Blog: Take Three

I've been kicking around the idea of starting a book review blog as 1) a fun little project and 2) a way to encourage myself to finish the books I start. Just call me short attention span girl.  I wanted to give it a theme, but I wasn't sure if "Twilight-Free Zone" was enough to carry a blog.  I intended to get to work on it right after we had put everything right by electing Paul Ryan Mitt Romney.  Yeah.  So, anyway.....

There's been a lot of talk of a third party, which values should we jettison, can social cons and fiscal cons live together in peace, etc.  Which gave me an idea.  If I will be making big decisions about new political parties and new agendas, if might behoove me to brush up on... well, everything related to history, politics and economics.

Of course, I don't have the time or, frankly, the inclination to sit down with multi-volume tomes on these topics.  So the tentative plan is to look for popular works, YouTube videos, documentaries, pod-casts, etc that can enlighten without taunting me, unread, from the bookshelf like Basic Economics is doing right now.  786 pages.  Maybe when the little one goes to kindergarten.

So, first up: The Forgotten Man, by Amity Shlaes, has been sitting, neglected, by my bed for a long time.  I'm just a few chapters in and.... well, let's just say things are looking kind of familiar.

Free Audiobook Downloads

Sync is bringing you two free YA audiobooks a week, all summer long.  Alas, the summer is almost over, but there are still a few weeks to go. Each pairing includes one modern novel and one classic.  Very cool concept. This week's books are Daughter of Smoke and Bone and A Tale of Two Cities. Check it out.

You're So Lucky

Roanoke Speech, edited for clarity:

Oh sure, you used the government roads to drive to your job and your neighbor used them to drive to his meth dealer. That doesn't mean you're a hard worker. You're just lucky.

OK, maybe you used the Internet to find a job, get a Master's degree or market your product all over the world and your neighbor used it to surf for free pron. That doesn't mean you're smart. You're just lucky.

All this luck could just as easily have blessed your neighbor.  In fact, if life was fair, it would have. Just look at the poor guy. He obviously needs it more than you do.

So, just give your profits to the people smart enough to get a job in government so they don't have to work hard, and we'll take care of everything.  You're just lucky to have us looking out for you.

All is revealed

Ah!  This story about the mighty Mia Love:

She is taking on six-term congressman Jim Matheson, who currently holds the distinction of being a Democrat representing one of the most Republican districts in the country.

explains this head-scratcher:

Rep. Jim Matheson (Utah) on Tuesday became the first Democrat to declare his support for placing Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.

Send Sample Now

Oh, how I have come to love the words "Send sample now."  This has become my favorite Kindle feature. (Well, besides the ability to throw 100 books in my purse as I run out the door. That's cool, too)  If, while trolling the internet, a book even kind-a-sort-a strikes my fancy, I have the sample sent to my Kindle.  I can then review it at my leisure. If it looks good, I stick it in a file for potential future buys. If not, I delete it.

Fool me once....

Not being mathematically inclined at all, I took Earth Science in college.  This was a lab course for the liberal  arts types.  In this course, circa 1988,  I learned many interesting "facts."  For example, I learned that the planet was going to run out of fossil fuel..... by the year 2000.  I also learned about the coming population explosion. People would be dying in the streets of starvation... by the year 2000.  And the graph that demonstrated the population explosion was, naturally, a hockey stick.

Being a credulous youth of 18, I was horrified. But, life intervened and I soon forgot the coming apocalypse, only to remember it 20-something years later, when confronted with the new coming apocalypse.  Hey!  Whatever happened to those old coming apocalypses?  

"Shut up," they explained.

Meyer Lemons

I always figured that Meyer lemons were not available in the store because they weren't as good as real lemons and no one wanted them.  I just learned that they are, in fact, a pretty awesome fruit. They are not generally available outside the southwest due to their delicate skin, which makes them difficult to ship.

This new makes me even more exited about the south-facing window in our new house.  For the first time ever, I won't be living in middle of a forest and may actually be able to grow some house plants.  Meyer lemon just made the candidate list.

