Recently in Books Category
The plan was for Patsy to read it first. She was still reading something else and had gone down for a nap when it came in the mail yesterday. The old axiom is if you snooze, you lose. It's all hers now and I can start reading reviews and spoilers and whatnot. Picked up the first one at her suggestion and stayed with subsequent ones because they have really become cultural events. It's been a fun ride. Bravo, J.K. Rowling.
Today's photo was actually taken Thursday from just outside our workplace. Lake Pontchartrain is about a mile or so from our door. I came out too late to get any decent dramatic pictures. This was taken just before it dissipated. A funnel cloud is like a tornado over water. They rarely come ashore.
Funnel Cloud - July 19, 2007
46 days until football season ...
Quote of the Day
The world owes J.K.Rowling a big thank you. It's been truly magical.
Deirdre Donahue, USA Today
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Ahhh, the final weeks before training camp, sleeping in on Sundays, getting work done at work, paying attention to the significant other (and not just to get her to shut up before halftime ends)."
Is Albus Dumbledore really dead? Who is R.A.B. and what are his/her intentions? Plan to get in line at the bookstore at midnight on the day of its release? How will this all end?
We're just going to go the Amazon route. It will be in our mailbox same day. I also don't intend to try to read it in one sitting. I've never done that even once in my life. Speculation has J.K. Rowling writing other books after this release about the wizard world she's created but I think this one due out on July 21 will do it for me. I've read them all so far and want to know how it turns out but I don't have much interest beyond that. She's had a good run.
Quote of the Day
Secondly, he sent his army of dissent-crushing Protein-Bots over here to belittle and debase me in front of my reader.
Christopher Ross, Waking the Giant
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Do you know what my homework is for one of my classes? I've been ordered to watch the Superbowl (bad), in it's entirety (worse), WITH the commercials (Oh, the horror!)"
Why didn't I ever get homework like this? -Rob
Vlad the Impaler didn’t live there but is thought to have "visited" the castle so now it’s called Dracula’s castle?
While known and marketed as "Dracula's Castle," the Bran Castle never belonged to Prince Vlad the Impaler, who inspired Bram Stoker's Count Dracula character, but the prince is thought to have visited the medieval fortress.
P.T. Barnum is alive and well and living in Romania.
For the record, I prefer the vampire stories that emanate from the Prince Vlad legends like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian to Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles but I hope I’m done with vampires for a while.
Reggie Bush can’t wear his famous Number 5 in the NFL. I suppose he’ll have to make another number famous, instead. Fine by me but I still think the rules on that are ridiculous.
106 days until football season...........................
Quote of the Day
This is a terrible thought, for if so, what does it mean that he could control the wolves, as he did, by only holding up his hand for silence? How was it that all the people at Bistritz and on the coach had some terrible fear for me? What meant the giving of the crucifix, of the garlic, of the wild rose, of the mountain ash?
Bram Stoker, Dracula - Jonathan Harker's Journal
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "My dear, it never rains but it pours. How true the old proverbs are. Here am I, who shall be twenty in September, and yet I never had a proposal till today, not a real proposal, and today I had three. Just fancy!"
Started The Old Curiosity Shop Thursday night and put The Pickwick Papers down. Both by Dickens but The Old Curiosity Shop is a lot more readable for me. Unfortunately, I think I may have read too much about it. I even regret reading most of Andrew Lang’s introduction in my copy. The Pickwick Papers will go back to the bookshelf and probably stay there another ten years before I pick it up again.
About classics: For the record, Dracula by Bram Stoker rates as the best one I ever read. Jonathan Harker’s eye witness account of Count Dracula leaving the castle stands as the most chilling experience I ever got reading a book.
Stayed up late last night watching Overboard. Had seen it before a good while back. It’s not a bad movie. It’s a bit charming actually, but there is nothing original about it.
Yard work awaits. I’ll pick the last of the tomatoes and pull up the bushes today as well.
Servers were down for a good part of the morning. The email server came online first (About 10 minutes ago as I begin typing this entry). Of the 22 email messages, 21 were spam. At least ten (Make that eleven now) of them had something to do with Viagra. Is there anyone on the planet that doesn’t know about Viagra or where to get it yet? If so, send me your email address. I’ll forward all of this fine material to you free of charge.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “thursday, july 10, 2003: "the recluse""
Great pictures! -Rob
Started reading Pickwick Papers over the weekend. I’m finding it a very tough read. I’m waiting on The Old Curiosity Shop to arrive. There's a line in the Mark Knopfler song, What It Is, "The ghost of Dirty Dick is still in search of Little Nell". I think Little Nell is from The Old Curiosity shop and I was looking for a classic to read anyway. However, I find many of the classics unbearably difficult to read sometimes and this may have been a waste of money.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “I'd been dying to get a decent glimpse of a Wimbledon tennis match. In Japan you have to stay up to some un-godly hour to watch it and I'd never managed to keep myself awake. Yes, you might say why didn't I record a match and to that I have no answer (except that I've never used my video player before!)."
The weather came yesterday after I had finished yard work and continued most of the night and through this morning. I know because I was up for most of it. The mess I made in the yard is not quite as bad as the mess I cleaned up. Got company coming tonight for a BBQ. Will probably also watch some of the Pepsi 400 NASCAR Race at Daytona although we didn’t really discuss that.
Got the Led Zeppelin DVD today. Watched some of it but fast-forwarded quite a bit because I didn’t have time to watch it from beginning to end. Want to make sure I have all of the audio settings correct and watch it at optimum volume before commenting on it.
Finally finished reading the new Harry Potter novel just a little while ago. We got it the Monday after it was released but finding any time to read has been difficult. I envy those who can sit down and read a book cover to cover. I have never done that. While I’m on that subject, I’d like to thank all of those early finishers for revealing details of a book that just about everyone will read or is reading, especially those who claimed to be reading Harry Potter for the first time just to “see what the fuss was about”. And then, there is the occasional pot-shot. Classy.
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: “Anyhoo, in keeping with our style of living in small pads, Mannering was no exception....one day we ran a tape measure around the place and came up with somewhere between 600-700 sq. ft., one of the biggest places we have ever had!"
Instapundit is heading to the Caymens and his blog will be dormant for a time. My sister-in-law and her husband go there for the same reason. Should be "3rd" Glenn, not "3d", unless you meant three dimensional. No typos, remember? Cheap shot courtesy of yours truly. Just kidding, though. The grammar and typo police would probably find something here without a lot of trouble. Like him, I think it worthwhile to make the effort to eliminate typos.
Ordered some DVD’s (Field of Dreams, Led Zeppelin, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and Roman Holiday) this morning. Hope they’re here in time for the long weekend next week. DVD Empire has free shipping if you order four titles or more. Not bad prices, either. I've seen all of them except for the Led Zeppelin DVD. I will definitely want to watch that one at full volume. The wife and cats will have to lock themselves in the bedroom.
Totally wet here in Bush. Can’t say I’m sorry about it. I didn’t plan to do much today anyway. Catch up on some reading and website maintenance. Pretty dull stuff.
Blog of the day here from a teenaged girl visiting her homeland, Iran.
Quote from said blog: "In Iran not only do they disrespect people’s privacy, they don’t give them any sort of freedom. They easily enter one’s private life and question them rudely."
Quite wonderful. -Rob
