Posted by Adrienne on June 30, 2008 under Books | 
Book number 42 was a quick and very enjoyable read that wins the “Best Title of the Year” award, even though we’re only halfway through the year. What’s the book called? Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians. Yeah, isn’t that totally awesome? It makes me laugh every time. And I’m not making it up, as you can see if you click here.
So the story is this: Alcatraz* Smedry is a 13-year-old boy with an amazing talent for breaking things (like, he touches something, and without him meaning for it to, the thing breaks into pieces), who has just received a bag of sand for his birthday and been kicked out of his foster-parents’ home after burning the kitchen and making a large hole in the wall. Oh, and he found out that the world is run by a cadre of Evil Librarians who control all of the information, which gives them frightening amounts of power. These same Evil Librarians are also the sworn enemies of the Smedrys.
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Posted by Adrienne on under Doodles |
I don’t understand how most machines work, but that won’t stop me from drawing machinery parts!
I particularly like the way the brake-lever turned out. The gear is a little lopsided, but that’s to be expected when you’re trying to make free-hand circles. Someday, I want a machine that has a bunch of little switches in a row, so that I can flick them all in sequence and start the machine up. And luckily, the needle on the gauge is pointing far away from the danger zone on the far right, so nothing should explode any time soon.
Posted by Adrienne on June 26, 2008 under Books |
Book number 41 was a real page-turner; I read it in one sitting, from 11 PM to 3 AM. Hosts, by F. Paul Wilson is part of the Repairman Jack series, starring a guy named Jack who is part vigilante and part detective. Jack’s sister calls him for help regarding a friend who has had a complete personality change after undergoing an experimental treatment for brain cancer.
Parts of this book seemed completely ripped off from an X-Files episode, but Wilson was able to keep things fairly interesting. I wonder how well this book will age, though – it contained a lot of allusions to current events/popular things, so it may seem pretty dated in ten years. It’s not a book I’d buy, but if I see any more Repairman Jack novels at a local library, I may pick one up.
Posted by Josh on June 25, 2008 under Photos |
The subject of this week’s photo is not particularly interesting, but I remember it was a bit of a challenge to get the picture to turn out just right.
I like my camera. It’s going on 4 years old now, but there are a lot of things it can do well, and only recently have I really begun to try using some of the manual features. I’m afraid I don’t know the actual terminology very well, but it was very handy to increase the exposure time for some night-time shooting from the top of the Empire State Building.
I like the light reflecting off the water. But I am most impressed by the clarity of the lights at a distance of about 1.4 miles (as measured using Google Earth). I was kicking myself that I had not brought my tripod, because that would have made it a lot easier to avoid blurry pictures with the longer exposure. I managed to get by just setting the camera on the ledge beyond the fence but I would have had much more freedom in shooting angles with the tripod. So, now whenever we take the camera anywhere, Adrienne helps me remember to take the tripod.
Posted by Adrienne on under Books |
The fortieth book for my book count is one of those alternate histories that I’ve previously confessed enjoying. Many books in this category concern wars, such as the First or Second World War, and this one does too. However, the war in this book is completely fictitious. In Robert Conroy’s 1901, Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II has the world’s strongest army, a navy second only to Great Britain, and very few overseas colonies. Because of all of these things, the Kaiser decides that Germany must go to war to acquire some valuable territory, and the best country to attack is the upstart United States, who have just won Cuba, the Philippines and Puerto Rico in a war with Spain.
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