stocking up on chicken and freezing it. Her glaze was really simple and cool, though. I almost am willing to try it here. The potato tips were interesting, and maybe I'll give those a try someday. I'm not a big slaw fan, so that may never reach our plates.
• History Detectives: "WPA Mural Studies; George Washington Miniature; Japanese War Balloon" - I knew about the WPA, but I didn't know about the murals. I wonder how many of them remain intact, and how many I've seen? The family link was wonderful, but I wonder if the client would have recognized her aunt from that home video? I hope they let her see it. The George Washington miniature is a nice example of a museum having a treasure they didn't know about. Pretty cool! The research into the piece led all over the place. Lots of fun. The final investigation is one I've actually reviewed before when it was first aired. Still a tragic story, as the balloon bombs were considerably more successful than anyone knew, and not just because of the civilian deaths. Scary that there might be more of those bombs out there.
• Being Human: "Episode 5" - Mitch goes back to the vampires, and Annie faces off against Owen. Nothing goes to plan for these guys, does it? Mitch clearly didn't think the world conversion idea all the way through, did he? And Annie, poor Annie. On the other hand, George seems to come into his own in this one.
• Ghost Hunters: "I Am Not Guilty" - Uh. Ok, you know, if you listen too many times, that sound *might* begin to say "I Am Not Guilty", but I sure didn't hear it at all. It was a beautiful location, but I just wasn't terribly impressed by the ghosts. The thermal image, however, was very impressive. I do wonder what caused it. When I first saw it, I thought it was a member of the crew trying to get out of the way, but they claim no one was there. I disliked the second location, as it seemed overcrowded to me. I couldn't be comfortable in that place. I enjoyed the research bit, even if I tend to think it's just coincidence.
• MonsterQuest: "The Real Moby Dick" - I like Destination Truth better, because of the snark and the examination of the cultures to give context to the search. But this one wasn't too bad. As a person interested in cryptozoology I'm kind of surprised I didn't start watching this sooner. The jellyfish sting was nasty. Warnings of that sort of thing aren't quite enough. It got him on the one spot he wasn't completely covered. As for the search... um, it seems silly to try to prove whale aggression. Oh well.
• Dinner Impossible: "Amusement Park Adventure" - I told the television that Robert needed to get rid of those grocery bags quickly! Oh well, he didn't quite succeed, but he didn't fail, either. I wouldn't really want to try that food any more than I'd want to go on that roller coaster.
• Being Human: "Episode 6" - Mitchell decides to finish it with Herrick. Wow, a lot happened in this one. I'm not sure how to respond to it. It's just a very wow-like episode. I wasn't sure going into watching this if a second series was planned, so the ending was sort of a surprise to me. Next up, we're going to watch the pilot episode.

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This week's movie was The Last Unicorn. I'd never seen this before, so the whole thing was new to me. And it managed to surprise me a few times. At first I thought it was just going to be your typical early-80s animated film, but it eventually morphed into something different. There were spots where the plot sort of lost me for a bit, but overall I was pleased with how it moved along. Of special note should be Tammy Grimes, playing Molly Grue, without whom I think parts of the movie would have been unwatchable. She MADE some of those scenes work. Overall a good popcorn movie, and something to watch on a Saturday night when you're staying home.

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This week's comic book related review is Hikaru No Go Volume 16. Have I mentioned that I love this series? If not... I love this series. This just continues to grow on me. Fantastic artwork, I can always recognize the characters without any problems and it's amazing how dynamic the art is for a manga about a board game! In this volume, Hikaru continues to stay away from Go and search for Sai, while Isumi goes to China before the Pro Test to study. Heartbreaking to watch Hikaru lose all interest, not just in Go, but in life. And fun to see Isumi's growth. And, as usual, the ending has me wanting more. Where does Hikaru go from here? Only seven more volumes to go!

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My library book this week was Ranger's Apprentice Book Five: The Sorcerer of the North by John Flanagan. Our favorite Ranger, Will, starts another adventure in the next phase of his life as he loses the "apprentice" tag. This is definitely a set-up book, not a standalone. The ending is certainly a cliffhanger, and all the characters haven't yet gathered by the end of the book. I only wonder how many books this particular story will take to tell. And, as I've nearly caught up with the publishing rate of the future books (in the US), I may have to wait a while to find out. Still, a good quick read.

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Another book I read this week was Gregor and the Code of Claw by Suzanne Collins, Book Five in the Underland Chronicles. Well, this is it. The final book in the series. And... well, it doesn't let down precisely. It just doesn't excel. There are a lot of themes that we'd already seen in the first four books, a couple of events we've been waiting for, and a slightly surprising relook at the prophecies. All-in-all, it's not bad. I wanted more, but I still enjoyed it. The ending made me wonder if there will be a follow-up series some time. Good series, fun stuff, written for 11 to 12 year olds. Nice snacks for an adult reader.

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Agatha Christie this week was Sparkling Cyanide from 1945, also published as Remembered Death. A family revisits a deadly dinner party a year later. I got this one. Well, I figured out the murderer, just didn't figure out the method. And no wonder, as the method was just this side of preposterous. But I did figure out the motive, so I feel like I made a little progress with this one. If you start to think about the way the second murder was conducted, the plot starts to fall apart a little. The whole set-up was just remarkably stupid, and not needed. Ah well, it was still an enjoyable read! To my vast amusement, the first sentence of Book 2 is, "Lucilla Drake was twittering." Later on, we get this passage, referring to Lucilla: "Because there's someone there who twitters – twitters like a little bird... A little bird told me – was a saying of my youth. It's very true, Kemp – these twitterers can tell one a lot if one just lets them – twitter!" Ah Agatha, so ahead of her time!

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Past Sunday Reviews -- Comics at Amazon.com -- Previews -- My Wishlist

Oh Wow.

This really looks good...

Wow, The Sheer Nerve...

A scam disguised as a warning to stop being scammed!

Subject: You Need To Stop Contacting Them........For Your Own Good
From: Ms. Elizabeth Park Fowler
Reply-To: barrister_benbruce2@yahoo.com.hk

Hello,

I'm Ms. Elizabeth Park Fowler of Tampa, FL 33629., I'm a US citizen, I'm 51yrs Old. I'm one of those that took part in the Compensation in Nigeria many years ago and they refused to pay me, I had paid over $38,000 while in the US, trying to get my payment all to no avail.

So I decided to travel down to Nigeria with all my compensation documents, And I was directed to meet Barrister Ben Bruce, who is the member of COMPENSATION AWARD AUTHORITY and a Human Rights Activist (Lawyer), and I contacted him and he explained everything to me. He said whoever is contacting us through emails are fake.

He took me to the paying bank for the claim of my Compensation payment. Right now I'm the most happiest woman on earth because I have received my compensation funds amounteing to $11,000,000.00 Moreover, Barrister Ben Bruce, showed me the full information of those that are yet to receive their payments and I saw your email as one of the scam victims, that is why I decided to email you to stop dealing with those people, they are not with your fund, they are only making money out of you. I will advise you to contact Barrister Ben Bruce

You have to contact him directly on this information below.

