Terra Nomad

Every day is like survival. You're my lover, not my rival.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Half Price Price Books Clearance Sale this weekend

Big location, big selection, big savings! Everything will be $3 or less at the Minnesota Clearance Sale at the State Fairgrounds on Saturday & Sunday, October 17 & 18 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Grandstand. All seven Twin Cities stores are contributing merchandise to create our biggest Clearance Sale yet! So come to the Half Price Price Books Clearance Sale and fill your shelves with great books, movies and music at great prices!

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Thursday, September 17, 2009

Damn Good Food

Ever eaten at Hell's Kitchen in Minneapolis or Duluth? The chef and owner Mitch Omer has written a recipe book that comes out on October 1st. My favorite is the Mahnomin Porridge, mmm.

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Thursday, March 12, 2009

The results of my 101 things in 1001 Days

Back in June of 2006, I made a list of 101 things I wanted to get done in 1001 days. March 8th, 2009 was the official end of the project. I got 49 of them done, and there are about ten others that remain half done.

The 49:
1 Go to Europe (DONE May 07)
2 Turn thirty (DONE 6/22/07)
4 Take a Papermaking or other art class (DONE 12/13/06)
6 See Los Angeles (DONE 6/22/06)
12 Take an official tour of a city, even if it just Minneapolis (DONE - Berlin 3/25/08)
13 Organize my CDs, both music and computer (DONE 7/20/06)
14 Whiten my teeth (DONE June 07 - ditto)
15 Go to The Science Museum (DONE 6/25/08)
17 Take Writing 2 (DONE Dec 07)
18 Make an informative opening page for soelo.com (DONE)
21 Set aside an arts and crafts area in home (DONE - because my roommate is cool, he did it for me.)
22 Get a dishwasher and washing machine (DONE 7/3/06)
23 Read at least 33 books (one per month) (DONE Sept 2008)
28 Put something on soelo.com in addition to my blog (DONE)
29 See a Panda Bear (in captivity, most likely) (DONE 3/24/08)
31 Buy more wine and learn which wineries I like (DONE)
32 Learn to make a wine spritzer that I like (DONE Nov 06)
33 Attempt to improve my handwriting (DONE, but just the attempt)
34 Drive along the west coast (DONE June 18-21, 2006)
39 Knit, crochet or sew something nice enough to wear in public - and wear it. (DONE, if my wallet counts)
40 Make one birthday or Christmas gift (DONE Feb 7, 2009)
42 Post to my blog on 87% of the days in a month. (27/31) (Done Dec 07)
47 Fill the tank with gas - drive till it’s half gone, take pictures, and then come back (DONE 10/11/08)
49 Learn to make homemade chai (DONE Oct 06)
51 Memorize 'If' by Rudyard Kipling (DONE July 31, 2006)
52 Journalize my time from age 18 to 28 (DONE I used a timeline instead)
56 Make a nice long blogroll (DONE - via rss and gmail)
57 Get my car's rear axle fixed (DONE June 12, 2006)
58 Try ordering groceries online (DONE Jan 08)
60 Update my immunizations (DONE 8/7/08)
61 Go on a blind date (DONE Sept 07)
62 Go on a real date (with someone I know or meet, not a fix-up) (DONE July 07)
64 Get rss archives down to below 100 (DONE, but then I switched to Google Reader)
70 Set up scanner (DONE Nov 30, 06)
74 Tag most of my blog entries (DONE Dec 27, 2006)
77 Organize my books and list the ones I own but haven't read (DONE 07/02/07)
78 Go to the Como Zoo (DONE May 07)
80 Buy and use a Tetsubin (DONE June 06)
86 Get a passport (DONE May 16th, 2007)
87 Make a significant contribution to a Wikipedia article (DONE Summer 07)
89 Make cookies from scratch (DONE July 08)
90 Make another dessert from scratch (DONE Nov 08, Baked Brie)
91 Make an entire meal (entree, two sides and a beverage) myself (DONE Feb 07)
93 Make an asian noodle dish in my wok (DONE May 08, Chicken Fried Rice)
94 Play board games with my friends (DONE)
96 Retake Calculus 2 (DONE Aug 08)
97 Flirt with a stranger (DONE)
98 Use craigslist for something (DONE Jan 07 - my apartment)
99 Get some more videos for my ipod (DONE - the ipod broke and I got it fixed and I never use it to watch videos anymore)

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Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Michael Crichton

Micheal Crichton has died of cancer. I really enjoyed his book entitled 'Travels', but I haven't read any of his more popular novels. The book is a collection of episodes from his life from the 60's to the 80's, a mix of biography and travel stories.

