between christmas and birthday, i managed to rack up a good collection of new books to read, new cds to listen to and more dvds to enjoy :D
and thanks to akasha, i’ve put ALL the books in my collection on http://www.gurulib.com/arin721. i keep trying to whittle down my books to a smaller collection, but i’m unable to let go of some: chuck palahniuk, terry pratchett, david eddings, robert b parker, p n elrod, children’s books (i’ve not put all my nancy drews into the gurulib thing yet), and other various classics and whatnot. i’ve probably sold 5 to 10 times what’s in my collection :| in addition to library check outs.... i think i read alot :O
the book i just finished:
the menstruating mall, by carlton mellick III: splatterpunk genre (splatterpunk being a somewhat unofficial subgenre of horror - it’s usually distinguished by the intensity and disturbing subject matter, use of graphic violence, antiheroes, and urban settings): 10 people are trapped in a mall though nothing is actually stopping them leaving but themselves. over a period of time, they begin to die off, one by one, as they search for a way out. i enjoyed the read, though i’d not classify mellick as any literary wonder. his characters are extremely two dimensional, though that was intended by the author, because the *people* are extremely two dimensional (and we all know these people). the story, itself, is pretty short and summed up all too quickly in the end, tho the message itself is not a bad one: break out of your mold. this is grossness for grossness’ sake and possibly most liked by those who think it’s really cool to wear a big anarchy A.
now, my next task will be deciding which book to read next ;o sooo many good choices and still a list i’m waiting to get from the library :|
finally, i seem to have broken my ‘inability to stay focused’ issue. thank god :s my reading list was suffering due to it, as i couldn’t concentrate on reading long enough to actually finish a book. as much as i enjoy reading, that was becoming increasingly annoying. how did i work this miracle? vitamins, exercise, and cutting back caffeine, i think. only things i really increased/changed. whatever it is, it’s working :D seems to be helping my depression as well (yay for less anxiety), though my sleep pattern is erratic again. as long as i ~get~ sleep, that’s okay with me.
just finished reading , which was absolutely a hilarious read. it’s a collection of bizarre experiments actually done. elephants on acid. medical clowns used to increase the chances of pregnancy among women having invitro fertilization (it worked!). chimps raised as humans. some of the experiments seem to have served absolutely no purpose other than to show the odd things that scientists can come up with to study, others were extremely valuable:
Does the above image of a spinning dancer (found via and article in Perth Now) demonstrate which side of your brain is the more dominant? According to the article most people will see this dancer moving counter-clockwise because they apparently use more of the left side of their brain and tend to be more logical and practical. People who see the dancer moving clockwise (like me) are right brain dominant and tend to be more risk taking and imaginative.
several days ago, i watched this image for several hours on and off and couldn’t see her spinning anything BUT clockwise. today? she’s all counter-clockwise :o the first time that i watched her, i was working on a website design (right-brained?). today, i’ve some paperwork, weblog entries, etc, to do (left-brained?). i wonder if we’re all a bit of each every now and again.
interesting, how our minds work. this actually ties with the book i’m reading, at the moment, . i’ve a huge stack of books that i need to read and hit a period where i just had no interest in reading much of ~anything~. then one day, i picked this book back up and it caught my attention right off the bat. it’s been interesting so far.
the author begins by comparing the human mind with artificial intelligence (robots) and the difficulty in programming a robot to understand something we all just ~know~...like… what a bachelor is. say you program the robot with the definition of a bachelor: “an adult male who has never been married”. then, wanting the robot to send out invitations to eligible bachelors for your party, you give it the following list. how does the robot, using the definition of bachelor, correctly identify which people to invite?
arthur has been living happily with alice for the last five years. they have a 2 year old daughter and have never been officially married.
charlie is 17 years old. he lives at home with his parents and is in high school.
eli and edgar are homosexual lovers who have been living together for many years.
father gregory is the bishop of the catholic cathedral at groton upon thames.
reading the list, common sense tells you that ~none~ of the men are “eligible bachelors”. yet. how do we know that? what exactly is “common sense”? how is it defined?
been awhile, hey? been busy! doing… a buncha nothing! sorta finished reading harry potter’s last book and OMG, that was awesome :D talk about your twists and turns, i was cryin’ at the end :o i’m not quite the harry potter fanatic that i used to be, but i still enjoy the books regardless!
finally finished the baby afghan i was working on and i’ll get a picture of that as soon as i decide what to put with it. lil stuffed aminal or something similar, i’m thinking. in the meantime, using up the skeins of purple that i had to make yet ~another~ afghan. i expect that will be a gift tho
watched ”a history of disbelief” and ”the god delusion” today. have to say, i’m wanting to read dawkin’s book, the god delusion, now. it was really an excellent program.
hrm, other news? i have pink hair!!! the photos came out crappy, but my camera batteries died :( no. i did NOT break the camera >:| ok… maybe :(
other’n afghans and reading and watchin’ movies, i needa get busy and get my craft room sorted out and some errands run and apply for a couple more jobs. we’ll see how that goes :o ~wish me luck~
i actually started this before, but couldn’t get into it at the time. NOT the fault of the book, i just hit one of those spells where i wasn’t in the mood to read. it doesn’t happen often, thank god! i’ve waayyyy too much stuff on my reading list!
i’d never read kafka and thought it was about time i read something of his. so far, it’s a humorous little story about a man who is arrested, but no one will tell him what the charges were, and they send him on off to live his life like normal. unsure of whether or not it’s all a big practical joke, he decides to just go along with it. what else can ya do, hey? i assume we’re to have a trial and whatnot shortly
it’s been an enjoyable read and i reckon i’ll add more of his works to my reading list.
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Execution Watch Counter]](http://www.texasmoratorium.org/rgraphics/Txflag.gif)
the menstruating mall, by carlton mellick III: splatterpunk genre (splatterpunk being a somewhat unofficial subgenre of horror - it’s usually distinguished by the intensity and disturbing subject matter, use of graphic violence, antiheroes, and urban settings): 10 people are trapped in a mall though nothing is actually stopping them leaving but themselves. over a period of time, they begin to die off, one by one, as they search for a way out. i enjoyed the read, though i’d not classify mellick as any literary wonder. his characters are extremely two dimensional, though that was intended by the author, because the *people* are extremely two dimensional (and we all know these people). the story, itself, is pretty short and summed up all too quickly in the end, tho the message itself is not a bad one: break out of your mold. this is grossness for grossness’ sake and possibly most liked by those who think it’s really cool to wear a big anarchy A.
finished reading harry potter’s last book and OMG, that was awesome :D talk about your twists and turns, i was cryin’ at the end :o i’m not quite the harry potter fanatic that i used to be, but i still enjoy the books regardless!
