text:
I'm not being silly. That's why I'm on the table. — Harriet Sammis
Great Joy: 09/30/10
Harriet's got the holidays on her brain right now. She's been wanting to read stories about Christmas and Hanukkah. One of her first choices was Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo.
The book takes place during WWII in a large city. Frances and her mother live in an apartment while her father is away fighting in the war. Frances has a part in the upcoming Christmas pageant but she is preoccupied by the organ grinder who has come to street corner across from her bedroom window.
The story's about charity during hard times. Frances can see that the organ grinder has no where to go even during the cold snowy nights and she wants to help. Her mother though, alone and feeling vulnerable and stressed with her husband oversees is understandably reluctant to offer help. Frances though persists and comes to a small compromise which is revealed at the end.
All of this is backed up with beautiful illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline. It's one of those books that can be read once for the words and again just for the pictures.
Queen of Candesce: 09/29/10
For the 2009-10 Canada Reads challenge I started reading Karl Schroeder's Virga series. In typical fashion I read the series completely out of order. I stared with the final book, The Sunless Countries and went back to the beginning with Sun of Suns. Now I'm at the second book, Queen of Cadesce.
In the previous book Venera Fanning fell to her presumed death. Except she's living inside an artificial world. So instead of going splat, she's burned by a man made sun and lands on the crumbling remains of Spyre.
Queen of Cadensce certainly kept my attention better than Sun of Suns did. Venera on her own comes alive. We are left with her thoughts on revenge and survival as she explores the ruins of Spyre. Although falling apart, Sypre is inhabited. It's a ghost town in the making with the closed up estates of crumbling mansions of once great families.
Spyre is as much a character as her inhabitants and Venera Fanning herself. I love Schroeder's world building and I felt I had more time to explore in this book than in the first.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: 09/28/10
Ever stall on reading a book because you're in a mental tug of war? That's what happened with me and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. On the one hand, I loved the cover and the synopsis sounded exactly like my kind of book. On the other hand, I'd struggled with The Yiddish Policeman's Union and was reluctant to try another 700 page book by the same author. It took a bunch of my twitter book buddies asking if I'd read it with them to finally make up my mind!
Joe Kavalier, a Czech refugee and his New York born cousin Sam Clay collaborate on a new comic book series, The Escapist. The book takes them through the early days of the comic, through the Golden Age of comics through the witch hunt that was Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency hearings regarding comic books and juvenile crime. While completely fictional, these cousins were inspired by real life teams: Jerry Siegel and Joseph Shuster (creators of Superman), Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (creators of Captain America and others), Will Eisner, Jim Steranko among others. These real life artists do make cameos in the novel and serve as inspiration and competition for our two unlikely heroes.
Although I was expecting to put a solid three weeks or so into the book, I ended up tearing through the tome over the course of a weekend. I loved the setting, the semi fictionalized history of the American comic industry, and Cay's struggle with his sexual identity. The only way the book could have been better would have been with some panels from The Escapist.
Elena's Serenade: 09/27/10
Harriet and I are falling into a new routine where once or twice a week we stop by the library on the way home from her preschool. I pick up my hold books, she plays on the computer for a little bit and then she goes to the shelves and picks three or four picture books to bring home. Her methodology seems to involve picking a specific shelf and then pulling books off at random until she finds covers that tickle her fancy.
One a recent trip to the library Harriet picked the G section of the shelves. From there she found Elena's Serenade by Campbell Geeslin. It met with her approval based on the cover having a cute little girl wearing a pink skirt and a sun and a moon.
Elena's Serenade is more than just the story of a cute little girl. She is headstrong, determined and focused. Her father is a glassblower and she wants to be one too. He says no, first saying she's too little and will get hurt. When she persists he says girls can't be glassblowers.
Elena though doesn't let his reasons stop her from fulfilling her dream. On her brother's advice, she dresses as a boy, grabs a glassblowing tube and makes the long journey on foot to Monterrey Mexico where she can apprentice with the best glassblowers.
The book though isn't strictly about learning how to blow glass. It's more about the journey and how she grows as a person along the way. The story takes a magical realism turn as Elena makes her journey. She meets and helps animals and other forces of nature along the way and she learns how to play traditional Mexican songs on her glassblowing pipe. The experience helps her reap exceptional and magical affects from pipe when her apprenticeship begins.
So how did it play with Harriet? She liked the glassblowing and she liked the magical parts. The journey seemed a little long for her and I had to work hard to keep her attention in the middle part of the story. Although she talked about the book a little when we were done it didn't inspire her enough to request a re-read.
This book has recently been optioned. Done well, it could be an interesting film.
What Are You Reading: September 27, 2010: 09/27/10
It's Monday! What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.
I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment. You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.
Four of my finished books were for research. Most of the others were graphic novels. I am continuing to read for research. I would like to finish The Red Pyramid and The Quest for Merlin's Map this week but the research will of course, come first.
Finished Last Week:
The Emergence of Maps in Libraries by Walter William Ristow (library book)
Integrating Geographic Information System into Library Services by John Abresch (library book)
Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon (library book)
Nylon Road: A Graphic Memoir of Coming of Age in Iran by Parsua Bashi (library book)
Otto's Orange Day by Jay Lynch (library book)
The Political Mapping of Cyberspace by Jeremy W. Crampton (library book)
Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters by Scott Rosenberg (library book)
The Tarot Cafe, #3 by Sang-Sun Park (library book)
Always Looking Up by Michael J. Fox (personal collection)
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (ebook)
Donorboy by Brendan Halpin (library book)
Introduction to Modern Information Retrieval by G. G. Chowdhury (personal collection)
Mirrorscape by Mike Wilks (library book)
The Portable MLIS by Brooke E. Sheldon (personal collection)
The Quest for Merlin's Map by W. C. Peever (review copy)
The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles, #1) by Rick Riordan (personal collection)
Reviews Posted:
The Adventures of Hotsy Totsy by Clive Cussler (personal collection)
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko (library book)
The Last Ember by Daniel Levin (library book)
Pretties by Scott Westerfeld (library book)
The Princess Test by Gail Carson Levine (library book)
The Revolutionary Paul Revere by Joel Miller (review copy)
Treehorn's Wish by Florence Parry Heide (library book)
Treehorn's Wish: 09/26/10
There are three Treehorn books, though I wouldn't go as far as to call the set a trilogy. None of the three seem tied to each other expect that they are all about Treehorn and his disinterested parents.
The series ends with Treehorn's birthday. Ever hopeful, Treehorn cleans out his closet in hopes of an extraordinarily large gift. Meanwhile the mother is having work done on the kitchen and is too preoccupied with her own project to remember her son's birthday.
Somewhere in the confusion Treehorn finds a jar containing a genie. Treehorn gets three wishes. Treehorn could wish for unlimited comic books or a huge gift but he opts for something more basic.
I think Treehorn's Wish is the first genie story I've read that doesn't have wishes getting out of control. It's a simple, sweet and sadly charming book.
Halloween Town: 09/25/10
"Halloween Town" is the longest story in the October / November issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I remember liking the usual setting (a town down a very deep crevasse perpetually in shadow so that it's always twilight. Unfortunately the plot of the story hasn't stayed with me.
Clyde Ormoloo can see into the darkest recesses of a person's soul when he's in full light. So he has requested a move to Halloween town at the bottom of Shilkonic Gorge. The townsfolk don't take kindly to strangers so he has to work hard to win his place amongst them.
As with John of "John's Reading" I found the length a bit long. The novella is around seventy pages long. There's a lot crammed into the plot: a dead cat, potentially dangerous creatures living in a cave, a power struggle over the control of the town and ultimately Halloweentown trying to reinvent itself.
The tone of the story and the sense of an underlying dark mystery reminded me of The Santaroga Barrier by Frank Herbert. Of course the setting is completely different but there is a kinship in the mood.
The Adventures of Hotsy Totsy: 09/24/10
I read my first Clive Cussler novel, Raise the Titanic, when I was about ten. It was on a family camping trip, one of those long drives. I was hooked. I've been reading him on and off ever since.
My husband knows how much I enjoy Cussler's books. Last month when he was at the book store to buy a family copy of The Red Pyramid he spotted The Adventures of Hotsy Totsy, a new middle grades adventure by Clive Cussler. Of course I had have a copy. That it was set in the San Francisco Bay was an added bonus.
The Adventures of Hotsy Totsy is the sequel to The Adventures of Vin Fiz (2006). In that one the Nicefolk twins receive a magic box from a mysterious visitor, Sucoh Sucop. They use it to turn their toy airplane into a full-sized one that flies by magic.
In the sequel they decide the use the box again, this time to create a lifesize speed boat, Hotsy Totsy, to participate in a race from San Francisco to Sacramento and back. Along the way they are chased by the Boss and his henchmen, recurring baddies from the first book.
The best way to describe The Adventures of Hotsy Totsy is to say the Bobbsy Twins meet Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It's somewhere between parody and homage to those types of books. Since I grew up reading both The Bobbsy Twins and Clive Cussler's books, I enjoyed seeing what he did with the genre.
