My legs felt really weird today. After wearing shorts for the entire week, the temps were finally cool enough to warrant long pants. I was very aware of the soft rub of denim on my shins and the flap of the hems around my ankles as I walked. It felt good.
Back again with BIRTW quickly after the last one, but without much news, I'm afraid. I finished Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik and I'm just into Black Powder War.
In the second book of Novik's delicious Temeraire series, Throne of Jade, we find Temeraire, the Celestial dragon, and his companion, Wil Laurence, on their way to China after being forced to leave England. A Chinese delegation had arrived and the British government, not wanting to insult a world power, agrees to return the dragon to China. The Chinese view Laurence's attachment to Temeraire with disdain but the dragon refuses to go without him. So off they sail around Africa and through the Indian Ocean narrowly escaping an attack of a sea serpent when Temeraire saves the day.
They find the treatment of dragons to be very different in the Far East where the number of indivduals and species is much greater than in Europe. Some dragons are celebrated and indeed worshipped while others are beasts of burden and even go hungry in the streets. Temeraire meets his mother, finds himself courting, and learns how to read and write Chinese characters while Laurence struggles with jealousy, culture shock and the loss of one of his crew, Willoughby, in an attack on their quarters. Temeraire becomes intrigued by the possibilities of dragons having free will, earning wages, and not being bound by the British goverment into military servitude. I'm sure that attitude will not be looked on favorably once our two heroes are back in England.
They have to make it there though which is the focus of Black Powder War. Right now they're struggling overland through deserts and mountains on their way to Turkey to escort some dragon eggs back home. I'll be sad when this book is over and I don't have any more Temeraire and Laurence adventures on my shelf.
Unread books on my shelf at home (too embarrassing!):
If You Could See Me Now, Cecelia Ahern
Shark Island, Joan Druett
Darcy & Elizabeth, Linda Berdoll
The Art of Detection, Laurie R. King
Danse Macabre, Laurell K. Hamilton
Magic or Madness, Justine Larbalestier
Dead Secret, Diane Connor
Luck in the Shadows, Lynn Flewelling
Site Unseen, Dana Cameron
Virgin Earth, Philippa Gregory
Quidditch Through the Ages, JK Rowling
Dead Guilty, Diane Connor
Books on hold at the library:
Dark Tort, Diane Mott Davidson (18 of 19 holds)
Miss Zukas and the Stroke of Death, Jo Dereske (ready for pickup)
Out of Circulation, Jo Dereske (ready for pickup)
Final Notice, Jo Dereske (check shelf)
Miss Zukas and the Raven's Dance Jo Dereske (1 of 1 holds)
Dead in Vineyard Sand, Philip R. Craig (in transit)
I really need to snap out of my slow reading malaise and trim down this list. I'm just distracted by other things right now. I hope I have more to report next time on Books I've Read This Week. Happy Reading!
My officemate Katherine moved back to Tennessee a few weeks ago and I inherited her mini-fridge. I love having my own little icebox to keep all my snacks and lunch ingredients cool. I'm not much of a sharing person when it comes to space and territory. Katherine (and her replacement) had been keeping things in the fridge that really needed to be in a freezer so the temperature setting had been set to the coolest setting. When I moved it over into my space, there was quite a build-up of ice around the tiny freezer shelf. I knew I'd need to de-frost it pretty soon. But I didn't mean last night.
I have a fan, a lamp, a paper shredder, a printing calculator and the refrigerator all vying for one three-pronged extension cord. It's just not enough. Especially yesterday when it was hot (fan) and dark (lamp) and I needed to scan something. So I unplugged the fridge, scanned my documents, and promptly forgot to re-insert the fridge plug.
I arrived in my office this morning to a pool of water surrounding the fridge and when I opened it the ice had fallen from around the freezer shelf onto my food. Damn. I mopped it up as well I could and then unhappily had to dissasemble the pile of boxes from behind the fridge to get to the one on the bottom which had been soaked through from below. I'm glad it had binders in it and not file folders full of bookkeeping papers. That just would not have been fun.
