Finished Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl.
This book is a mix of two of my recent favorite genres--paranormal YA and gothic fiction.
It's set in the south, a town called Gatlin. (There are not corn children and He Who Walks Behind the Rows does not appear.)
Ethan has been having a lot of weird dreams lately--he's trying to save a girl he loves (who he has only seen in these dreams) and failing. When he wakes up, there's generally a ton of dirt in his bed.
A new girl shows up on the first day of his sophomore year and it's the girl from his dreams. And things get weirder from there.
Such a fantastic book.
Originally published at sixhours.net. You can comment here or there.
It's hard to believe she's almost a year old. I've said it so many times over the last few weeks, but it's true. The squirming little bundle we brought home from the hospital is now a spirited almost-toddler on a mission (we've yet to pin down exactly what that mission is, but from what I can tell it has something to do with stealing the TV remote and eating cat food... babies are strange creatures).
It's amazing how much our lives have changed, but despite the magnitude of this difference, it's not something I can easily put into words. We still go to work, come home, eat, sleep, and we have the added task of baby care--it's the same old life, with more responsibilities. If anything, it's more mundane than it used to be, but somehow the simpler things are more fulfilling. Watching Ellie grow into her personality, seeing her try new things--it's an unmatched thrill. And this is only the beginning!
Just look at that face. All the remote-stealing and cat-food-eating in the world couldn't make her less perfect to me.
Up was just named one of AFI's 10 best of the year. (In case you're curious, the others are Coraline, The Hangover, The Hurt Locker, The Messenger, Precious, A Serious Man, A Single Man, Sugar and Up in the Air.)
I just watched Up a few days ago, so I'm counting it as one seen. :)
It's the latest Pixar offering, so not surprisingly, it's really good.
From the time he was a child, Carl has wanted to be an explorer like his hero, Charles Muntz. That's how he met the girl who would become his wife, Ellie. They never ended up going anywhere, though. After she dies, he decides he's going to go on an adventure, the one he should have taken with her. Except there's a stowaway (Russell, the little boy on the cover) and things continue to not go as planned.
This is a really cute movie, and I liked it. (But why are you so bloodthirsty, Disney/Pixar? Why do you always kill people?)
Finished The Lightkeeper's Daughter by Colleen Coble for Thomas Nelson.
Addie learns (as an adult) that her parents aren't actually her parents. Instead, she's the daughter of Henry Eaton (beyond wealthy man) and has been presumed dead for 23 years. She wants to get to know her family, but won't say who she is without more proof (all she has is a locket that belonged to her biological grandmother). So she decides to become a governess to her nephew (by marriage).
Her nephew's father turns out to be quite the good looking widower and sparks fly pretty much immediately. (Again, they're not related, John was married to Addie's half-sister.)
It's an entertaining book, but I had two problems. The first was that John and Addie fell in love pretty much instantly, which I didn't think was all that realistic. And the second is that Addie is perfect. Like Beth in Little Women, perfect.
Still, a fun book and especially appropriate to read at Christmas. There are also a lot of twists and turns (some I did see coming and some I didn't).
I bought this pair of shoes ages ago to use as props for photos and I've never done anything with them. Today, I took them outside for their first photo shoot.
Because they are black and shinny...not I didn't polish the
m...I set my exposure down from 1/2 to 2 steps depending on background of the photo. I used my 28 - 105 mm lens, ISO 100, F stop from 3.5 to 4.5, WB set at sunny, focus on one-shot.
The shoes and I had some fun today and I learned a lot about backgrounds and lighting.
Boy it has been ages since I've done a real post and not just a Photo Quest Post. Last Sunday, hubby and I took a drive south to Tumacacori to see the Dancing Horses. I had spoke with Dan Gerate during the week about writing a letter of sponsorship for our project to have the Colonial Spanish Horse named as the state horse of Arizona. Dan told me about the Tumacacori Festival and the Dancing Horse that would be preforming. Well I was hooked.
The festivities were to begin at 10:00 am and if we wanted a good parking place we should arrive early...like 8:00 am. Hmm lets see it is about 1:30 drive to get their by 8:00 am. I did the math and didn't like the results...second plan. The horses were to preform at 2:00 pm now you are talking! Second plan, leave around 12:00 pm ask the universe for an awesome parking place right at the front of the church..us oldsters don't need to walk that far...OK, OK well I was packing camera and equipment.