COMPENSATION AWARD AUTHORITY
Name : Barrister Ben Bruce (Legal Practitioner And Adviser)
Email: barrister_benbruce2@yahoo.com.hk

You really have to stop dealing with those people that are contacting you and telling you that your fund is with them, it is not in anyway with them, they are only taking advantage of you and they will dry you up until you have nothing.

The only money I paid after I met Barrister Ben Bruce was just $250 for the paper works, take note of that.

Thank You and Be Blessed.

Ms. Elizabeth Park Fowler (Elizabeth)
Trustee/Treasurer, Triad Foundation Inc.
[address redacted, you can find it everywhere else anyway]
Education: BS, Business Administration
mail.planetprepaid.net

There's a slightly different version of this scam at this page, with a different lawyer name and a slightly higher amount for "the paper works", heh.

Annoyingly, the person who supposedly wrote this scam is a real person, the daughter of a philanthropist and yes, part of the Triad Foundation. The address used in the e-mail is her real address (apparently taken directly from this page, in fact), but there are other names being used as part of the scam. Still, if I were Elizabeth, I'd be really annoyed by this thing.

A Sunday Review

TV this week:

• Dinner Impossible: "Roller Derby Debacle" - Bwah-ha-ha! No eating utensils, and they want spaghetti! HA! Roller Derby is insane, and Robert's helpers are just lovely... body-checking each other in the grocery store. Having his helpers leave halfway through the challenge was a mean trick, but then the replacements were even more fun. I like how they recovered when the bread bowls were too big. I'm a person who hates messy food, so this isn't a meal I would enjoy. I was surprised that we didn't see a food fight. I guess the food was too good to waste.
• 10 Dollar Dinners: "Less Money, More Moroccan" - I'm getting an idea of what a well-stocked kitchen ought to have in it. I tend to get stuff as I need it, so our pantry is rather sparse. Both of these shows so far have given me ideas, and that's a good thing for a terrified cook like me.
• Ghost Hunters International: "Holy Ghosts" - Pretty much a typical episode. Strange that they added a new member without any fanfare in the finale. I like the idea of adding more tech, but it sure didn't seem to do much for the investigations. I'm looking forward to seeing the TAPS team at work again in the regular show. I'm just not as impressed by the International crew.
• Time Team America: "Fort James, South Dakota" - I was a little surprised at seeing the plain in the beginning turn into the well-defined walls after less than a day. I supposed when you have a stone fort only slightly buried, that's what you get. I also loved the audience they gathered of the land owners. The children looked fascinated by the dig.
• History Detectives: "Mussolini's Dagger; Liberia Letter; N.E.A.R Device" - The story of the dagger was predictable, but I'm a little surprised that he didn't advance the theory that the guy was told it was a Mussolini dagger and misunderstood, as it certainly was a dagger that showed support of Mussolini. The Liberia story was of interest to me because I've been interested in Liberia's history recently. The result was bittersweet, especially the arrangement at the end. But the investigation was fascinating. As for N.E.A.R., well, I grew up in the shadow of the Cold War, so the terror of nuclear annihilation is part of the fabric of my life. The device at first seemed like a good idea. But yeah, it does have that fatal flaw, doesn't it? I always wondered how the Emergency Broadcast System started, and I was a little surprised to learn it ended in 1997. It was replaced by a new system, though, so I guess that's ok. I'm sure glad the Cold War is over, and hope this rising generation never has to deal with the like. They've got enough problems of their own to overcome.
• Dinner Impossible: "Candy Catastrophe" - That has got to be one of the single hardest challenges I can imagine. And he would have still succeeded if not for the traffic. Seriously, he lost what, two hours due to traffic? And only finished 25 minutes late. So he failed, but it was due to circumstances well beyond his control. Of course, this was the first time I've seen serious criticism of his dishes, as well. Ouch.
• Being Human: "Episode 4" - Mitch befriends a neighborhood boy. Oops. Nothing could possibly go wrong with that one. Interesting development with Annie. And poor George. This was a really depressing episode.
• Ghost Hunters: "Inhuman Entity" - I love the narrative they built up at the first place. Whether or not it was purely their imagination or had any basis in reality, it made for a good little story. I hope their advice actually helps that family. I like the notion of giving a prankster ghost a stern talking-to. The second place was more difficult, being a very old building with claims that would be really hard to prove or disprove. Hilarious to see Steve jump at something that isn't a spider. The thermal hit was just odd. I wonder what glitch caused it. It's good to have the team back again.

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Here are reviews of the DCBS comic book shipment that arrived August 18th, of books originally released August 5th and 12th:

• Doctor Who Classics: Series 2 #9 - I remembered the ending, and what Shayde did. But the details were fuzzy, so it was good to read it all again.
• Wednesday Comics #5 - There's a change, I was actually able to follow the Wonder Woman strip for once. Was it just me, or was a crucial speech balloon misplaced in Metamorpho? And what's up with Krypto and Streaky? I'm glad I've already got the next issue to read.
• Justice League: Cry For Justice #2 - This one hangs together ok, with a little more characters, a little more gathering. I may never get used to Freddy as Captain Marvel. Lots of talking, not much action... yet.
• Astro City: The Dark Age Book Three #4 - Argh! I really want to see this one finish up. The Silver Agent weaving through the story is a good method of showing how hope keeps getting lost as the cycle of violence continues over the years. And the news on the letters page was all good. Looking forward to more Astro City.


• Wednesday Comics #6 - GLEE!!!! AQUAMAN!!! Ok, that was one version of Aquaman I've never seen before and never imagined. But it was funny as all get-out. More, please! Wonder Woman is once again incomprehensible, even with Etta introduced. And Hawkman has turned into Lost. Still a fun magazine.
• Blackest Night #2 - ZOMBIE AQUAMAN!!! My week is complete! Except... how many times has Tula come back from the dead now? A lot more Aqua-action in this one than I was expecting. I think I'm going to enjoy DC Zombies, but I have some serious worries about how this whole thing is going to resolve for the Aqua-family.
• Blackest Night: Batman #1 - As if the main title isn't enough, more confirmation of DC Zombies in this one. The dead are rising. This has happened before, of course, in the DCU. Many times. But this time is nicely intense. I wonder how it's going to turn out... a lot is riding on how this story ends.
• Green Lantern Corps #39 - And now we get to see the story from the space perspective. Ah well, now I know why the Secret Files had all that information on dead Green Lanterns.
• JSA vs Kobra #3 - Wow. I liked this one. I'm still not a big fan of either Checkmate or Kobra, but I do like Mr Terrific (even when he's drawn so oddly on the cover). This could be good.
• DMZ #44 - Double-wow. This... just so intense. I'd been wondering how this was going to finish up, and I know I wasn't expecting this at all. Not even slightly. Intense. I'm going to have to reread this one, but only once more I think. I don't know if I can handle a third reading.
• Mangalicious Tick #2 - Just because it's set in Japan doesn't make it Manga. This really feels like a first effort studio book. It needs about three more drafts and another two years of practice for the artist. This issue: Boring Backstory. Repeated boring backstory. Infodumps are sometimes needed, but not one after another like that.
• PS238 #40 - Ha, that was a good one. I like Zodon's new pet, and his realization of what Guardian Angel knows. I'm not sure what I think about the Green Gauntlet storyline about to start, but then, it can't be all about Tyler.

