Sunday, October 30, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Bonjour, girl!
In the vein of the badass honey badger comes the bitchy version of Beauty & the Beast.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Quote of the Day.
"It started out as a feeling
Which then grew into a hope
Which then turned into a quiet thought
Which then turned into a quiet word
And then that word grew louder and louder
'Til it was a battle cry" - Regina Spektor, "The Call"
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Review: "Unholy Ghosts"
One of the things that I really love about my Kindle is getting to try out new authors and novels for such cheap prices. For instance, I bought Cherie Priest's "Boneshaker" for $3. Even better is "Unholy Ghosts", which I looked for after seeing high praise for it on one of the websites I read religiously. Low and behold it was 99 cents! So I yanked it up. I'm always pleased to try out new dark urban fantasy authors, it's sort of a guilty pleasure of mine. My only regulars are Kim Harrison's "The Hollows" series and more recently, Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files". On to "Unholy Ghosts" itself....
As I mentioned earlier, I'm not familiar with Stacia Kane's work. I have to say though, this first novel in her Downside series left me quite impressed. I found it to be very inventive and compelling. The world is a little different from our own. In 1997, the Earth became overrun with ghosts and almost didn't survive the invasion. The Church of Truth was the only one able to defend the people, thus killing off all of the old religions. Imagine knowing there is no God. There is only Fact and Truth. Magic exists, but only employees of the church are allowed to use these magical rites. Now the world is ruled absolutely by this church. Our heroine is Chess Putnam, a Debunker for the Church of Truth. It is her job to see if people claiming to be haunted are telling the truth, and if they are, to banish the ghosts.
However, our heroine has a problem. A big problem. She's secretly a drug addict. At first I thought I was going to have a real problem with this, because I'm very much anti-drugs and Chess is pretty much all about them. However thanks to Kane's writing, I still found her very likable and even relatable. Props, Ms. Kane.Chess has had a very difficult life. She doesn't remember her parents and was brought up by the social system. Chess has a lot of strength but her Achilles heel is definitely her affinity for drugs. This is where I hope to see growth from her in subsequent novels. Most of her motivations come from this need for drugs. Her relationships are primarily drawn around how people can be of use to her, whether for drugs or other things. She now lives in the Downside, a part of Triumph city filled with drug dealers, pimps, and gangs. What's interesting is the slang they use, it's so distinctive that you can usually tell exactly who is speaking with no other indications.
Back to the plot: now she's in deep trouble with her dealer, Bump. She is in serious debt to him and he wants his payment now. They strike a deal that Chess has to get rid of the nasty ghosts at an abandoned airstrip so he can pursue operations there, and her debt will be paid. So Chess has to team up with Terrible, Bump's hired muscle. I'll tell you right now, I love his character. Love it. At first he seems to be a flat character but over time, you really get to see who he is and how he got that way. What seems to be a relatively simple task for Bump becomes increasingly complicated and dangerous. She stumbles into a number of things: black magic, a sexy rival drug enforcer, human sacrifice, and corruption within the Church. A lot of the book reads like a creepy mystery novel, with a little bit of romance thrown in. One of the things I especially liked was that magic takes TIME here. It's not like you have a wand and BAM! Fireball an enemy. It takes time, precaution and preparation. As a consequence, when you have a bunch of baddies after you, it's a lot more suspenseful. I don't want to give away much more of the plot, I'll just say it's quite fast paced. As a warning though, there were some graphic scenes that sort of grossed me out.
"Unholy Ghosts" is a fast-paced read in an inventive world, I highly recommend it.
As I mentioned earlier, I'm not familiar with Stacia Kane's work. I have to say though, this first novel in her Downside series left me quite impressed. I found it to be very inventive and compelling. The world is a little different from our own. In 1997, the Earth became overrun with ghosts and almost didn't survive the invasion. The Church of Truth was the only one able to defend the people, thus killing off all of the old religions. Imagine knowing there is no God. There is only Fact and Truth. Magic exists, but only employees of the church are allowed to use these magical rites. Now the world is ruled absolutely by this church. Our heroine is Chess Putnam, a Debunker for the Church of Truth. It is her job to see if people claiming to be haunted are telling the truth, and if they are, to banish the ghosts.
