Posted by me on Thursday, the 21st day of June, anno domini 2007 at 11:24 PM, local time.
Its interesting to me how a book can grab at you and pull you in. I started reading this newish (ok, I bought it new 5 or 6 months ago and it has sat on my queue since then) novel a couple days ago, but only got about 10-15 pages in, was tired and had a hard time focusing on the book. This was probably around 11:45pm or midnight or so. Not all that late, considering. The book sat there a few more days, unopened. I was just too tired to bother reading.
Last night, however, even though I was feeling a bit droopy-eyed, I thought I should really start reading it again and give it a bit more of a chance. Two hours later, I was wide awake and completely unconcerned that I would likely be a couple of hours late to work the next morning (not that I am usually concerned about such things anyway, as I’m sure many of you know). It was a very very good book. Still is, luckily, as these sorts of books are not short enough to finish in a single 4 or 5 hour stretch like some books not worth mentioning might be.
It is called Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. I’m not yet done with it, so I can’t tell if its the first book of a series or not. I have read the author’s only previous work before, and it was also a spectacular work of fantasy. I was quite pleased and recommended it to all my friends (it was Elantris). It was a standalone book, as far as I can tell, though certainly I would be interested in reading more in the same world. I think probably everybody who likes a good fantasy book should read these (and keep an eye on this author. He was brand new to the writing world a mere 2 years ago, I think.)
Uncle Orson reviewed Elantris back way before it even came out, and thats why I picked it up in the first place. For those of you not in the know, Uncle Orson reviews everything at that site, from books to music to plays, movies, boardgames, ice creams, stores, and even toilet paper, if I recall one writeup correctly. He’s been doing this since 2001 and has them all online for your perusal. Sometimes I agree, and sometimes I don’t, but he has gotten me to read books, watch movies, and see television shows I might never have found or bothered with before. And yes, I have mentioned him before. He is also a great science fiction writer, author of Ender’s Game, Prentice Alvin, Homecoming: The call of Earth, and other such gems.
Tags: elantris, fantasy, Mistborn, Sanderson, uncle orson
From "Those books which must be read"
Posted by me on Wednesday, the 20th day of June, anno domini 2007 at 11:13 PM, local time.
So, I was at McDonald’s the other day, since I was way too busy to actually make my own food, and on the way out, I noticed that the exit door was standing ajar, at least two inches. I thought, “That door is still broken? It’s been that way for at least two weeks!”
Suddenly, I was struck with the fact that I shouldn’t know that. I shouldn’t have gone to that McDonald’s enough in the past two weeks to realize that the door was broken. But, I had. That isn’t good. When I drive there, I tell myself that I am simply too busy to make my own food at home, but this is obviously not true. I have survived college on not much more than cereal, bread, cheese, eggs, and macaroni. These things do not take all that much effort to make, and in many cases take less time and effort than going to McDonald’s does. So, I can’t explain it.
To make it slightly worse (though I don’t know that it’s much worse), I always get the exact same thing when I go to McDonald’s. (I get the same thing whenever I go to any fast food restaurant, really, but thats not the issue. It is the choice I make at McDonald’s that I am really concerned with here.) I purchase a double cheeseburger, with no onions, a six-piece chicken McNugget box, with one container of honey mustard dipping sauce, and a small vanilla shake. I then remove the pickle from the cheeseburger and consume the lot. Those cheeseburgers are seriously not very good for you. The McNuggets would be much much better if they were just plain chicken (you know, without the breading and deep frying), and the vanilla shake is not nearly as good as a malt I could make at home, with real vanilla and malt powder. The honey mustard tastes ok, but I have like 8 variants of mustard at home right now, any one of which tastes better than McDonald’s poor attempt.
Today, after my softball game, we went to Brother’s bar, and I had another cheeseburger, as usual (only this one came with a fried egg and bacon…). What a healthy life I lead!
Sigh. Ah well, I’ll probably go back to both establishments and have similar meals again with the week. It was nice knowing you all. :-)
Tags: cheeseburger, mcdonalds, mcnuggets, vanilla
From "That which must be mocked"
Posted by me on Saturday, the 16th day of June, anno domini 2007 at 10:14 PM, local time.
Beethoven composed some great symphonies. Each and every one of them, I can listen to again and again, and I learn to appreciate them more and more each time. My particular favorite is the 9th, with full orchestra and choral. Its just spectacular, especially the fourth movement (as cliche as it sounds…). But, the fifth is also very excellent.
