Saturday, May 27, 2006

Book: After the Fire

Book Cover: After the Fire Review: 3 stars Annotations made this worthwhile for me

I’m not a big reader of poetry. I wrote poetry when I was younger and I appreciate it’s value, but I don’t read it myself. I think I’m too impatient to really absorb it. I’m pretty intelligent and thoughtful, but I don’t seem to like to challenge myself in my free time. I mean, I enjoy fairly easy books and escapist movies. But, to each her own.

Anyway, I enjoyed this short annotated book of petry, mostly because of the annotations. I’ve read most, if not all, of J.A. Jance’s mysteries so it was interesting to read this personal account of her life. This seems like it would be a particularly meaningful book to read for anyone struggling with an alcoholic, particularly an alcoholic spouse.

Netflix logo Tonight I signed up for Netflix again after a long hiatus in my membership. In general I don't like Netflix (for me) because I watch movies in binges, I get into specific moods about what I feel like watching at a given time, and there are lots of movies I want to watch in theory but never really feel like watching. When I had a membership before this led to movies sitting for weeks because I didn't feel like watching them but didn't want to send them back because in theory I wanted to see them. But, all the shows I like just had their season finales and I am without much to watch on my Tivo. Perhaps I will find outdoor activities to do instead, which would be good for my waistline, my mood, and my repetitive stress injury (RSI). But, I'm gonna give it a try anyway. I'm sure we'll at least watch some on our vacation in a few weeks and I'm not outdoors yet... :-)

Friday, May 26, 2006

Movie: The Da Vinci Code

Movie poster: The Da Vinci Code Review: 3 stars Good story, though it may not withstand scrutiny

Tonight Benjamin and I went to see The Da Vinci Code with Benjamin’s parents at The Majestic Bay theater in Ballard (love that theater!). I haven’t read the book, so my opinions don’t include a comparison to the original.

I enjoyed the movie. It didn’t feel too long and it felt pretty well acted and put together. Certainly you can drill holes in the story if you want to, but that just doesn’t bug me all that much. I guess I’m a pretty easy movie critic. Benjamin and his parents thought the movie was pretty mediocre, but what I heard of their criticisms of the logic didn’t impress me that much.

(POSSIBLE SPOILER) On the other hand, the lack of any of Jesus’ DNA with which to compare the alleged heir’s seemed like a critical flaw. Who cares if they could prove she was related to Mary Magdalene? If everyone believes that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute then why would they think that Jesus was the father of her child? Anyway, I still thought it was an entertaining movie. I’m in favor of suspending one’s disbelief for fiction so it worked fine for me. :-)

Movie: Million Dollar Baby

Million Dollar Baby Review: 4 stars Well done, sad ending

I recorded this to Tivo from HBO several months ago. Last night I finally watched it. It's a great film, very well made and well acted. I was surprised when I realized that Clint Eastwood directed it.

(POSSIBLE SPOILER) It's very worth watching, but does have a sad ending. It also shows a pretty bleak picture of being a quadrapalegic, but perhaps for someone as physical as Hilary Swank's character it makes sense. In contrast, I know a quad who is a happy, successful person despite his limitations. I hope people won't jump to the conclusion that all quads have nothing to live for and want to end their lives.

Movie: Must Love Dogs

DVD case: Must Love Dogs Review: 4 stars Cute, fun John Cusack film

I watched Must Love Dogs for the second time earlier this week. I bought it used on DVD when we were walking around the Ave with Piper and her husband recently.

It is a fun John Cusack movie that makes me smile and laugh. It’s certainly not his best film, but it’s enjoyable and not as annoying as some of his recent romantic comedies like America’s Sweethearts and Serendipity.

Book: The Thief Lord

Book Cover: The Thief Lord Review: 3 stars Good, but not as enjoyable as the audio version of Dragon Rider

This was a cute story, though I didn’t enoy it nearly as I enjoyed the Dragon Rider. Admittedly, there’s a good chance that my opinion was highly influenced by the amazing narration of the Dragon Rider.

But Thief Lord is a story about a bunch of runaway kids living in Venice in a hideout. It involves some magic. Like I said, it’s a pretty good little story.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Book: Flush

Book Cover: Flush Review: 3 stars Not bad, but forgettable

This was a fine little story but didn’t really stick with me once it was over. To be honest I found the conclusion a little anti-climatic. It is kids’ book, which I didn’t realize when I ordered it (or I forgot by the time it came). But I like to read some juvenile and young adult stuff. I find it a nice change of pace from the melodramatic depressing themes usually found in adult novels.

Business Buzzwords

This is a cute little article about current business buzzwords. The new one I found most entertaining is "Narcissurfing."Read the article: Top 10 Business Buzzwords on MSN Encarta.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Book: Dragon Rider

Book cover: Cage of Stars Review: 4 stars Excellent audio book. I highly recommend it!

I don’t know why jobiv and Lauren on All Consuming panned this book. I loved it! This is my first Cornelia Funke book so if her others are better then I only have more too look forward to.

I listed to the audio version of this book, read by Brendan Fraser. He is an amazing reader, particularly for this type of fantasy story with a large cast of characters. He did a huge number of distinct voices with impressive personality and frequently included side effects mentioned in the text, such as the dragon’s roar, the raven’s crow, and so on.

I highly recommend the audio book to adults who enjoy juvenile fantasy and all children and families who are okay with the material. It says it is recommended for ages 8 and up, but I didn’t think it had anything really scary in it so it may be fine for younger children as well.