Moral of the story: "don't have more plugs than you have holes" or "Radio Shack is right around the corner and sells power strips, stupid!"
The temperature in my house was still over 90º when I got home tonight, but since I got a request, I will try to put my brain in motion (no promises). At least there's a bit of a breeze tonight.
As I waited for more Miss Zukas books to come in (see my previous column) I picked up a new author I found on the new book shelf. Well, she wasn't there, silly, but her second book, Shark Island, was. It had a historical and nautical theme and with my recent success with Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon, I thought I would give it a try. And I was lucky enough to find the first book in the Wiki series, A Watery Grave, in the stacks too. Yea!
Wiki, or William, Coffin, the illegitimate son of an American sea captain and a New Zealand Maori native, moved to America when he was 12 and soon after some schooling headed out to sea and served on a variety of ships, mostly whalers. When Grave begins, he is 24 and has signed on to be the interpreter for the U.S. South Seas Exploring Expedition, a real-life mission in 1838. Before even leaving dry land though he is embroiled in a murder, accused, set free, and then appointed a deputy by the local Virginia sheriff to investigate aboard the convoy of ships, where they believe the murderer is.
If you like to read about life onboard big ships and sailing and guns and murder, then this book is for you. I liked it and I'm not that big a ship and gun fan. Wiki is undeniably fascinating and I'm looking forward to seeing what he gets into next in Shark Island.
I finished Grave on my way to work one day so had nothing with me to read on my BART ride home but just happened to have Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at work so I threw it in my bag. That was a bit of a mistake seeing as how I had many books at home which I have not read yet but once I started I couldn't stop. (I do love it so: Dudley and the dementors, the thestrals, the awfully horrifying awful Umbridge, the DA, ah, no, Sirius!) It took me awhile to re-read it so by the time Friday came, and it was too hot to do much but gaze blindly at the television, I found that I hadn't read but one new book the whole week. I suck.
Unread books on my shelf at home (before heading to the library Saturday morning):
If You Could See Me Now, Cecelia Ahern
Shark Island, Joan Druett
Darcy & Elizabeth, Linda Berdoll
The Art of Detection, Laurie R. King
Danse Macabre, Laurell K. Hamilton
Black Powder War, Naomi Novik
Magic or Madness, Justine Larbalestier
Throne of Jade, Naomi Novik
Dead Secret, Diane Connor
Luck in the Shadows, Lynn Flewelling
Site Unseen, Dana Cameron
Books on hold at the library:
Virgin Earth, Philippa Gregory (ready for pickup)
Dark Tort, Diane Mott Davidson (26 of 27 holds)
Miss Zukas and the Stroke of Death, Jo Dereske (in transit)
Out of Circulation, Jo Dereske (in transit)
Dead Guilty, Diane Connor (ready for pickup)
Final Notice, Jo Dereske (check shelf)
Miss Zukas and the Raven's Dance Jo Dereske (1 of 1 holds)
Dead in Vineyard Sand, Philip R. Craig (1 of 1 holds)
Quidditch Through the Ages, JK Rowling (ready for pickup)
Sorry for making you wait so many days for just one book's worth of BIRTW. I'm hoping I can get back to reading more soon as I have many many books whining over there on my shelf. I'm reading Throne of Jade right now and am loving it. Catch you next time on Books I've Read This Week. Happy reading!
Due to over 100º temperatures, the usual Friday column of BIRTW has been postponed indefinitely. Please check back later when I can do more than just sit here and blankly stare at the TV.
your faithful blogger,
bj
Could you believe Floyd Landis this morning at the Tour? After yesterday's bonk and loss of 10 minutes and the yellow jersey, he took over the alpine stage today. On the first climb of the day his Phonak team launched him on a solo breakaway of over 120k. He was flying up those mountains and flying back down. Quite a sight to see. I was proud of him and his response to losing yesterday. He's only 30 seconds out of first with the all-important individual time trial on Saturday. Can he pull back that half-minute? We'll all be waiting on Saturday!
Was it just me or was everyone on Rock Star last night singing out of tune? Even my faves, Magni and Toby, were off. I had to fast forward, fast. I'm not sure I care who's getting offed tonight. I'm sure I'll be watching though. I'm such a sucker for mediocre reality TV.