That said, the book wasn't a perfect escape for me. The narration is a little rough in places. Cussler needs a little more practice modifying his usual voice for this genre and age group. He's at his best when he's describing the race and the local scenery. I'm sure the rest will improve as he continues the series.
The Last Ember: 09/23/10
A couple of people recommended The Last Ember to me after I blogged about enjoying The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. Both described the book as a "Jewish Dan Brown mystery." After having read it, my response to that recommendation is yes and no.
There's an ancient mystery that surfaces when a very well preserved body is found. Jonathan Marcus, an archeologist studying at the American Academy in Rome is called into help. The discovery gives clues that leads him and others on a race to find the Tabernacle Menorah.
So on the surface, The Last Ember shares a similar set up and plot structure. There's a lot of racing around famous spots in Italy. There are rival factions who want the same treasure for their own nefarious reasons. And there's a lot of tangential discussion of ancient facts.
Dan Brown's books are silly. Although they are just as predictable as The Last Ember ended up being, they are over the top and fun to read. I figured out the location of the treasure and the person who would end up being the most knowledgeable and important character of the ensemble when he first showed up. In the case of The Last Ember, it made reading the remainder of the book (about 2/3) tedious to read.
I don't read Dan Brown's books because they are serious mysteries. I read them because they're like Hardy Boys books for grown ups. They start with a real place, a real piece of art and then they throw in madcap adventures, ridiculous pseudo-science and all sorts of other malarkey. The Last Ember was presented much too seriously to be any fun even though the basic mystery was just as simplistic and cheesy as a typical Dan Brown book.
The Revolutionary Paul Revere: 09/22/10
Paul Revere always makes me think of my fifth and sixth grade teacher. I was in a combination class and had the same three teachers for three years in a row but my "home room" teacher for two of those years was a fan of the arts. Everything she taught ended up going back to the arts.
When it came time to learn about Paul Revere, of course she read us the the famous poem but she also spoke of his work as a silver smith and the famous portrait of him painted by John Singleton Copley. In the painting, he's not on a horse. He's not being a revolutionary. No, he's proudly holding one of his creations.
So when I was approached to review The Revolutionary Paul Revere by Joel Miller earlier this year, I jumped on the chance. I read it right away too but work for the Census and then my son going back to school and finally my own school work got in the way and I've been neglecting to write this review.
The book starts like many biographies seem to, with the parents. It must be difficult when writing a biography, especially of a famous person, to know when it the right time to start. Some books will go back as far as the grand or even sometimes great grand parents. I personally don't want to spent so much time learning about a person's family tree. A simple diagram and perhaps an annotated list of suggested reading would suffice. Fortunately not too much precious space is spent on Revere's father and the hows and whys behind his coming to the colonies.
The main focus is thankfully on Revere and his entire life, not just those revolutionary moments. That means there is ample time spent on his career, his friendships with other big names from the era, his marriages and his children.
I found the book to be well balanced and fascinating (beyond the initial slow start). Revere isn't painted as a god among men as some biographies of revolutionary war heros do. His flaws are given as much times as his successes.
I received the book for review.
The Princess Test: 09/21/10
My daughter is currently princess crazy. Her favorite princess is Princess Pea from the PBS series Super Why! Princess Pea as you can probably guess is the daughter of the princess who passed the pea test. So when I was looking for longer books to read to her during bath time, The Princess Test by Gail Carson Levine was an obvious choice.
In Levine's version, set in her fantasy realm of Biddle, Lorelei is a commoner with very royal tastes. She likes the best foods, the purest soaps, the finest materials. A natural klutz and prone to allergic reactions to things that aren't quite right, she spends her time embroidering anything and everything perfectly.
Meanwhile the king and queen of Biddle are trying to find an appropriate princess for their son to marry. They put together a series of tests meant to weed out the list to the perfect match. What they don't consider is that a commoner with uncommon tastes might be able to pass the test!
Levine's humor shines in this book. As it's significantly shorter than Ella Enchanted she wastes no words on setting up a joke or a scene. She jumps right to the point with a biting humor that made the book hilarious to read. The humor though is secondary to a well crafted story which captivated Harriet and kept her going all the way to the end.
Pretties: 09/20/10
Pretties by Scott Westerfeld begins after Tally's had her operation. Her mind has been wiped of her days outside of society. She though has this nagging feeling that something has changed. When she's shown the letter she wrote to herself she's shocked at how much she's lost. At the same time, though, she's not sure she wants to go back.
Just as Uglies showed what life was like in the Ugly town, Pretties spends a lot of time in the Pretty town. Unfortunately perfect people who are high on stuff and are suffering from a medically induced stupidity just aren't as interesting as scared teens who haven't been altered yet.
Pretties is a pause in the action. It ends just as things are hotting up. Tally is once again interesting to the higher ups in her society. She might be useful to them and they might be useful to her.
I will probably read the third installment, Specials but I'm not feeling as compelled to rush out and read it as I was after I finished Uglies.
Al Capone Does My Shirts: 09/19/10
I've lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for eleven years. In all that time I've never been to Alcatraz. The closest I've gotten to it was via the Oakland / Alameda Ferry as it was headed towards Angel Island. But I've visited it many times in fiction, my latest trip being via Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko.
Except for a barebones understanding of the plot, namely, a boy and his family moving to Alcatraz, I had no expectations. I was immediately taken in by Moose, a twelve year old who is taller than average and older than his years because of his sister, Natalie. A special school in San Francisco is the family's last hope for Natalie, if they can only convince them to let her in.
In the background is Alcatraz. Families did in fact live there with their children riding a ferry to the mainland every day for school. Choldenko manages to blend historical events into her story, making Moose's world believable and fascinating.
What won me over though, wasn't Alcatraz. Instead it was the relationship (good and bad) between Moose and Natalie. I had just come off reading a terrible book with a similar theme, Saving Max. Natalie was a breath of fresh air. She is given time to be herself, make mistakes, learn, grow and live. Although the other Alcatraz children ask rude questions about Natalie's condition, they go become her friend on her terms, something that I haven't seen much in fiction.
I finally got the Nancy Drew book finished. The rest of my finished books were children's books, mostly picture books I read with my daughter. For my currently reading pile, it's mostly text books and research books.
1-2-3: A Child's First Counting Book by Alison Jay (library book)
Angelfish by Laurence Yep (library book)
Bannock Beans and Black Tea by John Gallant (library book)
The Blues Go Birding Across America by Carol L. Malnor (library book)
Chester's Back! by Mélanie Watt (library book)
The Costume Copycat by Maryann MacDonald (library book)
How to Crash a Killer Bash by Penny Warner (personal collection)
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse (library book)
The Secret of the Old Clock (Nancy Drew, #1) by Carolyn Keene (library book)
What Can You Do With a Rebozo? by Carmen Tafolla (library book)
Bone: Old Man's Cave by Jeff Smith (library book)
Celestine: Drama Queen by Penny Ives (library book)
Gentleman Takes a Chance (library book)
Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech (library book)
Iris by Nancy Springer (personal collection)
Our Town by Thornton Wilder (library book)
Hate That Cat: 09/18/10
Sometimes I just get a hankering to read something at random. I will go through binges where I'll pick a small stacks of books from my library. Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech caught my eye and I brought it home on a complete whim.
Boy am I glad I did. The book made me cry (after putting a half dozen poetry books on my wishlist first).
Jack keeps a poetry diary. He writes it for school but he relates day to day events of his life: the death of his dog, his run-ins with the mean cat up the street, his uncle who doesn't like poetry, his letters with living poets, and the kitten his teacher gives him.
As it's a middle grade book, it's a quick read. I tore through it over my morning coffee and breakfast. It left me feeling a wide range of emotions. When I was done reading it, I actually felt disappointed. If I could give the book a six out of five stars on GoodReads, I would.
Hate That Cat is the sequel to Love That Dog. I have since read Love That Dog and will post a review as soon as I can.
Bone: Old Man's Cave: 09/17/10
Old Man's Cave the sixth Bone book by Jeff Smith started off with a bang. Thorn finds Fone and Smiley and with Ted's help leads them to the Old Man's Cave. They meet up with Phoney and Grandma but Rock Jaw needs Phoney to see something at a mountain. The Locust attacks and it becomes clear just how dangerous the Hooded One is.
With all this action going on I realized I had missed something. I was sitting her looking at a giant talking mountain lion wondering why I had forgotten about him. I had to go back through my reading notes (which are extensive) and there I found my answer. I hadn't read volume 5, Rock Jaw.
The action in Old Man's Cave is heart pounding. I tore through the book in about an hour. I literally locked myself in my room so I could finish it. I don't normally hide when I'm reading, only when the book is really good and I don't want to be disturbed until I finish it.
Our Town: 09/16/10
Our Town by Thornton Wilder is one of those American plays that you're just supposed to know. For whatever reason we didn't read it at our junior or senior high schools. I wasn't assigned it in college either. So it just sort of slipped by. And yet I knew it was a classic that I should have read; it's referenced all the time. It seems that whenever a play is shown in a film or television show, it's either Romeo & Juliet or Our Town.
The stupidest thing about me not reading it until now is that I love reading plays. My father did a lot of theater in high school and college and has these massive collections of plays. I can remember reading his books in front of the camp fire when others were toasting marshmallows for smores (and I love smores). So how I missed Our Town, I don't know. Shame on me!
