[  Mood: Silly ]
[  Currently: Working on the blog ]
I was wracking my brain for something to write about today, and nothing seemed blog worthy or at the very least legal. Except maybe the chaotic game of barnyard tag that I had my class play for their Daily Physical Activity. It involves rubber chickens and a lot of running around and screaming. It’s what I imagine an evening with Dharma would be like, but I digress.

So I was watching a repeat of the Colbert Report and an ad for this came on the TV.

I started to laugh.

It is not ridiculous enough that there was a Faux Fire, but it was so popular that there had to be a Faux Fire 2.

Who new the end of days would be so funny!

[  Mood: Angry ]
[  Currently: Eating Breakfast – Organic Shreddies Knock-off with Raspberries and ]
So last night, I settled into bed for my long winter’s nap. I quickly fell asleep, which is an indication of how tired I am. I hoped to make it through the night rather than have the 2:30 bathroom call and the insomnia that follows.

Imagine my surprise, when at 4:00 am, the snow clearing equipment goes by.

Here in Ottawa they come and take away the snowbanks fairly regularly. If they don’t, the snowbanks start to narrow the roadways and it makes it difficult to drive.

But do they have to come at 4:00 am? My neighbourhood is not downtown, so it’s not like doing this at 3:00 pm is going to cause a lot of disruption. Yet the city insists on doing all of this kind of work at night.

So now instead of pregnancy related insomnia, I get snowclearing related insomnia and headache. I mean a bad one too. And given that I am pregnant, I can’t really take anything for that.

Nice.

So the next time refers to you in a negative fashion about being a geek, tell them, “Well yeah, but at I’m not like these guys.” We’re all second in our geekdom to them.

The article comes complete with a video of the event!

Rocket Geeks Build and Launch an X-Wing Fighter was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Angelic ]
[ Currently: Getting the grocery list ready. ]
Luke is a third child in a world where every couple is only allowed to have two. His family hides him in the attic and he is only allowed outside when no one is around.

Then one day, the government forces Luke’s family to sell the woods that are around his home and he is suddenly confined to the house. Things get worse when the woods are cut down and homes for "Barons", the rich, are built. Now Luke can only sit on the stairs to eat his dinner.

Luke notices a face in the window of one of the homes after everyone has left and realizes, there is another third child. He meets Jen and learns that there are many, many others in the same situation as him. Jen tries to get him to join in the fight to free the third children, or shadow children, as they are known.

Margaret Peterson Haddix has created an utterly believable dystopia in this book. Luke’s joy at finally having someone outside the family to talk to is believable and so heartbreaking. The resolution of the story, while heartbreaking, is also right on track and opens this up for a continuing series.

Nice read.

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Currently: Just working on the blog. I know!!!! ]
So the pregnancy related insomnia is really helping my reading. Of course I look awful, but hey, we all got to make sacrifices.

Lean Mean 13 is the thirteenth Stephanie Plum novel by Janet Evanovich. Stephanie is a bounty hunter in Trenton New Jersey. She goes after the small time criminals: the flashers, the jaywalkers, the drunk drivers. She is in an on again, off again relationship with a plainclothes cop, Joe Morelli. Stephanie has also attracted the attention of fellow bounty hunter Ranger, who is a walking add for the special forces.

In this installment, Stephanie’s ex husband disappears and everyone thinks Stephanie killed him. She has to find him and clear her name, as other corpses pile up. All while trying to bring in some skips so she can pay her bills.

Plot wise, this is not a revolutionary novel. Where Evanovich shines is her sense of humour. She populates her stories with secondary characters that are zany and off colour. Best of these is Stephanie’s Grandma Mazur. The scene where the old lady invites home a taxidermist for dinner is priceless. Especially when she sits his hostess gift of a stuffed cat at the table. Brilliant.

A nice, funny quick read.

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Currently: Brushing my hair ]
Well the fourth book of the Dresden files has completed its run on my reading list, and wow, what a great piece!

This book finds Dresden’s debt to his Godmother sold to the Queen of the Fey Winter Court, Mab, who is much less of a sex kitten than in Laurel K. Hamilton’s work, btw. To pay of the debt, Harry has to find out who killed the Summer Knight. He also has to secure safe passage for the White Council through fey lands or risk be sent to the Vampire Red Court. Dresden also manages to pick up a case to find a missing changeling.

All in all, a very good book. Gripping, fun to read, full of laugh out loud goodness that I am busy adding to the Quote-O-Matic. His best so far.

This list from ToyFare of the top 50 fictional weapons is, as expected, very comic book, (recent) film, and video game oriented. How else could you explain #18 Excalibur finishing higher than Dagger of Time (from Prince of Persia #17), Sword of Omens (from Thundercats #11), and He-Man’s Power Sword(#2!!!). Missing weapons that were apparently too cool for a list that put He-Man’s sword at #2(!) and Mr. Freeze’s Gun at #12 include:

Nautilus– Captain Nemo‘s legendary Victorian era nuclear submarine from Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Mysterious Island. Nemo and his sub recently returned to geek prominence in The League of Extraordinary Gentleman graphic novels.



Bolo– Artificially intelligent super-heavy tank from the Keith Laumer novels of the same name



Wonder Woman’s Magic Lasso– This is a no brainer. Not all weapons need to blow things up or draw blood.



Smart Bomb– The ultimate weapon that destroys everything on your video game screen, made its first appearance in the classic Defender. Shouldn’t the ultimate weapon be on a list touting itself as the Ultimate Weapon list?



Oxygen Destroyer– As any geek worth his/her salt will tell you, Godzilla died at the end of the original 1954 film. The Oxygen Destroyer completely dissolved the future “King of the Monsters.”



The Necronomicon– The legendary book, created by H. P. Lovecraft, holds the key to other dimensions and can grant a knowledgeable necromancer immense power for the mere price of their immortal soul. (I wrote a piece a few years back about this non-existent book)

I’m sure there are plenty of others. What do you have?

Top 50 ULTIMATE WEAPONS was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Amused ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC Radio One ]
Rick Mercer is Canada’s Jon Stewart, except he only does a show once a week. Every week he does a rant where he runs around downtown Toronto and pontificates on an issue of the day.

This week, he potificated about weather and Canada. If you would prefer to watch Rick rant, click on the link and then choose the bottom left frame to get to video clip. "Torontarded" is now in my vocabulary.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Watching Rick Mercer Report ]
So I saw this on ThinkGeek . . .

. . . and I know I have to buy it. Especially with the stripper boobs I have now.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Watching Project Runway Canada ]
The Boondocks are one of my favourite comic strips. It is the Doonsberry/Bloom County of the new Millenia.

This is the first collection of the Boondocks comic strip, full of Huey’s rantings, Riley’s criminal planning and Grandpa’s tough love. Mix in the first appearance of Flaggy and Ribbon and you have a kick but commentary on our world.

Go read this one. Unless you are a republican.