Unsought Input

  Over on Neil Gaiman’s web journal there is all sorts of news about his newest novel, The Graveyard  Book, due out by the end of the year. If you weren’t sure, I am pretty excited about this whole affair with Mr. Gaiman being one of my favorite authors of all time. A quick little quote from his site quoting Kurt Busiek talking about the novel:

THE GRAVEYARD BOOK’s title is an homage to THE JUNGLE BOOK, since TGB is about a boy whose family dies, and who winds up being raised in a graveyard, by ghosts, and the other things that lurk there.

The boy, named Nobody (”Bod” for short), learns many things, discovers odd places and curious people, deals hesitantly with the world outside the graveyard and eventually has to deal with the forces that killed the rest of his family, and who are still looking for him. I won’t say much more about the plot, because hey, it’s not going to be out for months.

But I think it’s likely Neil’s best novel yet. It has a great deal of warmth, whimsy, dark fantasy (verging on horror), adventure, charm, suspense, monsters, ghouls, a witch, school bullies, policemen, ancient burial mounds, knife-wielding killers, dancing, mystery, trouble, a dash of romance, life lessons, and a creature named Silas, who is both what he seems to be and not. And the most endearingly dangerous and threatening ancient terror you’ve ever met. The story’s engaging, there’s a real sense of menace, and it builds to a strong and satisfying climax.

Either way, it’s in my things to check out list. If you are unfamiliar with Neil Gaiman’s work you can read American Gods for free on line. Personally, I like American Gods and it’s sequel Anansi Boys the best of his work. You can read the whole novel. In fact, I insist you read the whole novel. It’s free. The whole book. And it’s a pretty big book. You can read a few pages a day while at work or before bed. Whenever. But it’s free and it’s available and it would be a shame not to take advantage of it.

Which brings me to my next little subject, has anyone heard of Endless Reflections, the Sandman graphic novels? That link right before this sentence was something I stumbled upon which makes me think that there might be a TV series for the Sandman comics. How cool would that be!? If anyone has any news, please post in comments. I looked all over wikipedia and his site with no avail. I really hope this isn’t just a joke, I think this would be the coolest TV show.

Before we answer that question, take a look at the video below. This is Jon Stewart interviewing Chris Matthews about his new book, Life’s a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me About Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success:

This is very different from most interviews with authors touring news and talk shows in support of their new book. The most obvious difference is that Stewart has a strong opinion and actually takes Matthews to task for what in the book. Most interviews consist of fluffy questions like, “so what inspired you to write this book” followed by 60 seconds of uninterrupted marketing while the interviewer casts loving gazes the author’s way.The most shocking thing for me, though, is that Stewart has actually read Matthews’ book and come up with his own, very informed, opinion about it. It sounds disgusting, but I don’t think I’ve gotten this impressions from any “real news” shows in the past.Take a look at The Daily Show interview with Alan Greenspan:

(more…)

I recently finished reading the book Perdidio Street Station by China Mieville and thought I would write up a review. It’s difficult to find a place to start about the book as it is complicated to explain. The novel takes place in the fictional city of New Corbuzon which is like a nightmarish amalgamation of London. The setting could be considered “steam punk” because magic and technology exist side by side. The technology consists of steam powered engines and clockwork run machines. The most impressive thing about the novel is convincing fictional world mieville creates with his words. It is very easy for the reader to visualize the ancient city with its many diverse cultures living together in a seething metropolis. Mieville is so detailed in his descriptions that it can be a nuisance at some point and the reader my skim over some of his more gregarious descriptions but overall they help to set the mood of the book.

The story of the novel is no less bizarre then the setting. Scientist Issac Dan van Grembulin is contracted by a Gerduda, who are a bird people, to help him to fly again. The Geruda’s wings have been amputated and Issac is one of the preeminent scientists on crisis energy which can be used to do just about anything its control wants it to. While researching the flying problem Issac studies many flying creatures, amongst one of which is an unusual caterpillar. He raises the caterpillar and when it finally emerges from its cocoon, it transforms into a creature that terrorizes New Corbuzon and Issac and the other characters spend the rest of the novel trying to stop it.

There are many bizarre characters in the novel. Issac’s girlfriend Lin is a Kephri who are a race of women with beetles for heads. There is also the Vodoynoi race who are a frog like people who can telepathically manipulate water. The re-made are the most strange beings humans or other races physically altered with manchinery or other weird appendages being added to their body for work or punishment purposes.