However, our heroine has a problem. A big problem. She's secretly a drug addict. At first I thought I was going to have a real problem with this, because I'm very much anti-drugs and Chess is pretty much all about them. However thanks to Kane's writing, I still found her very likable and even relatable. Props, Ms. Kane.Chess has had a very difficult life. She doesn't remember her parents and was brought up by the social system. Chess has a lot of strength but her Achilles heel is definitely her affinity for drugs. This is where I hope to see growth from her in subsequent novels. Most of her motivations come from this need for drugs. Her relationships are primarily drawn around how people can be of use to her, whether for drugs or other things. She now lives in the Downside, a part of Triumph city filled with drug dealers, pimps, and gangs. What's interesting is the slang they use, it's so distinctive that you can usually tell exactly who is speaking with no other indications.
Back to the plot: now she's in deep trouble with her dealer, Bump. She is in serious debt to him and he wants his payment now. They strike a deal that Chess has to get rid of the nasty ghosts at an abandoned airstrip so he can pursue operations there, and her debt will be paid. So Chess has to team up with Terrible, Bump's hired muscle. I'll tell you right now, I love his character. Love it. At first he seems to be a flat character but over time, you really get to see who he is and how he got that way. What seems to be a relatively simple task for Bump becomes increasingly complicated and dangerous. She stumbles into a number of things: black magic, a sexy rival drug enforcer, human sacrifice, and corruption within the Church. A lot of the book reads like a creepy mystery novel, with a little bit of romance thrown in. One of the things I especially liked was that magic takes TIME here. It's not like you have a wand and BAM! Fireball an enemy. It takes time, precaution and preparation. As a consequence, when you have a bunch of baddies after you, it's a lot more suspenseful. I don't want to give away much more of the plot, I'll just say it's quite fast paced. As a warning though, there were some graphic scenes that sort of grossed me out.
"Unholy Ghosts" is a fast-paced read in an inventive world, I highly recommend it.
What Type of Psychologist Am I?
According to this quiz, anyway.
The most optimistic of psychologists, you believe all people have the capability to function normally within them. The power to change is internal. However, feelings of inadequacy often prevent this. Therapy involves the unconditional support of patients, listening and encouraging as they seek the answers to their problems within themselves, at their own pace.
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| You Scored as Humanistic |
The most optimistic of psychologists, you believe all people have the capability to function normally within them. The power to change is internal. However, feelings of inadequacy often prevent this. Therapy involves the unconditional support of patients, listening and encouraging as they seek the answers to their problems within themselves, at their own pace.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
One awesome achievement.
Today, we celebrate a great achievement -- 100 million registered organ, eye and tissue donors in the United States. Celebrate with us!
Check out more about it here.
Check out more about it here.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Quote of the Day
"Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people." - Carl Jung
Friday, October 7, 2011
In other (personal) news...
I have to say, things are going pretty well. I'm very tired recently because of the workload I'm doing, but it could be much worse. I can't believe it's already October but time flies when you're having fun right! I have caught up work-wise from the week that I had that crazy stomach virus which is a relief. I've also taken the first quiz for my math makeup course and will be taking the second one next week. So for the most part, I'm on track with the professor's current class which makes it convenient. Hoping to finish it a little faster but we shall see. I'm really excited because my grades are good so far. I was really scared to take my first Statistics in Psychology exam, but I did great - I got a 95! Now I feel like I can possibly make Dean's List again this semester. It would make me so happy. My first two papers for Women's Studies I got an A & B on. My Management and Marketing courses I have gotten good grades in as well. The only class I'm not so sure about grade-wise is Spanish. I'm planning to ask about that next week just to make sure I'm up to date. Things are going smoothly which is fantastic. Although my heart rate does seem to be faster recently. I actually took a dose of Propranolol because it felt fast and it was sort of disconcerting while I was trying to fall asleep. No matter. I also need to do followup bloodwork since I had the recent change in Rapamune (up .5mg).
On a random note, I watched a really fantastic special on National Geographic Channel. It was called "The Whale That Ate Jaws". All of this information is from memory so it may not be super accurate. It opens with eyewitness footage of someone who was on a whale watch out in California near the Farallon islands in 1997. They had seen two orcas in the area, and then a biologist on the boat spotted a 15ft great white hugging the side of the boat. He then took a very quick 45 degree turn away from the boat, and one of the orcas went on an intercept course. There was a splash and the two went down. The orca came back up with the great white upside down in its mouth. There was no blood, but after about 15 minutes or so, the shark was clearly dead and it was torn apart. We always thought that the great white was the biggest baddie in the ocean, but apparently not. It sounds like a marine biologist's crazy dream: Great White vs. Killer Whale! Watch them duke it out!