One of my current reading goals is to stop compiling a wishlist without actually doing anything about it. If I want to read these books, I should make the effort to actually read them. That includes plays and the first play I chose was Our Town.
As soon as I started reading it and realized it was metatheater I was instantly and madly in love with the play. I tore through the play in one sitting and then went back and re-read my favorite parts.
Set in Grover's Corners, the play takes place on three different days in three different years. The Stage Director sets the stage for each of these eras, bringing the artifice of the play to the forefront and at least for me, inspiring self reflection and introspection on how fleeting time is and how artificial our lives sometimes are.
Best of all, I finally completely got "As the Day Runs Down." I had realized it was an homage to another story of some sort but I didn't recognize it. In my review I compared it to The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald but Our Town is the obvious fit. If I still had that issue of FSF around I would have re-read the story to compare it more closely with Our Town.
Celestine, Drama Queen: 09/15/10
Harriet chose Celestine, Drama Queen by Penny Ives at a recent trip to the library. She was drawn to the duckling dressed in a pink tutu.
Celestine is very much like Olivia the Pig. She has the same flare for drama and personal expression. When the school play is announced she wants to have the most important role. Like Olivia in Olivia Acts Out, Celestine doesn't get the lead role but she makes the most of what she's given.
Although my daughter chose the book she didn't sit through to the end of the story. I think she found Celestine a little too demanding and melodramatic.
Iris: 09/14/10
Iris is a Greek name. It means rainbow and that is the key to this beautiful and bittersweet Christmas tale form the December 2009 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
I read the story during our first Christmas away from our extended family. Money was tight and we just didn't know how we could afford travel costs, the price of putting our cat in the kennel and of course presents for everyone. So we opted to stay home and have our own tree. That combination of sadness and hope around the decorating of a Christmas tree resonated with me.
In the case of "Iris" the tree belongs to a single woman, a widow, who many years ago lost her daughter in infancy. She suddenly gets the inspiration to collect bits and bobs of specific colors to make a very unique Christmas tree. When they all come together she has a rainbow Christmas tree full of magic and release.
Gentleman Takes a Chance: 09/13/10
A popular question in the book blogosphere is "do you judge a book by its cover?" Yes, I say, especially with library books. For the most part, my library book cover lust has served me well. Sometimes though, I find a book I can't finish. Gentleman Takes a Chance by Sarah A. Hoyt was one of those unfinished books.
The book is set in Colorado. It starts during a bad snow storm. Kyrie and Tom share a house. Turns out they're both shape-shifters. Tom mid shower loses control of his thoughts and takes out the bathroom in the process, taking his other form unexpectedly. Tom's problem leads to a mystery at the local aquarium. It involves dragons who are out for blood.
The book though is fraught with problems: typos, weird editing and clunky language. This is a professionally produced book, published by Baen. They did a disservice to the author.
Books like this one are what I point to when people ask me why I review self published books. I see about the same percentage of piss poor editing from the big houses as I do from the self published books. As long as that continues to be the case, I'm not going to ignore the self pubs if the books otherwise sound interesting.
I didn't get to finish How to Crash a Killer Bash finished because I had to focus on writing my critical note. But I got some other books finished. Most of those finished are picture books I read with my daughter.
Christmas Eve by Suçie Stevenson (library book)
Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth by Mary McKenna Siddals (library book)
Grave Sight (Harper Connelly, #1) by Charlaine Harris (personal collection)
I Miss You Everyday by Simms Taback (library book)
Monsoon Summer by Mitali Perkins (library book)
The Night at the Museum by Milan Trenc (library book)
Opur's Blade by James Ross (review copy)
Sneezy Louise by Irene Breznak (library book)
Wizard World by Roger Zelazny (library book)
As Long as He Needs Me by Mary Verdick (review copy)
Bone: Rock Jaw by Jeff Smith (library book)
Cat and Canary by Michael Foreman (library book)
"Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance" by Paul Park (personal collection)
Kiss My Math by Danica McKellar (library book)
The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King (personal collection)
The Talking Baby byJeremy and Karina Sweet (review copy)
What Are You Reading
Monster Motel: 09/12/10
I checked out Monster Motel by Douglas Florian thinking my son would enjoy it. It's a poetry book featuring monsters, ghosts and other creepy crawlies. My son though, wanted no part of the book.
The poems are cute but not especially memorable. The monsters aren't very scary and the emphasis seems to be on humor. For me the humor didn't hit the mark.
Kiss My Math: 09/11/10
My husband is a college math professor. He also runs a math tutoring site. His mother is a high school math teacher. My mother majored in math in college but later switched to marketing research. Math has always been part of my life. Even before I met my husband I never had the sense of math being a "boy thing." Nor do I remember being intimidated by it, except for a brief time in 5th grade where reciprocals were a completely alien concept.
That said, I am aware that many young women have felt intimidated by math and I've witnessed the extra competitiveness women are put through in college when they chose to major in math. Why they should have to prove themselves is nonsensical and maddening.
So when I saw Kiss My Math by Danica McKellar on prominent display at my local library I had to check it out. No, I wasn't thinking about the actress who played Winnie on The Wonder Years when I checked out the book. No, I was thinking, "A math book aimed only a girls, how insulting!" After that I took a calming breath, counted to ten, and decided I should read the book before I passed judgement on it.
By the end of the first chapter though, I was madly in love with the book. First and foremost, McKellar includes many personal stories about how she ended up majoring in math and how she struggled with the subject in junior and senior high school. So the book is part memoir along with being a pre-Algebra book.
The book is written in a chatty style with it's own over the top lingo in the same vein as the Georgia Nicholson books by Louise Rennison. The math though, is solid. The instruction is given in an engaging and humorous way and there are enough problem sets to help the lessons stick.
I loved the book so much that when I heard about Hot X coming out, I put it on my wishlist. I now have an ARC to read and review in the upcoming months.
The Talking Baby: 09/10/10
I'm a parent. I have two children. My youngest will starting kindergarten a year from now. When my oldest was an infant, baby signs as a stop gap for communication was the hot parenting trend. Putting all that effort into a sign language variant seemed futile for both me and my son. Instead I followed my mother's advice which was: "just talk constantly."
So when I was given the opportunity to review The Talking Baby by Jeremy and Karina Sweet I said yes. I was curious to see what suggestions they'd have for encouraging language acquisition for infants.
The Talking Baby is a slim volume, at 57 pages (counting the resources). The book has one to two page topics, each with a cartoon illustration to highlight the key concepts. The topics are things like: providing a happy home, being like a cartoon character, repetition, words to begin with, adding a second language into the mix and so forth. All of the advice is very straight forward and reassuring. It's the sort of stuff parents do naturally but might not think about or understand the benefits of certain techniques.
As other reviewers have said, the book is probably best for parents of children under two. If you're a parent of a child between six and eighteen months, this book should be on your radar.
Bone: Rock Jaw, Master of the Eastern Border: 09/09/10
By Volume 3 of Bone, Eyes of the Storm, I knew I wanted to finish reading the entire series. I grabbed every volume I had read yet from my local library and proceeded to read them. Unfortunately what I didn't realize was that Volumes 5 and 9 were missing. In fact, my local library doesn't have those two volumes. So I had to put them on hold and read them out of order from the rest of the series.
In Volume 5, the Bone cousins are separated from the group. They've befriended a rat creature pup whom Smiley has named Bartleby. Along the way they meet up with Rock Jaw, an enormous mountain lion who knows the history of the valley. He's basically the ambassador Kosh of this series and his knowledge of the situation shows that the war isn't as cut and dry as the villagers think.
Rock Jaw was the first volume I read without the full color panels. While I missed the luscious colors at first I did find the black and white kept me more focused on the plot. I also finally realized that Bone cousins do in fact look like bones. It's only really obvious when they're black and white.
I wish I had been able to read this volume in order but I didn't mind going back to read it when it was finally available.
Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance: 09/08/10
"Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance" is the novella from the January / February 2010 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It's a spiraling tale of a meeting out in the woods, one that's doomed to repeat itself.
I normally like metafiction. I've written about it before on this blog. I read "Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance" by Paul Park with high expectations. I could see where it was going but I never really clicked with it.
The problem for me was the constant starting and stopping of the story. In that regard it reminds me of another metafiction that didn't work for me, Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff VanderMeer. There was so much emphasis on the telling of the story that the cool circular plot gets pushed aside.
The Language of Bees: 09/07/10
I associate books with places, not necessarily where they are set but where I was when I read them. The Mary Russell / Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R. King brings to mind the Pacific Surfliner. I read the entirety of The Beekeeper's Apprentice en route to San Diego from Los Angeles.
When I saw the cover of the ninth book, The Language of Bees which harkens back to the series opener I was taken back to that train ride. Nostalgia compelled me to bring the book along for our trip down to Los Angeles for a mini family reunion.
