The New Musings of a Quiet Geek

Welcome to the 750th edition of my musings! To celebrate the occasion, I'm giving you a two topic post AND the return of the exceedingly rare, if not now nonexistent, book review! The most recent trip to the Four Lands was the spectacular Dark Legacy of Shannara trilogy. Author Terry Brooks has said that after he finishes the next three stand-alone novels, he wants to write something else for awhile.  And who can blame him? I was reading the previous two-booker in the hospital and my neurosurgeon, after seeing the book on the table, commented, "He's still writing those? I read those as a kid!" I myself started reading his books the summer between junior high and high school when I was recovering from back surgery.  (Actually it was his less financially, and maybe creatively, successful Magic Kingdom of Landover that I started with first thanks to my aunt working at a book distribution warehouse/center...) I should note that the last time he wrote something differen...

I actually wrote this blog post in my head months, or maybe years ago, but decided not to share the thoughts with you all.  But, now with the seizure meds or whatever, the filters for what I think you want to read and what I want to talk about are gone so... A review I read of the How I Met Your Mother finale mentioned in passing that his friends hung out in a bar like on this show and not in a coffee house like on Friends . I would say, given the choice, my friends are more likely to go to a coffeehouse. (Strictly speaking, it might be accurate to say a 70/30 split...) This comment mad me think of other TV shows and why or why not I liked them. Judging by what's popular in specifically the sitcom genre these days, my family life was/is completely different than everyone else's.  My family is more like the Huxtables or the Keatons than the family on Raising Hope for instance.  (Yes, we all have at least one advanced degree and watch PBS...).  As I know I've men...

So to update everyone on my post-surgery recovery: I have returned to Portland and gone back to work. Still on painkillers and not at 100% energy-wise but I'm feeling well enough for my non-high energy life so woo hoo? Amos the cat is still making me pay for leaving him. Complicating matters, I don't have the energy to fight with him.  He could be pretty fat when all is and and done.  Anyway, he got up on the cabinets again after a catnip fix but got down before I could snap a picture. Oh well... News on the new fall season are emerging.  Really, the only two shows I care about given the axe were Body of Proof  and Vegas so that's nice .  Honestly, after their cast shake-up, Body of Proof 's writing went down hill. The first 3 or 4 episodes seemed derivative of Castle and this season mind you!  I think they hit their stride after that though. This week's episode was probably the best of the season. When the period drama Vegas was announced with it's ...

Last Sunday, and I can't believe I didn't post about this, I went to a workshop on energy conservation tips for church congregations. A 3-hour workshop. May energy was sapped after that...I'm glad I went though. My friend needed the moral support from her friends and I was the only one to show up. The presenter of the PowerPoint (Yeah, that's how Firefox wants to spell it...) reminded me of my uncle but a bit more of a snob know-it-all. I think he was probably a lax Catholic as he seemed to suggest we're all about the building and not spiritual matters. After that and a Q&A, they decided a tour would be a good idea though it was held at my church so I declined. They also asked if I wanted to be a part of their board. Um, no... Not that I really could afford to but it was a nice day so I walked do to the Old Port and bought a couple CDs at ye olde local music shoppe. I was really looking for a good deal on the Pretenders new one as even Amazon is selling it at a...

So far, my Thanksgiving weekend has been quite different. My roommate and I had my parents, grandmother and uncle over for the actual meal. My aunt/his mother had to work but she provided the chocolate cream pie and got a plate later. As is usual when my family gets together, we laughed a lot. My father told this story he heard on the radio where astronauts have this machine that turns their urine into drinkable water but it's still being perfected so it's still 10% urine. They compensate by using Tang! Supposedly, it tastes good... Yesterday included going to Applebee's for lunch with more family followed by going to my grandparents for more pie and conversation. That was nice actually and devoid of annoying weirdness so yay! Last night, we went down to see the annual "Lighting of the Holiday Tree Ceremony." They call it thus to be PC but aside from "The Dreidel Song" and the universally accepted "I Love Mud." It was all Christmas. Be acc...

