Aron 2 Blue

Making Comics by Scott McCloud I know I can't put in the time, but this is one of the things I've wondered about doing. I like deconstructing comics, and coming out seeing what has been done a bit clearer. The Thief The Queen of Attolia (up next) The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner My wife's sister gave these to us. Young-adult targeted, still a pretty good fantasy yarn. WorldChanging (A User's guide for the 21st century) by lots of people. Started. This is where I want to go. If I don't do it, do I really think someone else will step up instead, for exactly the thing I might have done? Still, I'm annoyed by fallacies that are presented as basic facts. It'll be work to separate the gems here. The Lying Stones of Marrakech, by Stephen Jay Gould. Started, keeps getting pushed down the stack. Natural history essays, I enjoy, but they aren't holding my attention like Wonderful Life did.

Fun! I got my hands on an Eee PC for a few days. The 900 has a 8.9 inch screen, and most significantly it´s 1024 pixels wide. That´s enough that most web pages render normally without side scrolling. I find all the web sites I´ve visited to be usable, perhaps with google reader getting a bit cramped. I was actually most curious about the keyboard, which is why I´m writing this post. I´m finding that most letters are easy to hit without making typos, but the extra keys are the challenge - I´m retyping my quotes and dashes and things several times, and erasing the stray Enter keys that show up when I try to kit the shift key or ´ key. But after just a few paragraphs I´m getting the hang of it, so I don´t really thing it would be a problem to get used to. I find touchpads a bit annoying, and this one is no exception. Mostly, I find that when I´m trying to drag or just move the cursor a long distance, it seems to think I´ve tapped - random clicks in the middle of my intended action tend to...

Is Clancy as rich as J.K. Rowling, of the Harry Potter Empire? We know he didn't make as much as an author, because Rowling was the first author to break $1B. But maybe with his video game company, he's close to that? I would guess he's a $100 millionaire, which puts him within an order of magnitude. Patriot Games is gripping, fast paced, and written before editors were afraid to tell him to cut stuff. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's dated, because it deals with the IRA as terrorists, and with the lack of terrorist attacks on US soil. I watched the movie right after finishing the book. Contrasts with the movie were numerous. Especially the end. I thought the book flowed better at the end. It was more complicated, because there were a lot of terrorists, instead of just four in the movie, and they actually captured Jack and the prince for a bit in the book, until they were rescued by Jack's bud, Robby. The neat wrap up in the movie where all the bad guys die (surprise,...

Politics Lost: How American Democracy Was Trivialized By People Who Think You're Stupid at PBSwap Author: Joe Klein Fun, mostly a tour of the last several presidential campaigns, and what the author/reporter knows about the influence of pollsters and consultants on the candidates campaigns, for better or worse. I'm cringing right after the Iowa caucus to hear every single damn Democrat say that they are the candidate for 'change', after Obama won. Stupid to try to rip Obama's consistent message, when it hasn't been their message. Of course, Hillary is trying to say I'm for change, but I have experience too! And I've changed things, too! I don't think people are buying it, much. I wrote that on Jan 8, and I agree now. Seems like Douglas Rushkoff agrees with me. Or rather I agree with him.

Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, Bk 1) at PBSwap Author: Patricia Briggs It's a page turner. Modern day setting, with magical creatures of all sorts trying to hide and thrive in modern settings. In this book, murder and dominance, a bit of lust, and mysterious crime solving in werewolf packs. Strangely, even though I've not followed the comic books, only the movies, I found strong similarities to the X-men. The 'fae' have been exposed to the public and media, but the stronger/more dangerous magical beings like werewolves and vampires are still secret. Criminal forensics has made the existence of werewolves an 'open secret', in that the FBI as an organization seems to know of their existence. Sounds a _lot_ like the mutants being exposed to media attention in X-men, and the backlash and reaction. I think it lets the author explore some interesting moral dilemmas, but there's not much of that in this first book. I was bothered by the overwhelming presence of viole...

From the National Safety Council: Odds of Dying . One of those things you never know when you'll need. Update: new link.

Someday I might get the hang of this. I put out two new posts, Kavalier and Clay and Coffin for Dimitrios, but their dates stuck at when I started the post, not when I finished it. So my recent posts were inserted a while back. Weird.