We leave our place around 12:00 and picked up coffee for Don on the way out. As we leave, I restate my request for a close parking space...would be a shame to drive all that way and not be able to get a parking place. The drive was uneventful...my favorite kind of ride. We turn off the freeway and start down the road to the mission...there are cars everywhere...parked on the side of the road parked in places that sure looked illegal! Hubby says he has an idea of were we can park...I peep up wait "I requested a parking place up front let's just pull into the parking lot in front of the church." He take a right into the parking lot and there right in front is a parking place..in fact there were two so we had a choice!
Weather was cool and a little breeze but we had dressed right and could manage fine. First stop was to take a photo of the church's white dome. This mission isn't in great shape and was never finished as the church ran out of funds. I had some issues with this photo as the sky wasn't all that blue...storm coming in and everything in the old church is crocked! Hard to make it straight...when I got the building straight the dome wasn't. I settled for a straight cross.
Next we took the path to the Festival Grounds just north of the church. Oh boy, oh boy I spied a Harris Hawk on a girls hand! Now that was worth a few photos right? I took a bunch of photos. The hawk was very photogenic but the backgrounds weren't that good. Lighting was OK and there was a light breeze so he kept his wings out as if to fly away. This hawk was around 3 years old and had been injured as a youngster and couldn't fly.
I like the focused look of his eyes.
We got to see a cute group of children dancers. In this dance they all had canes and were acting like old people. They were a hoot and we all got a good laugh!
Next we were entertained by a wonderful Mexican Band. I got a few photos but some were misses as I didn't get all their feet in the photo...lesson learned yet again...check your composition dummy!
I ran into Don Garete and he said the horses were coming in about 15 minutes...we dash around the grounds to find some lunch. We settled on a both run by some lovely Indian ladies and had a great fast lunch.
I saw the horses coming down the path and ran over to take some photos. I couldn't get close enough to them for a good shot before they took a left turn off the path. Not to be denied a photo, I circled way left and went down to the clearing that they were using for a warm up area. I got off a few shots before the nice park ranger told me to leave.
After what seemed like an hour they finally called the horse to preform their dance to the music of a Mexican Band. What a wonderful treat! I'd never seen anything like this before. The horses were so well trained and beautifully groomed. The performers tack and outfits were beautiful. It was a big WOW. I was right along the outside of the ring and could get up close for good shoots. I used my 28 - 105 mm lens, polarizer lens, shot mostly 400 ISO, took exposure down a 1/2 step as it was cloudy, played around with the f stop from 4 to 8 and had a ball.
I took hundreds of photos and it was so much fun being so close to these wonderful horses. Finally the show was over and we walked back through the Mission grounds and I took one last photo of the Mission dome. It was another attempt to keep the photo straight that I'm not sure really works...old buildings!
Oh here is one last photo that says it all...we had a great day and it was worth the drive:
So I’ve reached a point where maybe I need to make a social guide book to what men are looking for and how men translate every bit of information you put on your profile or how you represent yourself. I am going to keep these short, sweet and in bullet format so that I will not lose focus to the main objective.
Photos – A few simple rules to how “guys” see your photos.
1. The Shoulder Pad - If all of your photos are from the shoulders up, guess what? You’re fat and you don’t want anyone else to know it. Ever see a guy’s profile that is all above shoulder photos? NO! I’ll tell you why, because we don’t care if we are fat and we damn sure are not going to try and sell you on being skinny. That’s false advertisement. 10% of guys will either fall for this or are just into fat chicks.
2. The Skyward HOOOO - Above shoulder photos plus downward looking chest shot. This photo op shows you have a mild imaginative ability to again trick people into not seeing you are fat. Now you are trying to sell the sizzle and not the steak. About 25% of guys will fall for this.
3. The “Tattoo” FUBAR - Ok so if the photographed has met either one or both of the above photogenic requirements the icing on the cake always comes in the form of a new, ingenious and horrific display of tattoo work on said body. This again translates to not only “Whoa momma” but to “Why would someone do that when they are fat.” About the same 25% of guys will fall into this trap too.
Content – Yes guys do sometimes get to the content aspect of these things… It allows us to weed out the following.
1. It’s a vagina, not a clown car – First and foremost you can sometimes spot this one from the photos of her and what seems to be 4-5 different children. But if she is evasive in her photo work then you have to read the profile. Usually it starts off with “I’ve got a 7 year old and a 3 year old… (Two lines later)… I’ve also recently had a 10 month old baby as well. But if you are ok with kids and want a relationship I’m game.” Sometimes ladies, less is really more. If you want to sucker, er… attract a man on a dating profile do not make it a slide show of your children or of your bad bar epilogues over the last 15 years. This leads me to a sub category I would like to post on here:
Postpartum Penetration? - Ok If you have had a kid in less than 5 months, seriously take a break. Do not seek out a new relationship on the internet and focus on your kid. If you put on your profile “I recently had a child in the last 5 months or less,” I’m calling social services before I call you.
