[  Mood: Amused ]
[ Currently: Enjoying Naptime! ]
While on my mat leave, I have been taking the time to go through my favourite books from childhood. This means that I am rereading the Anne of Green Gables and Trixie Belden series.

As part of this, I have turned to the French bande dessiners that my immersion teachers used to help teach me. Tintin was one of these. So it was with joy that I picked up the first of his adventures, in the original French, to read.

This black and white reproduction of the original strip is facisnating in its focus. Clearly grounded in the time it was written, this is nothing more than a piece of anti-soviet propoganda aimed at children. Full of violence and ethnic stereotypes, this is a cartoon in the every sense of the word. The ethnic stereotypes move beyond the soviets, with Germans and Chinese also finding themselves targets. As I read it, I found myself thinking, if the censors have trouble with Tintin au Congo, then they will have problems with this too. This book is for the Tintin completist only.

Still, I enjoyed teh trip back in time and will continue my reading, although I may bring my Larousse along to look up the more obscure vocabulary.

[  Mood: Cool ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding My Son ]
This book is a fun tale of two Scottish fairies who find themselves in New York after committing a heinous crime against the clans. And wanting to start a celtic punk fiddle bank. After fighting with each other, the fairies, Morag and Heather, separate and each end up with one of a pair of neighbours.

Innitially Heather tries to teach her new human friend, Dinnie, to play the fiddle. This proves to be difficult as he is completely inept. Morag befrieds Kerry, who is suffering from Crohn’s disease. Morag tries to help Kerry gather flowers for a celtic alphabet so she can win the local arts fair and thereby humiliate an ex-boyfirend.

During these adventures, the fairies run afoul of the Italian and Chinese fairies of New York, who are now raring for a fight.

Meanwhile, the rest of their party, including three Irish fairies and two English fairies, are hanging out in Central Park. The English fairies are royalty fleeing from their oppressive father, the king, who has brought the industrial revolutions to teh Cornish fairies. Unfortunately this group runs afoul of the African fairies in New York. Guess who else is also out for blood?

So can the various groups of fairies sort out the misunderstandings in time to stop an invasion of the English fairies who have arrived to retrieve the missing prince and princess? Can they then bring two star-crossed lovers together? Can they help a ghost find his long lost guitar? Can a group on revolutionaries bring down the British fairy empire and free the endentured workers? And can Morag and Heather become friends again?

Hillarity insues as you find out. Not deep, not going to change your life, but you will have a fun time following the adventure to the end. Nice light reading.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Watching My son play ]
This week brought us a Friday 13th and Valentine’s Day, so we are definately in need of a little humour. Don’t know about you, but I am sick of what was your worst date/Valentine’s Day stuff that all of the media seems to think is necessary and very witty. So I give you, Fun Stuff and Oddities!

The great ocean migration… thousands of majestic stingrays swim to new seas
Just cool. Especially the pictures.

Tofurkey Lunchbox
I am thinking only cool kids get these.

Ottawa boy’s invisible invention warns birds about deadly windows
Good for him

Bake In Pie Spatula
Cool idea.

Creepy for Both Sides
The middle one is just creepy.

1,474 Megpixel Picture of the Inauguration
This is just awesome. You can zoom in and out. I am still trying to find Oprah.

Scientologists, J-Witnesses & Our Neighbor Jerry Not Welcome
Blunt and to the point.

Goat Arrested for Mazda Robbery
Dang goats!

14,000 suffer vegetable-related injuries
Now lettuce is out to get us!

389 Years Ago
I am so ripping this off for a history assignment.

Goodbye Bush
Scroll down. It’s clever.

How do we hire when we can’t tell who’s right for the job?
This is a great article about hiring teachers. Worth reading.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding my son ]
Abdullah is a humble carpet merchant who dreams of having more. His daydreams were a disappointment to his late father. They continue to be a disappointment to his family, who believe he could be more.

Then one day, a stranger appears in his shop to sell him a flying carpet. Abdullah is skeptical, but once the carpet’s magic has been provenm he takes to sleeping on the carpet to protect it. He wakes up in the Sultan’s night garden, where he falls in love with Flower-in-the-Night, who also happpens to be the Sultan’s daughter. When Flower-in-the-Night is kidnapped by a djinn, Abdullah finds himself thrust into a series of harrowing adventures as he tries to win her back.

Often billed as a sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle, this is far more of a companion book to the classic. Howl and Sophie play nothing more than supporting roles. In fact, you really don’t recognize them until the third act. Other charaters from Howl’s Moving Castle also appear, but again as spear carriers rather than main characters.

Still author Diana Wynne-Jones has created a good, quick read that relies heavily on the Arabian Nights as its muse. This is worth picking up.

[  Mood: Hypnotized ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding my son ]
It is many thousand years in the future, humans have spread out among the stars. And as humans are won’t to do, they have formed themselves into federation and kingdoms. Honor Harrington is a citizen of the Star Kingdom of Manticore and a member of the Navy.

Harrington has just assumed command of the Manticore navy ship Fearless, and although young, she has every confidence that she will succeed. That is until she finds out that naval command has gutted her ship’s armaments to install a new weapon that is all but useless.

This is proven after the ship takes a beating during war games, and the Fearless is exiled to the remote Basilik Station. A very important transit point, it should be an important posting. Instead it has become a dumping ground for the imcompetant and the lazy.

One such person is Pavel Young, who is captain of the Warlock and has an old hatred of Harrington. He uses his position to take his ship off for repairs, leaving Fearless alone to police this outpots and the space around it. Given that Pavel is lazy and a screw-up, the Basilisk system has become full of smugglers, spies and insurrectionists.