So it seems that the orca knew enough about sharks that it could kill it in such a relatively safe manner. When turned upside down, sharks go into a sort of trance that they call "tonic immobility". Of course once the shark is in this state, if it continues to be immobile long enough it will drown. Orcas are damn smart. Apparently the pod near the Farallon Islands have been dubbed "the L.A pod" and break most of the rules that biologists know about orcas. Different groups of orcas have different "cultures", mostly shown in what they eat and how they kill it. For instance, in Argentina orcas while almost beach themselves to snag baby seal pups from the beach. In New Zealand they will blow bubbles to scare sting rays out of hiding. Sting rays have the same tonic immobility that sharks have since they're related, so orcas will put themselves upside down over the ray, pick it up, and then why they turn over the ray is upside down and thus, defenseless. It's pretty amazing stuff.
Apparently after this attack in 1997, the great whites totally deserted the Farallon Islands. Why is this so amazing? Usually there are around 100 individual great white sharks in the area who migrate there to feast on the seals there. It is during that time that the seals are at their peak population. After the attack however, no great whites were found. At all. They had simply disappeared. Scientists managed to track some of these sharks with tags, and found that after another orca attack they had migrated all the way to Hawaii just to get away from the orca threat. Pretty amazing. Plus, how did all of these sharks know about this attack? That is another pretty amazing story. I won't spoil everything right now. If you can catch this show, you really owe it to yourself to watch it. Fascinating stuff.
On a random note, I watched a really fantastic special on National Geographic Channel. It was called "The Whale That Ate Jaws". All of this information is from memory so it may not be super accurate. It opens with eyewitness footage of someone who was on a whale watch out in California near the Farallon islands in 1997. They had seen two orcas in the area, and then a biologist on the boat spotted a 15ft great white hugging the side of the boat. He then took a very quick 45 degree turn away from the boat, and one of the orcas went on an intercept course. There was a splash and the two went down. The orca came back up with the great white upside down in its mouth. There was no blood, but after about 15 minutes or so, the shark was clearly dead and it was torn apart. We always thought that the great white was the biggest baddie in the ocean, but apparently not. It sounds like a marine biologist's crazy dream: Great White vs. Killer Whale! Watch them duke it out!
So it seems that the orca knew enough about sharks that it could kill it in such a relatively safe manner. When turned upside down, sharks go into a sort of trance that they call "tonic immobility". Of course once the shark is in this state, if it continues to be immobile long enough it will drown. Orcas are damn smart. Apparently the pod near the Farallon Islands have been dubbed "the L.A pod" and break most of the rules that biologists know about orcas. Different groups of orcas have different "cultures", mostly shown in what they eat and how they kill it. For instance, in Argentina orcas while almost beach themselves to snag baby seal pups from the beach. In New Zealand they will blow bubbles to scare sting rays out of hiding. Sting rays have the same tonic immobility that sharks have since they're related, so orcas will put themselves upside down over the ray, pick it up, and then why they turn over the ray is upside down and thus, defenseless. It's pretty amazing stuff.
Apparently after this attack in 1997, the great whites totally deserted the Farallon Islands. Why is this so amazing? Usually there are around 100 individual great white sharks in the area who migrate there to feast on the seals there. It is during that time that the seals are at their peak population. After the attack however, no great whites were found. At all. They had simply disappeared. Scientists managed to track some of these sharks with tags, and found that after another orca attack they had migrated all the way to Hawaii just to get away from the orca threat. Pretty amazing. Plus, how did all of these sharks know about this attack? That is another pretty amazing story. I won't spoil everything right now. If you can catch this show, you really owe it to yourself to watch it. Fascinating stuff.
Quote of the Day.
"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."
Thanks, Steve.
Thanks, Steve.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Ewan McGregor & Chris O'Dowd play with lightsabers
I just watched Bridesmaids tonight and inspired by O'Dowd's turn it it, managed to stumble upon this gem. McGregor and O'Dowd playing with lightsabers on the Graham Norton show. I had a huge crush on Ewan McGregor as Obi-wan when I went to see Episode 1 in theatres. And, well, listening to O'Dowd talk is just so pleasant. Enjoy.
You know people play Quidditch on college campuses. Why is lightsaber baseball NOT a thing?!?!
You know people play Quidditch on college campuses. Why is lightsaber baseball NOT a thing?!?!
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