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Wednesday, October 01, 2008

33 books


33 books
Originally uploaded by soelo

Only 29 are shown, since I got rid of two and have lent two more out.


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The Wisdom of 33 Books

As I go through them again, I will add quotes.

1. Eragon - Christopher Paolini
"Every age needs an icon- perhaps that lot has fallen to you."
2. Baggage - Emily Barr
"I want to see her, and yet I need to run as far from her as I possibly can."
3. Emily Ever After
4. The Guy Not Taken
5. Wuthering Heights
Catherine says she loves Heathcliff "because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same..."
"My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I AM Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being."
6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 
7. A Wind in the Door 
8. Dirty Girls Social Club 
9. Miracle 
10. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 
11. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
12. His Dark Materials:: The Golden Compass - Phillip Pullman
13. Serenity
14. Little Earthquakes
15. The Know-it-All
16. His Dark Materials: The Subtle Knife
17. Life of Pi 
18. His Dark Materials: The Amber Spyglass
19. Girls' Night Out
20. Twilight
21. The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America - Bill Bryson
22. I'm the One That I Want by Margaret Cho
23. Solo - Emily Barr
24. Good in Bed - Jennifer Weiner
25. Certain Girls - Jennifer Weiner
26. Under the Banner of Heaven - Jon Krakauer
27. Flatland - A Romance of Many Dimensions - Edwin A Abbott
28. The Big Love - Sarah Dunn
29. The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper
30. How to be Good - Nick Hornby

31. Travels - Michael Crichton
"Brugh talked about the value of being able to see a card, or a life situation, from all sides. To see the good and the bad, and not to consider the thing itself as possessing either goodness or badness. He talked about how people became rigid when they assigned fixed values to things.

32. New Moon - Stephenie Meyer

33. milkrun - Sarah Mlynowski
"How could I ask for a better friend? Someone who gives me a backup plan. Instead of someone who makes me the backup plan."

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Saturday, September 06, 2008

Twilight Widget

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Twilight Teaser

Watch the First One or the Second One. Twilight comes out November 21st.

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Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Read in August

30. 'How to be Good' - Nick Hornby
31. 'Travels' - Michael Crichton

'Good' was a novel that I had to push myself to finish. 'Travels' is a collection of essays from Crichton's life from the late sixties to the early eighties. It starts with him in medical school, goes on to describe many trips he took and finishes with an exploration of metaphysics. The middle was my favorite part. I am planning a blog post centered on the book, and it has really piqued my interest in Crichton himself.

I started reading 'New Moon' last night, the second book in Stephenie Meyer's vampire series. I'd picked 'Twilight' for my book club to read, thanks to a friend's suggestion. At least two of my other friends and three family members are now into the series. Most of us can't wait for the movie in November.

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Monday, August 18, 2008

Harry Potter moves away, so Twilight moves closer

Since Harry Potter has moved it's release date to July, Twilight has moved up to November 21st.

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Thursday, July 31, 2008

Harry Potter and the Secret Treasure of Death

Apparently that is the Japanese title of the seventh Harry Potter book.
If you follow that link, there is a picture of 5 girls holding their books, and the one in middle just looks angry.

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Monday, July 28, 2008

Book List

27. 'Flatland - A Romance of Many Dimensions' - Edwin A Abbott
28. 'The Big Love' - Sarah Dunn
29. 'The Dark is Rising' - Susan Cooper

Flatland was bit too political for my taste. The Big Love was simple but not overly predictable. The Dark is Rising seemed to get repetitive at times, but it still made me want to see the movie.

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

101 and 9 things update

9 things in 92 days - June 1 - August 31, 2008
2 Move - this is in process right now - I'll probably post about it when it's over.
4 Pass Calculus 2 - I got an A on the first of 3 tests.
7 Visit Science Museum - planned for tomorrow
8 Eat at Fogo de Chao - done on June 6th - the rolls are so good!