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This week's movie was Spanglish, starring Adam Sandler, Tea Leoni, Paz Vega, Cloris Leachman, Shelbie Bruce, and a bunch of other really good actors. This movie was worth borrowing for the conversation between John and Flor translated by Cristina. Shelbie did such and amazing job with that single conversation that I wanted to rewatch the scene over and over. I loved when Evelyn admitted she'd been sober for weeks and no one had noticed. Lots of humor in this, and a lot of painful moments as well. Deborah is the worst mom in the world, the way she was treating Bernie made me want to slap her with a clue-by-four. A slightly uneven movie, but I enjoyed it.

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My library book this week was The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols.

While walking here in the desert, down the streets, I pass the irrigation pipes and ditches, and hear the gurgling of the water as it flows through the arteries of the valley, turning what would be a desert of volcanic dust into a lush pattern of agriculture bounty. And it is all due to the water in those ditches. Here in Washington State, the water comes from the Cascade mountains, and has been plentiful for generations. But in New Mexico, the water is a little more scarce, and this book highlights the power that water can have in a desert.

In Miracle Valley the sustenance farmers are slowly being driven out by modern progress, in the form of land developers creating tourist paradises. And soon, the town of Milagro itself will be taxed into oblivion when a new dam is built. The poor of the town have already had their rights to water taken away, along with fishing and grazing rights. Soon they won't even be able to own the land they live on. And while they don't truly understand all the complexities of the situation, they can feel it in their bones.

Joe Mondragon doesn't intend to start anything. He just wants to grow some beans on the land his father owned and left to him. And the only way to grow beans is to water them, so he opens up the irrigation ditch and lets the water flow into his tiny beanfield. And with that little act of rebellion, he wakes up the entire town. And, wow, what a town!

This is a book of non-sequiturs woven into a tapestry that tells you the entire history of Milagro along with the personal histories of many of its residents. It's not an easy book to read. In fact, I found it to be one of the more difficult reads I've had in a long time (but then, I tend to like nice snacky fiction, not meaty tomes like this one). It's incredibly funny, from Pacheco's pig to the absolutely brilliant Smokey the Bear santo riot. I suppose it helped me a little to read this book in the middle of a desert, but even without the help of the dry air and sunshine I bet I'd feel the oppressive climate of Milagro weighing me down. The book takes you there. You feel for Herbie's dismay at the skunks, Mercedes cheerful pebble-throwing, and Amarante's immortality. In the end, this is a place, and you almost want to visit.

I've never seen the movie based on this book, but I probably will sometime in the future. The book itself is certainly worth a read, though. Not for children, but it certainly makes a person think. And that's what all good books ought to do.

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Agatha Christie this week was Absent in the Spring published in 1944 under the name Mary Westmacott. This is by far the best and the worst of the Westmacott books so far. It is geniunely painful to read, as the main character slowly allows herself to understand what her life is and admits it all to herself. The stripping away of her illusions is amazing, handled with such intensity that the reader is dragged along almost unwillingly. I wanted to scream at her and hit her with a clue-by-four. I wanted to cry as her former reality was exposed as a pretty facade she's made for herself. Her lonely rebirth was an incredible read... but not one that I'd usually recommend. As is usual with the Westmacott novels, this is depressing. Christie dumped the worst of her emotions into these stories. This is, in my opinion, the first one that really worked as its own story.

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Past Sunday Reviews -- Comics at Amazon.com -- Previews -- My Wishlist

Bible Study

Along with my regular Agatha Christie reading, I have decided to tackle another literary work that I've long neglected. I'm going to attempt to re-read the Bible. And I think, yeah, I might even blog about it a bit. Though probably not regularly.

Now that I've lost half my readers, I'd like to tell the remaining two or three of you what I plan to do. I'm going to take my old High School Bible, an LDS King James Version, and read it daily while doing a handful of on-line research. I find it of great interest how much the King James Version of the Bible and Shakespeare both affected English literature... I did graduate with a degree in English, after all. I'll blog any particular thoughts I have about what I'm reading (but not daily). From my own perspective, without any goal. I don't want to convert anyone to my beliefs (which aren't exactly settled at the moment anyway) and I don't want to find any "true" meaning of the text, except in regards to how I perceive it. I hope to educate myself a bit and get rid of a few preconceived notions I think I may have. Otherwise, I'm mostly reading it as a work of literature, much like I read Agatha Christie or my comics.

As for my own history with the Bible, well... most of you know or suspect that I grew up in a very religious family. I was taught the Bible from the moment I could read, and continued to read it regularly up until I was in college. I had some slightly intensive study of the Bible for a couple of years in high school, along with regular Sunday readings. I took a Bible-as-literature class in college and enjoyed it greatly, in part because I was so familiar with the source material. I began to despise religion in general when members of the Campus Crusade for Christ started to harass me, and they pretty much drove me into my current non-religious state. I have nothing against the religion I grew up in, although the actions of some prominent members have disturbed me greatly. I tend to think that religion itself is pure, like any philosophy. It's when it is put into practice by flawed humans that it begins to have problems.

Eh, I'm getting off-topic. I'll probably say more as I go along, though, it's hard to get me to shut up once I've started. If you want to avoid these posts, I'll be sure to put "Bible" somewhere in the title of the post, and one of the labels will always be "Bible" as well.

For my first post, I want to talk about the Introduction to the King James Version. This translation was made by 47 scholars under the orders of King James I of England. The effort was started in 1604 and ended in 1611 with the publication of the first edition. The edition I have is very different from that first edition, as the language itself has changed immensely over those 400 years. To get an idea of the rocky history of this version of the Bible, read Wikipedia and follow some of the citations. While I was raised with the belief that this version is the most correct of all English translations, looking at the history of the book throws that claim into doubt... along with every other English translation!

But I digress... the introduction itself is printed in the version I have, and can be read here, starting with "TO THE MOST HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE JAMES..." and ending just before "THE TRANSLATORS TO THE READER". I admit that I'm always delighted when I read this. The obvious toadying to the King is fun, and the intro also manages to put the whole book into historical context with the Church of England. My book does not include the reader introduction, which I've just read now, and really enjoyed as well. What can I say, I'm a history buff. It's fascinating how all of this fits into the history of England as well as the history of Christianity itself. I love this bit:

Thus not only as oft as we speak, as one saith, but also as oft as we do anything of note or consequence, we subject ourselves to everyone's censure, and happy is he that is least tossed upon tongues; for utterly to escape the snatch of them it is impossible.

