Monthly Archives: May 2008

By the Letters

Posted on by

[ Sleepy Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Eating Breakfast Currently: Eating Breakfast ]
A.K.A. A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton – A Quick Review.

My desire to reread this book has nothing to do with the clever reference from Reaper this past week. Rather, I have felt the need to go back and reread all of the mystery series that I love.

A is for Alibi is the first of the series that has come to be known as the Alphabet Mysteries. It finds heroine, Kinsey Millhone investigating the murder of a prominent divorce lawyer, whose been dead 8 years. Her client? The wife of the lawyer who was convicted for his murder and has just been released having served her time.

Kinsey is another one of those hardboiled female detectives that came out in the 1980s. Unlike V.I., she has not been bought by Hollywood and made into a bad movie, because Sue Grafton was a screenwriter and knows exactly what that big bad town does to books it buys. Grafton has stated that she will not let that happen to Kinsey.

This book is well written and moves along quite quickly. This book, despite having been published in 1983 has aged very well. It could have been written today, except for the lack of cellphones and email.

Overall a great read.

Book’em for the Use of “Dame” and “Broad” Dano!

Posted on by

[ Happy Mood: Happy ]
[ Eating Breakfast Currently: Eating Breakfast ]
A.K.A. Indemnity Only – A Quick Review

Ah V.I. Warshawski! One of the first of the "new breed" of tough female detectives. Forget the bad movie with Kathleen Turner, the novels show us a woman who is prepared to walk on the dark side to find the truth.

This first novel finds V.I. (or Vic as her friends call her) hired to track down a missing girl. Only when she starts investigating does she realize that she’s been had and that there is a lot more going on here than meets the eye.

This Sarah Paretsky novel is slightly dated at this point, especially with its use of dame and broad. Mind you, it is set in 1979. It is still nice to revisit and see where the series, and a lot of today’s female detective fiction started. And some of the modern urban fantasy comes from too. It would be easy to make an argument that people like Kim Harrison and her character Rachel Morgan owe a lot to V.I. and the other hardboiled female detectives who came out in the early 1980s.

Over all, good read.

Shameless plugs

Posted on by

In addition to my Iron Man review, there are two additional Klaw pieces to mention.

The latest edition of “Graphica Nexus” appears at SF Site.

Quote:
A medium and not a genre, comic books differ little at the creative writing level from movies and plays. If “one professionally produced dramatic script” allows for membership then there should be no debate about comic book writers. The technical variances between these types of scripts is negligible. Is a playwright or a screenwriter less of a “real” writer because someone else enacts their words? This is no different then an artist envisioning a comic book script? It’s not.

Continued…

Steampunk with my original essay “The Steam-Driven Time Machine” should either be on the stands or out any day now.

Quote:
Some twenty years later, pop culture has embraced steampunk. Publishing, film, and even the Internet embolden the term as a branding tool. Nary a week goes by without Boing Boing (www.boingboing.net), the venerable group blog, posting about some sort of steampunk inspired gadget, cartoon, or essay. A search of their archives generates almost 1500 articles. Subjects vary greatly: laptops, keyboards, watches, Transformers, planes, Car Wars, submarines, and so on. Many articles showcase functioning modern technology using steampunk methods and materials. Others present actual working machines from the 19th century. Images presenting artistic depictions of steampunk, paintings, sculptures, architecture and the like. Reinterpretations of popular shows such as Star Trek and Star Wars litter the listings. Original short films featuring steampunk tropes offer many amusing and sometimes exciting diversions.

Continued in Steampunk.

Shameless plugs was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Proctor & Gamble’s Response

Posted on by

[ Sleepy Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Listening to CBC Radio Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
So P&G got back to me and this is what they said.

Quote:
Thanks for contacting us.

I’m sorry your child’s diaper leaked, and I’m sharing this report with the rest of our team. Babies can outgrow the absorbency of a diaper before they outgrow the fit. Your child may be ready to move into the next size diaper for added absorbency and protection. The weight ranges on our packages overlap and are only meant to be guidelines for fit. Other things you might consider are:

– baby’s age
– eating and drinking habits
– mobility
– baby’s build (for example, a slim child may fit in a Size 2, but may need the extra protection of a Size 3). With the right size, we’re sure our diaper’s absorbent padding, leg leak barriers, and snug fit will help keep your baby dry, day and night.

If you’re also noticing gel on your child’s skin, it’s most likely the absorbent gelling material we use in the padding to absorb wetness. This ingredient has a long history of safe use in a variety of products and has been in Pampers and Luvs diapers for more than two decades. Absorbent gelling material (AGM) is closely related to ingredients widely used in cosmetics, in food processing, and as binders in medicine capsules. When added to our diapers, the AGM is dry and granular, but it forms a gel as it absorbs liquid. It’s perfectly normal to see some gel on the skin from time to time, especially if the diaper is heavily saturated.

We know your baby’s comfort is most important, and our diapers are designed to take care of your little one’s needs.

Thanks again for writing.

P&G Team

My response? I find it fascinating that it is somehow my or my child’s fault that we had repeated leaks.

We had no leaks with the Huggies newborn product that were given to us as baby shower gifts by other parents. Clearly these people already knew what we have discovered; which product is superior.

I am also baffled by the reference to the gel in their response. I mentioned nothing about a gel in my letter. This leads me to think that they have had many complaints about this product and have simply developed a generic response to deal with them.

That tells me all I need to know.

Pampers = Crap Diaper

Posted on by

[ Sleepy Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Listening to CBC Radio Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
These diapers are, quite frankly, crap. (If you want to look upon that as pun, go ahead.)

Yesterday I put my newborn son in Pampers Swaddlers for the first time. Since the he has managed to pee the bed four times. We have had to change the sheets twice. We are now out of sheets. We are also out of sleepers as he has managed to soil those.

Pampers did nothing to stop or slow down the process.

I get to do even more laundry, despite the fact that I did laundry yesterday and should have had a day’s grace. I also have the joy of working on less sleep, because my son kept waking up soaked! And don’t think that I can catch up today. Remember that laundry? Yeah, that will cut into my rest time. Not to mention dealing with a cranky two week-old, who didn’t get enough sleep either.

This is the last time I will buy a Pampers product. The advertised quality is just not there. And believe me, I plan to share this info with my fellow new mothers. Back to Huggies for this family.

Parenting Advice I Like

Posted on by

[ Happy Mood: Happy ]
[ Listening to CBC Radio Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
A.K.A. Three Martini Play Date – A Quick Review

This book is a refreshing look at the art of raising children. Author Mellor’s tongue in cheek look at parenting is refreshing. She advocates not spoiling children, rather giving them chores to do. She also thinks that children should have some unstructured time, that mommy’s job is not to chauffeur the little mites to every lesson/club/meeting/event known to man.

Her sarcastic sense of humour makes this book move along quickly. My fave? The reference to the turtle as a piece of sculpture. She calls it the "Japanese performance artist of the pet world".

Very funny. Pick this up!