33 books
26. 'Under the Banner of Heaven' - Jon Krakauer

101 things
Make a scrapbook of all my travels - I have started, and I hope to be done with 1992-2001 by the end of the summer. 2002 was the first time I took a digital camera on vacation, so I am only committing to finish the trip from which I already have the physical prints. But, I also joined snapfish to get the digitals printed and am pleased with the results so far.

Make an informative opening page for soelo.com - I was working on a huge list of Web 2.0 sites as well as a nice dashboard for myself. I just put them both together.

Journalize my time from age 18 to 28 - I have been percolating on this quite a bit lately. I am thinking more like a timeline than an actual journal.

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Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Chic Lit

23. Solo - Emily Barr
24. Good in Bed - Jennifer Weiner - which I reread because I was about to read the recent sequel:
25. Certain Girls - Jennifer Weiner

And last night I started "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer. It's an investigation of the Fundamentalist Mormon sects, and the violence some of their members have committed. Sure it's a timely read, but I bought the book in 2006 after seeing Krakauer on Anderson Cooper.

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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

I'm the One That I Want

22. I'm the One That I Want by Margaret Cho

A book about her painful childhood, drug use, bad romances, sucky career problems, body image issues and final descent into alcoholism. But it is really funny.

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Monday, January 21, 2008

Dead trees

My book list updates since the end of August:
17. Life of Pi
18. The Amber Spyglass
19. Girls' Night Out
20. Twilight
21. The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America

Okay, if I am going to get to 33 by March 11th, 2009, I only need to read 12 more. I totally slacked off on my personal reading while I was taking the Writing class. It didn't help that we had to read 3-5 essays each week.

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Monday, January 07, 2008

Booklists

I have an Amazon wishlist and IMDB and Netflix to help me remember which books and movies I want to buy or watch, but I have now joined 3 more sites that all keep track of what I have read, am reading and want to read.

All Consuming - part of 43 things. This site includes Music, Movies and Food& Drink categories.

Goodreads

Shelfari

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Saturday, December 08, 2007

The Golden Compass

This would have been a much different experience if I had not read the books.

I liked most of the movie, even the small details they changed from the books, despite parts of it feeling rushed. There was much more they could have included, but it was already a pretty dense story. I think someone who had not read the book would have had a much harder time following everything that happened. The casting is very good, especially the voices of the daemons.

Then there's the ending where there is an entire scene missing. I was so shocked that they ended it in the airship! Lyra is heading towards her father's house, and many things happen in the book after she gets there. I suppose they'll put those scenes in the beginning of the second movie, but it would have been better to end it with her waking up and hearing the ominous warning from her father's butler.

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Monday, October 01, 2007

Wake Me Up When September Ends

Happy Birthday, Mom and Tanya

I went all of September without posting - oops! I can give you a list of excuses if you really want them, although they would be the typical "work, school, reading, writing and socializing."

Bookwise, I finished The Amber Spyglass, read Girls' Night Out and am working on The Dark Is Rising. I might take a break from it though. The movie comes out on Friday, and I'd rather not be in the middle of the book while I see the movie. Also, I have tons of school reading to do and our book club just picked Twilight by Stephanie Meyer for October. It was my suggestion because some of us wanted something creepy to read. That's about as creepy as I want to get. But it's 544 pages, so I'd better get reading.

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Thursday, August 30, 2007

and Even More Books

Short Stories
6. White Angel - 15
7. The Kind of Light that Shines on Texas - 12
8. Nebraska - 5
9. What a Word Means - 3

And this morning I finished Life of Pi - 319

That makes a total of 7,192 pages.

I don't know if am going to go for the Amber Spyglass next because I feel like I need a break from heavy, deep stuff for a bit. Maybe I need something funny.

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Tuesday, August 28, 2007

More Books

15. The Know-it-All - 400

and

16. His Dark Materials: The Subtle Knife - 352

Right now I am reading #17 Life of Pi because I have been drafted into a book club and it is our first selection.

I also bought about 11 books this weekend, not counting magazines or the ones I got for my niece. Two of them were for Writing 231, which started last night. I also got a copy of The Dark is Rising, About a Boy, The Big Love, Circular Sudoko and others I can't remember.