Related in the order it appears in my head: 1. My parents and I watched two movies on TV. the 1939 Hunchback of Notre Dame with Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara; who isn't Scarlett's sister, we explained to my father, because Scarlett is a fictional character...This was on TCM so it was unedited. I thought it was being shown because of Halloween approaching but my feeling at the time of that thought was that this movie is even less of a Halloween movie than Frankenstein since it's just about a guy who's deaf and deformed. It turns out it was actually shown because of RKO's anniversary which is a much better reason. I loved the part where Quasimodo was throwing stones off the bell tower on the attacking peasants and then, when he dumped the vat of molten metal, I laughed so hard! 2. We also saw The 40 Year Old Virgin on NBC. (With an 8pm start time no less!) Yeah the language was edited out ("Forget you!") but I really don't think it's appr...

I was reading TV Guide 's review of Wall-E yesterday and I really don't agree with it. They suggest that it's the best Pixar film to date. I think the exact opposite. They particularly liked that it shows humans will be fat and lazy a millennium to two from now. My thought is "Well, yeah..." but this is not really what I want from a cartoon. You know what I would like from a movie? Dialogue. Even silent movies have more than this movie. If you compare the latest cartoon movies, Kung Fu Panda had many big name stars while Wall-E had John Ratzenberger, Jeff Garlin and Kathy Najimy; in supporting roles! If you want to see a Pixar movie, better choices would be The Incredibles or Finding Nemo . Recently, I finished The Eyes of the Beholders , a Star Trek: The Next Generation novel by A. C. Crispin whose Sarek is one of my two favorite Star Trek novels. Being new at that time, it takes places early in the third season. It was a good book subplots that were in...

I'll write more at a later date but I so had to share the following video:

Last night while we were watching TV, there was an ad on the SciFi Channel advertising this week's Saturday night movie. The title of this is called Bone Eater . Even if this movie was on Spike, the genre of this movie would not be horror. Bone Crusher. Bone Breaker. Even Shattered Bone wold have been fine but Bone Eater? ::Shakes Head:: Anyone who's been around the two of us knows how immature we are when we're together, and living together could possibly have made it worse, so this was a total laugh riot for us. "Is this Hall and Oates comeback single?" Material, including book description and author photo as well as the actual manuscript, has been submitted. I'm getting very excited now. I'm not expecting the book to win any awards or make me rich over night but this has been a dream of mine for years. I hoped 30 would be a good year but I never expected anything like this. What will I dream about now?

Reading a friend's blog recently, I realized that, despite things in my life going at snail's pace, I've probably never been happier. I love my volunteer job which only confirms two things about me: I want to be a librarian. Too many people in my age bracket don't really know what they want. Some think they know yet aren't happy now that they're doing it, some think they know but don't make the attempt to see if they're right for legitimate reasons like they can't afford to right now or not so legitimate reasons such as they're too scared so I find it satisfying that I know what I want. The trick is now finding a way to make it financially a reality. I'm working on it but, meanwhile, I realized the second thing about me: I don't need money to be happy. Of all the jobs I've had, it was the volunteer jobs and the internships that tapped into my interests. Given how our society works, most would probably argue that I need to change my at...

Since one of my readers' husbands works for the Post Office, I will try to be as diplomatic as possible but there was an incident yesterday that rather pissed me off. Granted, it was maybe 20% my own fault. I was charged on my way home from work to go to the post office and mail off a Inter-Library Loan package. This was the second time I had done this; for work I mean. The first time I did it I was told specifically to hand it to the guy at the desk despite the fact we have a postal machine. I felt stupid standing in line for no apparent reason. This time, I thought "Why don't I just put it in the box and save time?" It wasn't until I had already dropped the package in that I noticed the 13 ounce limit sign. How long has that been effect? And what is the purpose of that? Anthrax can weight much less than that and every package over 13 ounces must be a bomb... It also occurred to me later that maybe the weight issue has to do with what kind of truck they use but i...

I promised myself I would no longer rant about the trivial but, well, maybe I blew that already with the "SpongeBob No-Pants" post so allow me a few moments to ask, what the bloody hell was America thinking voting off Melinda Doolittle? Admittedly, I watched American Idol , only sporadically, as usual frankly, but there were at least three women with talent this year. Only Jordin made it to the final. Melinda was the best by far. Now, maybe the audience figured that Melinda needed less help to get an album out which is definitely true but Blake sucked, OK? I was not impressed by his Maroon 5 or his rapping. And he looks like a boy band reject but that not his fault entirely I'm sure... I also realize only 12 year old girls actually vote on these things and they probably thought he was hot. Whether he can sing or not is irrelevant. This statement is backed up by what constitutes as "popular" in today's music... Was it a slam against Simon and the judges? They...

