Those things with paper and words and stuff

Happy Inauguration Day!

In lieu of a proper post, since I am still in Juneau and a negative number of interesting things have happened since my last post, I'm just going to list some books that I like and would recommend. Devon and Ryan were like, books, those are still around? so in response, yes... they are. Don't dog ear your pages! Tip your waiters!

In no particular order:

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - after this book, there are two series that branch off. One is Ender's series and the other is Bean's series. I much prefer Bean's series, which follows the children left on Earth. Ender's series follows Ender's life to an adult age, which is less interesting to me.

Black and White by David Macaulay - this is a children's book, but it is genius! Remember how all the books we used to read were huge and full of pictures? Those were the days...

Twelfth Night or What You Will by William Shakespeare - Not a huge fan of Shakespeare, but I think Twelfth Night is hilarious. If Shakespearean lingo is not your thing (or if plays are not your thing... I find them difficult to read in general), you could just try to find the movie version with Ben Kingsley as Feste and Helena Bonham Carter as Olivia.

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech - The book is supposed to be the assigned poetry journal of an elementary school student (kids' literature). It is written entirely in poetry and is the unfolding story of a boy and his dog.

Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett - perhaps to the general disapproval of fencers, I do like Terry Pratchett. It really depends on what you pick up, though. He's written a bazillion books about different places and people in Discworld. I prefer Sam Vimes to the witches or the gods, and I don't bother with the wizards. Thief of Time was the first Terry Pratchett book I read, and, perhaps because of that, also my favorite. I was still a romantic then, and it has a cute ending.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - written from the point of view of an autistic boy. It's a good, quick read. Haddon also wrote A Spot of Bother, which I also liked, but less so.

The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg - kids' literature, but I still love it. It's about a sixth grade academic bowl team and their coach/teacher, and how they are awesome.

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut - really strange, but I enjoyed it, for a book I had to read for school. Between the freezing stuff and the foot sex, it's pretty bizarre.

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein - also a children's book. Story of a boy and his tree.

Lamb by Christopher Moore - a Dogma-esque comedy about Christ's forgotten best friend Biff.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - I'm not even going to really bother saying anything about this except that it is British humor, I love it, and stop while you're ahead (at the end of the fourth book).

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine and Beauty by Robin McKinley - both rewrites of fairy tales (Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, respectively), both from that romantic period I was talking about. Ella Enchanted is a juvenile fiction book, but sweet. I can't bring myself to watch the movie version, as much as I love Anne Hathaway.

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand - a play, so not my favorite format, but a really very pretty story. Also, there's fencing in it! There was a movie with Steve Martin in it that is maybe called Roxanne that is loosely based on this play.

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan - imagine David Sedaris is an angsty high schooler. It's not a comedy, it's an angsty high school book, but there are some funny parts, and I liked it.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster - in 2004, I drew a frog character every day, and two of them were King Azaz the Unabridged and the Mathemagician. This is also juvenile fiction, but GREAT juvenile fiction.

Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine - Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine travel around the world looking for I think it is six endangered species. One of them is the kakapo, a bird found only in New Zealand! Not at all like Hitchhiker's Guide, in case that is what you are expecting, but awesome in its own way, especially the part about the condom.

Lizard Music by Daniel Manus Pinkwater - I could remember this only as "the book where they watch TV with their eyes closed" for years until I rediscovered it in the public library. It's a great juvenile fiction book, simple but bizarre and great. Also by the same author, the Hoboken Chicken Emergency, about a giant chicken named Henrietta.

Portuguese Irregular Verbs by Alexander McCall Smith - comedy by the author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Takes place in Europe instead of Africa, a collection of stories about the fictional philologist Professor Doctor Mortiz-Maria von Igelfeld.

The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman - Read all three. The last one is very sad. Darius told me he was unimpressed with the Golden Compass, and I think part of the reason I liked it so much was that I read it when I was right at target age, so maybe read it with a grain of salt.

Persepolis I and II by Marjane Satrapi - autobiographical graphic novel (in two parts) of growing up during the Iranian revolution. The illustration style is almost like woodblock, done in black and white.

On a graphic novel note, I also highly recommend the Asterix books by Goscinny and Uderzo, which follow the adventures of Asterix the Gaul and others in his Gaulish village, and I Killed Adolf Hitler by Jason, which was recommended to me by Jim. Jim can probably tell you more about Jason, and actually probably also more about Asterix, if my bet is correctly placed.

There are a lot more books, especially children's books, but I gather that few of you are going to the Everybody Book section and dig all these out. So, I will leave you with that, and one more children's book, Yo! Yes? by Christopher Raschka, probably one of my all-time favorite books. So yeah, these are just off the top of my head, probably a ton missing. Bye!

BLAME DEVON FOR AWESOMENESS!

So, Devon used his superpowers to bring the photos back! They have been successfully retrieved! Unfortunately, my camera is unable to recognize them and so I cannot transfer them to my computer for your enjoyment until I next see Devon (July), but honestly, I do not mind so much. I am more ecstatic that the Jesse/Jaime/Jemmy/Devon photo was preserved.