The next book I plan to read is His Dark Materials: The Amber Spyglass because I was a little annoyed at the end of The Subtle Knife. Pullman sure can write cliffhangers.

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Monday, July 30, 2007

Books

Done With:
12. His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass - Phillip Pullman - 399
and
13. Serenity - 257

Reading:
14. Little Earthquakes - 448

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Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Ex Libris

From June 2006 to March 2009, I am trying to read 33 books for my 101 things project.
The numbers are page counts.

Short Stories
1. When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth - 16
2. The Year of Getting to Know Us - 16
3. Cold Snap - 11
4. Ghost Girls - 13
5. Saint Marie - 12

Regular Books
1. Eragon - 544
2. Baggage - 327
3. Emily Ever After - 320
4. The Guy Not Taken - 289
5. Wuthering Heights - 394
6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - 870
7. A Wind in the Door - 211
8. Dirty Girls Social Club - 308
9. Miracle - 256
10. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - 652
11. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - 759

Total (4,982 pages so far)

Currently reading:
12. HDM: The Golden Compass - Phillip Pullman - 399

Planned:
13. Little Earthquakes - 448

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Sunday, May 27, 2007

Italy Trip - Day Twelve

Sunday, May 27

Again, I woke up at 5 and couldn't get back to sleep for a while, but at some point I did and woke up for good at 9. I went down to breakfast, which was huge and delicious, and Giovanna gave me a larger map. I took the 64 bus again, this time getting off near the Campo de Fiori which was deserted at 11am. Rick Steves has a walk in his Rome book called "La Dolce Vita" and I think he wants you to walk it at night, but it included so many things I had on my list that I did it during the day. So, I walked to Ponte Garibaldi, past the Singoga and Jewish Ghetto and looked over the river to Isola Tiberina. I then headed to the Pantheon and passed the Sacra again. It was very crowded getting in, and I saw some priests and probably other higher-ups leaving. There were rose petals sprinkled on the floor, and we all had to move towards the back so some choir pictures could be taken in the front. It wasn't nearly as crowded when leaving, and I sat in front by the fountain and rested.

I kept following Rick's walk and passed the Egyptian Obelisk that was Augustus' trophy after defeating Marc Antony and Cleopatra. The sky started to sprinkle a bit, so I went inside a mall and bought 'Wuthering Heights'. After waiting out the light rain, I headed east to the Trevi fountain. I specifically found a Spanish Euro to throw in, since it it supposed to guarantee your return to Rome. I figured, "Why not try to get Spain in on the guarantee as well?" After taking some video of the fountain, I walked north past Piazza Mignanelli and the column to the Piazza de Spagna and the Spanish Steps. I filled my water bottle and then sat on the steps reading and eating pistachios. Last on the itinerary was a walk down via Sistena to the Piazza Barberini and the Fontana del Tritone. I took the Metro back to my B&B, watched some more Italian television and fell asleep.

Day Thirteen

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Sunday, February 04, 2007

Celebrities I have seen in person

At Book Signings or Staged events:
Sean Astin (see below)
Brett Butler
Patricia Cornwell
Malcolm Gladwell
Danny Glover
Kevin Smith - St Cloud State, February 17th, 2006, the man talked for nearly 5 hours with no break!
Margaret Thatcher

On the Street:
Kevin MacDonald
John Kerry
Numerous Minnesotan politics, sports and news people at the Fair

In Concert:
Liz Phair
Sheryl Crow
Dido
Prince
Chumbawumba
Everclear
Smashing Pumpkins
New Kids on The Block

Sean Astin Book Signing November 23, 2004 Mall of America

My niece and I stood there, dumbfounded, elbowing each other and squealing a little bit. Were our eyes deceiving us? Could it possibly be true that, in a few weeks, Sean Astin, Samwise Gamgee himself, was going to be signing his book mere feet from where we were standing? I checked my mental calendar and found that I already had that whole week off of work, since it was Thanksgiving, and I figured I could miss the first part of my evening class.