Now that someone else has returned to blogging, I will too! Yeah! I'm sure you've all missed hearing about all the boring things I've been doing. Like reading and watching baseball. And working. Don't forget the working. Thankfully, the magazine is almost done. Just a few more days of craziness before I can move on to totally immersing myself in bookkeeping. At least, that's what I'm planning. We'll see if that's what I get to do.
We'll I better publish this before Blogger's scheduled outage in four minutes. I can just sneak under the wire.
I have to remember to stop at the library tonight on my way home. I remembered this morning to put my book bag in the car so I can go straight there from the BART station. I have so many books due today that I haven't read. I feel bad. But there are some good ones waiting for me when I get there. That should cheer me up.
I hope you all are in a nice cool location. Drink lots of fluids!
I've been sitting way too long in one place without moving around. I need to get out of the office and go home. I'm afraid to go to the East Bay though cuz it was 95º at my house yesterday and it's only about 75º here in SF. I had to use all the available fans in my house in my bedroom to get to sleep last night. Guh. It looks like it's going to be like this all week too. Where is the fog? Where is my natural air conditioning?!
Happy Bastille Day! I wish I could say I was reading a book about France or one taking place in France or even one with some French words in it but, alas no, the book I finished today takes place in Cleveland. Joy.
So, last week I read two new authors that I really enjoyed (Naomi Novik & Beverly Connor) and this week I went 1 for 2. I really enjoyed the Miss Zukas books but I wasn't very impressed with Casey Daniels' Don of the Dead. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
First on the list this week was Micah, Laurell K. Hamilton's first novella in which Anita Blake, vampire hunter, goes out of town on an adventure with only one of her (many) boyfriends. According to LKH's blog (which I read faithfully), she might write a series like this one featuring Anita's various men (I'd like to vote for the werewolf Jason, myself).
In this story, Anita's zombie-raising colleague Larry was scheduled to go to Philly to raise a recently-deceased trial witness but had to cancel at the last second so Anita went instead, along with her wereleopard boyfriend Micah. I always like it when Anita's doing more necromancy or work with the cops than vampire or were politics. I just like mysteries I guess. I also wish that LKH would've spent more time in Anita's storyline on her necromancy training with her witch friend. Oh well. Her books are always good. Why am I complaining? I should be getting the next regular book, Danse Macabre, soon. Can't wait. I hear Richard's back with a vengeance and that Anita might be preggers. Somehow I doubt it.
Next were the first two books in Jo Dereske's Miss Zukas mystery series, Miss Zukas and the Library Murders and Miss Zukas and the Island Murders. Miss Zukas is a librarian in a small city north of Seattle and happily lives alone in a two-bedroom apartment. I have to say I kinda fell in love with her almost immediately. She wouldn't swear, no, but says, "Oh, Faulkner!" instead. She wouldn't throw away a gift she didn't like, no, she keeps them all in her second bedroom, including a painting by her loud and colorful friend, Ruth. Yes, she has a crazy sidekick!
But those things aren't the only reasons why I found myself liking the Miss Zukas books more and more. It turns out that Miss Zukas (and the author) are from Michigan and not too far from where I grew up. I couldn't help exclaiming and laughing out loud when places like Cadillac, Manistee and Frankfort were mentioned in the stories. I'm definitely going to be reading more books by Jo Dereske.
And then there was Don of the Dead. I probably should've realized from the title that it was a mob boss story which is really not my cup of tea. I thought it was going to be a paranormal mystery but the rather unappealing main character Pepper just hit her head on a tombstone (she works in a cemetery) and now can see ghosts. Oh whoop-de-doo. Her first ghost was gunned down in front of his favorite pasta joint and he wants her to figure out who killed him. I'm surprised at the end that she actually got it done what with all her flirting and dating and wearing tight clothes over her humongous boobs. I'd rather read more Charlaine Harris and her great Sookie Stackhouse books.