After numerous adventures all over the world (including San Francisco), Russell and Holmes are back in Sussex home. It was so refreshing to return to the roots of the series, back to beekeeping and a mystery set on British soil. There is just one kink in the return to normalcy, the appearance of Holmes's adult son!
Unlike the other novels, The Language of Bees follows a parallel structure with half the book told from Mary's point of view and the other half following Sherlock and told in a more detached third person perspective. At first I was nervous about this turn of events, fearing King would be trying to mimic the more recent Amelia Peabody mysteries by Elizabeth Peters. Thankfully she stays true to her characters and to the overall tone of the series.
A Sherlock Holmes mystery though just wouldn't be the same without a trip to London. It's there that the action begins to pick up as both parties follow the trail to the missing wife and daughter to a strange religious cult and beyond. Cults have been done to death but King makes it work here by comparing its structure to that of an unhealthy colony of bees.
While most books stand alone in the series, this one is dovetailed with The God of the Hive. I recommend you get both of them to read back to back.
Cat and Canary: 09/06/10
Cat and Canary by Michael Foreman is the story of a pair of pets who spend their time having adventures in Manhattan while their owner is at work. The canary introduces the cat to the local pigeons giving the two unlikely friends access to even more of the city.
This is a book my daughter and I don't agree on. Harriet didn't like the pets getting out of the apartment without their owner's knowledge. She thought they should get in trouble for disobeying. She also was worried that the cat would get hurt, lost or worse, killed.
Since neither the cat nor the canary get hurt, I found the book delightful. I just couldn't convince Harriet though about the book's merits. The 3 star rating reflects our disagreement.
As Long as He Needs Me: 09/05/10
In As Long as He Needs Me by Mary Verdick, Kitty and Clem are on cruise from New York to Montreal, a trip that may tear their marriage apart. Kitty faces the temptation of a dashing Englishman and Clem has to overcome his own weaknesses.
Closed environments can make for interesting character studies. Take for instant Murder on the Orient Express with a murder and a train full of suspects all stuck in a snowdrift. As Long as He Needs Me had the potential to pull apart a marriage and put it back together. Unfortunately the heroine was so unlikable that I was unable to finish the book.
Kitty is written as overbearing, nagging, racist, and self entitled. Every scene I read begins with her either nagging Clem or passing a quick judgment on the people around her. Best of all, at the close of the book, we learn that her daughter sent her off for the cruise so she and her fiancé could get married without her interference. I only know this because I skipped to the end. That tidbit alone justified me leaving the book unfinished.
Before they even make it to the ship, Clem and Kitty are robbed of all the money they had for the trip. Of course they'd taken it as cash. And of course it was a black boy who robbed them while pretending to help them. From that scene onwards I started keeping track of how people were described. Interestingly, ethnic descriptions were typically only given to characters who do something wrong to Kitty.
From all the positive reviews of this book I feel like I must have read another book entirely. Follow the links below for very different opinions on the book than mine.
I hope to finish up Wizard World and How to Crash a Killer Bash this week. Next up are: Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve, The Griffon and the Minor Canon by Frank Stockton, The Night at the Museum by Milan Trenc and Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. But first and foremost, I will be doing my assigned reading.
Battlestar Galactica by Jeffrey A. Carver (library book)
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff (personal collection)
The Scrambled States of America Talent Show by Laurie Keller The Scrambled States of America Talent Show (library book)
Circus by Lois Ehlert
Bone: The Dragonslayer by Jeff Smith
The Magic Gourd by Baba Wagué Diakité
Mr. Darcy Vampyre by Amanda Grange
Thanksgiving on Thursday (Magic Tree House #27) by Mary Pope Osborne
Mr. Darcy, Vampyre: 09/04/10
If you're a diehard Jane Austen fan or an avid reader of vampire novels, step away from this blog. Ignore this review. If you're like me and not really a fan of either, stick around.
Let me say upfront, I loved this book.
Mr. Darcy Vampyre by Amanda Grange begins with the wedding day of the two Bennet sisters. Elizabeth begins her new life as Mrs. Darcy and will be going on a surprise wedding tour our Europe even though things are still unsettled in France. In their journey Elizabeth begins to fear that Darcy isn't the man she thought he was.
Half of the negative reviews I've read focus on Grange's depiction of Austen's most famous couple. Frankly, I've never managed to understand either of them or their supposed mutual attraction at the end. Elizabeth doesn't strike me as all that head strong and Darcy comes off as an arrogant son of a bitch. Nonetheless, they are a literary perfect couple full of "twu wuv."
The other half of the negative reviews comes from the vampire camp. Vampires have evolved (mutated?) since I was in college into moody, moralistic, drop dead gorgeous, angsty, sex gods. Vampires further get divided into those who use humans as their playthings: eat them, bang them, torture them and very rarely turn them; and those who are too tormented by their inner demons to dare touch a human. Think of the Angelus / Angel divide. Mr. Darcy seems to be a hybrid of Angel and Edward (minus the sparkling). I include Edward into the mix only because Mr. Darcy can go out in broad daylight. The hows and whys behind this unusual ability are explained in the book.
The only problem I had with the book was Darcy's ability to go out of doors in daylight. I will put up with this one bit of hand-waving as the book was otherwise for me, a nice modern rendition of a Gothic novel. See the only vampire novel I really like is Dracula and there's a lot homage to it in how Mr. Darcy Vampyre is told even if the vampire himself borrows from more recent tropes.
The best way to describe Mr. Darcy Vampire is to say it's a paranormal sequel written in the style of Bram Stoker but with a happy ending (since it is a romance, after all). Since it's an old style book the vampires do most of their deeds off screen, leaving Elizabeth to comment on odd behavior, or other strange things (like missing mirrors).
I recommend this book wholeheartedly to people who like Jane Austen adaptations (but not necessarily the originals) and people who like Dracula but aren't necessarily into the current vampire craze.
Bone: The Dragonslayer: 09/03/10
The Dragonslayer is the fourth installment of the Bone series by Jeff Smith. By this volume I was well and truly hooked. I went through a weekend reading the remainder of the series except for volumes 5 and 9 which weren't available at my library.
Phoney Bone has hatched a new scheme, to charge protection money from the villagers. He's calling himself the Dragonslayer but as far as he's concerned, dragons aren't real. They're just a local superstition, right?
Wrong! Phoney's in over his head again and he's dragging along Smiley and Fone. Besides the dragons, there are the rat creatures, lead by the ferocious Kingdok, and the Hooded One who could be worse than either the dragons or the rat creatures.
By The Dragonslayer the series is going at full speed. The plot threads are weaving together, conflicts are brewing and it's hard to stop reading.
Thanksgiving on Thursday (Magic Tree House #27): 09/02/10
Thanksgiving on Thursday by Mary Pope Osborne was the book that killed my son's interest in the series. It seems that every series feels the temptation to do an issue, book or episode for the major holidays. This book sends Jack and Annie to experience a thanksgiving feast with the Pilgrims.
Yes, there were pilgrims. Yes they got help from the local indigenous population. But the holiday we celebrate now on the fourth Thursday of November evolved over time and except for sentimentality has nothing to do with that first feast.
So Jack and Annie go back the pilgrims and make a dogs breakfast out of trying to help prepare for the meal. I get that they are children but they were completely useless, more so than usual. My son who was going on seven at the time that we read the book was shocked at how little they know. He's grown up in an urban setting his entire life but he has more domestic life skills than both children combined.
Frankly it would have been more interesting, unique and educational to have sent Jack and Annie back to 1941 when Congress designated the fourth Thursday as a national holiday of Thanksgiving. I bet most kids don't know that part of the story. It would certainly be refreshing compared to yet another rehashing of the same old Pilgrim story.
Other Magic Tree House books reviewed here:
Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House #1)
The Knight at Dawn (Magic Tree House #2)
Mummies in the Morning (Magic Tree House #3)
Pirates Past Noon (Magic Tree House #4)
Night of the Ninjas (Magic Tree House #5)
Afternoon on the Amazon (Magic Tree House #6)
Dolphins at Daybreak (Magic Tree House #9)
Ghost Town at Sundown (Magic Tree House #10)
Lions at Lunchtime (Magic Tree House #11)
Polar Bears Past Bedtime (Magic Tree House #12)
Vacation Under the Volcano (Magic Tree House #13)
Day of the Dragon King (Magic Tree House #14)
Viking Ships Before Sunrise (Magic Tree House #15)
Hour of the Olympics (Magic Tree House #16)
Tonight on the Titanic (Magic Tree House #17)
Buffalo Before Breakfast (Magic Tree House #18)
Tigers at Twilight (Magic Tree House #19)
Dingoes at Dinnertime (Magic Tree House #20)
Civil War on Sunday (Magic Tree House #21)
Revolutioanry War on Wednesday (Magic Tree House #22)
Twister on Tuesday (Magic Tree House #23)
Earthquake in the Early Morning (Magic Tree House #24)
Stage Fright on a Summer Night (Magic Tree House #25)
Good Morning, Gorillas (Magic Tree House #26)
Thanksgiving on Thursday (Magic Tree House #27)
High Tide in Hawaii (Magic Tree House #28)
Dragon of the Red Dawn (Magic Tree House #37)
The Magic Gourd: 09/01/10
The Magic Gourd by Baba Wagué Diakité was a recent library book find. I can't remember if it was my son or my daughter who checked it out. I read it to both of them.
The book retells a fable from Mali. Rabbit helps Chameleon out of a tight spot. As payment for his help, Chameleon gives Rabbit a magic gourd that will always provide him with a good meal. A greedy king (there's always a greedy king) hears about this magical gourd and decides he has to have it. Rabbit and Chameleon have to trick the king to teach him about sharing.
The kids and I liked the illustrations. Each piece of the story is told in the bottom of the bowl shaped gourd. The pictures are interesting and worth enjoying.
What my kids had trouble though was the pacing of the story. It's a little long winded for such a short story. Although the kids stuck around to see the pictures the story didn't hold their attention.