It seems they knew their translation would not be popular, and were forestalling the reader from criticizing them by pointing out that everyone gets criticized, even the best of humanity! And this bit gives me chills, being a child of America and the concept of dividing Church from State:

It doth certainly belong unto Kings, yea, it doth specially belong unto them, to have care of Religion, ...yea, to know it aright, yea, to profess it zealously, yea to promote it to the uttermost of their power.

This had to be an argument against Papacy, which was the enemy of the Church of England. Another little fascinating historical bit. The intro goes on to say that the Bible is full of the word of God, and that no man can be complete without it. Then it explains that a translation is needed because of that... you can't expect everyone to learn another language to study the scriptures. Then they describe the historical translations of the Old Testament into Greek and Latin, and how they are flawed. They then give a history of translations into "vulgar" languages to prove that they aren't doing something blasphemous, as if it's been done so many times before it must be ok to do it again! Then there's a quick slam against the Church of Rome not allowing unauthorized translations, and an answer to critics who ask why the previous English translations aren't good enough. Another long section goes into the validity of translations of a Holy Work, with tons of metaphors. They even admit they are going on too long:

But we weary the unlearned, who need not know so much, and trouble the learned, who know it already.

Next they cover the need for changes between translations by pointing out all the different Catholic versions of the Bible. Then they describe what they translated from (the "original" Hebrew and Greek) and how long it took them compared to other versions (a LOT longer: "twice seven times seventy two days and more"). They also explain why their margin notes do not explain the text, like previous versions of the Bible did, and admit to using different words that mean the same in English to vary the text in places. Then they finish with this:

Many other things we might give thee warning of (gentle Reader) if we had not exceeded the measure of a Preface already.

Uh, no kidding? That was one LONG introduction, and yet it was probably necessary for this particular version of the Bible.

Well, that was fun. Next time, I'll actually start to read the text of the Bible.

The Continuing M&Ms Challenge

I'm still collecting data for this, and will continue to collect for the foreseeable future, so if you feel like participating, please just:

1) Get yourself a bag of Milk Chocolate M&Ms.
2) Note the size of the bag (in oz or g or both)
3) Open bag. Do not eat any (yet).
4) Count the number of Green M&Ms. Do not eat any (yet).
5) Count the TOTAL number of M&Ms (including green). Ok, you can eat them now.
6) Post the size of the bag, the number of green M&Ms and the total number of M&Ms.
7) FUN!

Note: Counts for other types of M&Ms are welcome, but please indicate what the type is when you post the information. Silliness is fine, but please make sure the data is true. A good replacement for the end of step 5 is to have an M&M tournament to determine the best M&Ms for breeding future generations.

POST RESULTS HERE

What I Did Over The Weekend

You knew I was busy, but what was I doing?

Starting on Wednesday, I hosted family members as they visited us out here in the desert. On Thursday we wandered down to Eric's school and helped him move some stuff from his old room to his new room. Then we went on a visit to a place with dried fruit, and got chocolate covered cherries. My parents also bought a box of fresh and REALLY good peaches at a fruit stand, so we all had fresh peaches over the weekend.

For lunch on Thursday we visited the new Italian place in Churchville and had a great meal. For dinner my mom and sister made pizza crust which we put into pie pans and everyone made their own personal pan pizza.

On Friday my family and I left Eric to clean for his visitors and we went to some tourist spots in the Yakima Valley. We visited dinosaurs in Granger first. We brought Torvald along and took a few pictures. Here's one:

After Granger, we went to Toppenish, which is known for its murals. There are 71 official murals as of this year, and each one depicts events in the history of the town. They are actually very impressive, and we ended up taking a tour in a horse-drawn wagon to see most of them with a good bit of patter. This image shows the horses, Frank on the right and Jesse on the left, about to enter a mural and cross the bridge.


The tour guide suggested the Pioneer Kitchen for lunch, so we stopped there and had a pretty good meal. We finished the trip by visiting Zillah and looking for the Church of God. We were a bit disappointed that their was no sign that said "The Church of God - Zillah, WA" but we did find the God-Zilla and get a picture.


After we got back to Churchville, some of hubby's visitors arrived and we made simple American tacos for dinner (just tortillas and various ingredients, and everyone makes their own taco). Early the next morning my family left, but Eric's visitors, the Oogaboos, stayed on!

The Oogaboos are the inhabitants of the Northwest corner of Oz, and in terms of Oz fans, Oogaboos live in the Northwest corner of the United States. This last weekend was our first time to host an Oogaboo Rendezvous in Churchville. The usual events: show and tell, croquet, and lots of good food, happened. We also went over to Sunnyside to visit the Dairy Fair and go on the tour.

Now, if you've ever been down to the Dairy Fair to do the tour, you know that it is... well, worth the price of admission. It's free. And self-directed. And ... well, 98% of the time it could be described as "lame" or "boring". This time, however, in preparation for our trip, I hunted down an article that claimed you needed to come by either before 10am or after 2pm to see any action. So we timed it to hit the place at about 2pm.

There was not really any action.

Except for one guy with a walrus mustache who was checking the vats, the floor was just a bunch of giant churning machines.


One of the Oogs, who I'll refer to as "H", and I watched the guy working, and tried to work out exactly how the process actually worked. H noted that if the machines were painted to look like cows, it would be a much more exciting tour. We also discussed how the vats were clearly creating cheese curds, but we couldn't see any way for them to go from the vats to... well, where ever they went to next.


The guy who was testing the vats left a door open, and we could see the curds being churned out of the whey inside. Even while we watched, the mixture thickened and more and more curds lifted with each movement of the paddles inside. We were discussing how the machines worked and trying to figure out what each of them did when the door behind us opened and the guy with the walrus mustache came out into the gallery hallway to say hello to us!


He pulled out his ear plugs and said hello, then started to give us a nice overview of what each machine did, and what he was doing down there on the floor. He'd noticed that H and I had been looking at the floor for quite awhile and decided to come up and answer questions. Hubby-Eric and another Oogaboo just happened to be there as well, the rest of the group was downstairs getting Diary Fair's famous ice cream.

The Diary Fair guy, Audie, told us what each set of machines did, and when I asked how curds moved from one place to another he pointed out the 4-inch pipes that I'd seen but hadn't thought were quite big enough. He told us that he, personally, was the lead of the team that won 2nd place in a national international contest of Monterey Jack cheese. We later found the trophy in the case there in the gallery. He also said that the factory worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and still didn't manage to make enough cheese to meet demand.

He pointed to a machine on the floor that was blinking yellow and said that he had to go, that machine needed his attention, and he was gone as fast as he'd appeared.

We stayed a few minutes more to digest the information, then headed downstairs to tell the others what they'd missed. They didn't seem too upset, but then, it was a cool experience for us. Instead of getting ice cream, I bought a bag of cheddar cheese curds. Yum.

The rest of the time with the Oogaboos was more normal... it was too hot to play croquet outdoors (and we don't have a lawn) so we played indoor multi-level croquet. Some folks also played on my Wii and Wii Fit. In fact, I think H plans on getting a Wii Fit now. There was a lot of talking, pizza, and I think hubby-Eric even made some people watch Doctor Who.

