Friday, February 27, 2009

These things scare the crap out of me

And not because I have a gut reaction to invertebrates (although I do). Octopi scare me because they're apparently very smart, and have a twisted sense of humor... which somehow equates them to "demons" of some sort in my mind...

First, there was Otto, who got bored at his aquarium in Germany and decided to climb out of his aquarium enough to short circuit the lights and require someone to come in the room to fix it for him.

Now, apparently an octopus in California flooded her aquarium by opening a valve.

Smart and sneaky, these things can open bottles and kill a shark!

I think they caused the financial meltdown, personally.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Lack of Updates

I think I've had a few of those titles as my life takes over the rest of ... my life.

So, a new update, and back in the original spirit of my blog, pointing out some of the silliness of the world I see around me.

I just finished reading Neil Gaiman's new Graveyard Book, which apparently won a Newberry Award for Children's Literature. Now, Neil Gaiman is an excellent storyteller, and he certainly deserves an award or two. However, irony #1: Nail Gaiman is a British author who moved to the States, then wrote a book about a boy in Britain which won an American-only award.

Now, again, this was an award for Children's Literature. I'm going to exercise my academic super-powers here and quote the first line (!) of the book: "There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." Now, in case you think that's not too bad, the remainder of the first chapter goes on to discuss how Jack, the man dressed all in black carrying the knife, killed the mother, father, and brother with it, and was stalking the little boy in his crib.

Second, this was likely Gaiman's worst book I've read. This is not to say it's a bad book. It's a good book (not a Children's Book, but a good book), but has all the complexity of American Gods with about half the length. Coraline was much better (although again, not really for children). I just have to figure this is more like one of those Oscars given for a body of work rather than an actual film performance.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Done

So, if anyone knows what happens between submission and defense, I would love to hear some advice...