I have created an XML file and which I imported into excel using Source option in developers option. But whenever I am trying to export the data I am getting error saying "Can not save or export XML data. The XML maps in this workbook are not exportable". So I required help in this regards and also in <noofmasterinvoices></noofmasterinvoices> and <noofinvoices></noofinvoices> count of master invoice and invoice should appear which I don't know how to do it.
I have copy pasted the XML tagging for your reference and also the excel data.
I find that its not getting exported because of "Denormalized Data" I changed my schema just to match with original.


text:
Q: How to change lookup table parameter by inport value in Simulink? I want to make a lookup table sub-system in MATLAB Simulink.
A mask is made to allow user to input x1 ~ x4.
I want the value of H to be tunable by input (H comes from upper stream). Is it possible in Simulink? If so, how to make the subsys?
Lookup table:

subsys1:

subsys2:

A: You have to use the "look up table dynamic" block, it has inputs for the table data. This allows you to have a constant block x and an input signal h. Both are subtracted and fed into the lut block.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


My Creative Time: MCT 43rd Edition Release Blog Hop & Sale!
HAPPY HAPPY FRIDAY & HAPPY HAPPY RELEASE DAY!!!
ARE YOU EXCITED about this release as much as I am???
Well today is the BIG day! EVERYTHING is available NOW for purchase HERE! Don't forget to use the code MAY2015 at checkout for your discount off your entire IN STOCK items only purchase!
Now, I introduce to you the SWEETEST RELEASE ever! :) Here is our 43rd Edition Release!
Next up in this AMAZING hop is the talented Miss Brigit!!!
ALSO, DON'T FORGET our sale starts RIGHT NOW HERE! Use the code: MAY2015 to receive a discount off your entire purchase! This sale applies to "IN-STOCK" items ONLY. This sale will end on Friday, May 22nd @midnight PST.
OKAY, now onto the LUCKY WINNER from yesterday's sneak peeks HERE!
Adorable as always!! This turned out super cute!!
I just placed my order. So excited to play with this release. Great projects this week.
Can't wait to get my happy mail. Great release this week. Awesome projects by you and your DT.
I love this new release! My favorite is the gift bag die, super cute!
OMG ...WOW Just watched your video after I did my shopping and WOW!!!
GOOD MORNING Miss Emma What Funtabulous part of my day....Your Sweet Rlease totally rocks. I love everything love all of your genius idea....the new large stamps are awesome will they ever be great on my layouts...you've thought of everything. Your Birthday Celebration has been so much fun Thanks for throwing such an awesome party. YOU so ROCK!!
Your projects are absolutely adorable!
IT'S MY BIRTHDAY MONTH TOO!!!
Enjoyed seeing all the great inspiration this week, Emma!
Wow Emma, this new release is so beautiful. Can't wait to get my order. Thanks for all the beautiful projects this week. Have a great weekend. I'm sure you and the best shipping dept. ever will be very busy!
This is a really fun release, can't wait to get it! Thanks for explaining in detail about the stamps and dies.
First Thank you for offering such wonderful prizes. You are so kind with your products. This is one of my favorite releases. I was such in a hurry to get my order in, I did so before watching the video or taking a look at the page. I can not wait to get my mail!! Your DT did such a wonderful job. Thank you Ladies!!
What a super great and sweet release!!!!
Loved this release Emma!! Placed my order can't wait to get it.
This is a super sweet and yummie release, it was a super inspiring week! thanks for sharing!
This was truly a sweet release!!! As always, I was blown away by all of the inspiration!
So happy purchase day arrived, now the rest of the day can slow down, working tomorrow.
so so so excited, my invoice number is below the limit for the freebie...wow, that was fast!!
What a wonderful release! I have enjoyed seeing all the spectacular projects this week! Now for the shopping! So many delicious temptations!
What a fantastic release!! Amazing projects and inspiration! Thanks for such a fun celebration and the wonderful sale!!!
Super SWEET release! Looking forward to my donuts arriving!
Cada proyecto es precioso ! Muchas gracias por compartir!!Felicidades !!! GBYM !!!
A great week of hopping to see some wonderful cards.
This is a sweet release for sure. Adorable stamps and dies!
I am in LOVE with this release!!!!!!
Just finished the hop! Loved everything! Placed my order this morning - I'm a happy girl!
Love your fun shaker card, Emma! Delicious release!
Congratulations to the lucky winner! What a super fun release. I can't wait to play with these and I am sure they will get a lot of use as a majority of cards I make are for birthdays...everyone I know has them. I am always amazed at all of the beautiful projects and ideas the design team makes for the releases. Not only for the releases but every posting. I hope you all know how special you all are and so inspiring! I loved this release. It must have been quite a panic when the dies came that you didn't like, had to cut them out and hope you get the replacements in time...that was a lot of work you were not counting on. What a way to celebrate your Birthday month with this super release Emma! You make life sweet. Happy Birthday to you!
ALL of your projects have been AMAZING showing your new release!!! Just WOW,sweet Emma!!!
I just found your blog and just finished the blog hop and enjoyed every minute of it. Your ladies did and awesome job with all the cards and bags. I have signed up for your subscription so hope to see lots of great things to come. Thanks!!
How FUN...love the new release! Such fun projects...the HOP was awesome, love all the inspiration!!!
Such a sweet and fun release!!! It has been a fun week of AMAZING projects!!
Super cute and fun release. Amazing projects, great job.
Emma ~ All I can say you CONSTANTLY amaze me with your creations and products! I have ADORED every single creation. This release is by far my FAVORITE release! This truly is a must have set!!! BEAUTIFUL job sweet lady ~ BEAUTIFUL job!
Wonderful release, love stamps that come with the coordinating dies. The gift bag is awesome!