Unread books on my shelf at home:
Sleep, Pale Sister, Joanne Harris
The Fan, Peter Abrahams
The Memory of Whiteness, Kim Stanley Robinson
Predator, Patricia Cornwell
Gone, Jonathan Kellerman
If You Could See Me Now, Cecelia Ahern
Books on hold at the library:
Virgin Earth, Philippa Gregory (due 7/18)
Darcy & Elizabeth, Linda Berdoll (ready for pickup)
Danse Macabre, Laurell K. Hamilton (in transit)
The Art of Detection, Laurie R. King (in transit)
Dark Tort, Diane Mott Davidson (27 of 27 holds)
Magic or Madness, Justine Larbalestier (ready for pickup)
Throne of Jade, Naomi Novik (ready for pickup)
Black Powder War, Naomi Novik (ready for pickup)
Dead Secret, Beverly Connor (ready for pickup)
Luck in the Shadows, Lynn Flewelling (in transit)
Site Unseen, Dana Cameron (in transit, which is odd since I returned it unread last week and didn't re-reserve it. huh.)
Well, it looks like my hold list might be clearing itself out soon. I'll have to see what's on my unread list in my books database. (I seem to remember there being something like over 40 books...) I'll catch you next week on Books I've Read This Week. Happy reading!
Man, I'm so tired. I can't believe it's only 9:00. I feel like I should've been in bed already for a couple hours.
The magazine schedule got pushed back by a couple weeks so I'm laying it out this week and next, right when I should be spending my time doing the books for June and getting other year-end bookkeeping tasks done so I can start prepping for our annual audit. So I've been working late and hard on the magazine and trying to squeeze in some bookkeeping on the side. Not too mention I have to figure out a lot of magazine-related stuff in the database. Ugh. I sure am glad it's the weekend!
So I missed the first week of Rockstar: Supernova. I’m not sure I missed much. The singers don't seem as good as the first season. We’ll see though. There are a couple I hope make it far. I like the Icelander Magni and the Aussie Toby. They can both sing and they look good doing it.
Another reason I might not like this season is that I’m just not that into Tommy Lee (one of the members of Supernova). He’s kinda weird and kinda weird looking. I especially think he reallllly needs to pull up his pants. I'm just seeing way too much TL. I love Jason Newsted though. He was always my old roommate Marla’s favorite Metallican. All I can say about the other dude is please lose the ’stache; it’s really bad.
The website is seriously killer. They've got great animation effects and if you go to the Supernova page you can click on, say, Jason's music picks and listen to the songs in his list (even buy them if you want). Well, supposedly. They don't happen to support my browsers. Thanks a lot, Microsoft.
Well, I'm off to watch the Elimnation Show. I hope Magni and Toby make it through. Then it’s two Project Runway episodes back-to-back. Yes, kids, it’s that time again. Woo hoo!!!!
Now I'm starting to look up words just for the fun of it. Which one is your favorite?
anneal: heat (metal or glass) and allow it to cool slowly, in order to remove internal stresses and toughen it
cresset: a metal container of oil, grease, wood, or coal burned as a torch and typically mounted on a pole
mnemonic: a device such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations that assists in remembering something
epithet: an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned; such a word or phrase as a term of abuse; a descriptive title
tessellate: decorate (a floor) with mosaics, in mathematics: cover (a plane surface) by repeated use of a single shape, without gaps or overlapping (bj: this word was used in reference to an Escher print)
effulgent: shining brightly; radiant; (of a person or their expression) emanating joy or goodness
Rush, rush, rush
Stand to the right, rush on the left
The tread of my sneakers grips the metal stairs
As I descend into the tunnel
Rush, rush, rush
Turn to the right, rush straight ahead
Fremont, Dublin/Pleasanton
Train just arrived
Rush, rush, rush
Tonight I'm going to try to leave the TV off. Shocking, I know. But it's the Monday before the All-Star game so there's no baseball games on. I'm not a fan of the Home Run Derby so I'm not going to watch it. And it's a rest day at the Tour so there's no stage to watch again (I slept in this morning!). Hockey's over and so is the World Cup and Wimbledon.
