Category: Uncategorized

Anne McCaffrey brought her son Todd into the Pern novels a few years ago. As with many other childhood favorites, I have not kept up, but when I found Dragon’s Fire on the library shelf, I was game. I finished this tale several days ago, and you just can’t go back again (sometimes). I know I’m not the only one who’s enjoyed the Pern tales, but I suppose the longer you go on, the harder it is to meet the standard.

Damn, Carl Hiaasen is funny. Nature Girl is his latest, and the one I finished a couple of weeks ago. It is popcorn reading, but Hiaasen is out to entertain — and comes through, which is hard to do consistently.

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 been too long since I read the earlier novels, and I can’t imagine going back and re-reading them all now. Oh well. If you’ve kept up with Philip Lynx, enjoy.

Note: Big, thorough website, but miserable frameset means you can’t link to anything easily. Mistake.

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 stick with the “Prey” series, even if I can’t remember which title goes with which book.

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 62 is on the high end.

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 score of 85 for “universal acclaim”…I’m glad I’m in the universe.

Amusing side note: the official studio site was blocked by OpenDNS’s adult site blocking feature. Having seen the R-movie, I guess I’m not surprised, but it never occurred to me until I got the block page. Here at home, I just unblocked the “nudity” category, though, to view the site. You can check a site’s category for yourself with this domain checking tool. This new OpenDNS benefit we rolled out two weeks ago with St. Bernard has been very popular and very educational.

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. 🙁

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 of typing. When the brain starts going (an hour ago), sleep became fruitless. I’ll pay for it later, but I do enjoy this solitude. Sometimes I’m even productive, but not so much this morning.

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 previously-viewed scenes. The repeat material was amusing, but not as funny the second time.

The bigger problem? The rest of the movie just sort of petered out…and it felt long. I never expected such a drop-off from a comedy.

After seeing Knocked Up earlier in the week, the bar was pretty high. More on that movie in the near future. Metacritic shows a 66 for Ricky Bobby. Hmmmm…

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 one off the shelf at the library because it was on one of those “you should read these books before you die” lists being promoted that day. Whoops. I had to renew it twice to finish it, and I’m glad to put it behind me.