I picked her up early from school, since the signing started at 5:00 pm, but we knew the line would be huge. We got there about 2:15 and went to eat, finally getting to the rotunda at about 3pm. There were about 45 people in front of us, but we sat down, paged through the book and drooled over the pictures of him and the other cast members. People in front of us in line had laptops and were watching various parts of the Lord of the Rings movies. Some of them also had on t-shirts from the Minnesota Tolkien Society that announced a screening of all 3 extended edition DVDs at a church in Maple Grove on New Year's Eve. We agreed to go and invited others, but nobody else was up to it.

Back in line, as the time neared my niece gasps and says she saw him behind the curtain. She straining to get a look at where he went when the emcee woman comes up on stage and announces him. He comes out and pumps up the crowd a bit by naming a few of his movies and asking those who liked them to clap. Then he takes questions from the audience and shows off the t-shirt from the Tolkien Society that he was wearing.

Then it was time for the line to run through. There were people there who would take your picture so I handed him my digital camera and asked him to try to get my niece, and he actually got a nice shot of both her and I smiling like goons at him. I overheard him say. "Oh, you're sweet," to my niece and I didn't have much to say aside from thanking him. I was one of those moments that is over before you know it, and that you have to keep replaying in your head so that you know it was real. We went up to some of the higher floors to watch the line for a while and get some aerial photos of the whole thing.

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Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Read this

This month's Rake Magazine has one of the best short stories I've read in a long time, When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth. It's by Cory Doctorow of boingboing fame and I don't know if it would appeal to a nongeek or not, but I couldn't put it down.

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Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Eragon, Book 1 of the Inheritance Trilogy

I finished it on Sunday night. Now I await the game in November and movie on December 15th.

For now there is an RPG that is normally at eragonlive.com, but is currently only available at http://72.232.84.156
. I played it for a bit today.

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Wednesday, July 05, 2006

101 things in 1001 days

My list of 101 things to do in 1001 days
Which I stole from Triplux and many others.