Interesting side note: in the copyright info at the end they mention the translation to English. I didn’t know this while I was reading it, but the original is in German (as are all Funke’s books). According to About.com, some call her “Germany’s J.K. Rowling.” :-)

Book: Cage of Stars

Cover of the book 'Cage of Stars' Review: 4 stars Really enjoyable read

I enjoyed this book at least as much as I’ve enjoyed Jacquelyn Mitchard’s other novels. It is a story about a Mormon girl living in Utah whose younger sisters are randomly murdered by a schizophrenic man. Most of the story takes place after that and revolves around the girl’s inability to forgive the man, even when her parents forgive him after learning he is a good man who developed schizophrenia and just needed medication.

The ending of the story didn’t particularly impress me, though it wasn’t bad either. But the journey of the story was so worthwhile I really liked the book and recommend it. For heaven sakes, I even read it in print! ;-)

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Web design, CSS, and related resources

I just put together this list of web design, usability, and accessibility resources as well as the latest information on CSS2 and XHTML for a coworker and thought it might be useful to others as well. It is by no means definitive, but still has lots of good info. If you have other resources you like, please share!

Books

Web design concepts and practices

Implementation and technique

  • Bulletproof Web Design by Dan Cederholm I think this is a great, easy to read book that covers the basics of CSS2 and XHTML. The only important thinks it ignores are multicolumn layouts with fixed and fluid columns (aka The [CSS] Holy Grail) and hybrid layouts (see Zeldman’s book for that).
  • Any Eric Meyer book on CSS2 (he wrote the O’Reilly CSS2 book as well as some follow-along type books; I’m sure they’re all excellent info so it depends on the depth you want and your learning style)
  • Designing for Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman Skip to page 154 for useful info. Chapters on hybrid layouts are especially useful

Websites

Friday, May 12, 2006

Book: A Wedding in December

Book Cover: A Wedding in December Review: 3 stars Nothing to write home about

This book was fine, but it doesn't hold a candle to Shreve's book The Pilot's Wife. I don't actually have much to say about it.

Poll: Bush job approval at 29 percent

We have to find comfort somewhere! Do a little dance in your chair to celebrate. Read the full article in The Washington Times.

Friday, May 05, 2006

Book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)

Cover of the book 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)</' Review: 4 stars Continues the Harry Potter story well, though darkly

Benjamin and I finally finished this audio book on our way back from Portland last weekend! It only took us 9 months… This story was much like the other books, though the darkness in this series continues to increase.

Benjamin and I are torn between hoping that the bad thing that happens at the end isn’t real, which would be cheesy but satisfy our emotional desires, or that it is real and therefore sad and reflecting poorly on Dumbledore’s character but at least not a total cop-out.

We’ll be interested to see how the series resolves in the next book.

Book: The Bonesetter's Daughter

Cover of the book 'The Bonesetter's Daughter' Review: 4 stars Author-read audio version is great

I thought this was a good story. The audio version was really nicely read. The author read it along with another narrator (presumably speaking different roles). This is actually the first Amy Tan book I’ve read. I always meant to read Joy Luck Club or another one of her books, but never got around to it. I’m glad I finally did and I will probably read more books by her.

Satisficing

I thought I posted this two months ago but apparently only saved a draft... Anyway, I wanted to share an interesting article about womens' happiness was sent around my office. Here's an excerpt:
[T]wo sociologists at the University of Virginia published an exhaustive study of marital happiness among women that challenges this assumption. Stay-at-home wives, according to the authors, are more content than their working counterparts. And happiness, they found, has less to do with divisizon of labor than with the level of commitment and "emotional work" men contribute (or are perceived to contribute). But the most interesting data may be that the women who strongly identify as progressive—the 15 percent who agree most with feminist ideals—have a harder time being happy than their peers...
Read the complete article on Slate.com In the previous article, the researchers surmize that too many choices are contributing to progressive women being less happy. Someone brought up related research about increased choice and "satisficing" - the practice of encountering and evaluating items until one is encountered that exceeds the acceptability threshold, then selecting that item. Satisficing is contrasted with maximizing - evaluating all items before making a selection. The research abstract says they found "negative correlations between maximization and happiness, optimism, self-esteem, and life satisfaction, and positive correlations between maximization and depression, perfectionism, and regret." They also found that maximizers are "less satisfied than nonmaximizers (satisficers) with consumer decisions, and more likely to engage in social comparison..., more adversely affected by upward social comparison..., more sensitive to regret and less satisfied in an ultimatum bargaining game." Reading that I was sure that I must be a maximizer. But when I rated myself on the Maximization Scale (on page 5 of the pdf linked below) I was only a borerline maximizer. Surprising. I guess there are much more extreme people out there. :-) Read Maximizing Versus Satisficing: Happiness Is a Matter of Choice (pdf) There is also an interesting article about satisficing in relation to parenting. I am definitely going to need this advice when I become a parent (or even get pregnant)! http://www.parentmap.com/june_05/0605_1.htm

Monday, May 01, 2006

Anniversary weekend

Cover of the book 'Cage of Stars'

Benjamin and I went down to Portland this weekend to celebrate our two year anniversary. On Sunday we went to Powell’s Books and browsed for over an hour. Powell’s is so great. When I was looking at the new fiction releases, I saw this new Jacquelyn Mitchard book right as I was about to leave.

I didn’t want to shell out the cash for the hardback version, so I decided to check and see if by some miracle they would have a used copy. I asked one of the staff, and it turned out not only did they have one used copy, but it was a paperback! It’s some pre-read copy and I got it for $9. :-) I’m very excited to read it. Not only is Jacquelyn Mitchard an author I like, but I’ll actually be reading a physical book for the first time in quite a while (I’m addicted to audio books).