Smile... no, SMILE.

This weekend I decided we should take our annual "Christmas picture" to put in our e-cards to friends and family.  First off, yes, I send e-cards instead of paper cards. I hate spending a lot on postage, so this way I can send it to more people, I can attach multiple pictures, and I also don't feel like I'm adding to the after-Christmas-massive-amounts-of-paper-waste-stream as much.  (Read: I'm a cheapskate.)

Anyway, the pictures.  The dog is apparently afraid of the tri-pod, so I couldn't get him in any of the pictures even by sitting on the floor:

(Also, hello chins?  Plural?)

So I cropped Jake's (worriedomgwhatsthatblinkingthingwithlegs) face out and got a halfway decent one.

And yes, B has a beard.  And yes, that's exactly how it grew in.  There is no hair between the 'stache and the goatee.  It's kind of weird, yet I'm glad because can you imagine if it was all filled in?  Yeesh.  As it is, he's a pretty decent looking mountain man.  Also, note the side-swept bangs that happen to perfectly cover a massive volcanic zit on my temple.  Ta-daa!

Then we got the giggles, trying to take a "scenic overlook" type picture (you know, the ones where you hold the camera at arm's length) but the timer was still on so B's holding the camera out there for a full ten seconds...



...which morphed into this:



....and then we have the Gaping Nostrils of Doom:



....yeah.

Speed Reader

I have a little notebook that I carry in my purse, specifically for making a list of the books I want to check out from the library.  We like to hang out at the big bookstores, a cup of a flavored coffee concoction in one hand an a stack of books and magazines on a table to browse through.  I try not to buy a lot of books anymore - for one, they're expensive, and for another we don't have a lot of space left on the bookshelf (and they're also a pain in the ass to move with).  So I've been giving the Lucas County Library system a lot of love this year.   They usually get the new releases within a couple of weeks, although there have been a couple that I just can't find (Boneshaker for one, which I've heard so many good things about I may just buy it anyway).

Yesterday I finished the first book in the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series, The Lightning Thief.  I remember eyeballing it when I worked in the kid's department at B&N (I know, the kid's department!  I was bribed.) and when I saw the trailer for the movie I decided to give it a try.  There are a lot of great young adult series out there - the obvious being Harry Potter, but I also really like Artemis Fowl and Eragon (don't even bring up Twilight or I'll blow my lid!  Ugh.), and there are classics from when I was young that I still love like The Dark is Rising Sequence, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the Time Quintet.  Like those, this book didn't disappoint.  Yeah, the main character is twelve, but the story is fun and well-written, and made me interested in Greek mythology again.  I can see how it would really pique the interest of a teen and maybe push them to do a little more research into the subject - hell, I had to get on Wikipedia a couple of times myself.  Anyway it was an awesome book, and I have #2 on reserve at the library.

My "to check out" list also includes books that you might say "I can't believe you haven't read that!" about.  For example the Dune Series, Terry Pratchett, and Terry Goodkind - I like good fantasy fiction but I'm not really into sci-fi, so I know I'm probably missing out by not having read any of these.  I've read some Gaiman but not all, so I want to read the rest of his books too.  But when I'm browsing at the bookstore, I write down anything and everything that catches my eye - The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe, the In His Majesty's Service series by Naomi Novik, Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris... it all goes on the list and gets requested from the library at some point.  Right now the Garth Stein is on reserve along with the second Percy Jackson.

What's on your 'to-read' list?

(And for the sake of transparency, yes, most of the links above are to the B&N website - I like their search function and their synopsis the best, but I'm not saying you have to buy from them!)

A couple more articles

Thanks to @ScottWGraves for posting the links to these articles...

Understanding Climategate's Hidden Decline

Climategate reveals 'the most influential tree in the world'

The science behind the controversy basically shows that the "hockey stick graph" created by Michael Mann was truly created - the data they used to estimate atmospheric temperatures pre-dating modern diagnostic equipment was essentially hand-picked in order to show the image of global warming that they wanted to show.  The tree article above does a good job of explaining it in simple terms; the first article above is a little more scientific in nature.

I don't want to spend too much time on a soapbox, so I'll sum up:  while climate change is a real thing, it's a natural cycle of the planet.  The world is not going to end in a big flaming ball of doom and destruction because of it.  The 'solutions' that everybody and their dog have come up with are good solutions... to other, more pressing problems. The media is good at making a mountain out of a molehill, and ignoring the news that doesn't support their agenda.

All the news that's fit to report... er...

So has anyone else been hearing about Climategate?

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.4101412&w=425&h=350&fv=autoPlay%3Dfalse]

more about "Daily Show: Scientists Hide Global Wa...", posted with vodpod

Basically it boils down to this: Al Gore is a marketing genius, but otherwise a damn fraud.  All the "science" and "data" pointing to anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change has been a bunch of bullshit all along.  Thank god for whistleblowers.

As for media coverage... wait, what media coverage??  Oh yeah, they're all tied up with Tiger Woods.  Comedy Central Scoops Network News on Climate-Gate Scandal

Here's the background:  Climate sceptics claim leaked emails are evidence of collusion among scientists

[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/7945623]

Over 31,000 scientists have signed a petition agreeing that "There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing, or will in the foreseeable future cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate."

And where's Gore?  Climategate goes uber-viral, Gore flees leaving evil henchmen to defend crumbling citadel

RTT: Minimalist

So a while back I entered one of the bazillion blog contests out there - the leave-a-random-comment-and-we'll-draw-your-number kind of thing - through BlogHer.  Mona's post about her fart-iferous household made me bust up, and I didn't even pay attention to what the prize was, I just wanted to share a laugh.

So about a week ago I'm sorting through a boatload of junk email that I hadn't bothered looking at (until I realized that my comment notifications from this blog were being filtered there.  Whoops.).  Lo and behold, I come across an email from someone at BlogHer, saying essentially that, out of the kindness of their hearts, they'd been holding on to the prize I'd won until they heard back from me.  Holy cannoli!  I won something!

How fitting, that a post about farts would win me a box full of Febreeze!  So thanks Kirida & BlogHer, for a very fun and sniffy little prize!

***

Why didn't anybody tell me about Angel sooner?

Hello.

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We put up our tree the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Earlier than we usually do, but I'm glad we got it done.  Christmas decorations make it feel so cozy.

I'll add better pictures later.  I'm too lazy trying to think of other things to talk about.

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Thanksgiving dinner was a success, although the raspberry jalapeno chutney was a little too zingy I think.  The Christmas Potluck is coming up at the office, and I signed up to bring a cake.  Not my usual fare at Christmas, so I'll have to find something creative.  Chocolate zucchini maybe?  Or pumpkin?

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Yeah, my creative juices are sapped today.  Sorry folks.