Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Long and Literary Post

I found this on MagicMarmot's blog.

I wasn't going to give in. I mean, post 106 book titles? What am I? Crazy?

My English degree won me over and here I am.

From MagicMarmot:

What we have here are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose (and I liked the movie)
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (HATED the movie)
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

To total up:
Read on my own: 16
Read for school: 22
Started but didn't finish: 7

Monday, April 28, 2008

Happy Birthday, Magic Marmot!

I took a page from the blog of MadBlonde for this one. She posts pictures of fun birthday cakes for friends' birthdays. Thought I'd try it on for size.

Since I'm AT work right now, I didn't want to risk searching for anything NSFW. I couldn't find a marmot cake, but I figured, "Hey! Marmots live in burrows. Rabbits live in burrows. Marmots eat... stuff. Rabbits eat carrots... but they both eat. Marmots are fluffy and fuzzy... so are rabbits."



Besides, Bugs Bunny is smart...

... and so is Magic Marmot.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

So... on Target?


My Personality
Neuroticism
40
Extraversion
20
Openness to Experience
44
Agreeableness
27
Conscientiousness
52
You are a calm person who is considered almost fearless by some, however you tend to lack energy and have difficult initiating activities. You get overwhelmed by too much noise and commotion and do not like thrill-seeking activities. You tend not to express your emotions openly and are sometimes not even aware of your own feelings. You do not enjoy confrontation, but you will stand up for yourself or push your point if you feel it is important, however you generally see others as selfish, devious, and sometimes potentially dangerous. You take your time when making decisions and will deliberate on all the possible consequences and alternatives.


Take a Personality Test now or view the full Personality Report.

The best UGG Boots.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Crazy talk! Crazy talk! Change the subject!

"Crazy talk! Crazy talk! Change the subject!" -- Arthur, The Tick

Fans of the short-lived, live-action version of The Tick will remember that line above, delivered frantically by the Tick's sidekick, Arthur.

Someone should have thought to offer that advice to my former boss. Last August I posted about the Nerd Clan's pilgrimage to the Twin Cities and what part the company I worked for played in that. The post was prompted by a Star Tribune article, outlining the CEO and his dash from the law due to tax evasion.

After 14 months as a fugitive, authorities caught up with him on November 1, 2007 in Orlando, FL. I guess Mickey Mouse is a draw for tax evading religious zealots. Anywho, he's back in the Twin Cities, on trial, providing his own defense. But if he wasn't in enough trouble already, check out this article from the Star Tribune on Monday. Apparently, even from his jail cell, he's still having chats with God. It seems that God isn't too fond of the judge assigned to his trial. Allegedly, he told his common law wife, "God ... wants me to take the judge out, that's what he wants me to do," and "Once I take down Ann Montgomery, no judge in the whole court will have anything to do with me."

Good job. Nicely done! If you're going to make secret plans to get rid of a judge, the perfect means of communications is to do it through RECORDED PHONE CALLS FROM JAIL to result in the arrest of your accomplices. Very sneaky!

Yes. I'll watch this trial over the next two weeks with great interest.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Tagged!

I've been tagged by CubeZoo!

The rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book (at least 123 pages).
2. Turn to page 123.
3. Find the 5th sentence
4. Post the 5th sentence on your blog.
5. Tag 5 people.

"There's my picture: and I'm his friend - so much so, that had he thought seriously to catch you, I should, perhaps, have held my tongue, and let you fall into his trap." (Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte)

And now the tagged:

Anomalous Data
Room to Ruminate
Madblonde
Wild Colonial Boy
MagicMarmot

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Hot and Cold Running Air

Taking a quick break from working at home today. We're finally replacing our ancient furnace and central air conditioning. We scored a great deal on having both installed at once, and we jumped at the opportunity.

The furnace was original with the house, built in 1980. It was loud, smelly, and had an efficiency rating indicated by a pictograph of a neanderthal rubbing sticks together. The A/C was on it's last legs, having been repaired several times by Minnegasco, often through the shaking of ceremonial beads, banging of drums, and sacrificing of chickens.

It was time.

In the seven years that we've "owned" this house, this is just the latest in a running list of repairs and replacements, including but not limited to: water heater, water softener, sump pump, refrigerator, dish washer, garbage disposal, roof, tree removal... and more!

In short, our house inspector was a freakin' moron.

Now, however, we'll have a brand new efficient furnace with a digital thermostat, an A/C that actually works when you turn it on, and it's all backed by a full warranty. In June we're having the house painted and deck stained again. We're putting in some new flooring, taking on some interior improvements ourselves. It'll be nice.

Now if we could just afford new windows, a new deck door, landscaping...

Tell me again why home ownership is better than renting?

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Positive Post #10

Yes. It's been a long time since I've posted.

Yes. I feel guilty.

Yes. This is a lame-o Positive Post, but here it is.

2007 TAXES ARE DONE!

No more tax prep worries for at least... several... months.

Hey. I tried.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Stone Soup on TrekMovie.com!

Proud wife moment! Avindair's latest trailer for "Valdez" has been picked up by TrekMovie.com. Scroll down to "New Star Trek Trailer."

Wow!