Recently on MPR (Classical Minnesota Public Radio – Streaming free online!), I heard a snippet of a rendition of the fifth symphony of Beethoven arranged for four hands on a grand piano. It was rather spectacular, and I immediately started searching for a recording. Unfortunately, I was unable to find one anywhere! I contacted the radio show, and apparently it was the radio host, who is also a composer and pianist, playing with someone else from the radio studio for the express purpose of the radio show. I was devastated! I did find the arrangement itself, Nos. 1-5 and Nos. 6-9, which I am sure I will buy sometime here. The problem with those, of course, is that as much as I would like to learn (and as much as my sister has offered to teach me), I cannot play piano. And I only have two hands! Pam offered to play the other half, but still, I cannot play, and so it wouldn’t be a very good thing that resulted.
Having said all that, if anyone knows of a good set of recordings of Beethoven’s symphonies arranged for piano, four hands, I would surely like to learn about it. Also, if there are some great piano players out there, who know someone else who can play the other half with them, and they’d like to record this and make it available for my listening enjoyment, that’d just be great.
Until then, I will just mourn silently. And remember.
Tags: beethoven, four hands, piano, symphonies
From "That which should be praised"
Posted by me on Saturday, the 16th day of June, anno domini 2007 at 12:50 AM, local time.
So, I gotta say, Cheesecake and Books is a great combination. I love bookstores; this is a well known fact. Also well known is my enjoyment of a good cheesecake. In Rochester, these two hobbies are combined in both Barnes and Nobles that we have here, where they have the lovely Cheesecake Factory/Starbucks combo cafe thingies in the stores. Every time I got to these places, whether I intend to or not, I usually end up buying a book or some music or something, and maybe a piece of cheesecake, possibly with a mocha or a cappuccino. They really have my number, apparently.
They like to change up the cheesecake selection, and some recent excellent pieces of culinary art include this month's Wild Strawberries and Cream, which is very delicious, and last month's Vanilla Bean Cheesecake (Need I say more?), and also a double chocolate creation that is also very very good. What will they tempt me with next?
So anyway, next time you are near a Barnes & Noble's bookstore, go inside! They have lots of great books! And chances are good that they will have lots of great cheesecake as well!
Tags: books, cheesecake, rochester, strawberries, vanilla
From "That which should be praised"
Posted by me on Friday, the 15th day of June, anno domini 2007 at 12:51 AM, local time.
So, I like to watch movies, as anyone who's seen my movie collection could tell you. They might also have a few things to say about my taste in movies. Some do not approve. However, there are many gems in my collection, and today I watched one, because I had not watched it in a while, and it is one of my favorite comedies: “Blast from the Past”
This movie was not a gigantic success in 1999 when it came out (as far as I recall), but it really is a terrific movie. Simple, funny, endearing… what more could one want? What? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles? It has all that, too! Well, I can't prove that. But anyway, it does have Brendan Fraser in a classic role, Alicia Silverstone as an adorable but helpful Pasadena girl (but much less annoying than her other such role), bomb shelters, lots of money and the things it can buy for you, transvestites on the street, a cult, swing dancing, Firefly's Mal, a random "happy" guy, and a hilarious Christoper Walken (as opposed to the non-hilarious Christopher Walken, which surely must exist, though I havn't found it yet).
Its simple comedy is easy to enjoy time and time again, and it's easy for me to identify with the main character (not because I have lived in a bomb shelter all my life, but because I grew up in a family with traditional values and skills that are no longer appreciated or valued by a large portion of the modern world, but when we were growing up, we didn't know this, and assumed everyone was as good and honest, studious, religious, and happy as we were).
Anyway, every time I watch this movie it makes me happy. I can think of no greater accolade than that. It has been out for so long, and the DVD so cheap on the shelves everywhere, that I cannot imagine people our age exist who have not seen this movie, but if you havn't I heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoys simple comedy and a bit of romance. And being happy. Everybody likes being happy, right?
Tags: blast from the past, christopher walken, movie, review
From "Those movies which should be seen"
Posted by me on Wednesday, the 13th day of June, anno domini 2007 at 11:11 PM, local time.
Ok, just a warning, this post is a little lame, and not filled with anything actually useful. You've been warned.
So, with my mythtv box up and running, and with getting TV shows online to watch, or from DVDs and such, I don't watch many commercials anymore. In fact, I pretty much try to avoid them at all costs. They really are a general waste of my time, and its so easy to get by without seeing them these days.