text:
Keith Gow, Writer
Playwright, Critic, Screenwriter.
Upcoming Productions
Past Productions/Readings
Who Are You Supposed To Be?
Painting with Words & Fire
The Wooden Leg
Sonnigsburg
Richard Di Gregorio: On Time
Press, etc.
Sonnigsburg: Episode 5 – Executive Producer, Fiona Eloise Bulle
Episode five airs on Monday night. It was directed by John Erasmus and written by Fiona Eloise Bulle.
I've known Fiona for about eight years; we met online and through mutual friends who obsessed about musical theatre and, in particular, Wicked. We didn't really get to know each other until a couple of years later, when she founded Cold Reading Series (CRS) in Melbourne and she invited me along to have a short script of mine read.
We were both writers, but we had different goals: I was starting to get stuff on stage and Fiona wanted to make television. But Cold Readings was a great monthly get-together, one of those nights that promises to be a good networking event – and actually was. We both met Glenn Triggs through CRS; Fiona went on to produce his feature film 41 and he'd later co-direct the pilot of Sonnigsburg.
I have met several other collaborators through CRS, most notably after the first public reading of a short play of mine, Like A House on Fire – which you can download from my list of plays. This led to a show I did in 2012 called Painting with Words & Fire.
Fiona and I had lots of mutual friends all along, but the more I made theatre and she made films and her web series, the more people we knew in common. She also worked around the corner from where I worked for a couple of years; I've stayed in the same job and Fiona has moved on. But we used to have lunch together and complain about Hawthorn.
Somewhere in the time I knew her, she made a great little short called All the Little Pieces – directed by Jessica Brajoux. This was the first time Fiona worked with Ian Stenlake.
It wasn't until Fiona tweeted her infamous tweet that I ever really thought about working with her. We have a similar sensibility, though we don't always agree on the films or TV shows we like. We both love television and think about stories the same way. In the writers' room, we worried more about how the characters felt and acted more than exactly how the plot went.
In the three years since we started work on Sonnigsburg, we are both better writers and we pay attention to story structure much more than we once did. But our characters and their relationships are central; our stuff isn't necessarily driven by plot.
As the instigator and inspiration for this TV series of ours, Fiona had the massive task of writing the first episode. We talked about it a lot, but she had to find the way the characters spoke and acted and how they related within a scene before any of the rest of us.
When we divided up the rest of the series, I was lucky enough to get to write the finale – no pressure! Fiona chose to write episode five, which brings the story of Savannah and her search for Jade to a head. It's dark, it's unsettling, it's claustrophobic and there's some really funny stuff in there, too.
As I said in an earlier post, we all did what we needed to make this TV series work. As Executive Producer, Fiona did a little bit of everything – and kept an eye on the rest of us. She had the final say on each element and even now is working to make this show the best she can.
She's had to make tough choices. She's had to re-write and restructure and reschedule. She's had some tough days and weeks and months but the show kept going because of Fiona. It's as great as it is today because she's tough, determined and really smart about making television.
She's even written the theme music for the show. She's like JJ Abrams. Really.
A lot of people talk about making television. When Fiona said she was going to make a show for C31, I knew she would. So I jumped at the chance.
Fiona is really proud of episode five of Sonnigsburg and I'm excited for everyone to see it.
Labels: sonnigsburg
You are far away: Agent Cooper and his troubling return to Twin Peaks
"What year is this?" Dale Cooper asks in the final scene of Twin Peaks: The Return , the last of many unanswered questions left as the 18-part feature film concluded a week ago. It's far from the first time we've seen someone who looks like Dale Cooper lost for answers over recent months. But it might be the first time we have definitive proof that he's in over his head. Mr C, Dale Cooper's doppelganger, who was first seen in the original series' finale back in 1991, returned to the town of Twin Peaks with a goal in mind. Mr C was flexible, though. He had to be; he'd set so many things in motion over twenty-five years, if he'd remained fixated, he would never have come as far as he did. Dougie, Dale Cooper's tulpa – created by and from Mr C, wandered aimlessly through life, but slowly made every life he touched better. Plans change and Dougie changed with them. Slowly but surely, Dougie pieced together Cooper's past life and became richer for it. Agent Cooper, th
Careful the things you say... Joe Wright's HANNA & the combination of genres
Once upon a time... I tried to write a film script that melded noir and Grimm's fairytales, where the femme fatale , clad in a slinky red dress, was also (in a way) Little Red Riding Hood. Where the lover of a hit man discovered his true identity from something hidden under his mattress. Evil (step)mothers, adopted children, hunters, princesses and family fortunes. Noir and fairytales have a lot in common and yet... I had real trouble finding the right tone for the piece. And, in the end, my script read too much like I was trying to get the concept to work, rather than telling a compelling story. Saoirse Ronan as Hanna Joe Wright's film HANNA , screenplay by Seth Lockhead and David Farr, finds the perfect balance between a high tension thriller and a fairytale coming-of-age story. And travels further into the story of this mysterious girl than the trailer suggests. Going in, I was worried this might be too close to Leon or La Femme Nikita – the original films of which I t
REVIEW: SLUT by Patricia Cornelius
Laura Jane Turner in SLUT by Patricia Cornelius A man is dead, we're told. A good man. A man with a job. Not a drunk. Not homeless. He's a hero really. Just wanted to help Lolita and now he's dead. We're told this story – this anecdote – by a trio of young women, friends of Lolita, who have known her from a very young age. In fact, there's some question about who knew her better and who knew her the longest. Because the better they knew Lolita, the better they might understand her. And the more they understand her, the more righteously they can pass judgement. Lolita was a carefree child. Used to love riding a bike. Ride it fast. Feel the ache in her legs and sweat on her face. All she had to worry about was staying on the bike and enjoying her lovely, lovely life. She stopped riding bikes when she was nine-years-old. Her friends tell us that everything changed for Lolita when she turned eight and grew breasts. Huge ones. When she was eight years old. A child with
Earth's Mightiest Heroes: THE AVENGERS assemble on the big screen
I like superheroes. I grew up with reruns of the 1960s Batman TV series. The Superman films were released when I was really young. The Amazing Spider-Man , Wonder Woman and The Incredible Hulk were nighttime TV shows. And one of the defining motion picture releases of my teenage years was Tim Burton's Batman in 1989. I was never a big comic book reader as a kid – I've probably read more comic books, uh, graphic novels in the last ten years than any time before that. But superheroes were always very cool. And Burton's Batman took my favourite superhero very seriously. Well, until Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins appeared – taking it ultra-seriously and much darker than I'd ever hoped for. As a non-comic reader, I find it hard to align myself as a DC ( Batman , Superman , Wonder Woman ) or Marvel Universe ( Spider-Man , X-Men , The Avengers and its consitutent parts) person. They appeal to different parts of my brain. In effect, DC's superheroes are often lone warrior
REVIEW: And Then She Became A Chair by Michelle Myers
Michelle Myers in And Then She Became A Chair A woman emerges from the darkness, head covered, moving slowly, weighted bags are attached to her dress and drag along the ground behind her. She is in a waiting room. A doctor's office. A hospice. Inside a commercial begging her to start a new life in Queensland. This is purgatory. Michelle Myer's one-woman performance, And Then She Became A Chair , is an unsettling, confronting and poetic study in grief. We watch as a woman deals with the inevitable death of her mother, remembering absurd moments of her life, of their lives, in the years, weeks and days leading up to… C.S. Lewis wrote in A Grief Observed , a reflection on the passing of his wife, "No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear." And it's this observation that Michelle explores in this work – grief being the fear of loss, the fear of the unknown and the fear of what comes next. It's interesting that the first work of theatre I have seen this year is focused so mu
Walking out... I couldn't do it, could you?
Every so often, I think about walking out of a play, but I can't. I've never done it and I don't think I ever could. I've never walked out of a film, either. It's not in my nature. In the end, I'd rather suffer through the entire thing so I can criticise the entire play, rather than leave halfway and never know if it got any better or any worse. This has come to mind now, not because I wanted to walk out of Terence Malick's big budget experimental film The Tree of Life , but because apparently walk outs are becoming a phenomenon with that particular movie. And in a packed theatre at Cinema Nova last night, the walk outs were notable by their absense when the lights came up at the end. It certainly won't be to everyone's taste. It's very much an impressionistic film that explores grand ideas through mood and beauty, rather than telling a coherent narrative. But, even those moments in the film that were the most challenging on a "need for
Seeing It Again Through New Eyes: Watching Reaction Videos on YouTube
SesskaSays reacts to the Eleventh Doctor's departure on Doctor Who One of the things I've missed during lockdown is watching television with other people. I have some close friends that would regularly get together to watch shows, so we could talk through whatever the hell happened on Westworld or unpack everything we feel watching June suffer over and over again on The Handmaid's Tale . I'm used to watching television alone, too, but there's nothing quite like having a helping hand or a shoulder to cry on. One of the reasons or excuses I have for watching Twin Peaks countless times is that, over the years, I have introduced a lot of people to the show. I re-watch it because I love it, but I also sit there waiting for their reactions. To the end of season one or the reveal of who killed Laura Palmer. Or the season two finale. And, more recently, to see how they process Part 8 of Twin Peaks: The Return . Back in 2013, after the Game of Thrones episode "The Rains of Castamere"
Streaming/Theatre: Thoughts and feelings on missing an art form
Gillian Anderson in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Young Vic in 2016 I miss theatre. I miss a lot of things but theatre was a weekly fixture in my life. I write plays and I review plays and even if I wasn't reviewing, watching theatre was always an opportunity to learn more about how theatre worked. And to be entertained. The experience of theatre is ephemeral. A play changes every night. It's living and breathing. And once it's gone, it's gone. And then it turned out the existence of theatre is ephemeral, too. And within a week in March, my thoughts turned from "should I be sitting in a large audience" to "wow, theatres are all closed, I wonder how long this will last". At the start of the pandemic, I made a pretty conscious decision that I would take time away from playwriting. The world had changed so suddenly and so had my daily life and trying to find the passion and energy for creativity seemed like too much of an extra burden. Fuck all this talk of S
"Fate Will Twist The Both of You": Twenty Year School Reunion and the party next door...
Twelve months ago, I premiered a short play of mine at The Owl & the Pussycat in Richmond. Titled You Will Be Kissed By Princess Leia , the play was about how you can't always live up to the dreams you had when you were fifteen years old. It's definitely the most autobiographical of all my plays, dealing with one character at age 15 and at age 35, interrogating himself about where he's been and where he's going. It's about finding your feet as a kid and finding your comfort zone as an adult. Paul Knox and Tom Carmody, You Will Be Kissed By Princess Leia September, 2011 There was some fun to be had in the fifteen-year-old not understanding references his thirty-five-year old self makes. And some drama in the conflict between how the character had been as a teenager and how he'd wished he'd been. And the show was done in the round in the Owl & the Pussycat's then-gallery space, as if the crowd was surrounding two kids fighting in the schoolyard. After the show, if
Carrie Fisher: No More Postcards
Two Princess Leias, a medal and some broken jewellry Did I ever tell you about the time Carrie Fisher kissed me on the cheek? Stick around, I'll tell it again soon. Carrie Fisher was Princess Leia; no getting past that. Except, of course, she did. And then she stepped right back into being her last year. She was the right person to play Leia because she was the right age at the time and she is part of Hollywood royalty. She was also the right person to have been Leia in retrospect, too. Can you imagine anyone else describing Jabba the Hutt as a "giant saliva testicle"? Anyone else who would bring an audience member up on stage to mount a Leia "sex doll" and whip it away before they get close enough to fulfil their childhood fantasy? Actors, even those of Star Wars -level fame, go in and out of the spotlight. Oh, you could spot Fisher on screen in the 1980s and 90s, but much of her hard work went on behind the scenes, as a script writer and script doctor. Hook , Sist
My Favourite Theatre of 2016
Sonnigsburg, Episode 6 – One Last Look
Sonnigsburg: Episode 5 – Executive Producer, Fiona...
Sonnigsburg: Episode 4 – A revelation or two

