Listened to 15 minutes of Kathy Griffin’s new book while cooking lunch. Wonder how many pages that equals?

On page 110 of Unshapely Things. That’s 77 pages so far. I’m really enjoying the book. He’s developing a unique system of magic within the structure of familiar druids, fairies, elves and dwarfs. Connor is a good lead, grouchy injured Druid with issues, but trying to help solve the case and prevent more murders.

Today I love…

1. Simultaneously chatting with B, AA, DH and PR and catching up on all of their lives

2. Catching up on the latest season of Grey’s Anatomy with Ma

3. Finally having time to read “The Trickster’s Choice” that RH had autographed by Tamora Pierce for me

I’ve read 35 pages of Unshapely Things, rebooted my router, started on my 2nd cup of coffee (decaf) and played with the dogs a little. It’s hard to resist checking Twitter, email or Goodreads with the computer open, but I’m doing my best to resist.

I’m very happy to report that the new nook reader is VERY comfortable to hold. Either hand is fine with a relaxed grip. My hands and shoulder are already thanking me for this great gift.

Officially starting the Christmas Readathon with Michelle/PerpetualSpiral and Twitter and Goodreads friends. I’m starting out with Mark Del Franco’s Unshapely Things on page 33, or as close as I can guess reading an ebook. I’ll be calculating by percentages, converting from pages on the nook to pages as listed in Goodreads. Should be pretty darn accurate.

One additional on-topic inspiration was an impulse buy of hazelnut creamer yesterday. I’ve been craving hazelnut coffee ever since reading Keri Arthur’s last Riley book a few weeks ago. Riley is addicted to hazelnut coffee, so it seemed an appropriate treat for our fantasy/imagination readathon.

Looking forward to a fun day.

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写这篇文章的动机主要是因为阅读了一篇相关的文章，想到了算法与现实生活中的一些问题。

加密算法使用两个不同的密钥：加密密钥和解密密钥，前者公开，后者保密，用私钥加密的信息，可以用公钥对其解密，接收者由此可知这条信息确实来自于拥有私钥的人。
如果是这种说法，我认为文中的说法有问题，以RSA为例，那么就是发布人民币的机构用RSA中的公钥对人民币进行加密，这个公钥变成保密的了，而人民大众每人应该都有一个RSA中的私钥，来验证人民币的真伪。而文中对公钥和私钥的说法和RSA中的不太一样。

在现实生活中，非对称的加密算法的用处往往要比对称加密要多的多。

The book we're reading together!

Hello everyone!
Merry Christmas Eve! I hope that you all are really enjoying relaxing and spending time with your loved ones!

WELCOME to the new blog for New Church Berkeley, College Life! My apologies for the late start on the blog; I know it’s been 5 days since the semester ended, and all of you are eager to start reading and discussing our selection for the book club! If you don’t already know, the text for our winter break online book club is The Reason for God by the eloquent Timothy Keller! If you haven’t already procured for yourself a copy, you can borrow one for free at your local library, order a really cheap used one from Amazon, or get yourself a shiny new copy from any bookstore.

We’re praying that reading and discussing this book together will help us learn together, grow in Christ, and become better encouragers of each other (and it will help keep us in touch over the winter break, too). So create yourself a WordPress account, and get ready to publish your own thoughts in our discussion to this very blog! Below you will find a reading schedule based on the four weeks of break! Soon, the administrators will be posting several prompts to get your neural synapses and your heartstrings going. Feel free to pose any questions for discussion in your own blog posts as well! Alright, hope you guys are excited to share as we dig into this book!

Online Book Club Reading Schedule
Week 1: Dec. 19-26, 2009
Chapters 1-4 (Pages 3-67), and the Introduction if you like!

Week 2: Dec. 27, 2009-Jan. 2, 2010
Ch. 4-7 (Pgs 68-123)

Week 3: Jan 3-9, 2010
Ch. 8-11 (Pgs 127-185)

Week 4: Jan 10-16, 2010
Ch. 12-Epilogue (Pgs 186-240)

i’m working on making a schedule for myself so that i have things to accomplish each day until i go back to school. i think it will make me have less time to cry. my family fights too much and it fucks me up and whenever we do get along i spend the whole time anticipating the next fight.

this was going to be a happy nothings post.

happy nothings:

tumblr is fucking addictive.

i’m rediscovering my love for afterellen and paying attention to my lesbian half.

i read 200 pages today. score. gothic novels are fucking weird and hilarious.