My dates are 06/12/2006 to 03/8/2009
  1. Go to Europe (DONE May 07)
  2. Turn thirty (DONE 6/22/07)
  3. Buy a condo or house
  4. Take a Papermaking or other art class (DONE 12/13/06)
  5. Declare a major
  6. See Los Angeles (DONE 6/22/06)
  7. See Seattle
  8. Own all of my Top Ten movies of the year (In progress, lists made...)
  9. Either ride Ripchord or Bungee Jump or Skydive
  10. Compile a list of my 100 favorite songs
  11. See some petroglyphs
  12. Take an official tour of a city, even if it just Minneapolis (DONE - Berlin 3/25/08)
  13. Organize my CDs, both music and computer (DONE 7/20/06)
  14. Whiten my teeth (DONE June 07)
  15. Go to The Science Museum (DONE 6/25/08)
  16. Finish a short story - one that is started or a brand new one
  17. Take Writing 2 (DONE Dec 07)
  18. Make an informative opening page for soelo.com (DONE)
  19. Update all of my other websites
  20. Get on a schedule - more than just "work school sleep work tv sleep"
  21. Set aside an arts and crafts area in home
  22. Get a dishwasher and washing machine in apartment/condo (DONE 7/3/06)
  23. Read at least 33 books (one per month) (DONE Sept 2008)
  24. See a live play
  25. Host at least one Geekfest
  26. Go to a live KOL meeting
  27. Attend a convention or show at a convention center
  28. Put something on soelo.com in addition to my blog (DONE)
  29. See a Panda Bear (in captivity, most likely) (DONE 3/24/08)
  30. Keep a daily journal - about boring stuff that only I care about
  31. Buy more wine and learn which wineries I like (DONE)
  32. Learn to make a wine spritzer that I like (DONE Nov 06)
  33. Attempt to improve my handwriting (DONE, but just the attempt)
  34. Drive along the west coast (DONE June 18-21, 2006)
  35. Compile my own "pantry list" and have it complete in my kitchen at least once (list done)
  36. Go to a local festival that is not in Minneapolis or St. Cloud
  37. Take a trip somewhere using only public non-airplane transportation (i.e. bus, train, helicopter, taxi)
  38. Make and use a Christmas Card List (has to be08)
  39. Knit, crochet or sew something nice enough to wear in public - and wear it.
  40. Make one birthday or Christmas gift
  41. Go Snow Tubing somewhere official, with tube rental and lift
  42. Post to my blog on 87% of the days in a month. (27/31) (Done Dec 07)
  43. Have at least one book made from my photos
  44. Take multi-vitamins regularly (In Progress)
  45. Organize a real scavenger hunt
  46. Volunteer
  47. Fill the tank with gas - drive till it’s half gone, take pictures, and then come back (DONE 10/11/08)
  48. Make a scrapbook of all my travels (In Progress)
  49. Learn to make homemade chai (DONE Oct 06)
  50. Read a book on Arthurian Legend
  51. Memorize 'If' by Rudyard Kipling (DONE July 31, 2006)
  52. Journalize my time from age 18 to 28
  53. Finish my Interests inventory
  54. Learn something about everything
  55. Learn everything about something
  56. Make a nice long blogroll (DONE - via rss and gmail)
  57. Get my car's rear axle fixed (DONE June 12, 2006)
  58. Try ordering groceries online (DONE Jan 08)
  59. Take 3 additional classes (not writing or papermaking) (In progress - Politics)
  60. Update my immunizations (DONE 8/7/08)
  61. Go on a blind date (DONE Sept 07)
  62. Go on a real date (with someone I know or meet, not a fix-up) (DONE July 07)
  63. Get email archives down to below 100 (I don't think I will ever do this)
  64. Get rss archives down to below 100 (DONE)
  65. Set up bill-paying plan or auto-pay
  66. Have either the bio-hazard symbol or my name in Hebrew tattooed on my arm
  67. Attend a yoga class
  68. Draw one comic strip, and post it. (Dialogue and background done for 2)
  69. Move all stuff in storage into apartment. (In Progress, there are still about 25 boxes in my friend's basement)
  70. Set up scanner (DONE Nov 30, 06)
  71. Finish scanning pictures
  72. Organize those pictures
  73. Print out / archive my blog (archiving started June 06)
  74. Tag most of my blog entries (DONE Dec 27, 2006)
  75. Ponder a change of blog format/host
  76. Reduce paper clutter / handle paper monster
  77. Organize my books and list the ones I own but haven't read (DONE 07/02/07)
  78. Go to the Como Zoo (DONE May 07)
  79. Travel the Grand Rounds
  80. Buy and use a Tetsubin (DONE June 06)
  81. Check out and read 3 books from the Minneapolis Public Library
  82. See all 128 episodes of Dawson's Creek in order. (started on June 25th, 2006, stopped after Mitch died)
  83. Rent a game console and games for a week (Done sort of, got a PS2 and played Katamari)
  84. Hold the water taste test for my friends
  85. Finish the small painting and hang it somewhere (In Progress. It's abstract, so it is hung but not finished.)
  86. Get a passport (DONE May 16th, 2007)
  87. Make a significant contribution to a Wikipedia article (DONE on Eragon Live in summer 07)
  88. Get one KOL character to 50 ascensions (In Progress, soelo is at 27)
  89. Make cookies from scratch (DONE July 08)
  90. Make another dessert from scratch
  91. Make an entire meal (entree, two sides and a beverage) myself (DONE Feb 07)
  92. Purge the clothes I no longer wear
  93. Make an asian noodle dish in my wok (DONE May 08)
  94. Play board games with my friends (DONE)
  95. Build a Sandcastle
  96. Retake Calculus 2 (DONE Aug 08)
  97. Flirt with a stranger (DONE)
  98. Use craigslist for something (DONE Jan 07 - my apartment ... and again in Sept 07 where I found my boyfriend)
  99. Get some more videos for my ipod (DONE)
  100. Get contact lenses and wear them
  101. Purge my videotapes

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Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Books

So, I just read my first book since January, which is a little misleading. I did a lot of reading for school since then, and read several short stories in The Scribner Anthology in February and March, so I am not a total clod. I am starting out with two lighter books to get my momentum up again, Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts and Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner. I have seen the movie version of Heart and I loved Weiner's first two books. When I finish those two, I'll move on to something a little more challenging.

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Sunday, April 30, 2006

The Venerable Book Meme

"The search began for more substantial sources of energy, and before long the well-endowed water resources of the Merrimack River were tapped." (from my environmental history book)

The Venerable Book:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open it to page 161.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.