Over all Perdido Street Station is an excellent read with a very original and interesting storyline. Pick it up and you won’t be disappointed

In keeping with the theme that D Wallz started with his article on Tin Tin, I thought I would mention a few banned books that I have read and appreciated and why they were banned. I do encourage people to comment about their favorite banned books as well in the comment section below if they feel so obliged.

Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. This might be one of my favorite books of all time. I don’t know what it is about this book but I cry at the end every time. The part where our main character takes his kid sister Phoebe to the marry-go-round and he is narrating, he says that he wishes he could catch all of the kids before they went over the edge; that he would be the catcher in the rye. I don’t even know why but I almost cry every time I get to that part of the book.
This book was banned mostly in school libraries because of it’s themes of impropriety and scenes of sexual situations. I must have bought about seven copies of this book because each time I meet someone who hasn’t read this novel, I force a copy on them. Honestly, this novel is about growing up. Growing up is about themes of impropriety and sexual situations. I really feel that when books like this get banned, the adults who are banning them have just forgotten what it was like to grow up and be a confused and upset teenager.

(more…)

I have stewed over this topic for several months as I am finishing up my second to last semester of my Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) program. I do not consider myself an expert on this issue; however, there were several things that got me through nursing school that I could not survive without. The following stuff is mainly for an undergrad nursing student. Part II (coming soon) will be more for a nursing student in grad school.

(more…)

Spider-Man 3 seems like a shoo-in to join Spider-Man 1 and 2 in the top ten highest-grossing films of all time, but reviews have been mixed. Right now it’s running about 60% positive at Metacritic and 61% positive at Rotten Tomatoes.

So is it any good? I thought so, but this isn’t a movie review. As an internationally-recognized expert in Spidey Studies, I thought it would be important to point out where Spider-Man 3 gets it right, and where it get things wrong. I’ll start with the bad news first, with the good news to follow in the next day or two.

Please note: this is not a series of gripes over deviations from the “cannon” of the original Amazing Spider-Man comic books or anything like that. Spider-Man, like many of his his comic book and other literary brethren, has been written by many different people over the years in many different media. Instead, I hope to point out where Sam Raimi deviated from the crux of the characters or missed opportunities that presented themselves.

(more…)

Lee A. Iacocca’s recent book, Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, has received a good amount of press this past week, all centered around one specific passage:

Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course.”

Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I’ll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!

You might think I’m getting senile, that I’ve gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don’t need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we’re fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That’s not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I’ve had enough. How about you?

I’ll go a step further. You can’t call yourself a patriot if you’re not outraged. This is a fight I’m ready and willing to have.

Makes me want to read the book.

Though, of course, all the blogs I’ve read covering said passage have just left it at that. They might make some sort of comment about Iacocca’s personality, or what he said about the current crop of domestic auto executives, but they don’t really go in and dissect what he said.

(more…)

Kurt Vonnegut, one of my favorite authors, died a few days ago on April 11th. You may or may not have heard by now. The New York Times wrote a nice piece on his life and a large number of blogs and forums have filled with discussions of his books, essays, and politics.

If you haven’t heard by now, I guess I’m not too surprised. Ablogistan took a look and found that there were more twice as many mentions of Anna Nicole Smith in the news than Vonnegut.

(more…)

I ran across a great post at Technocrat titled If We Taught English the Way We Teach Mathematics.

“Suppose that those classes, from elementary school right through to high school, amounted to nothing more than reading dictionaries, getting drilled in spelling and formal grammatical construction, and memorizing vast vocabulary lists — you never read a novel, nor a poem; never had contact with anything beyond the pedantic complexity of English spelling and formal grammar, and precise definitions for an endless array of words. You would probably hate the subject.”

This is a great point, and the post goes on to talk about why it’s not just a lack of “real world” examples that makes math and science such boring, intimidating subjects.  Here’s the perfect example of how a real world example definitely did not help one student with physics:

So if memorizing facts and formulas is no use, and contrived, often bizarre examples are no help, how should we teach math and science?

(more…)

Hiya, I know how much you enjoy taking quizzes and you all know how much I enjoy writing quizzes, so here are two really quick quizzes I made over at www.buzzdash.com. Take them!