I’ve to find-

1. A picture of Dorian Gray
2. Kim
3. More Terry Prachett
4. More of Jeeves

To keep me happy.

Something to look forward to- my long vacation.

A Merry Gangsta Christmas

Smosh goes Christmas Carolling and makes me laugh.

Taking some time off , I’ll be back after Christmas!

Linda Randall
Idea Girl Consulting

P.S.
Taking some time to read some good books.

frigid snowman cartoon the idea girl says

Today’s question: Given the choice, which do you prefer? Real history? Or historical fiction? (Assume, for the purposes of this discussion that they are equally well-written and engaging.)

I tend to read more historical fiction than history because the latter is usually a companion to travel and vacation. When I went to Angkor Wat in Cambodia back in 2004, Charles Higham’s Civilization of Angkor, which draws on the latest research on prehistoric archaeology, epigraphy, and art history to reconstruct a detailed chronicle of a remarkable civilization, accompanied my visiting of the ruins and gave a better understanding of architectural style quintessential of and the temples erected during the fourth phase (800-1400 AD) of Angkor civilization. Three years later, on my trip to Malaysia and parts of Thailand and Burma, W. Somerset Maugham’s The Gentleman in the Palour almost never left my hands as I followed Maugham’s travel and saw what he saw. He imparts to these remains a new life with an eloquence that is made possible from an idle curiosity and observative minuteness. Maugham’s account is a hybrid of travel narrative and history, dissecting the lives of the natives without a polarized vision. Back home I peruse historical fiction that will take me over time’s interval. I am interested not only in historical fiction but also particular historical periods. Edwardian literature and literature around 1940s always capture my attention.

We are a Christmas Eve family. Always have been. Sure, Santa may leave a few presents for the kids to open Christmas morning, but the main family time and gift exchange is Christmas Eve.

From my various dear family members I have received an exceptionally generous array of books for Christmas this year.

They are:

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes
The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon
The Best American Science Writing, 2009; Natalie Angier, editor, Jesse Cohen, series editor
The Best American Essays, 2009; Mary Oliver, editor, Robert Atwan, series editor
The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner
The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman
Asian Dumplings by Andrea Nguyen

Wow, I need to get started reading.




Merry Christmas.

Peace to you and your families. Peace to the poor, hungry and dispossessed. Peace to those for whom subsistence is difficult and uncertain. May our thankfulness for our abundance spur our conscience to make us act, personally and corporately, to help those less fortunate.

May we all learn to show each other grace and forgiveness; may we thank each other and express our admiration more often; may we acknowledge our own fallibility and see the humanity of our enemies; and may we expand our minds to understand the wonders of this life and the eternal mystery of God, our Father.

Noël.

________________________________________________________________________________

Merry Christmas everyone! hope you have a great day and spend time with your family alot more than playing games (Go and speak to your family know if you are reading this alone.)  Also I have made it that snow falls on this blog (Even though snow doesnt fall in Australia) it ads to the overall christmas cheer that I wish to share with you. Merry Christmas!

~~SICK Az Games~~

________________________________________________________________________________

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Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden 5*

Arthur Golden perfectly captures the voice of his narrator, an especially famous Geisha from the first half of the 20th century.  This is a life story and a love story that left me breathless.

The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr 3.5*

A girl growing up in East Texas during the mid 20th century comes to an understanding about her mother’s mental illness in this well written, beautifully detailed book. Unfortunately, one horrifically detailed scene of a child rape ruined what could have been a very good book for me.

The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way by Joy Hakim 4.5*  A history of science and some math, beginning with the earliest cultures through the Dark Ages with a heavy emphasis on the Greeks.  I picked this one out because I loved Bill Bryson’s “Short History of Nearly Everything” and I thought this would be a similar thing for kids.  It is written like a textbook for middle-schoolers.  My quick preview told me that Andrew is almost ready for it, but in a couple years it will be even better for him.  Much of the science will make more sense once you’ve had some basic geometry.  My interest, however was piqued, so I read it for myself.  She gives a good narrative of how we got from one point to another in scientific knowledge.  This is book one of three.

In the Shadow of the Ark by Ann Proovost 4.5*

Re Jana is a dark skinned young woman from the marsh settlements who comes to the desert to escape the rising water with her father and paralyzed mother. Here they find the Rrattika, the nomadic tribe of Noah. He is an old man with three sons who oversees the construction of the biblical ark. At first the reason for its building is a mystery. Re Jana’s father is an expert boat builder, so the family finds a place in the community. Re Jana falls in love with Noah’s Ham, and while he loves her, he marries another woman. Re Jana and her family try to find a way to save themselves.

