Monthly Archives: August 2008

The Sunday Salon: Still expecting great things, but not always living up to them :(

Posted on August 31, 2008 by | 7 Comments
The Sunday Salon.com

This Sunday, another busy Sunday planned– this time, a church picnic and then off to my parents to watch NASCAR with my father. However, before I leave, I’d thought I’d report in to y’all (no, I live in Pennsylvania, but my mother is from North Carolina, so I come by the saying righteously).

I’m still working my way through Great Expectations by Charles Dickens for 1% Well-Read Challenge and Classics Challenge 2008 even though I said earlier in the week that I would try to be finished with it by the end of the month (today). I also said I would finish the following three books:

While I did finish The Alchemist and probably will work in The Prophet this afternoon, because it’s a short book (if not a heady book, according to The Wife), I don’t think I’m going to make it to The Giver. Why I wanted to finish the four books was so that I could “make it” to 50 books read for the year by the end of today. I did a recount yesterday, though, and counting a couple of graphic novels that I read (100 pages or more) to qualify, I will make it to 50– with The Prophet.

For the complete list of books I’ve read so far this year, see here.

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Last week, I began a new feature at my main blog, an unfinished person in an unfinished universe called Saturday’s Me and You, in which I review the week on my blog and also highlight links of other blogs. For yesterday’s edition, see HERE.

I would like to highlight one link that I believe deserves special attention this week:The Big Announcement is Here: Reading & Blogging for Darfur: To find out what Natasha Maw of Maw Books Blog is doing and how you can help, click on the link.

I also would be remiss if I didn’t give a special thank you to both Guatami Tripathy at Reading Room and Margaret at BooksPlease who presented me with awards: Guatami with a Brillante Weblog Premio 2008; Margaret, a SuperCommenter Award. Thank you very much to the both of you. I only hope, Margaret, that I can live up to it…as today I probably won’t get to replies or catching up with all The Sunday Salon readings (already over 30) until tomorrow.

Addendum: I’ve been using a program called CoComment that is helping me keep track of my comments– and if I need to return to a comment to “smack” someone down — sorry, I have another blog called Unfinished Rambling(s) on a site called Humor-Blogs.com, so sometimes I joke (or at least make a stab at it).

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Posted in Books, Mind, The Sunday Salon

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Saturday’s Me and You: 8/30/08

Posted on August 30, 2008 by | 2 Comments

Last week, I began a new feature at my main blog called Saturday’s Me and You. Each Saturday I will be giving a review of posts on my five blogs, plus links to others’ posts I found intriguing or insightful within the last week. (I’m a little behind this week, because The Wife and I went to a wedding this afternoon.)

ME
At my main blog of an unfinished person (in an unfinished universe):

  1. Sustenance Sunday: Who do you say that I am? Fr. James Dougher at my home parish gives a homily on Matthew 16:13-16 (also crossposted on Journeying with the Saints).
  2. Meandering Monday: A few of my wife’s favorite things (for me to leave alone) The Wife gives me a list of her favorite things…as long as I leave them alone, including her favorite handkerchiefs and pens (also crossposted on Unfinished Rambling(s)).
  3. Tuesday’s Tunes: Flight of the Conchords The Wife and I have been watching the HBO show by the same name. I feature videos from first six episodes of the New Zealand comedy duo’s first season. If you haven’t seen, it’s a little off the wall. Please check it out.
  4. Wordless Wednesday: Corning Museum of Glass-Mini Tour Last weekend The Wife, I and my in-laws went to Corning. Here is some of what we saw there at the glass museum.
  5. Booking Through Thursday: What’s on My Nightstand for September: Basically, ditto from August Just what it says what I plan on reading, or at least attempting to read, for the month of September (crossposted on Just A (Reading) Fool).

Just A (Running) Fool

Unfortunately, this blog (which is where I began blogging) is still my most inactive blog as evidenced by the dearth of posts this week:

  1. Tuesday: Early to bed, early to rise…the cliche is true Here, I reflect on quotes from George Sheehan in his book How To Feel Great 24 Hours A Day and the importance of getting up and getting to bed early.
  2. Wednesday: I talk about Working on keeping my house in order and then promptly fall on my face for the next three days as I don’t run for the next three days. A plan to let myself rest on Thursday, giving in to my natural tendencies to slow down and burn out right after midweek, doesn’t work. Self-discipline is what is needed.

Just A (Reading) Fool

In addition to the Thirsty Thursday post mentioned above:

  1. Sunday: The Sunday Salon: The Dickens, we say!…and the week in review With my in-laws in town last Sunday, I didn’t get a lot of reading done, but continued working through Great Expectations by Charles Dickens just a bit, a book on which I’m still working.
  2. Tuesday: Where I Be This Tuesday in My Reading Still reading Great Expectations.
  3. Thursday: Booking Through Thursday: Reading to see what happens next? This week’s question centered around if you read to see what happens next. My answer: Not always.