Vet School Open House

UT's College of Veterinary Medicine is having it's annual open house this Saturday, April 14th from 9-4.  It's worth checking out. Here's my post on last year's event.

Johannes Cabal

I recently listened to the audio book versions of Johannes Cabal: Necromancer and Johannes Cabal: Detective, by Jonathan L. Howard.  These were right up my alley, in that they were dark, but not too dark, and laugh-out-loud funny in places.  Imagine a less creepy Neil Gaiman. 

In Necromancer, we meet Cabal, a brilliant scientist who has sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for knowledge of necromancy.  Alas, necromancy does not work quite right for the soulless, so Cabal wants it back.  A bored Satan makes him an offer:  If Cabal can collect 100 souls in one year, he can win back his own. To this end, the Devil lends him an evil, traveling carnival, a la Something Wicked This Way Comes.

In Detective, Cabal is escaping a death sentence in a foreign land by disguising himself as a government official and catching a ride on the last aeroship out of a county descending into civil war.  Unfortunately, he finds himself on board with a murderer.

Both books were lots of fun. I'm looking forward to reading the third book in the series: Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute.

Celebrity Feminists Embrace the Stereotype

It's like an Onion satire of a humorless, feminist scold... but it's real. 

There's a lot wrong with this piece, but I liked this line: "His longtime favorite term for women, "femi-nazi," doesn't even raise eyebrows anymore..."

 Um....ladies?  Rush doesn't call all women femi-nazis.  Just you.  Your creepy desire to set yourselves up as arbiters of acceptable speech makes me think he's got a point.

The Start Up of You

The Start Up Of You: Adapt To The Future, Invest In Yourself, And Transform Your Career by Reid Hoffman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reid Hoffman is the co-founder of LinkedIn, so I thought this book might just be an extended commercial, but, in fact, it was quite useful. It helps the reader understand what a network is, how to build one and how to use it in a non-creepy, mutually beneficial way.

Mitt at CPAC just now:

"I served in government, but I didn't inhale."  Cute. And really good speech overall. 

Knoxville Man Arrested For Death Threat Against AZ Sheriff

Don't let your yankee friends tell you Tennessee is full of right-wing wackos.  We have left-wing wackos too:

The postings read in part: "I plan to kill Arpaio first. He will be filled with a thousand bullet holes before the year is out. I promise you this. He won't **** with Obama. He will be buried 10 feet under and his whole family will be murdered along with him."

This is like totally accurate.... you know?

I'm not sure this is a completely modern phenomenon.  I recall teachers encouraging my junior high self to make declarative statements. "Are you asking me, or telling me"?, they would inquire.  Yet still, I persisted:  "Paraguay? 42?  Thomas Jefferson?"  Whatever the question, I answered with another question.

Either way, this video completely captures the desire to achieve consensus before committing to a position.



via Bookworm

Never Enough

Am I the only one who was a bit disappointed to find out that Mitt Romney only makes $21 million a year?  We'd need at least 23 Romneys taxed at 100% just to pay off that bad loan we made to Solyndra. 

I'm generally against higher taxes, but somehow...... I thought there'd be more.  It still surprises me every time I see how little money is available to pay off our enormous debt.

Speaking of which:  Bill Whittle strikes again.

Charles Murray has a new book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, on the growing cultural divide between the working class and the upper class. You can take a quiz to see if you reside firmly within the bubble of the cultural elite or if you are in touch with the rest of America. Interesting and depressing stats at the link.  

How Thick Is Your Bubble? Guest Score » 9 out of 20 (45% ) Result On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 9 and 12. In other words, even if you're part of the new upper class, you've had a lot of exposure to the rest of America. Quiz School Take this quiz & get your score

How Thick Is Your Bubble? » Quiz Question Maker

I'd love my new Kindle more....

if it did the dishes after dinner, so I had more time to read.

Mission Aborted

I need an easy way of keeping track of what's happening on the UT campus.  A planned trip to the McClung Museum was thwarted by an unforeseen sporting event which made parking impossible.  I thought football season was over, so we'd be safe. UT's homepage noted nothing of interest.  What's a girl to do?