However, recently I accidentally let a show start running into commercial time before I hit the magic button, and saw a couple commercials. Two of note, really. And a bunch of other crappy ones. But two that were actually pretty funny. First, there is the one where this guy and girl are sitting in some restaurant and she is saying how good her drink is tasting and that he should try it, or get one of his own. He keeps refusing, and she finally pushes the drink in his face to get him to try it, only to see the image of the guy shimmer a bit and such, classic hologram interruptus. He's like, "You caught me, I'm actually at the game right now." And that's like the whole commercial. Pretty funny, though I really have no idea what they were trying to sell me, except maybe hologram displayer thingies?
The other one I saw that was pretty good was the one where this mom was looking in the garbage can and was appalled to find leftovers thrown away by her family — leftover minutes that is (little tiny orange clock thingies, I think?), and she goes on a tirade about the fact that they are still perfectly good minutes, they work just like new ones, etc, etc, some people don't have enough minutes to fully satisfy their needs, and here they are throwing away their extra ones. The kids are all like, "But those minutes are from September, they can't be good any more!" And the mom is like, "They work just as well as minutes from June!" Very funny. I don't know why. I really think rollover minutes are pretty stupid anyway. Just a gimmick. Few people actually use them unless your average minute consumption is like perfectly your plan amount, yet you have wide variance in your month to month calling time. Not very likely, in my experience. Everyone I know has like millions of rollover minutes left, and nobody ever uses them. My plan doesn't have them, and it took a while to convince the plan people that I didn't want them, and they should take them off my plan. They were like, "But they're rolloever minutes! Everybody wants that!" I was all like, "Nuh-uh. And take $10 off my bill." And they were all like, "Oh-kay…"
So in the end, commercials suck at selling things to me, and in general I hate the time they waste, but sometimes, every now and again, they can be pretty funny. Oh and by the way, I'm sure you would have all loved this post more if I had YouTube inserts to show the commercials, and I tried, I really did, but they are no where to be found on YouTube. Which is odd. You would think that commercial companies would be putting things like that on YouTube right away. Its like free advertising! Maybe YouTube doesn't like that sort of thing and would have made them take it down? I don't know, I had thought I had seen advertisements on there before.
The end.
Tags: commercials, holograms, rollover minutes, youtube
From "Tripe. Utter tripe."
Posted by me on Tuesday, the 12th day of June, anno domini 2007 at 4:36 PM, local time.
This is a quick notification that you should hopefully not have to wade through my complaints about my lack of air conditioning anymore, as the service guy came out and fixed it all up today. Once again, the lovely music of the air conditioning fan echoes throughout my apartment, and the temperature is already starting to drop. Praise God!
Apparently what happened was that someone stepped on the low voltage wire bundle running from my apartment out to the actual air conditioning unit, and pulled them part-way out of the air conditioner. This caused something in there to short out, and the transformer back at the furnace fan area blew. The wires were easily fixed and the transformer easily replaced (apparently), and we're back in business. I don't know who was really walking around by the air conditioning unit (nothing else is really there to get to: just a bunch of air conditioners, stones, shrubs, etc.), but hopefully they don't do it again. It really was not cool!
Tags: air conditioners, short, summer heat, transformer
From "That which should be praised"
Posted by me on Tuesday, the 12th day of June, anno domini 2007 at 12:07 AM, local time.
… that I don't almost forget until the very end of the day to blog. But, the fact that I am still here writing something up shows my present dedication!
Not a whole lot exciting new today, since I had to work through most of it. It does sound as though my air conditioning will be fixed tomorrow (or at least diagnosed), so that is good, if it happens. Its still hot here in Rochester. I try not to complain, but there is just so much heat to complain about!
In other news from several months ago, here is a great Dinosaur Comic that I had wanted to blog about. Its just so awesome! I don't really know why for sure, but somewhere around panel 5 I just start cracking up. I mean, come on: "It's a holiday for people who are GOOD ENOUGH, just not transcendental!" Its good stuff! And don't forget to read the mouse over text, and the Comments mailto: link subject text. And the title (its a pain, but you may have to read the source for that one).
There, 1 down, only about 70 to go on my unannotated list of things I was supposed to blog about but never quite got around to.
Tags: air conditioners, dinosaur comics, pi day, procrastination, rochester, summer, transcendental
From "Tripe. Utter tripe."
Posted by me on Sunday, the 10th day of June, anno domini 2007 at 11:24 PM, local time.