Journeying with the Saints

In addition to the Sustenance Sunday post already mentioned:

Unfinished Rambling(s):

In addition to the Meandering Monday post already mentioned:

  1. Thursday: I discuss how I’ve been Trying to duck the quack doctors on Twitter and BlogCatalog, but alas, am having little success. It seems like all the practitioners of non-traditional medicine are drawn to me on these two sites. I don’t know.
  2. Friday: In what could be considered a cross-post for Just A (Reading) Fool, I share some of the books I’ve been asked to review and other things I’ve been asked to hock in FREE Obama-Biden car magnet — $15 donation, plus FREE full-length LESBIAN novel!
  3. Saturday: What happens when someone like myself doesn’t have cable or satellite TV? This is what I explore in Latest Bigfoot Hoax…uh huh…a HOAX! and other news you might have missed (more specifically what I might have missed).
YOU
  • Nominations for Book Blogger Appreciation Awards 2008 nominations end tomorrow, Aug. 31. For details, including categories and where to e-mail your nominations, click on the preceding link.
  • Lit Flicks Challenge, hosted by Jessica at The Bluestocking Society, begins Monday and runs until February 28, 2009, the month she is hosting the February 2008 Bookworms Carnival. For details, (yep, you guessed it) click on link. For my list, see HERE.
  • Jessica’s brother, Blake, is hosting a companion challenge at his site Bitchin’ Film Reviews which is similar to her challenge, except the focus is on the movies, of course. I have joined both as I mentioned in my original post about the challenges and I encourage you to do the same.
  • For laughs, I ran into this video My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors over at Don’stuff. He in turn picked it up from the blog Pages Turned.
AND THIS WEEK, NOT JUST YOU, BUT OTHERS TOO


The Big Announcement is Here: Reading & Blogging for Darfur:
Natasha Maw of Maw Books Blog is reading and blogging for the entire month of Septmeber in an effort to create awareness and raise funds for the people of Darfur. Click on the link for more information on how you can participate. I plan on doing my part with a special post here this week, but thought it was more than worthwhile than mentioning since this isn’t just about me and you, but certainly others, as well.

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Posted in Books, Mind

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Latest Bigfoot hoax…uh huh…a HOAX! and other news you might have missed

Posted on August 30, 2008 by | 5 Comments

Since The Wife and I don’t have a cable or satellite subscription, we don’t keep up on world events like the rest of y’all. Well, at least, I don’t…as the wife said to me when I mentioned one of these stories to her: Duh that’s like, so last week.

Among the “top” stories I’ve missed recently:

Bigfoot Hoax…a HOAX!: I missed the news about the recent Bigfoot find in Georgia being a hoax (a rubber suit) until earlier this week while skimming newspapers tallying up stories I had written in the last month for my job as a correspondent for one of our country’s fine daily newspapers. Originally I was alerted to the story via investigative journalist Bex over at The Blog of Bex, who told me about two men who found Bigfoot in the mountains of Georgia and was worried about the reputation of her state, Georgia, for these yahoos taking the carcass frozen across country. Well, rest easy, Bex, it has been restored– well, at least, in this case. Your state can now be known for making sh*t up.

But now by doing extensive research (okay, it was Wikipedia), I’ve learned my own state (technically a Commonwealth, folks) is not immune to the Bigfoot hoax phenomenon:

“On September 16, 2007, in the Allegheny National Forest near the town of Ridgway, Pennsylvania, hunter Rick Jacobs captured an image of an animal using an automatically triggered camera attached to a tree which some claimed was Bigfoot. A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Game Commission challenged the Bigfoot explanation, saying that it looked like ‘a bear with a severe case of mange.’”

Jacobs, I learned later, was using the camera to track patterns of deer for the upcoming fall deer season. Here are the photos. You be the judge. Not that I’m cynical or anything, but why do in these reported sightings of Bigfoot or mountain lions here in our fair Commonwealth can’t anyone get a clear photo? In this day and age, too, can’t anybody Photoshop Bigfoot or a mountain lion into the photo or dress up in a Bigfoot suit?

Flies, surprise, surprise, don’t want to be killed: Caltech researchers have discovered that fruit flies when swatted at look to avoid being killed. For video proof, see here.

Best line in news story on subject: “The research suggests that the best way of swatting a fly is to creep up slowly and aim ahead of its location.” How much money was spent on this research? How many government grants were given for this?

Here’s to social justice: In The Scotsman recently was this headline: £1bn Johnnie Walker helps Diageo’s profit.