All-in-all, a most successful weekend, and a VERY exhausting one.

Girl Genius Hugo Acceptance Speech

And be sure to actually visit the comic to see Cheyenne Wright's own little acceptance comic.

A Sunday Review

Much less time for TV and other media this week, as I've been working hard and had houseguests for half the week. So I've been busy, and only got a couple of shows watched and three short books read. I must say, Agatha Christie is addictive, and these young adult novels I've been snacking on are a lot of fun. Any book I can zip through in an hour and feel like I got a couple hours worth of fun out of is a good book, in my opinion.

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TV this week:

• 10 Dollar Dinners: "Perfectly Priced Parisian" - The thing I like most about Melissa is that she makes me feel like I can make what she's making. I want to try her pie crust, and the bacon tip she gave is just excellent. And that dessert isn't something I would have thought of, but I bet I'd enjoy it. Yup, I think they got a winner here.
• Being Human: "Episode 3" - Now Annie the ghost has a mentor. As George said, that worked out so well the last time. And George's love life is... well, that was... um... interesting.

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My library book this week was Ranger's Apprentice Book Four: The Battle for Skandia by John Flanagan. Third book in a trilogy, and not a bad ending for all that. I liked the way various plot threads were tied up, while still setting up for future ideas. I also like how the characters seem to be growing, taking on new roles and learning new skills. The plot seems to be moving along nicely and usually in unexpected ways. I'm enjoying this series.

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Another book I read this week was Gregor And The Marks Of Secret by Suzanne Collins, Book Four in the Underland Chronicles. Gregor is growing up, and the Underland is much more a part of his life now. A secret prophecy saves the team's butts just at the right moment. But the book has an underlying annoying aspect with a prophecy that no one will talk about. When you consider that every other prophecy is practically shoved down Gregor's throat, that's a little ominous. Now I'm going to have to go get the final book in the series immediately.

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Agatha Christie this week was Death Comes as the End from 1944. This is an unusual murder mystery story, because it's set in ancient Egypt! Christie's interest in archaeology is given life in this tale about a daughter of a mortuary priest who witnesses some terrible events. The mystery is typical Christie in almost every respect. The various suspects with their possible motives, the misdirection for the reader's sake that leads to first one theory and then another. My clue for readers of Christie books is that if the characters start discussing someone as the possible culprit, look elsewhere. I liked this one, the unusual setting added a little to the hunt for reasons behind the actions. All-in-all a surprisingly normal read for Christie books.

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Past Sunday Reviews -- Comics at Amazon.com -- Previews -- My Wishlist

Doctor Who meets Cake Wrecks!

Today's Sunday Treats on the Cake Wrecks blog? Doctor Who cakes! (Including a contribution from yours truly here).

Nothing To See Here

Busy busy busy. Be back later.

Cleaning

Well, I should be cleaning. I've got guests arriving for the weekend. A bunch of guests. Family and friends. And it's my Dad's birthday today, so I've been celebrating by not getting much done (Hi Dad!).

Too much in my head to write anything intelligent. I've been saving that for my job. More later.

Convincing Myself I Don't Need It

Now that I have a new job, I'm doing a lot more internet research, and getting MUCH more annoyed when my computer gets slow, which it does a lot now. I sometimes want to reformat my computer and just run Open Office and Firefox, but I need some of the other stuff on my computer for other... stuff. So I "suffer" in silence. Ok, well, I whine and fuss, but not constantly. Almost not constantly.

Anyway.

I was reading about Netbooks and realized that was probably the answer for me. A limited computer that could run Firefox and OpenOffice and nothing else, leaving my regular computer, a Dell Inspiron 6000 whose battery died completely some time ago, for everything else I do online and with graphics and such. I could move around with my computer again, and not have to completely shut down my system whenever I want to go to a different room. Yeah, there's the solution! I get a Netbook and it'll solve all my problems!

When I get obsessed with an idea, it tends to jam up in my brain and refuse to leave even when I try to evict it. So I went off to Dell.com and looked at their Netbooks, which they call "minis". I did their whole customize thing and figured out I'd have to pay at least $500 for one that would suit me (Update: the system I want is actually $405 custom-made, but with shipping and taxes and such I'm sure it's closer to $500). Now, $500 is not much, but hubby-Eric and I are deep underwater financially right now (and until Frankenhaus finally sells, yes, we're still waiting). We can't even afford that much, and I somehow doubt Dell would offer me financing with our current credit score (having a house that you can't make payments on sitting on your record for as long as Frankenhaus has pretty much destroys any credit you have). Or if they did offer financing, I bet the terms would be so bad even I would turn them down. So getting a new Netbook is impossible.

But obsession is not rational, and I'm still thinking about it. So, do any of my readers have a Netbook, and if so what do you think of it? If not, do you know of any reviews I ought to check out? Maybe I'll get one in time for my next big road trip... by Christmas or so. Or maybe by next year's Emerald City Comicon. Or maybe by the time I can afford one, there will be more and cheaper options available.

Hugo winners!

The 2009 Hugo Award winners! I've actually encountered four of this year's winners. (Is there nothing The Graveyard Book hasn't won now?)

A Sunday Review

Whoa, how did it get to be Sunday again already?

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TV this week:

• The Next Food Network Star: "Finale" - The opening bit made it clear why Jeffrey is the zen master. And after watching their home segments, I (ever so slightly) prefered Jeffrey. Then I watched Melissa's pilot and realized that show would be useful to me, personally, and wanted her to win. Jeffrey's pilot was good, but what the heck is harisa? They didn't give him enough time to explain it. In the end, I want them BOTH to win. I wasn't disappointed by the winner, but I was disappointed that there had to be a loser. Give them both a show! And yes, we've set up the DVR to record the winner's show. I may take notes.
• Being Human: "Episode 2" - George's mentor is a real piece of work. While George needed the help, Tully was definitely not the best example he could get. I was surprised at how much he was able to scare Annie, the ghost. And that head nurse that chewed George out was a pain... nice to see her get her comeuppance when she realized that George was taking his day off to be good to a patient.
• Ghost Hunters International: "Spirits of Italy" - That is one awesome castle in the opening segment. And in the same family since 1340? Wow. The evidence wasn't all that impressive. The EMP "answers" in the vault were cool, but I can't say they were supernatural. The second location, the palace, was HUGE. Again, they need a few weeks at the site to do a real job of it. One night is enough for a thrill ride, but not a real investigation. I like that they found that cooling lights made one of their ghost noises, and an ice machine made another. Nice debunking. I was a little surprised by their conclusion, as they usually hedge their bets.