The style of the writing feels like the way Moses would have written if he had almost 400 pages for one story. Emotional descriptions and moralizing aren’t necessarily done in a modern style, but events are told in a plain,  practical way that led me to experience all the sensations without being told how to do it.

Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon 3.5*

I’ve fallen in love with the characters and the story in the Outlander series, which is why I read this book.  I wish I loved it wholeheartedly.  I wanted to so badly.  There were too many story lines for one book, and not one of them came to any sort of conclusion.  Apparently there is going to be another book in the series. I still like it enough to want to read the next book.  I just sincerely hope it’s the last one.

Half Assed by Jeanette Fulda 4*

Jennette’s story of what life was like for her losing weight.  She doesn’t talk about the specifics of how she lost weight, but about what changes she went through.  I loved her honesty in admitting thoughts she had that most of us would prefer to pretend we’re too mature for like how she would check out other women and compare herself to their levels of fatness. The book reads like a conversation with a close friend.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson 4*

This book is presented as a story of Ruby Lennox’s in the first person, but each chapter is followed by a footnote chapter that explains the parts of Ruby’s past that she cannot know herself. It’s hard little hard to follow all the names and back stories, but I’m glad I persevered because the ending is satisfying.

Four generations of women whose decisions and attitudes have more of an impact than anyone would ever realize their own and each other’s lives. This story is tragic with all the secrecy, death and abandonment. Eventually everyone is connected together by symbolic objects like the rabbit’s foot, the photographs, and the silver locket.

President Obama reads from The Polar Express and talks about the meaning of Christmas as he delivers cookies to a Boys and Girls Club in Washington, DC. December 21, 2009. (Public Domain)

Audio book for
celeb memoir? No need. Hear
her voice in my head.

So far I can think of two fairly good reasons.

Firstly, when we read some well-crafted lines that reach so far inside us that it’s as if they were part of us all along and were merely waiting for us to notice them… It’s then that we are inspired to have a go at such beauty ourselves.  And it doesn’t even matter if it’s for the hundredth time that we have such an urge.  That’s what ART is for: to move us (and move us as many times as we need moving!) from one place of being / understanding to another.  And why it is so important to have it in our lives, whether it is Literature, (ahem) Quiltmaking (!) or Music.

Here are the opening lines of two novels that inspire me to get out of the doldrums and take another stab at writing.

1.  When the rooster crowed, the moon had still not left the world but was going down on flushed cheek, one day short of the full. A long thin cloud crossed it slowly, drawing itself out like a name being called.  The air changed, as if a mile or so away a wooden door had swung open, and a smell, more of warmth than wet, from a river at low stage, moved upward into the clay hills that stood in darkness.  Then a house appeared on its ridge, like an man’s silver watch pulled once more out of its pocket.  A dog leaped up from where he’d lain like a stone andb egan barking for today as if he meant never to stop. — Eudora Welty, LOSING BATTLES

2. An evening mist, salted by the western sea, was gathering on the low hills — reed-spattered rises running up from the rocks then back into the gorse- and bracken-covered country — and on to the roads that joined the villages, where lamps and candles flickered behind the shutter of the gray stone houses.  It was poor country — so poor, remarked the Cure´, who had recently arrived from Angers, that the stones of the shore called out for God’s mercy.  With the mist came sputtering rain, made invisible by the extinguished light, as it exploded like flung gravel at the windows, while stronger gusts made the shivering pine trees shed their needles on the dark, sanded earth.   Jacques Rebiere listened to the sounds from outside as he looked through the window of his bedroom; for a moment, a dim moon allowed him to see clouds foaming in the darkness. The weather reminded him, often, that it was not just he, at sixteen years old, who was young, but all mankind: a species that took infant steps on the drifts and faults of the earth. — Sebastian Faulks, HUMAN TRACES

Secondly I think it’s because writing is like rowing a canoe. Sometimes heavy winds push you backwards and sometimes, when you’re not paying attention, you get stuck in the reeds or crash right into the bank.

But if you don’t want to spend your whole life stuck, you have to figure out how to back up, unwrap the reeds, empty out the sand, mend the oar, or whatever is needful, so that you can eventually arrive at your destination.

And so we start writing again because IT IS DEPRESSING AS ALL GET OUT NOT TO BE.