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Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Dorrie and the Weather Box by Patricia Coombs

was one of my favorite books when I was young. We recently found our battered, written-on, cover-missing copy on my mother's bookshelf. The illustrations were probably the best part, with Gink the cat, the big witch, angry androgynous Cook, and the swirly orange sky. I realized it was part of a series, but I don't think I have seen any of the other books:

1 Dorrie's Magic
2 Dorrie and the Blue Witch
3 Dorrie's Play
4 Dorrie and the Weather Box
5 Dorrie and the Witch Doctor
6 Dorrie and the Wizard's Spell
7 Dorrie and the Haunted House
8 Dorrie and the Birthday Eggs
9 Dorrie and the Goblin
10 Dorrie and the Fortune Teller
11 Dorrie and the Amazing Magic Elixir
12 Dorrie and the Witch's Imp
13 Dorrie and the Halloween Plot
14 Dorrie and the Dreamyard Monsters
15 Dorrie and the Screebit Ghost
16 Dorris and the Witchville Fair
17 Dorrie and the Witch's Camp
18 Dorrie and the Museum Case
19 Dorrie and the Pin Witch
20 Dorrie and the Haunted Schoolhouse

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Tuesday, November 29, 2005

The Berenstain Bears

Stan Berenstain, one of the creators of The Berenstain Bears died on Saturday.

I have fond memories of reading these books as a child and just ran across a ton of them at Booksmart uptown. I couldn't find my favorite one though, which was The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room, where Mama gets fed up with the sloppy cubs. They end up with closet full of shelves full of shoe boxes with all of their stuff neatly arranged and labeled. Hmm, I wonder if they will come and tackle my closet.

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Encyclopedia Brown

Harry Potter refueled my love of adolescent fiction, which explains my recent readings of A Wrinkle in Time and The Phantom Tollbooth, two books I neglected to read when I was younger. One series I did manage to read often was Encyclopedia Brown and it seems there are some issues over getting it to the big or even small screen.

Each book had several cases in it and the last sentence was something along the lines of him saying, "Mr Thompson is lying! He was on the porch last night." You then had to figure out the clue that proved his accusation, some of which were pretty obscure. I think they could do great things by making him a combination of MacGyver and Cliff Clavin with tons of useless information in his head and lots of wacky contraptions that actually work to get Sally and him out of the bind they're in and catch the crooks.

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Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Wizard DNA

I finished the Half-Blood Prince last night and ran across a post that discusses the ancestry of Harry and some of his classmates.

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Friday, September 09, 2005

Geeking out over Harry Potter

The last four weeks of my life have been dominated by Harry Potter books. I started reading the first one on August 13th, and am nearing the end of book five today (600 out of 870 pages). On Wednesday, I saw the trailer for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in the theater and have now watched it several times on Netflix. It opens by showing Harry in each of the three previous movies and then showing the longer-haired version of him that will be in the new movie. They show Ron and Hermionie the same way, and then quick shots of various parts of the Triwizard tournament, along with Dumbledore's ominous quote. In order to fit all 734 pages of the book into one movie, neither the Dursleys nor Molly Weasley will be in this one. I wish they'd keep it all in, but I realize how confusing the story would be if it was split into two movies. I really can't wait until November 18th!

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Thursday, March 10, 2005

Logic

Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic. - Dune by Frank Herbert

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Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Blink

Last Tuesday's book signing was crowded, but amusing nonetheless. Nerve.com has an interview with Gladwell about the book.

PS I do not recommend the mint brownies at Starbuck's - dry and not very minty.

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Monday, February 07, 2005

Malcolm Gladwell

A few weeks ago I stumbled across an article by Gladwell, "Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg" while surfing del.icio.us. I perused some of his other articles, found them to be interesting reads, and bookmarked his site. Last week, I was paging through The Onion when I saw an ad for Gladwell appearing at the Edina Barnes & Noble tomorrow evening. I wasn't sure it was the same author, as the only thing I could remember about the author of the articles was that he wrote for the New Yorker. I compared the two today and found that it is indeed him and now I have found my weekly Metro Area activity. The book is called Blink and it's about the psychology of intuition.