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Here are reviews of the DCBS comic book shipment that arrived this week, of books originally released Jul 22nd and 29th:

• Green Lantern #44 - And so we get our first DC Zombie, J'onn. Wake me when AquaZombie appears.
• Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #2 - That hate story was moderately intense and very trite. The greed story was mildly amusing.
• Wednesday Comics #3 - I still have mixed feelings about this mag, but I'm enjoying it overall. Is it just me or is the Wonder Woman story nearly incomprehensible? The art doesn't flow. Titans need more Aqualad. Others, all ok, some are a bit slow developing (like Metamorpho).
• Tiny Titans #18 - Needs more Aqualad! I love the villain in charge of detention. The whole coffee running gag was a bit boring to me.
• Captain Britain and MI 13 #15 - And... that's the end. All tied up. And not too bad, either. I wish this series had continued. Maybe about another five years or so. Marvel should not have cancelled it, not when it was just getting its feet under it.
• Incredibles: Family Matters #4 - It felt very typical, but it was a great deal of fun. I particularly like the last pages.
• Doctor Who: Room With a Deja View - Haven't I already reviewed this? Oh yeah, and I enjoyed it.
• Wonderful Wizard of Oz #8 - Yay! The china country, the forest spider, the hammerheads, and Glinda's castle! Ok, so the hammerheads had arms (wha?) but otherwise, yeah, cool!


• Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #3 - Two Green Lantern tales, and a much appreciated Director's Commentary on Black Night #0. I wish I could get more of these "Director's Commentary" specials on some of these books. I loved Sad Krypto best of all. Never would have noticed that in the regular book. And the tiny bit about Aquaman being buried on land, definitely tied in to the rest I've noticed about Aquaman in this event. I'm actually a little excited about DC Zombies after reading it.
• Wednesday Comics #4 - I'm really enjoying the art on Kamandi. Very classic. Titans: Needs more Aqualad. Is it just me, or is Wonder Woman making almost no sense at all? Aquaman gets a name-check in Hawkman... hope he appears in it!
• Justice League of America #35 - Ah, the Royal Flush Gang. And I liked the players revealed at the end, although I pretty much suspected that as part of the set-up. Mari's eye-roll was the best part of the book. Poor Vixen.
• Justice Society of America #29 - When you consider that I really really like Mr Terrific, you'll know why I found this issue to be distressing.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold #7 - Not bad... the opening bad guy was lovely, and the Doom Patrol made for a good foil to Batman's seriousness (yes, even in this version he's a little serious). Another fun issue of a really fun DC Universe.
• Northlanders #19 - Oh wow. That was not how I was expecting this one to end at all. The bit where she walked up from the water... wow. I was just chilled by the thought, while wanting to laugh at the soldiers. Great stuff. Loved it.

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This week's movie was Stagecoach from 1939, starring John Wayne. A whiskey salesman, prostitute, calvaryman's wife, and a drunk doctor get into a stagecoach... no, bear with me... they are joined by a gambler and a banker, then run across an outlaw who has just broken out of prison. The stagecoach travels through hostile Apache territory while Geronimo is on the warpath. A dramatic tale and a study in psychology. The cast is superb, and John Wayne shines in his role as the Ringo Kid. We DVR'ed this off TCM, but the ending was cut off (stupid DISH Network DVR). Luckily, the library had a copy and we got to watch the final gunfight only a few days later. A good movie, fun with strong performances.

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My library book this week was Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff. I picked up this book based on the Unshelved Book Club review. It's even more bizarre than the review indicates. Jane is a thoroughly drug-addled woman whose life has been a disaster from childhood. We learn her story as she tells it to a psychiatrist while she's in prison for murder. She claims to work for the organization as a member of the Bad Monkeys, a branch that hunts down and kills the truly irredeemable nasties of the world... "bad monkeys". As her story unfolds, the reader is led to wonder: is she sane and lucid and talking about reality, or is the whole story a psychodrama she's made up to justify her own actions? The result is a compelling book worth reading if you want a drug-less trip.

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Another book I read this week was Heroes: Saving Charlie by Aury Wallington and based on the TV show Heroes. Eric checked this one out to read, and I snagged it before he could return it to the library. This book reminds me why I liked the series in the first place. Hiro is such a goof, but he's a goof who believes in himself and his destiny. And Charlie is one of those great characters that we don't see nearly enough of on the show itself. She appeared in three episodes of the first season, a waitress who had incredible memory powers and was killed by Sylar. The show had scenes of Hiro attempting to save her six months in the past, but didn't go into great detail because it was, after all, a bit of a subplot. This book fills in the blanks. It tries to not conflict with the show, but because of the way the story was presented in the show it can't help but be a little... off. It's a ripping yarn, but not high literature. I would only recommend it to fans of Hiro, because nobody else really makes it into this one. But if you need a light read and want some Heroes action, this is the book.

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Agatha Christie this week was Towards Zero from 1944, also published as Come and Be Hanged. This one defies description. In short, the plot involves a love triangle, a long thought out plan, and multiple murders. Again, I wasn't expecting the plot twists, nor the extra layers. I did recognize Battle, the friend of Poirot, who ultimately solved the case. No Poirot in this one, though, just his methods. I did not solve this one, although I almost had the motive down. A piece of late evidence blew my theory out of the water, and I read the rest of the book too quickly to replace it. Overall, yet another good read. Does anyone else notice that there are very few happily married couples in Christie's books, or am I just not seeing the forest for some of the more prominent trees?

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Past Sunday Reviews -- Comics at Amazon.com -- Previews -- My Wishlist

GHOSTS!

Hubby-Eric was away today, so I had some fun by watching a bunch of ghostie shows. Now, if you read my Sunday Reviews, you already know that I'm a fan of Ghost Hunters. I like the show because it takes a scientific approach, and although it's way over-produced (too many sound effects) and the investigations are too short and not actually very scientific, I enjoy it for the entertainment program it is.

So today I watched a few episodes of A Haunting on the Discovery Channel to start out. This show is supposedly based on real events, but the action is re-enacted with people who are very clearly actors (some who aren't terribly good) and LOTS of special effects. The overall feel is of a creepy ghost tale told around a campfire. If your TV is both the campfire and the storyteller. The push of the show is that ghosts are evil, and there is an emphasis on stories of horror and pain. It's not really a great show, but it was mildly entertaining for a ghost story. One of the stories I watched had a couple living in a haunted apartment in Ballard (a neighborhood of Seattle). The whole thing was vaguely silly and the effects gave a nice chill up the spine.

Later on, I turned on the Travel Channel and watched something called Most Terrifying Places in America that was fun, but short on anything of substance. It was just a quick look at each place with the stories told by various folks. Again, not bad. I enjoy ghost stories, so I enjoyed this.

The next show on was Most Haunted, and that show is the reason I'm writing this entry. I hated it. The people in that show are so ridiculous it felt like a farce. I know, some of you are thinking "What's the difference between this and Ghost Hunters?" I'll tell you.

The first thing the MH people did was bring in a psychic. Now, I have nothing against psychics... I've just never seen any compelling evidence that they have any abilities whatsoever. And on these shows, I've never seen anything that would even slightly convince me otherwise, because it's not that hard for a "psychic" to do research like anyone else. In any case, this psychic did the usual stuff, acting like Troi in the early episodes of ST:TNG. I'll note that I've never seen GH bring in a psychic (though they have brought along a dowser, which didn't impress me). That's one huge difference.