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Question: How To Letter In High School Soccer?
1 How do you get a varsity letter in high school soccer?
2 What are the requirements to letter in high school soccer?
3 What does it mean to letter in a sport in high school?
4 How do you get a varsity letter in sports?
5 How do you write a high school track letter?
6 What does it take to letter in high school?
7 What do varsity pins mean?
8 What is a letter winner in high school?
9 What is a JV letter for sports?
10 Can a freshman get a letterman jacket?
11 What GPA do you need to letter in academics?
12 Is a varsity letter an honor?
13 How do you get a letterman jacket in high school?
14 Can you get a letterman jacket for academics?
How do you get a varsity letter in high school soccer?
If a player gets playing time in at least 6 varsity games then they will earn a Varsity letter.
What are the requirements to letter in high school soccer?
Any player who moves up from junior varsity to varsity level during the course of the season must compete in at least ½ of the total games on the varsity schedule in order to earn a letter and/or sport patch.
What does it mean to letter in a sport in high school?
A varsity letter (or monogram) is an award earned in the United States for excellence in school activities. A varsity letter signifies that its winner was a qualified varsity team member, awarded after a certain standard was met.
How do you get a varsity letter in sports?
Completing the Process. Complete the school year or season. To earn a varsity letter, stay committed for the full school year or season. You usually cannot earn your letter until the season is over and your coach or teacher has a chance to review your accomplishments.
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How do you write a high school track letter?
To earn a varsity letter, you must satisfy at least one of the following requirements:
Earn a minimum of 10 points in varsity-level competition.
Win a medal in a varsity event at a championship meet, a relay meet, or an invitational.
Place in the top six or make the finals in a varsity event at a championship meet.
What does it take to letter in high school?
For instance, in order to earn a letter, a varsity baseball player might be required to play in 70 percent or more of the total innings on the schedule. A varsity basketball player may have play in 80 percent of the schedule games.
What do varsity pins mean?
Being on a varsity-level sport team is a sign of great athletic ability. Handing out pins, known as varsity pins or chenille pins, to members of a varsity team is a time-honored tradition that recognizes their athletic achievement. Reward deserving members of your team with a varsity pin today!
What is a letter winner in high school?
n. A high school or college student who has earned a letter in a particular activity, especially a varsity sport.
What is a JV letter for sports?
Varsity athletes receive a letter the 1st year they are on the team and an insert every subsequent year. JV athletes receive a jv letter the 1st year they are on the team and jv credit every subsequent year. Any athlete who participates on a Freshmen team will receive their numerals.
Can a freshman get a letterman jacket?
Letter jackets are almost never purchased before a student has earned a letter. Recently, many student-athletes have been awarded letters during their sophomore and sometimes freshman year, leading to the need for a jacket much sooner. Still, the actual jacket is not usually purchased until the sophomore year.
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What GPA do you need to letter in academics?
Students are awarded Academic Letters if they have achieved a 3.7 GPA for two consecutive semesters (Fall to Spring). For each subsequent year that the student continues to receive a 3.7 GPA or higher, the student will receive an academic bar that can be placed on their letter.
Is a varsity letter an honor?
Not necessarily true. Many schools have requirements above simply being on the varsity team. Often, but not always, a senior will automatically get a letter, but younger students, subject to coach's discretion, often have benchmarks, e.g. playing in 50% of the games/quarters. Now, back to the question.
How do you get a letterman jacket in high school?
Check Your School's Criteria
Participation in an academic event for two years or more.
Have a certain number of plays in a sport, such as football or soccer.
Earn a spot in an All-Region band.
Earn certain places in swim or tennis meetsBe on a cheer team from junior year forward.
Can you get a letterman jacket for academics?
Academic Decathlon students and Academic UIL students are among those that may qualify for a letterman jacket. The typical representation of a letterman jacket in movies and tv shows is shown worn by athletes, but students don't have to play sports to letter.
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Economic Justice Resisting Neoliberalism
Climate Justice and Energy
Food Sovereingty
Forests and Biodiversity
Gender Justice and Dismantling Patriarchy
Defenders of Territories and Collective Rights of the People
Community radios
December 9 | 2019
From Santiago to Madrid, the world woke up
500,000 people demonstrated in Madrid´s Climate March, closing the first week of COP 25
Climate March in Madrid, Photo: Víctor Barro, Friends of the Earth Spain
https://rwr.fm/wp-content/uploads/FromSantiagoToMadrid.mp3 Download audio
Tags: Climate Change COP25, Climate Justice and Energy, cop, Friends of the Earth
In a year marked by climate mobilizations, the people took to the streets once again in Madrid and Santiago against political inaction in the face of the climate and environmental crises. These are demonstrations that unite in one same voice the diversity of the struggles, demanding concrete and ambitious measures based on social justice, equity and the protection of Nature. It is time to act and governments cannot continue delaying year after year the implementation of policies that will help face this global emergency.
The goal of both demonstrations, as well as the slogan 'From Santiago to Madrid, the world woke up', is to expose the situation of violence and repression exerted in Chile by Piñera´s administration, as well as to make indigenous struggles and resistance visible. The Climate March took place in the context of the COP 25, reaffirming that the people and the civil society are willing to organize themselves to defend the planet, the present, the future and a just world, as a response to empty speeches and non-binding agreements.
A capitalist and predatory development model based on infinite economic growth is incompatible with planetary boundaries. We need a transition towards sustainable environmental and social models, with less consumption of materials and energy, without exceeding the biophysical limits of the planet. We need to promote a new energy model, disregarding false solutions such as nuclear energy, geoengineering or biofuels such as palm oil.
Once again, this year´s COP is helping the biggest polluters greenwash their activities through corporate sponsorship. Instead of becoming a platform for them, the Spanish government should keep big polluter companies as far away as possible from the COP 25. But the problem is not limited to the UN talks; it is also a reality in our capitals, where the fossil fuel industry and its partners shape the climate policy.
The demonstration in Madrid, which the organizers consider "a big success" and a "historical citizen mobilization" has been supported by over 500,000 people from all parts of the continent and the world, with a strong presence of Latin American and indigenous peoples. When the march ended, organizers Fridays for Future, Alianza por el Clima, Alianza por la Emergencia Climática, 2020 Rebelión por el Clima, the Peoples´ Summit, the Civil Society for Climate Action (SCAC) and Minga Indígena read a short manifesto.
In the afternoon, Madrid was flooded by hundreds of thousands of demonstrators from all regions of the world who chanted "system change, not climate change", among others from Chile. Indigenous people, youth, women, families and ecofeminist and environmental organizations led this multitudinous demonstration with the banner: "From Santiago to Madrid, the world woke up". This was a massive mobilization to show that the civil society woke up, that the climate and environmental emergency can no longer be denied and that we need to act and face the crisis.
1000 VOICES
Brazilian indigenous people defender, Sonia Guajajara; Swedish activist Greta Thunberg; actor and activist Javier Bardem; and leaders from movements and organizations, such as Dipti Bhatnagar from Friends of the Earth International, took the stage.
After reading the manifesto "The World Woke Up Facing A Climate Emergency", which closed the first part of the demonstration and gave way to artistic performances, the demonstrators highlighted the struggle of the Chilean people: "In #Chile, social and environmental rights are violated with repression, neoliberal policies, land grabbing in Wallmapu and sacrifice areas."
A key part of the Manifesto highlighted:
"Next year, the Paris Agreement will come into effect. However, many key questions are still unresolved. In addition to setting the norms on accountability and enforcement of commitments (known as the rulebook), COP25 must decisively push for the provision of enough funds and for major improvements to institutions like the Green Fund for the Climate and the Warsaw Mechanism. These would ameliorate the present and future consequences that stem from the burning of fossil fuels.
It is unacceptable that so many governments, political parties and public institutions represent the interests of major companies, banks, and financial markets. Instead, they should defend the greater good, for the people and the planet that sustains us. Confronting the climate emergency is incompatible with fossil fuels receiving hundreds of billions on public subsidies each year. We demand that governments participating in COP25 recognise the current climate inaction and state that the insufficient ambition of their agreements will lead the planet to a disastrous global warming scenario, surpassing the 3.5°C mark.
It is irresponsible that, one year before the beginning of the Paris Agreement application, we still have no mechanism capable of regulating measures for the national commitments to adopt an emissions reduction plan that is compatible with scientific estimates. COP25 must enshrine the will of all countries to elevate the ambition of their agreements ahead of the COP26 in 2020. The European Union and the G-20 must lead this commitment to a greater ambition, especially since the former is now hosting the celebration of the present summit inside its borders.
Additionally, the Spanish government must unequivocally align itself with this calling for greater ambition. This must reflect more demanding measures than the current ones in economic, political, energy, transportation, agricultural, farming, conservation, and international cooperation areas.
Similarly, the ecological transition requires the participation of all citizens in the decision-making process. Real, effective mechanisms for climate policies must include the full participation of the people."
Greta Thunberg, who stopped school activities each Friday for over a year with her climate strikes, said that while the Fridays for Future mobilizations have multiplied all over the world and have flooded the streets with young people, exposing the climate emergency and demanding a change now, the "climate crisis is still being ignored by those in power." She called to raise awareness on the thousands of people who are dying today due to climate change and urged governments and other powerful actors to take responsibility for the damage they are causing by not stopping, and instead, deepening, climate change.
Meanwhile, Guajajara highlighted that "we are experiencing a global war against those who defend Mother Earth and life on the planet". That's why she said that "it is necessary to decarbonize the minds of the economic powers and governments, and it is necessary to reforest the heart of peoples and restore the spirit of humankind. We don´t have much time. We need to act now".
(CC) 2019 Real World Radio
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One of the many newly paved roads at the Seton Business Park here leads to the headquarters and, some say, a new beginning, for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Others say, however, that the civil rights organization is making a mistake in leaving New York City, its home for 77 years.
The N.A.A.C.P. recently moved from rented space to the first headquarters it has ever owned, a five-story building with 50,000 square feet of space in a new corporate park in northwest Baltimore. A dedication ceremony is scheduled for the fall.
Several members of the organization, which has been hampered by financial problems as it struggled to modernize its image, said they felt the move would invigorate the association. For the first time it will own, not rent, its space, with room for conferences and an archives, which its leaders hope will draw visitors from outside the organization.
But critics say the move underscores a decline in the prominence and effectiveness of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights group. They say they fear the move could hurt the association's ability to raise funds, remove it from a major media market and take it from the center stage of the civil rights movement.
Mr. Hooks said the association also planned to use part of its headquarters as a national civil rights archives for the writing of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and for recording the contributions of Morefield Storey and Mary White Ovington, two of the original founders, among others.
Mr. Hooks did not deny that he and other members of the N.A.A.C.P. would have preferred to stay in New York City, and said a small office would be maintained in Brooklyn. Mr. Hooks, who shuttles between the old and the new headquarters, said he would keep his apartment on Central Park West.
But he said the organization, which has an annual budget of $10 million, has been forced to cut costs in recent years and could no longer justify paying high New York rents. The move to Baltimore is expected to save the association more than $500,000 a year. The state and city governments gave the association $1.1 million to renovate its new headquarters, a sturdy, red brick structure on a grassy knoll on a two-acre site in the 150-acre industrial park.
The association itself raised $2 million to pay for the building, which had been a retreat for a Catholic order, and has started a campaign to raise $2.3 million for remaining work.
Opponents of the move questioned whether it was worth the cost. They noted that nearly half the N.A.A.C.P.'S 100 staff members in New York had not made the move to Baltimore.
In exchange for the $1.1 million city and state grant, the organization agreed to remain in Maryland at least 15 years. If it moves before that time, it will have to repay the grant.
In the past, the N.A.A.C.P. has declined to accept large amounts of money from governments. fearing acceptance could compromise independence and place the N.A.A.C.P. in conflict with agencies and political figures it may later have to battle.
Bernard L. Berkowitz, president of the Baltimore Economic Development Corporation, said the rights group's move to Baltimore meant new jobs and increased revenue through conferences and meetings.
Indeed, the city has laid down the welcome mat for the association. Mr. Hooks, who felt the organization's accomplishments were often overlooked by news organizations in New York City, has faced an eager press corps in Baltimore that has documented every phase of the relocation.
A local bank has offered financial help to N.A.A.C.P. employees in buying homes or new cars. A local television station has offered a camera crew for taping of a public service announcement for a special workshop the association is sponsoring.