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Saturday, January 17, 2004

A Year of Reading Dangerously

Last week, I decided on a resolution a little late. I am going to read 26 books this year, one for every letter of the alphabet, using the author's name. I am going to allow two weeks per book, which will leave two days left over. Hopefully, I'll get a review posted for each one. I have already finished Skipping Towards Gomorrah by Dan Savage, which I got for Christmas. I am currently reading Dune by Frank Herbert. Here's my list right now, which may change:

Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide*
Bourdian - A Cook's Tour
Cagan - Quirkyalone
Dick - Man in the High Castle
Elliott - King's Dragon
Fielding - Grand Avenue*
Goldsmith - Simple Isn't Easy
Herbert - Dune*
Ibarra - Working Identity
Jordan - Eye of the World*
Kinsella - Confessions of a Shopaholic*
Letts - Where the Heart Is
McMillan - A Day Late and a Dollar Short
N
Otteson - The World Awaits or Orwell - 1984*
Pots - Vagabonding
Q
Rawn - Dragon Prince
Savage - Skipping... DONE
Tan - Kitchen God's Wife
U
Verne - Around the World In 80 Days
Watters - Urban Tribes
X
Yourcenar - Memoirs of Hadrian
Zelazny - The Great Book of Amber

The stars are books I already own. Between this and my Politics class that started on Wednesday, I am going to be reading 24/7. I was going to do it in alphabetical order, but I was dying to read Gomorrah and had started on Dune. I am going to try once more to get through 1984, which I now have the Cliffs Notes for. If I don't, I have a back up. I knew X U and Q would be hard to find, but I am surprised I haven't found an N yet. I started by checking my Amazon wishlist and hit a used bookstore.

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Wednesday, October 08, 2003

Books

Most of the books I have are travel related, guidebooks or just nonfiction relating to another country. I have been getting into the single girl fiction fad that started with Bridget Jones (if you liked that one, read the sequel, so you'll be prepared when the movie comes out. If you didn't like it, you're probably a man.) The best thing I've read in that genre is 'Good in Bed' by Jennifer Weiner. I bought a copy for myself and for a friend at Christmas time. I read it very quickly and am thinking about reading it again. She's got a new book out but I don't have it yet. A friend of mine bought me the first 3 'Tales of the city' books for my birthday this summer. I had started to watch the tapes of the miniseries and didn't finish them. I just wasn't that interested. But, the books were great and I read each of them in about a week.
I have a bunch of Danielle Steel books, too. Before you groan - she has some great stories. My favorites are Wanderlust, The Ring and Full Circle. I think I like those so much because they seem to break out of her normal formula (a rich man or woman is married/committed at the beginning of the book, suffers a break up and then finds love again, sigh). I don't like it when she seemly writes only what she knows. She seems more creative when she tackles a subject she isn't as familiar with, and when she sets the story in a previous era, like with Crossings, the one about the Titanic. I realize that none of my 3 favorites are set in the modern day, either (wanderlust - World War 2, The Ring - 19th Century?, Full Circle - the 60s). They still have the sappy romance, but there are more themes than just that. I also liked Mixed Blessings, and that might be the first time I cried while reading a book.
An interesting side note is that there's a song titled 'Danielle Steel' by a band called The Lucksmiths. I'll post the lyrics if I can find them. He's talking about his girl and that she's got 'the heart of Danielle Steel'. Okay, no more music talk, back to books. I am currently trying to read '1984' and 'The Culture of Fear'. I have tried to get thru 1984 before and I find it easier every time, but I still haven't finished it. The Culture of Fear is by Barry Glassner, you might have seen him in 'Bowling for Columbine'. While it has quite a liberal slant, it's an enjoyable read so far. The most interesting thing that he's saying is that so many of our societal ills stem from poverty. While that doesn't surprise me, it makes real improvement seem even more of a pipe dream, since poverty is so good at being cyclical. But now I digress into politics. That'll be another series of posts.
While I'm talking about books, I should probably throw in a magazine or two. I like 'Games' and I have a subscription to 'National Geographic Traveller'. I buy the occasional computer magazine or chic rag (Glamour, Allure, Marie Claire). Tv Guide and Entertainment Weekly sometimes make it into my cart at the grocery store. I almost always buy the Fall Preview editions of those two (I know, I sound like the Elaine Mannequin guy from Seinfeld) because I like to see good shows from the beginning. And now I digress into TV. I can't believe how long this post has gotten. Sadly, the others will probably be longer.

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