Also, he gave me the mussel bowl! You probably do not know what I am talking about unless you are Shalom, and she is traveling right now, but let me just say that it is awesome. It is a ceramic bowl that looks like a mussel shell, and as I told Devon, it is my second favorite piece of pottery he has ever made, the first being the puffin on the puffin hut.

But in other, less awesome news, I appear to have lost my Radium Man notebook. I think perhaps I left it at school... if Ben or Julie happens across a gray notebook (please don't go looking for it, it is a waste of time and not important, but if you happen to see it), let me know. I don't think I'll have to describe it further, as I usually don't go in for gray things and I think it is the only gray notebook I have ever owned (it came in a set).

I found out today that all of my electronics I will be taking with me (camera battery charger and laptop charger) will take up to 240 volts, so I don't even have to get a transformer (although some of you have seen the little McDonald's Ratchet I carry around in my bag). I've been searching around for both the adapter to change the plug style and the transformer to change the voltage, but I guess I only need the adapter!

That's all for now!

Oh, and the pig's name is Uno.

Flood!

Still in Juneau, but thought I would write briefly about how the streets look like rivers. Calling it a flood *is* a bit extreme, since the illusion is created by only an inch or two of water.

What happened is this: we had a foot a day of snow for a week, the city was not down with clearing the snow, and then it all warmed up. Now everything is super slushy and melting, and since there are no level surfaces in downtown Juneau, all the water is rushing, making all the streets look like rivers.

I had photos of everything, but I had a misunderstanding with my camera and computer that resulted in deleting all my photos, including a really stellar one of Devon with Jesse, Jemmy, and Jaime. It actually just happened, and I just finished hyperventilating about it, because the snow was really ridiculously high, the highest I can ever remember it being in my life, and I was so careful to document it, along with the mega icicles that formed outside my kitchen window, and those icicles are so long gone... But it's okay. These things happen. I think that Devon has this superpower to get rid of photos he feels were a lapse in his judgment.

For example: I had this great photo of him with a flower behind his ear, and it was on my phone. Then, my phone was stolen. There's no tack on my stool before he moves, and after he moves, there's a tack! Coincidence? I think not!

Anyway, so, sorry, I had some awesome photos to share with you, but no longer. Blame Devon!

In other news, those of you who have met Blackjack, I have a new friend for him! Ben got me the white pig! Actually, it's quite a bit different from the white pig that was lost to clutches of Angelica, as I think the manufacturers have changed designs since Blackjack was created, but it's still really cute and square and, most importantly, bouncy. That was the first thing I tested, actually...

I haven't decided on its gender. I'm leaning heavily toward male, in which case its name will be either: Cecil or Uno. Uno if I decide to stick with the card games theme and Cecil if not. If it's a girl, I think I'll name it Hannelore after my favorite character in the online comic Questionable Content by Jeph Jacques. Before you're like, Hannelore, what kind of crazy name is that, she goes by Hanners for short, which I think is a pretty cute pig name. Feel free to comment, but I think Uno will emerge victorious.

I lead a boring life, sorry. I figure only Ben is reading at this point, so I can write whatever I feel like until I get to New Zealand. I'm off to make a Shaun the Sheep montage!

Oh, for next time, I may take up a suggestion Sparky gave me, and add some pictures. I'm going to see if I can find my old Radium Man sketches and redraw them for you guys. Maybe add a little commentary, because some of the things are really hilarious except that I can't draw them well enough for it to make sense. Like, the main baddie is Bromine, and he sits in a halogen lamp of evil, which is hahaha because bromine is a halogen, but how in Douglas Adams' name do you draw a halogen lamp such that it is indisputably a halogen lamp? But then maybe having commentary like that is like explaining a joke... kills the joy. Have you ever had to explain the hydrogen joke to somebody? You know, the two atoms walking along and one falls down and loses an electron, and is he sure, and yes, he's positive? It's nerdy, it's a terrible pun, it's short, it's beautiful. And then when you have to explain it to someone, it is a little bit painful, because it really doesn't sound that funny all dissected like that.

Holy long tangent, Batman! Bye for reals now! Check back soon for Radium Man!

Happy New Year

Hey ho,

So, this is my new blog, in preparation for studying abroad in Christchurch, New Zealand. I don't leave Juneau until the 25th of January, and then I don't leave Hawaii until the 9th of February, so it'll be slow and boring until then. Sorry. If you don't like it, then you can just go away.

I used to tell people to go away all the time in elementary school. Once in kindergarten, or possibly first grade (I was in the same room and had the same teacher both years, so the two years blend together pretty effectively), I was playing Monopoly with other kids, and this girl came up and invited herself in and folded the Monopoly money. All of that was okay until we got to the folding of Monopoly money. Monopoly money must stay clean and uncreased! So, I told her to go away, and I got in trouble. Also, there was a corn snake named Corky who was our class pet, and one day, he pooped in the tin of little plastic counting bears.

So. Here it is. I hope that there are interesting things in it later on. Happy 2009!

Lisa