Once the lights were out on MH, they walked around the site (in this case a boat) and made a whole lot of noise. They never stood still and listened. And they screamed or swore every time there was a noise, even if it was clearly made by the cameraman or by the idiots themselves. For contrast, I've never heard a member of TAPS on GH scream, although there was one memorable episode where one of them yelled and ran. In short, the people on MH were always making noise and screaming at every little thing.

The MH crew held what appeared to be a seance. Ug. I hate seances. They are fiction. They are fun in stories, but stupid in real life. And if you get a group of people together and have them all put their hands on a table, someone will end up moving the table in the dark. I'm sorry, it was just dumb. I've never seen a seance on GH, and if I were to see one I might stop watching.

And lastly, the MH crew decided on an area they thought was particularly active. They sent in one guy, who, instead of constantly screaming, was constantly swearing leading to annoying BLEEEEEEPS as a soundtrack. Then the whole crew went down. One of the women brushed her head against something and started screaming. Then she got hysterical. She cried. She looked and acted completely panicked. Then the frigging psychic told them to run, and they ran around in circles getting lost.

On Ghost Hunters, the crew actively seeks out the ghost, and if one of them brushes their head against something it might spook them (only natural) but then they immediately go back and try to find a logical explanation. They react logically, and if it can be explained logically, even if they themselves don't believe it, they accept that and strike it from the record of evidence they gather.

Furthermore, except for that one instance where a member of GH yelled and ran (and was soundly dressed down for it, on camera), I've never seen the members of TAPS run from a "ghost". In fact, if they thought a ghost was around they would come running toward it. To scatter at the moment when they might have possibly made contact? No, not something you'd see on GH.

But it seemed like they expected it to happen on MH. And the people on that show seemed incredibly frightened of ghosts. They acted like they didn't want to be there. So, WHY GO? I mean, seriously, if you are afraid of ghosts, what business do you have going on a ghost hunting show and pretending to be some sort of expert? Stay home. Your spineless antics were annoying. Maybe little kids might find your panic funny, but I didn't even find it slightly entertaining. Just incomprehensible. You act all excited about going on this investigation, then you RUN when you imagine something has touched your hair? Argh. I'd love to go on a good ghost hunt, and they are wasting film on these ninnies?

Ah well, after my day of watching these other shows, I appreciate Ghost Hunters relatively low-key attitude and logical approach MUCH more. It's still a silly show, but not nearly as silly as other Ghostie shows.

My New Job, and Fibromyalgia

As was pointed out in the comments of my last post, I haven't really told anyone about getting a new job yet. I guess that's because I still feel like I'm on probation and haven't really gotten going at it yet. But I suppose I can give you all a quick outline.

In short, I'm ghostwriting. That's a very cool name for a possibly tedious job. I'm finding it to be a great deal of fun, mostly because I'm also getting to do a lot of research on subjects I'm interested in. It's the perfect job for me because of the research, the writing, and the flexibility. I'm able to work at home, which is almost a requirement for me now.

And the reason for that is my fibromyalgia, which makes me unreliable if on a steady schedule. Last night a thunderstorm moved into this area, and when I woke this morning I was in such awful pain I wanted to die. For several hours I just lay on my bed until I could get my body moving. I was functional for a few hours, then another storm moved through and I was in screaming agony again. As I write this, the worst of it seems to have passed, but my weather-related torture may return at any time.

Luckily for me, I had a particularly productive work day yesterday, and got two days of work done on my current contract. That meant I was able to slack off today and let the fog of fibro take my brain. Being able to feel productive despite the fibro is something I haven't had in a long time, and I treasure it.

My current contract is a small one, and doesn't require too much time each day. I'm planning on taking multiple and/or bigger contracts as I get more confident at this job, but at the moment I'm very glad I decided to start slow.

Anyway, that's the story. I have a lot I want to write, but now that I'm actually working again and enjoying it, I'm finding it a little harder to take time to blog. I hope you all don't mind... and I hope you'll keep tabs on me while I search for balance.

Nothing is Happening

Well, except for last night's party. I've been working my new job, reading comics and books, watching a little TV, and not getting much blogging done. Sorry. Maybe I'll post something interesting tomorrow.

National Night Out 2009

A few days ago we found a note on our door about National Night Out, hosted just up the street from our place. So tonight, we headed out at 6pm and joined the party. Quite a few folks had showed, and we chatted with a number of people while we were there. The cops came out a little early and blocked off the part of the street the party was on, and once the party got going a police pickup visited the party driven by this guy:

He had a passenger in his truck as well:


One little girl at the party was absolutely terrified by McGruff, and her parents had to hold her and take he away from the guy while he wandered and visited. They eventually left, with the crash test dummy still driving. The host grilled hot dogs, and kids played in the slip 'n slide in the yard and threw water balloons at each other. The adults mingled and chatted. Then an ambulance arrived and a sense of anticipation started to build. Kids noticed a fire truck rounding the corner and everyone waited for it... and when it arrived the firemen got out and set up a fire hose and:


The fire hose continued a LONG time, much longer than I expected, but no doubt not nearly long enough for some of the kids. The adults, for the most part, stood on the sidewalk near the food to avoid getting sprayed. The kids were soaked through, screaming and running. The breeze kicked up enough of the water towards the adults to make it nice and cool (it was about 90 degrees or so outside).

At one point, one lady sitting out in the street safely outside the water zone made some sort of gesture at the fireman in charge of the hose (whom she apparently knew) and suddenly the water arced higher and farther than it had before and squarely soaked the lady like she had been wearing a target. Fortunately, she was laughing as loudly as all the neighbors.

Eventually the water hose was shut down and kids went back to the slip 'n slide and water balloons. Cake was served. A pinata was brought out, and Eric and I stayed to watch it get slammed repeatedly.


We nearly saw a disaster when one piece flipped out of the pinata and several kids dove for it... while the kid with the stick was still swinging. Yikes!

I was exhausted by this point, purely from the heat, and Eric guided me home. And, after an hour of air conditioning, re-hydrating, and ice cream, I wrote this blog. Yay!

Resting

It's hot out here in the desert of Churchville, and I'm busy resting and keeping cool. So no blog today. I'll try to have some kind of content tomorrow, unless the comics arrive and I spend all day reading them...