Activities – “SEX” - Ok if statement 1 or 2 occurs and under activities you put “SEX” hey yeah, we get it. Maybe you should put “UNPROTECTED SEX” instead? I could rant for days on this but will not.
2. Who is up for a bun in the oven? – This one usually goes hand in hand with 1 as well. But you always find it tucked away in the middle of a paragraph about how they love all kinds of music, hip-hop, pop, I am pregnant and due in 3 months, country, metal but I do not like techno. See how easy it is? Some of you may have to read this paragraph a few times to figure out what I mean.
3. I’m not high maintenance (but really I am) - This one takes a bit of cross referencing and understanding of conceptual reading. Usually this goes hand-in-hand with the too good to be true profile as well. They’ve got good to amazing photos and the profile seems pretty normal. Until you reach that sections that talk about a first date. “Well I’m pretty low key, I like movies and dinner but I think a first date should be at a concert, professional sporting event and/or 5 star restaurants.” WHOA! Hold the damn phone there a sweet minute did she just list off three major logistical and monetary events there? For someone that listed movies, music, coffee and hanging out you all of a sudden want a trip to the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota for a first date. Back up speed racer and let’s have a cup of Joe and see if you’re even worth dishing out the 300+ bucks for Vikings tickets.
4. I’m looking for a millionaire with a platinum cock – This one is the edgy, somewhat scorned but gorgeous profile. I’ve only ran into this one twice and they are very often hard to find. You will see it tucked away in little phrases like “I want a man to take me out and take care of me,” or “I like gifts, exciting places & fancy cars.” You will be able to tell these one’s pretty easy by the photos as well. Usually they coincide with photos of them on yachts, a fancy dine in or the overbearing presentation of gotti fashion label sporting in their photos.
5. You, Me & Jesus - Have you ever wanted to be saved by someone’s lord and savior Jesus Christ? In fact if you date me I will give you the body of Christ and my phone number. Honestly how does this person function at all on this? Sending an e-mail/message to a potential date about your faith in Christ our lord and how it brought you to me… No jackass your laptop, service provider and internet explorer brought your crazy ass to me. Now Bill Gates please CTRL + ALT + DEL her ass out of here.
6. The E-Queen Bee – Hey have you ever wondered what it would be like to date Lil’ Kim? Well with this one you don’t have to wonder any longer. This one likes to throw grammar, punctuation, vowels, numbers and common sense to the wayside and instead say fuk da hatas! I c som o’ u may nt b knwn wht I am tlkn abt. This figurative rape of the English language usually comes with a photo with “the dubs up” or the “ghetto bootay.” If you do not appreciate this profile you are a “hatah” and will be sent to a place called “hatasville.” Which if I am correct is somewhere near Gary, Indiana.
The overall compilation of this is to just allow people to understand that obviously if you are on a internet dating site and you want to present yourself as a potential viable date for a normal human being avoid these pitfalls. Think about it this way; if you couldn’t show it to a friend without being embarrassed don’t put it on there. If it makes you sound like a stuck up, gold digging bitch well then guess what? You’re probably coming off like a stuck up, gold digging bitch. I know for the E-Queen Bee and some of the Shoulder Pad crew they surround themselves with like minded folk so there is no point in trying to convert the psychotic few. Another thing to look at is spell check people! Thank your E-Harmony Jesus spell check is free because some of you need it!
This is my photo of the day on facebook:
Such a sweet, feisty pug. She's over 10 years old. Somehow, I don't think she'll go quietly into the night when her time comes. Somehow I sense this....
There's always something blooming in Flickr's garden, regardless of the season.
So basically ever since I reached the 250 (books read this year) milestone, I haven't read anything longer than Vanity Fair's article on Meryl Streep. (Really good, incidentally; I love her.)
I've read the first chapter of Churched by Matthew Paul Turner, and I can tell I'm going to love that book once my brain starts working again. I've also read the first chapter of The Angel's Game (thank you again, Rob!) and same thing. I'm going to love it. But right now? Now I don't want to read anything. (This may even include the ARC of the new Joe Hill novel, which I am really looking forward to. But it hasn't come yet, so there's no way to know for sure.)
So probably this weekend will be an exercise in not reading (except for People and Entertainment Weekly). I need to do laundry and I'm definitely watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I'm also planning on getting Julie & Julia and Up from OnDemand.
I'm also trying to remember that I've read a ton of books this year (101 more than last year!) and so even if I don't read any more books for the rest of the year, I've more than done my part.
(And then I think, "Not read for the rest of the year?!")