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Mechanical Engineering Student to Represent South Africa in Switzerland
Home » News » Mechanical Engineering Student to Represent South Africa in Switzerland
Mechanical Engineering student, Ms Nonjabulo Roberta Gasa, will represent South Africa at the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA)-Swiss Business Development Programme, to be held in Switzerland in October.
Gasa is the Managing Director of multi-award-winning tech and engineering startup company, SmartiPants Technology that is helping to gear Africa up for the fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) through its innovative services and developments.
'We are consultants involved in current tech trends, developing technologies such as Mechit Robotic Kits and drone smart enterprise systems for the agricultural sector,' explained Gasa. 'We also seek to empower communities with skills such as 3D printing, robotics, mechatronics and coding.'
Gasa has been nominated as one of the finalists in TIA-Swiss Business Development, a collaboration between the South African and Swiss embassies that seeks to promote technology and science innovation and business in South Africa. The collaboration is supported by one of South Africa's leading innovative organisations, Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) which will help 10 shortlisted businesses develop their tech-based business models. They will receive advanced entrepreneurial training by the University of Basel and the Swiss Institute of Entrepreneurship.
The TIA kept its eye on Gasa after she came first in the ENSPIRE Pitch Den hosted by UKZN InQubate and TIA in October 2018. ENSPIRE is UKZN's entrepreneurship skills programme developed and managed by UKZN InQubate. It aims to provide UKZN students with an opportunity to learn basic business skills and implement these skills in starting a business. The programme is one of the University's strategies to equip its students to deal with the growing global unemployment crisis.
Director of UKZN InQubate, Ms Suvina Singh is delighted that Gasa is one of the 10 finalists. 'Nonjabulo's growth and boundless success makes her an excellent entrepreneurial ambassador for technologically savvy youth and female entrepreneurs in our country. She has combined her passion for technology and community development and is leading a new brand of entrepreneurial culture taking South Africa into and beyond the fourth Industrial Revolution,' said Singh.
Last year, Gasa was selected as an Inspiring Fifty nominee, a Dutch based initiative led by CoCreate for the top 50 inspiring tech women in South Africa.
'I have a great passion for promoting women in engineering and empowering communities,' said Gasa.
Under her leadership, SmartiPants has won numerous awards, including the iBelong Excellence Award from Transnet, awards from Innovate Durban and most recently, one from the Moses Kotane Institute for being the most innovative company in the ICT category. Gasa is currently a Durban Global Shaper.
She said that she is grateful to TIA and the Swiss Business Development Programme for this opportunity.
'I am extremely excited as this means I will be able to get help from TIA to commercialise my tech products. I will also get an opportunity to network and partner with other businesses and meet investors during my stay in Switzerland, which is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world.'
'Nonjabulo Gasa has displayed a truly inspirational spirit filled with passion and drive for her innovation "mechatronic robotic it" within the 4IR mechatronic realm,' said Ms Senisha Moonsamy, head of ISD at TIA. 'It was remarkable to see her growth and ability to digest what her local mentor and trainer advised for the final pitch.'
Gasa is currently focusing on growing her business and looks forward to enrolling for an MBA.
'SmartiPants is set to launch disruptive tech products this year, one of which is a drone smart enterprise system which will help farmers detect stressed areas and identify potential threats such as pests and diseases in livestock and crops. SmartiPants has also prototyped an innovative set of artificial intelligence based robotic kits to prepare the youth with coding and engineering skills,' she said.
Words: Zolile Duma
Photograph: UKZN InQubate


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package net.fortuna.ical4j.model.property;

import java.text.ParseException;

import junit.framework.TestSuite;
import net.fortuna.ical4j.model.PropertyTest;

/**
 * $Id: RepeatTest.java,v 1.6 2010/03/06 12:57:23 fortuna Exp $
 *
 * Created on: 24/11/2008
 *
 * @author fortuna
 */
public class RepeatTest extends PropertyTest {

    /**
     * @param property
     * @param expectedValue
     */
    public RepeatTest(Repeat repeat, String expectedValue) {
        super(repeat, expectedValue);
    }

    /**
	 * @param testMethod
	 * @param property
	 */
	public RepeatTest(String testMethod, Repeat property) {
		super(testMethod, property);
	}

	/**
     * @return
     * @throws ParseException
     */
    public static TestSuite suite() {
        TestSuite suite = new TestSuite();
        Repeat repeat = new Repeat(5);
        suite.addTest(new RepeatTest(repeat, "5"));
        suite.addTest(new RepeatTest("testValidation", repeat));
        suite.addTest(new RepeatTest("testEquals", repeat));
        return suite;
    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The history of puppets in Indonesia dates back centuries ago. Puppets were used to tell stories, folk tales and ancient myths. It is interesting to know that there are actually two distinct categories of puppets in Indonesia, mainly wayang kulit and wayang golek. Wayang kulit puppets refer to either shadow or leather puppets whereas wayang golek refers to wooden puppets.
All puppets are beautifully handmade and each one represents a different character, animal, god and representation. You will even be able to find some traditional designs that have been recreated in the form of puppets many times over, for the last couple of hundred years.
These are fantastic gifts for all the children in your life of various ages – your own children, nieces, nephews and the children of your best friends.