Year: 2007
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Book: Trouble Magnet
Alan Dean Foster is prolific. Long ago, I read several of the Flinx novels, so it was easy to grab Trouble Magnet off the library shelf a few weeks ago. Another quick, easy read… and not terrible. But I’ve clearly skipped some stories along the way and I felt the gap a bit. It’s also…
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Book: Dead Watch
Apparently John Sandford can write a book without “Prey” in the name. I read Dead Watch a few weeks ago, and until finding the link earlier in this sentence, I couldn’t remember what it was about. That’s a commentary on my attention to this type of book and a condemnation of the book itself. I’d…
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Movie: Ocean’s Thirteen
You can tell a sequel is about to come out when the earlier movies start showing up on TNT, TBS and the other cable channels. We watched (and enjoyed) Ocean’s Eleven for maybe the third (fourth?) time a few weeks ago. Then we went and saw Ocean’s Thirteen. I’d watch Eleven again…Thirteen…not so much. Metacritic’s…
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Movie: Knocked Up
It’s been a few weeks, but I still smile thinking of this movie. Raunchy funny and serious at the same time. I can’t believe some of these lines were said out loud, but here’s one of the safer ones: I wish I liked anything as much as my kids like bubbles. (Pulled from IMDB) Metacritic…
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Milestones
Question: “Do you feel older?” Answer: “No, I feel bigger.” Must be fun to wake up to that feeling on your birthday. Family waffles for celebration at breakfast, and then a long day at the office for Dad. 🙁
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Watching the sunrise
I didn’t plan to, but here I am watching the sun rise over San Francisco. Very quiet and still, clear and warm for a San Francisco morning, so it’s already a bright orange over downtown, even at 5:23am. Sun isn’t visible yet, but it will be soon. I should really go for a run instead…
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Movie: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby finally bubbled up in Netflix. (OK, I pushed it to the top.) I had seen the first 30 minutes already…and that was the best part of the movie, with laugh-out-loud funny scenes. So, I pop in the DVD on a Saturday night expecting to laugh, starting with the…
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Book: The French Lieutenant’s Woman
The French Lieutenant’s Woman, by John Fowles, doesn’t fit my usual genres. Yes, the novel falls in the category of historical fiction, which I do enjoy. But I rarely appreciate author-to-reader discourses. Fowles’ postmodern flourishes distract from a decent tale of love and class in Victorian England, with a dollop of Darwin. I grabbed this…
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Book: The Afghan
Another one from a few weeks ago, Frederick Forsyth’s The Afghan is practically forgotten already. If you’re going to read Forsyth, it’s The Day of the Jackal or nothing. Slight exaggeration, perhaps, as there are other thrillers he’s penned worth your airplane ride… just not this one.
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Book: Collapse, How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Almost a month has passed, but I don’t want to forget to mention Collapse, How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Jared Diamond is unafraid to tackle the big topics. His blend of personal experience and lots of secondary research tells a persuasive story of how the environment underpins cultural success…and failure. This is the…