Let me tell you something about my life. OK, now ends the Indigo Girls reference... Tuesday-My parents were visiting for reasons many of you know and the rest probably will eventually, so we did many an errand such as get a new bus pass which I've used quite a lot already and a new cell phone. Yes, I now have a cell phone for emergency purposes. I am never walking over a mile in a nor'easter again. No way in Hell. I tried to get a non-driver ID for the state for which I reside but apparently the ID I have doesn't count as proper identification which is very lame indeed. Also, yes, I'm not a minor but "parent or guardian" was on the list and my mother was there. WTF? So now, I need to get my birth certificate out of the safe or get married to get this stupid thing. I probably wouldn't care but the ID I have expires in October which I guess means I won't be able to not drive... Wednesday, my parents and my grandmother came to see my apartment and then ...

As of this afternoon, I now own, when the final volume arrives in the mail, the entire He-man and the Masters of the Universe series on DVD, all bought off eBay. Now that it's complete, I'll probably cool it with the buying for awhile until money comes in more regularly. (I'm going to damn sure try anyway...) Like the toy store chain Child World, this series was a link to my childhood and my grandmother whom I have a few other fond memories of. (Two of my readers understand exactly what I'm referring to.) The three of us would sit on the floor in front of the TV at our grandmother's and watch the show. (I had to watch the show there as I didn't have cable at the time and this was before there was an independent channel in Maine, later to become Fox then WB and now The CW, to show this stuff but I digress...) Watching the series now, I am reminded just how good cartoons were back in the day. They had action but they also had a moral lesson that is seriously lack...

Last night, we took a break from He-man and the Masters of the Universe to watch House . During a commercial break, they had a Burger King commercial where we see a man stand up from his bath asking his wife or girlfriend to guess who he was with a sponge on his head. She gives up and he reveals he's "Spongebob No Pants!" The narrator then talks about the new Spongebob Squarepants toys now available. Excuse me? I swear society has gone down the toilet...

Saturday night, we went to see The DaVinci Code . I liked it. One: the book is a work of fiction so everything in it isn't necessarily true anyway so the Catholic Church should just shut the hell up. It is true that they also don't acknowledge Jesus had a brother, an early leader in the Christian Church, which has been recently proven, because it destroys their belief Mary never had sex. Ever. Could have Jesus gotten some with Mary Magdalene and knocked her up? Why not? I mean there are several places in the Bible where he acted like a normal human... As to the movie itself, acting by the supporting players impressed me more than the main actors. Sir Ian McKellan rocked as did token French actor Jean Reno. (If a movie needs a French actor, there he is.) Paul Bettany did a remarkable job as Silas considering what a wiseass he is in real life. Tom Hanks was fine and it was good to get the old Tom back after such films as Road to Perdition , which was a good film but you know ...

Ain't that the truth? There are literally days where I either don't even want to get out of bed or days I realize I just shouldn't have. Right this second, I'm happy but just an hour ago I wasn't. In the shower I pondered the concept of meaningless sex. I mean if I'm not destined to find that special someone until I'm fifty or something that's not going to give me a lot of time for spreading the family name or genes. This is where meaningless sex comes in. Ideologically speaking, I'm against this concept. Truthfully, I have only considered pre-marital sex (or at least sex with someone I definitely would never marry ever) at my most horniest and even then it sometimes was with a bag over her head... Then another concept that is more excepted by 1950's society came to my mind. Meaningless dating. You laugh but this concept has always been foreign to me. The closest I've ever come to it is when I asked Smonkess to the S...

Last night's Charmed was probably one of the best episodes of the season. Wyatt already rocks and now it turns out he's the true weilder of Excalibur? That rocks even harder. Holly Marie Combs is the best actress on a Aaron Spelling series ever. (My apologies to Catherine Hicks and Jenny Garth.) She actually conveyed successfully how the sword's power was controlling her. I was disapppointed Lady Vader was not on IM last night. Being the King Arthur expert that she is, I would have liked to hear her thoughts on how King Arthur, the sword and the Lady of Lake is real but not Merlin or anything else aparently. Convienent that Chris was loaded up with other things to do. I think the writers were afraid that if they had him in the episode they'd be forced to reveal a secret or two. This development with Wyatt lends credence to Chris being after Wyatt before he becomes completely invulnerable to attack. Of course, that "all my life" comment he made a few ...