Which is the best super hero movie series?

Which is the best science fiction series of all time?

The movie 300, based on the Frank Miller graphic novel, has earned $70 million at the box office, breaking some records. But if you read some of the commentary out there you might not be too interested in seeing it.

All the villains are gay. All the good guys are white and the bad guys are black. The whole thing is just Frank Miller’s thinly-veiled cheering for Bush to invade Iran. Etc.

Now, 300 is definitely not a historical documentary. But I don’t think the criticisms mentioned above are completely true-although I can certainly see why many people may have jumped to them.

(more…)

I know that you are all bored waiting for the movie 300 to come out whilst surrounded by the sub par offerings of entertainment Hollywood has thrown you like spoiled meat to a bad dog. There is a movie out there to quench your thirst. I guarantee that you will appreciate the homicidal goodness that is the movie Zodiac.

Now, I do not pay attention to pop culture like most other people in America. I didn’t have any idea what this movie was about or even that one of my top hotties of all times Jake Gyllenhaal was in this movie. I just know that we were bored on a Sunday night in suburbia and decided to go and see a movie. I don’t watch TV at all, I get all of my tasty tidbits of entertainment from the internet, so I have not seen any advertisements for this movie. I do go to the movies sometimes, but and I had not seen any previews for this movie, either. Basically my point is that I don’t feel that this movie got the advertisement that it deserved. (more…)

Look At My Striped Shirt - Confessions of People You Love To Hate
by The Phat Phree
$10.36 @ Amazon.com

First off let me admit that this blog - or at least me - is somehow related to The Phat Phree. I’ll give you 3 minutes to Google it and figure it out. If you can’t, well then it’s of no concern to you. But I did get this book sent to me for free with the understanding that I would review it. Such is the duty of a “Blogger” - we are here to spread the word where no one else gives a damn.

Now let me explain a little bit about The Phat Phree. It’s an online humor magazine that is about two hundred times more popular than Unsought Input. But then again, uhm…we like it that way. The guys from The Phat Phree are those kids who probably beat you up in elementary school, played sports in middle school and by high school they were all of a sudden really in to drama club and the school newspaper because they were slightly too intelligent to stay in football. They weren’t in drama to sing and dance (cuz “that’s be gay, dude”) or on the newspaper to write scandalous op-ed pieces, but because they like when people listen to them talk or read what they write. They’re those guys who fill the large gap between the over-smart introverts and the air-headed extroverts. Now they work office jobs but hope to someday make it big in a way that people will pay money to hear what they have to say.

So, nothing wrong with that. Someone’s got to fill that gap. They’re honing their skills by following the TPP credo: Target. Observe. Ridicule. They’re taking “observational comedy” to a different level than we’re used to - different than the droning of Jerry Seinfeld’s sly jabs at everyday annoyances and not so far as the over-done “people of [my ethnicity] are funny because…” yawn-fest of Carlos Mencia.

Look At My Striped Shirt - Confessions of People You Love To Hate contains 73 essays written from the point of view of all of the quirky lamers you work with, ring up at the cash register, run into at parties and, God forbid, are related to. A Spoon River Anthology for the modern day, if you will. (more…)

It has taken five years and two wars, but finally, author Dinesh D’Souza has found the real cause of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.  Saddam Hussien?  Nope.  Lax airport security?  Sorry.  Osama bin Laden and the extreme religious conservatives who plotted and carried out the attacks?  Not so much.

The real culprit is gay marriage and Fear Factor.  D’Souza explained on the Colbert Report.

Now, some might say that advocating that we become more like the terrorists in order to avoid terrorist attacks is sort of like giving in.  But that’s just silly.  Let me explain why with a simple analogy everyone can understand :
(more…)

Looking for some interesting gift ideas? Sick of buying the traditional tie for dad and sweater for your nephew, and want to get them something they might actually have a use for? Look no further! Well, actually you should look further down the page. Below are five unique holiday gift ideas for that special someone that won’t find their way into a box in the attic.

1. Give the gift of convenience. It is the year 2006, and yet you cannot fly around town on a hoverboard, jet pack, or even a flying car. Luckily, we do have robots to do menial household labor. I highly recommend the iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner. You may be wondering: does it really work? Our experience with the Roomba has been very positive, so much so that we got one for my parents last Christmas.

(more…)