What am I going to do instead? Listen to some podcasts and my newly-downloaded albums from the iTMS? Read a book (with no game on in the background)? Maybe work on my books database? Or download my bank statement to Quicken? So many choices!
Oh, a little red-headed bird just was just on my balcony peeping away. I couldn't reach the camera in time to snap a shot. I'll have to keep it close in case the little birdie comes back. Maybe that's what I'll do tonight. Stalk some birds!
I never seem to know when new books by my favorite authors are coming out. I'm often sheepishly surprised to see one on the new book shelf. I feel like I'm not doing my job as a Faithful Reader when I didn't even know they had released a new book!
So I decided to create a little database this weekend and enter authors, books and series along with websites so I can just click a button and go see what the latest news is. I set up a system for entering when their next book is due to come out and if I've read all their books or not. So can find books soon to be released and I can find books I haven't read yet.
So far I've entered 69 authors, 64 series and 281 books (232 that I've read). I added a whole bunch of authors that I haven't entered books for yet. So I have a ways to go. I was happy to have my BIRTW columns to get my most recent information. I may go back through my emails from the library to get more.
I thought about adding a field for when I read a book, but that just sounds like too much work. I'm not sure I need to track that anyway.
Here's a screenshot of my Authors database (I borrowed the design from our contacts database at work).
Yes, I've dated this BIRTW as the 7th even though I'm writing it Saturday morning while watching the Tour (Lang still leading at 1:02:47 in the ITT). It was just too late after I got done reading last night. After quite a long list last week, I only have a few books this time.
I finished Moving is Murder by Sara Rosett. As I suspected last week, it remained rather boring and unbelievable to the end. Even the culprit was uninteresting and pathetic. Please don't waste your time.
Next was His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik. I had read about this book on a blog I next-blogged into one night. The description of dragons combined with Napoleonic-era British Navy themes was just too interesting to ignore. I reserved it immediately and I am now so happy I did. I loved this book.
Englishman Will Laurence is a mild-mannered captain in His Majesty's Navy when he captures a French man 0' war with an unusual and valuable cargo: a dragon egg. It was already hard and only a few days from hatching so someone on board would have to harness the dragon or it would go feral and its value would be lost. Laurence is relieved when someone else pulls the short straw but the new dragon has other plans and chooses the captain when he speaks to Laurence first. Laurence offers him the name of Temeraire which the dragon accepts. Laurence realizes his life as he knows it is over as the riders in the Aerial Corps live far separate from his now-former cultured life as the son of a gentleman.
So it's on to Scotland and then to the Channel where Laurence and Temeraire (and we readers) learn what it means to be a rider and dragon together in the war against France. I won't reveal more details because part of the fun is learning along with the two boys. There are some good other characters as well; my favorite is one of the young cadets at the Loch Laggan Covert. A nice thing is the author has written two more books in the series that are out already and has more in the works. I can't wait to get Throne of Jade and Black Powder War. You Pern fans out there must check out these books.
Next was a piece of paranormal fluff by Katie MacAlister, Even Vampires Get The Blues. It was fun but nothing special.
I was going to read Don of the Dead by Casey Daniels next as I was feeling paranormal, but I couldn't renew a couple Link+ books that are due today so I started One Grave Too Many by Beverly Connor instead. I wasn't sure about this one at the beginning but I gave it a chance and gradually warmed to the story and the characters as more and more details were revealed.
Diane Fallon, a forensic anthropologist, is the new director at a natural history museum near Atlanta. She was burned out from excavating one mass grave after another in South America so had taken this job in the interest of having a quieter life. She knew she shouldn't but she couldn't say no when a friend asked her to analyze a human bone. A mess of bones, assaults and insults later, the identity of the victim was discovered, the story told, and the murdered caught, all while deflecting a mutiny by her Board of Directors at the museum (and playing a drawn-out and often remote game of chess with her new curator of archeology).
I enjoyed the mystery and science in this book, but I think I enjoyed the interplay of the characters in the museum even more. And Diane has the knack of being able to say to those who challenge her exactly what you would hope she would (see her conversation with the self-serving mayor). After a slow start, she became a well-drawn, sympathetic character with lots of depth and history. I look forward to reading more Diane Fallon forensic investigations (and other books) by Beverly Connor.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to Site Unseen by Dana Cameron, an archeology mystery, and it has to go back today. I'll have to keep it on my Books to Reserve list and actually read it next time!