Best quote came from Diageo chief executive Paul Walsh: “Whether you agree with the social justice of this or not, there is certainly a nucleus of consumers in the top 50 cities [worldwide] that have the means and desire to consume the best. That is not going to change.” Well, thank the good Lord for that! When you’re sipping your Scotch this holiday weekend (for those of us in the States), toast Mr. Walsh and yourself and social justice– if you qualify. If not, enjoy your Budweiser.

I’ll have more to say on Johnnie Walker and his brothers Black and Red in my next post, with more great quotes from Walsh in The Daily Telegraph and The Times of London — plus my own witty editorial on the subject, of course…

…until then, visit Humor-Blogs.com, cast a vote for this post if you find it even mildly amusing and then check out some of the other funny bloggers there including Chris Wood, who probably knows more about these British stories than I do since he’s from across the pond, as they say. (And next time, unlike these last two posts, I won’t use CAPS in my headlines. I PROMISE. ;-) Or emoticons anywhere in the post either.)

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Posted in The Wife, Unfinished rambling

FREE Obama-Biden car magnet — $15 donation, plus FREE full-length LESBIAN novel!

Posted on August 29, 2008 by | 9 Comments

So as promised, this post I’m going to share about some of the things I’ve been asked to hock and books I’ve been asked to review on my book blog. I’ve also thrown in an e-mail I received via a Facebook group to which I belong.

Sisters of Misery Giveaway Contest:

I received this very personal e-mail from a blogger who addressed me personally:

“Hello Fellow Book Blogger! I have been following your blog and really love your approach to covering the world of books. I have actually linked to you a few times! [Then follows a pitch for a contest she is running on her site for signed copies of the book and asking for me to mention the contest with a link AND I'll be included in the drawing also.] I am hoping to build a strong group of book friends! :) I look forward to hearing from you!”

Not only does the personal touch matter, but the emoticon and the four exclamation marks!!!! mean I definitely will be filing this– in a special file I like to call “Recycle Bin”.

Jumble Pie-Women’s Fiction:

Hello! We thought you and your readers might like to receive a free full-length novel, Jumble Pie, a heartwarming story about two women, friendship, and a pie. The author has two published novels and is providing this as a thank-you to readers! [Then a link is provided to request a copy.]

Hello! I don’t know how you learned that I love women’s fiction!! But I do. Not only is this a novel, but a FULL-LENGTH novel. I’m so glad I’m not receiving those half-finished novels that I usually receive to read (“WTF? I want to know did they eat the pie or not?”). And if I’m reading between the lines correctly: “A heartwarming story about two women, friendship and a pie,” this means LESBIAN story. The only thing I need to know is are they photos included? And if you combine this novel with the previous novel, Sisters of Misery, and make it like a campy S&M parody flick, Sisters of Misery Toss Jumble Pie In Your Face!.

First EditionObama-Biden Car Magnet:

Yes, A FIRST EDITION Obama-Biden car magnet for only $15. Like we won’t be able to get this for a nickel at the upcoming community yard sale or flea market this Spring?

Now for this last one, let me admit, I belong to a certain political persuasion, which because of where I live (READ: MAYBERRY, PA.) shall go unnamed and I am friends with a certain political candidate on Facebook, so I was sort of asking for this one.

I guess I also was asking for the daily updates on the convention I received:

Monday night: Chicago City Clerk Miguel del Valle speaking to convention. Remember The Blues Brothers? His part was played by Steven Spielberg. At the time, he was just just an assessor’s clerk. He also thought it was odd that they chose a non-Latino to play the part, but what could he do it was the start of the 1980s (Chico and the Man‘s run ended in 1978 and it was a new time, you know, esse?).

Tuesday night: Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards — Chicken barbecue for group to follow.

Wednesday night: Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) along with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. I was thinking of skipping that part of the convention myself, because Wexler, well, I never really heard of him, but then you resurrect Richard Daley, I’m soooo there. I thought he might talk about his days as Boss Daley and how he got JFK in the White House. Maybe he is working on something for Obama. I knew I had to definitely tune in to that part. (Oh, wait, I’ve since learned that this was Richard M. Daley, the son of the late Richard J. Daley…I could have skipped it.)

Thursday: All Day: Latino Day! Among speakers are Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez, Democratic National Committee Vice-Chair Linda Chavez-Thompson,  Colorado Congressman John (or should we say Juan?) Salazar, Coloroda Obama State Director Ray Rivera and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (originally Ricardo’s son? was he ashamed of his Hispanic heritage?). We’ve come along way, bebe, since the days of Miguel del Valle and Freddy Prinze.

To cast your vote for yet another Caucasian, but one who likes Latino TV, and Latino comedy troupes like Culture Clash, click on Humor-Blogs.com, where you’ll find other Caucasian Watinos or Wispanics (like wiggas) playing the roles of George Lopez and Carlos Mencia. This message has been approved by Unfinished Rambler, who is proud to be an American where at least he knows he’s free!

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Posted in Unfinished rambling