As you may have read, my air conditioning is not presently working, and today was rather hot out anyway, which would have been enough to make the temperature in my apartment rather uncomfortable. However, as today was apparently Jeremiah's cooking day, it was soon pushing 90 degrees or so at its worst point. Some of my friends further south (or from further south, anyway) may laugh at my discomfort in such a chilly temperature, but I assure you I almost died.
But that is really only a segue into what I was planning to write about. To combat this heat, I brought up a little fan I had obtained while in college for such situations and turned it on myself whilst I read. When growing up, we never had any air conditioning, and each summer was such a painful season for this reason that I can only assume my present dislike of the season stems from that. We always had fans going throughout the house to keep us as close to comfortable as was possible. While I sat reading in my chair, with some piano music playing in the background, constantly fighting for the aural spectrum with this simple little fan whirrring about, I was strongly reminded of my childhood summers, when I would similarly read at night with fans being heard everywhere, and my sister practicing her piano in the other room.
It is often strange to have such recollections, but pleasant. Well, I should get back to reading. It seems there is nothing else that can really be done under such conditions :)
P.S.: It looks funny, but is obviously frequently used enough to get past the spellchecker. I can only assume that it is a correct spelling: whirrring. (With three 'r's.) Or perhaps my spellchecker is off. I will assume instead that it is a correct spelling :-) That is far more fun to do!
Tags: air conditioners, fans, memories, reading, summer
From "Tripe. Utter tripe."
Posted by me on Sunday, the 10th day of June, anno domini 2007 at 2:30 AM, local time.
Do you like…. Malted milk shakes? Yes…
Do you like…. Cheese? Yes…
Do you like them… together? Ewww!!!!
Anyway, my daily post today (ignore the time, this is still saturday in my book), is a bit late, but it was much busier day today then I anticipated it being. Anyway, this morning I went to the farmer's market again, to see if they had some pepper plants, and they had some that I got, even though they weren't exactly what I wanted. I also go some local home made mozzerella cheese. Looks really good, I may try to make a pizza with it. I also tried to find fresh basil there, but no one had anything. Apparently it is not quite the time for basil. I had to buy that at the store instead. How embarrassing!
On the way home from that, I got a strange craving for a malted milk shake, and thus went to Target and got some Malted Milk, some all natural vanilla bean ice cream, (and some basil), and went home and mixed it all (not the basil) up with some milk with my immersion blender and had one of the best malted milk shakes I've had in a long while. And I can make them whenever I want! It's like, perfect!
But yes, a busy day. Early in the afternoon, there was a free concert from the Rochester Community Band in central park, so a bunch of us went there to support our friends in that band (yay Jim and Pam, and Zane if you would just go and practice everyonce in a while…). It was a really great day to be outside in the park (with the shade and all). I could have really just sat there for a while. It was very relaxing. While listening to the music, I took the opportunity to knit in public. Just trying to test out some sock yarn and needles I just got and check out my gauge. I've not dealt with such small needles (or such small wool yarn) before, but it went pretty well.
After they made me leave the park, I went to the book store to get the book club book, and ended up getting some Prokofiev CDs and some wild strawberry cheesecake. Man that was pretty good tasting stuff! Also went to a neat little downtown corner grocery store and meat shop, and found that they have a pretty nice selection of meats behind their meat counter, and a quite awesome selection of cheeses. Next time there is a cheese party, I know where I am going. That's right, I'm talking about Just Rite Foodstore on 2nd street and 6th avenue. Very cool. Never knew that was there before.
Later in the day, some of us went to Red Lobster for some dinner, and it was ok. The clam chowder (New England, of course) was quite good, and the lobster tasted really good, too. The steak, while properly medium rare inside, was somehow pretty not cool on the outside, tough and crunchy, and it just didn't make me as happy as it could have. After that, I learned that I am still as horrible at mini-golf as I am at regular golf, but I enjoy them both quite a bit. Mini-golf does have the nice distinction of being cheaper to play though.
Finally, a few of us sat down and talked about how we will certainly all be rich once we retire, and won't it be awesome when we buy castles overlooking our own villages when we do retire, because that's likely what will happen, right? Also, how to make Rochester a thriving and growing city, and how its not going to happen, but wouldn't it be cool if it did? And then it was 1:30am. That's how these conversations go sometimes. It can get tiring.
Tags: cheese, farmer's market, food, knitting, knitting in public, malted milk shake, mini-golf, new england clam chowder, red lobster, rochester, rochester community band
From "Tripe. Utter tripe."
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