A Sunday Review

TV this week:

• The Next Food Network Star: "VIP Party in Miami" - That has to be the most daunting audience for a meal I've ever seen. Period. End of story. I would never presume to cook a meal for those folks. Melissa clearly won the day, and having her pastry get such high praise from an expert pastry chef was impressive. I can honestly say that the final two are the ones I wanted to go on. But any of the final five would have been fun to watch.
• History Detectives: "Amelia Earhart Plane; Fillmore Pardon; Boxcar Home" - A genuine piece of Earhart's plane! Impressive to say the least. The Fillmore pardon story is intriguing. See-See-Sah-Mah's story is one of those research intensive investigations, where hunting deep into the paperwork almost wasn't enough. The pardon was unusual, too bad it wasn't enough. The trolley car home is a good look at how life was in the past. Using whatever materials are available to build a home during a housing crunch just makes sense. I wonder if a new wave of building using shipping containers won't happen somewhere in my lifetime? in this investigation, I particularly liked how the investigator noticed right away that the width of the car wasn't wide enough to be a rail car.
• Ghost Hunters International: "Witches Castle" - The owner of the witches castle seems geniunely freaked by her property. She seems to take the family castle seriously, but is far too uncomfortable. Because of this, the walkthrough was very interesting. The results were inconclusive, but they did seem to manage to reassure her somewhat by urging her to talk to the "ghosts" if she was nervous about them. The second location was also a neat place, but it also seemed to me like a creaky place. The sounds they heard could have been anything, and the pictures... well, they disproved them themselves. Another decent episode.
• Being Human: "Episode 1" - A vampire and werewolf move into a haunted house, and the three start to live together. Mitchell is the vampire, who died in the first World War. George is the werewolf, and Annie is the ghost. The show jumps right into the action because this is actually the second episode. The pilot explains how they all got together, and that wasn't shown on BBC America. It's a fun show, even if the premise sounds like a joke. Could be interesting.
• Time Team America: "Range Creek, Utah" - Totally amazing structures high up in canyons. This was an episode where the technology really broke through. Particularly the 3D imaging of the artwork, in which you could see more of the art than the naked eye could manage. I was impressed with the regular guy working the dig site as well. I'd love to visit that place someday, but if I don't I'm glad to have seen it on the show.

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This week's movie was Kramer vs. Kramer from 1979 starring Dustin Hoffman. This is a movie about divorce and its impact on lives. Hoffman is amazing as the dad trying to adjust to suddenly being a single parent. The story is painful, and yet almost manages to gloss over the worst of the anger and emotional turmoil of a divorce. What we see, mostly, is two guys getting along after being deserted by the woman in their life. The real emotional anguish is saved for the courtroom drama near the end of the movie. But there are good moments throughout the movie, and it's really a good one. Recommended, but only if you are up for an emotional wringer.

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This week's comic book related review is Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 by David Petersen. I read these in individual issues as the series came out and was disappointed because I could NOT keep the characters straight. The whole plot seemed like a jumbled mess, and made no sense. Reading the whole thing out of one volume with nice connecting text pulled the whole thing into focus. MUCH better. The art is fantastic, and now that the story makes more sense I enjoyed the book a lot more. Perhaps I'm going to have to look up the next volume. But I'll probably stick with collections.

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My library book this week was Ranger's Apprentice Book Three: The Icebound Land by John Flanagan. This follows directly on from the last book, and leaves off on another cliffhanger. It's definitely the middle of a trilogy kind of book, although it has its own standalone events. Curiously, there are two plotlines that never meet in the book, one of the apprentice and one of his master. Although they are clearly headed for a reunion, it doesn't happen in this volume and the two plotlines are completely distinct throughout the book, in alternating chapters. It is possible to read every other chapter of this book and get a full tale. I've already got the next volume on hold.

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Another book I read this week was Gregor And The Curse Of The Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins, Book Three in the Underland Chronicles. It's clear from the end of the previous book that Gregor can expect to enter the Underland again, and this time he takes someone new down with him. A plague is devastating the Underland, and Gregor is needed as part of the prophecy on how to cure it. So he goes. This book felt more adult than the first two, but is still a simple and quick read. I think I enjoyed it more, partly because of the seriousness of the plot, and partly because of what Gregor does at the very end of the book. Looking forward to picking up the next one.

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Agatha Christie this week was Five Little Pigs from 1943, also published as Murder in Retrospect. Poirot is asked to solve a sixteen year-old murder by the daughter of the woman convicted of the murder, who is convinced her mother is innocent. I like the way Poirot nicknames the five suspects (hence the title). I had this one 96% figured out. I was all excited as the reveal proceeded, and it appeared I'd gotten the right answer. But then, yeah, it continued. Christie has a way of guiding readers into lines of thinking. For whatever reason, I cannot take that final jump into figuring out the actual solution. In this one, I was SO close. Maybe I'll get the next one.

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Fortean Times #251, August 2009. The second issue to arrive in a flimsy plastic sleeve, also with a postmark from Belgium. At least it wasn't damaged this time. I guess I'm going to have to get used to getting it less protected.

The cover story is about a man-monkey that haunts an English canal, and is apparently a ghost of some sort. Fun little historical tales are mixed in with some more current sightings and research for a pretty good article. Nothing like Bigfoot in this tale, but interesting nonetheless.

StrangeDays has the usual mix of fun/cute/gross/intriguing stuff. Highlights for me was another Ghana warning pamphlet (this one about a woman who turns into a car and attacks her son), the obscene parrot toy that a mother accidently bought for her toddler, and the guys arrested for "gifting" Orgonite. I liked the science article about baby gender. Very sensible conclusions there. And it was fun to read about the old-wives' tales of how to get a child of the gender you wanted. Heh. In the ghostwatch section, I enjoyed the article about Black Dogs, as I've seen one, when I was fairly young. I'm convinced it was my imagination, but sometimes I like to imagine it was supernatural in some way.

The UFO files had a bit on Men in Black, and the survey came to some conclusions that I'd not heard about before. But then, I don't follow UFO press closely, so I'm not in on the knowledge there. Still, I was mildly surprised at how many reports the survey came up with. And those are only from people willing to talk about it. If the MIB are truly doing their job, there would be more witnesses that wouldn't talk.

I loved part 2 of the Hoax article, which is about why people hoax and why other people continue to believe in hoaxes long after they are revealed as fakery. Halfway through the article I started thinking about how the birther movement has all the evidence any sane person needs to know that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen (his birth certificate, two different birth announcements in two different newspapers from the time, the oaths of several state officials), but they still insist he isn't. Same sort of thinking. No matter what evidence you produce, some people will always believe what is false. It's some quirk of human nature. More of the article was about the motivation of hoaxers, with a case study of the girls who hoaxed the Cottingley fairy photographs.

Another good bit was on Chinese prophecies. The reviews were good, as usual. In the letter column, there was a great letter describing some interesting things you can do with dowsing rods, including creating artificial ley lines. I was all excited about it until I remembered that I don't believe in dowsing OR ley lines. Oops. Caught up in the fun of the magazine again. It would be interesting if the first letter writer, who recently took up dowsing, was able to develop a double-blind test for dowsing that proves it can work. I'll believe it when he produces it, but I wish him luck.

One last note, the Loch Ness Hedge on the letters page makes me almost want to make one of those in my back yard. But for the work of growing a hedge that size and cutting it to look like a lake monster, I'd seriously consider it.

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Past Sunday Reviews -- Comics at Amazon.com -- Previews -- My Wishlist

Another No Bloggy Day

I've managed to fill my plate with more important stuff for once and so I can't spend any brain cells working on making this a pleasant place for you to read at the moment. I'll post some reviews tomorrow, but tonight... I got nothing.