Unread books on my shelf at home:
Sleep, Pale Sister, Joanne Harris
The Fan, Peter Abrahams
The Memory of Whiteness, Kim Stanley Robinson
Predator, Patricia Cornwell
Gone, Jonathan Kellerman
Miss Zukas & the Island Murders, Jo Dereske
Don of the Dead, Casey Daniels
If You Could See Me Now, Cecelia Ahern
Books on hold at the library:
Virgin Earth, Philippa Gregory (due 7/18)
Micah, Laurell K. Hamilton (ready for pickup!)
Darcy & Elizabeth, Linda Berdoll (1 of 8 holds)
Danse Macabre, Laurell K. Hamilton (3 of 21 holds)
The Art of Detection, Laurie R. King (5 of 13 holds)
Dark Tort, Diane Mott Davidson (29 of 29 holds)
Miss Zukas & the Library Murders, Jo Dereske (ready for pickup)
Magic or Madness, Justine Larbalestier (in transit)
Throne of Jade, Naomi Novik (in transit)
Black Powder War, Naomi Novik (in transit)
So it looks like it'll be a good week for reading at my house this next week. I'll let you know how it goes next time on Books I've Read This Week. Happy reading!
At the office we have a lockable fireproof filing cabinet that we call the safe. I keep my blank checks in there as well as originals of important papers like audits and tax forms and checks yet to be deposited. I have a key to it on my key chain. Today I unlocked it to look for a letter from our auditors.
I was walking towards my apartment door a few minutes ago and reached into my right pocket where my keys normally hang out. They weren't there. Where were they? Yes, back in the safe keyhole. Great.
I do have two extra keys to my apartment. Where were they? INSIDE MY APARTMENT! Where they could do no good. You must have assumed by now that since I'm happily typing away to you so soon after this realization that I was saved. And I was.
Luckily Jim, my apartment manager, was home and more than willing to let me in. First he had to commiserate with me about being locked out and try to push on me several potential solutions to any future keyless dilemmas. I just really wanted to get inside out of the hot sun and take off my shoes (and other things).
I promise to get a BIRTW done as soon as I've finished up some reading tonight. I have two non-renewable books due tomorrow that I really must read before any more blogging may commence. So I'll just get right to it.
So Jeff is now a Cardinal and will join the St. Louis rotation according to Yahoo! Sports (don't believe the story that he's 6-10; he's not, he's 3-10). That's okay with me. At least it wasn't the Yankees or Red Sox or Mariners. I can get behind the Cards. I even have family in the area. I wonder when he'll start. They need pitching help with Mulder hurt and their other starters not doing so hot.
p.s. so sorry, jenjen, Verlander didn't make it. I do enjoy AJ though.
I'm not that tied into the MLB All-Star Game this year. It just doesn't interest me that much.
However, while chatting with Mike this evening he posed the question of who I would be voting for for the final roster spot. I didn't understand what he was getting at until I mentioned Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers (10-4, 3.13 ERA) and he was understandably upset I hadn't chosen Francisco Liriano of his Minnesota Twins (9-1, 1.99).
As I have not much loyalty either way, the first person to leave me a comment requesting my vote will get it. So let's see some comments!
I spent most of the day reading today. Here's another list of words I looked up recently:
limn: depict or describe in painting or words
sumptuary: relating to or denoting laws that limit private expenditure on food and personal item
cantrip: a mischievous or playful act; a trick
atropine: a poisonous compound found in deadly nightshade and related plants. It is used in medicine as a muscle relaxant, e.g., in dilating the pupil of the eye
venn diagram: a diagram representing mathematical or logical sets pictorially as circles or closed curves within an enclosing rectangle (the universal set), common elements of the sets being represented by the areas of overlap among the circles
meme: an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, esp. imitation
spurious: not being what it purports to be; false or fake; (of a line of reasoning) apparently but not actually valid
trope: a figurative or metaphorical use of a word or expression
extant: still in existence; surviving (especially of a document)
prodigious: remarkably or impressively great in extent, size, or degree
encomium: a speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly
provenance: the place of origin or earliest known history of something
bugbear: a cause of obsessive fear, irritation, or loathing
inculcate: instill (an attitude, idea, or habit) by persistent instruction
solecism: a breach of good manners; a piece of incorrect behavior; a grammatical mistake in speech or writing
I just felt an earthquake about 10 minutes ago. The USGS says it was only a 2.5 but, since it was so close, it sure felt like more than that. My hanging things didn't swing very much though. That's always a good sign.