Unbeknowst to the Manticorians, the People’s Republic of Haven is planning to invade and take over the Basilisk system as part of its expansionist plans.

So with a demoralized crew and a bitter XO, Honor must now deal with policing a system that has become a "wretched hive of scum and villainy" while dealing with an invasion and the politics of the kingdom.

David Weber’s Honor Harringtion series is an SF classic and after reading this book I can see why. There are parts where the technobabble is heavy and requires the reader to slog through, but if you can persevere the story is fabulous, the characters are vibrant and the battles are gripping.

Worth picking up. And you can download it for free.

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC Radio – The Age of Persuation ]
So I have entered today using the following entries:

International Year of Mixed Fibres
Best Thing I Saw Today
Poozooka
Wiarton Willy is a Big, Fat Fraud!

I have not yet entered:
What Makes One Great
Due to the fact that I have to edit it down to 200 words, and I don’t have time right now. If I have time tonight, I will do it.

Thanks for all your feedback. I will let you know how I do.

[  Mood: Silly ]
[ Currently: About to put the boy back to bed ]
Since the memes will not stop until morale improves, we at RevolutionSF take a stand.

RevolutionSF co-founder Joe Crow started one, a nerdy one for you to send to irritate everyone who is trying to make you tell 38 personal tidbits about yourself to everyone and their mama. And appear cool while doing it.

15 NERDY NOTIONS
1. Answer these questions using the first letter of your first name.
B. You can’t use the same word twice. (Part of a title is OK, but you can’t use "Batman" as every answer. That would be crazy.)
3. Multiple word answers are OK.
4. If the so-called "friend" who sent it to you has the same first letter as you, you have to use different answers than them. Brutal, we know.
5. Snarky comments are encouraged.

1. Star Wars character: Biggs Darklighter – yeah, I know his last name. Cause I am that cool.
2. Star Trek character: Duras, son of Ja’rod – Notice I left the entire Dax clan for the rest of you.
3. 80s cartoon character: Duke – Obvious, but the blonde hair won me over
4. Marvel superhero: Dazzler – worst hero ever
5. DC supervillain: Deathstroke the Terminator – True Story – I knew someone who wanted to date him
6. Superpower: Disappearing – good for late night parties at the Buy More
7. SF, fantasy, horror book title: Dungeons and Dragons – I think I lose my con cred if I don’t include this
8. Sci-fi-ish gadget, device, or weapon: disruptor – such a pleasant euphamism for killing you by scattering your nuclii
9. Sci-fi, fantasy, horror movie: Dungeons and Dragons – double the Ds, double the cool
10. Sci-fi-ish TV show: Dungeons and Dragons – I am getting lazy here
11. Monster, creature, or alien race: Drazi- notice how I have moved beyond Star Trek and Star Wars.
12. Actor from sci-fi stuff: DeForrest Kelly – BONES!!!!!!!
13. DC superhero: Duplicate Boy – I could have done Doctor Fate, but it lacks the lameness of the 60s Legion
14. Marvel villain: Doughboy – Doctor Doom was way too obvious, and besides, how can you go wrong with the mirror universe Pillsbury spokesperson
15. Whedonverse character: Daniel "Oz" Osbourne – again, I rock

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Currently: Going to try and put the boy asleep again! ]
Con cred is like street cred, but related to that most geel of activities, the convention.

I invented it at 4:00 am, so it must be brilliant. Go forth and use it wisely.

AILWR = An Incredibly Long Winded Review, cause I have a lot to say.

Part travel log, part ethnography, part cookbook, Beyond the Great Wall is absolutely stunning. The whole work focuses on the other China, specifically the non-Han population. The authors have called this area "Beyond the Great Wall", but that title is misleading as some of the cultures examined are actually within the traditionally Han areas.

While the recipes are wonderful, showing you how to make traditional foods with ingredients you can find in North Amnerican stores, it is the ethnographies that are truely valuable. Easy to read, through these you learn about people like the Uighurs, the Hmong and the Yi. By giving you their religious background, geographical location, climate and religion, the authors help the reader understand where the food comes from.

Intersperced among the recipes are vignettes of authors Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid’s travels through this China. Completely genuine and enchanting, you accompany them on motorcycle rides through high mountains, sharing a meal of butter tea with tsampa in Tibet and watching nan-like bread being made by many groups. Not all are about food, thereby avoiding a sense of sameness that would make the book boring. It is a different world.

The photographs are absolutely stunning. A variety of faces, ethinic clothing, landscapes and freeze frames of every day life (all taken by the authors) make this book a perfect addition to the coffeetable.

Serious cooks will take the time to make these recipes (I may make the Mongolian Lamb Patties and the Pea Tendril Salad), but most will just look at the pictures and dream of voyages they will never take and the meals they will never eat.

[  Mood: Silly ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
Television Without Pity (TWOP) used to do these wonderful photoshop contests where board members would manipulate pictures to fit certain themes. There were no prizes, but you would get positive feedback. Given that they were taken over by NBC, these have disappeared. And given the state of NBC, the whole site might disappear, so I thought I mightpost some of my contributions to that great time.

The three below are from the contest relating to dream casting of the upcoming Star Trek movie.

This one I like cause it has a Canuck playing the part originally played by a Canuck. (Lovingly crafted from a Star Trek Inspirational Posters)

This one came out of the roadtrip relationship between Sylar and Mohinder. (Also lovingly crafted from a Star Trek Inspirational Posters)

And this one, includes the mascot of TWOP (Tubey)