Here's something fun in Photoshop: creating your own patterns. I found this tutorial today so I made a couple patterns. I'm not sure exactly how useful they might be, but it was fun to create something small and see the patterns it makes when multiplied a few times. Here's the progression of one my attempts.
The quarter pattern I first created with the pencil tool:
The quarter copied and rotated into the full block pattern:
Used as a pattern in Photoshop:
(click for a larger image)
I discovered digg today and found a link to The Phrontistery and its list of words that have been lost to the English language. Very amusing.
Here's ee23246's original comment:
"Lost words" are words that were removed from dictionary since they were assumed to be out-dated or unfit for modern English.Here's a comprehensive list of such words."
The other night while I was looking around for cycling and Tour de France news, I found a link to download the Tour route to Google Earth. It is so cool. It shows the climbs and sprints and feeding stations as well as the kilometer marks and waystation points along the way so you can follow along from town to town with the cyclists. It has a live function too but I have to admit that I haven't been getting up early enough for that. I'm just following along with Phil and Paul on my DVR.
I wish OLN would give us the town names more often though. I can't always see the physical landmarks well enough to figure out where they are. It seems, for the first couple stages anyway, that Google Earth doesn't have the highest resolution images in France. I was able to see really close yesterday only for a little while. In fact, the bridge they used to cross the Rhine into Germany from France wasn't built yet when the Google Earth images were taken. It looked, according to Google Earth, that they were riding right across the water!
I finally attended my first A’s game of the season this afternoon and, boy, was it fun. I met up with Sarah at the BART station and then with Tree, Ron and Tree’s dad, Mat, inside in section 119—primo seats in the shade. The match-up was uninspiring on paper: Loaiza for the A’s vs. Batista for the D-backs. I kinda expected both of them to get hit around. I couldn't have been more wrong (at first).
Arizona went down 1-2-3 in the first—as did the A’s. Then Loaiza walked Gonzo and hit Shawn Green in the second but a fielder's choice and a pop-up left them both on base—the A’s were out 1-2-3. For the third inning we had matching 1-2-3s. Gonzo got on again in the fourth, this time with a double, but was left stranded again—the A’s were out 1-2-3. The fifth saw an amazing running catch by Kotsay then a long fly ball he couldn't catch by DaVanon but he too was left on—the A’s were out 1-2-3. Are you getting the picture?
The D-backs got two guys on again in the sixth only to strand them—the A’s were out 1-2-3. Have you been counting along? That's a perfect game by Batista through six innings. Pretty cool. However, we were rooting for the A’s (except Mat who's from Tempe). Arizona had threatened with guys in scoring position in four innings but had left six guys on without scoring. It was a pretty exciting 0-0 tie. That was all to end in the seventh.
Can you say "batted around"? Loaiza gave up a double and four singles and his replacement Saurbeck gave up one of each allowing the D-backs to score six runs in the top of the seventh. But the question remained: Could Batista hold on to his perfect game? The answer was happily no. With two out, Bobby Crosby drew a walk and the perfect game was gone. Then up came The Big Hurt and out went the baseball. The no-hitter and shutout were history. Sorry, Batista, you'll have to make do with a 7–2 win on the road and a series win vs. the A's. Not bad for you guys.
Oakland will try to salvage a win tomorrow with Zito on the mound. Let's hope the A’s bats can squeak out more than three hits against 8-3 Brandon Webb who’s lost his last three straight decisions. Go A’s!
