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Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Winter is Coming

Winter's Coming Wednesday


Songs



Control the Storm by Delain
Dark Star by Tarja
Nothing Else Matters by Metallica
Just One of Those Days Bonus
White Walls by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis


Holidaze


from www.brownielocks.com

December 18 is Answer the Telephone Like Buddy the Elf Day?!


Today in History


from www.todayinhistory.com

1913 – Birth of Alfred Bester, US, Science Fiction author
1892 - "Nutcracker Suite," Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet, premieres
1997 – Chris Farley, comedian (SNL, Tommy Boy), dies at 33


Word of the Day


from www.dictionary.com

transpontine – across or beyond a bridge.


Quotes


from www.brainyquote.com

“It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely." ~Albert Einstein

WikiWikiWikiWiki


from www.wikipedia.org

David Foster Wallace



David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an award-winning American novelist, short story writer, essayist, professor of English at Illinois State University, and professor of creative writing at Pomona College. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest,[1][2] which was cited as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005 by Time magazine.[3]

Los Angeles Times book editor David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last 20 years".[1] With his suicide, he left behind an unfinished novel, The Pale King, which was subsequently published in 2011, and in 2012 was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, which was not awarded that year.[4] A biography of Wallace by D. T. Max, Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story, was published in September 2012.[5]

Biography
Early life

Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York, the son of Sally Jean (née Foster) and James Donald Wallace.[6] In his early childhood, Wallace lived in Champaign, Illinois.[7] In fourth grade, he moved to Urbana and attended Yankee Ridge school and Urbana High School. As an adolescent, Wallace was a regionally ranked junior tennis player.

He attended his father's alma mater, Amherst College, and majored in English and philosophy, with a focus on modal logic and mathematics. His philosophy senior thesis on modal logic, Richard Taylor's 'Fatalism' and the Semantics of Physical Modality (described in James Ryerson's 2008 New York Times essay "Consider the Philosopher"[8]), was awarded the Gail Kennedy Memorial Prize.[9] His other senior thesis, written for his English major, would later become his first novel.[10] Wallace graduated summa cum laude for both theses in 1985, and in 1987 received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Arizona.

Family

Wallace's father was James D. Wallace, who accepted a teaching job at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the fall of 1962 after finishing his graduate course work in philosophy at Cornell University. James D. Wallace received his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1963 and is now Emeritus Professor at Urbana-Champaign. Wallace's mother, Sally Foster Wallace, attended graduate school in English Composition at the University of Illinois and became a professor of English at Parkland College—a community college in Champaign—where she won a national Professor of the Year award in 1996. Wallace's younger sister, Amy Wallace Havens of Tucson, Arizona, has practiced law since 2005.

In the early 1990s, Wallace had a relationship with the poet and memoirist Mary Karr. Wallace married painter Karen L. Green on December 27, 2004.[11][12] Dogs played an important role in Wallace's life:[13] He was very close to his two dogs, Bella and Werner;[12] had spoken of opening a dog shelter;[13] and, according to Jonathan Franzen, "had a predilection for dogs who'd been abused, and [were] unlikely to find other owners who were going to be patient enough for them".[12]

Death

Wallace committed suicide by hanging himself on September 12, 2008.[14] In an interview with The New York Times, Wallace's father reported that Wallace had suffered from depression for more than 20 years and that antidepressant medication had allowed him to be productive.[11] When he experienced severe side effects from the medication, Wallace attempted to wean himself from his primary antidepressant, phenelzine.[12] On his doctor's advice, Wallace stopped taking the medication in June 2007,[11] and the depression returned. Wallace received other treatments, including electroconvulsive therapy. When he returned to phenelzine, he found it had lost its effectiveness.[12] In the months before his death, his depression became severe.[11] The same year Wallace had checked into a nearby motel and taken all the pills he could obtain, ending up in a local hospital. His wife kept a watchful eye on Wallace the following days, but on September 12, after his wife left their home, Wallace went into their garage, wrote a two-page note, and neatly arranged the manuscript for The Pale King before hanging himself on the patio.[15]

Numerous gatherings were held to honor Wallace after his death, including memorial services at Pomona College, Amherst College, University of Arizona, and on October 23, 2008, at New York University—the last with speakers including his sister, Amy Wallace Havens; his agent, Bonnie Nadell; Gerry Howard, the editor of his first two books; Colin Harrison, editor at Harper's Magazine; Michael Pietsch, the editor of Infinite Jest and Wallace's later work; Deborah Treisman, fiction editor at The New Yorker; as well as authors Don DeLillo, Zadie Smith, George Saunders, Mark Costello, Donald Antrim, and Jonathan Franzen.[16][17][18]

Bookworm Fix of the Day


For all you bookworms out there like me.

What Should I Read Next?



Go ahead and check it out. Enter a book. It will populate with recommendations for what to read next. :)

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Lunar Tuesday!

It's the last full moon of the year!!


Songs



Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Moon River by Audrey Hepburn
Blue Moon of Kentucky by Bill Monroe
Last Full Moon Bonus
Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd


Holidaze


from www.brownielocks.com

December 17 is Wright Brothers Day


Word of the Day


from www.dictionary.com

cathexis – the investment of emotional significance in an activity, object, or idea.


Quotes


from www.brainyquote.com

“It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." ~Voltaire

WikiWikiWikiWiki


from www.wikipedia.org

Toumani Diabaté



Toumani Diabaté (born August 10, 1965) is a Malian kora player. In addition to performing the traditional music of Mali, he has also been involved in cross-cultural collaborations with flamenco, blues, jazz, and other international styles.

Biography
Diabaté comes from a long family tradition of kora players including his father Sidiki Diabaté, who recorded the first ever kora album in 1970. His family's oral tradition tells of 71 generations of musicians preceding him in a patrilineal line. His cousin Sona Jobarteh is the first female kora player to come from a Griot family. His younger brother Mamadou Sidiki Diabaté is also a prominent kora player.

In 1987, Diabate made his first appearance on an album in the UK, on Ba Togoma, an album featuring his father's ensemble. In 1988 Diabaté released his first album in the West, a solo album entitled Kaira, recorded in one afternoon in London and produced by Lucy Durán.

In addition to performing Malian traditional music, Diabaté has also performed and recorded in cross-cultural settings. He has collaborated with flamenco group Ketama, forming a combined group known as Songhai and releasing two recordings: Songhai I and Songhai II. In 1999, Diabaté collaborated with American blues musician Taj Mahal on the release Kulanjan. "MALIcool" is a collaboration with American jazz trombonist Roswell Rudd. He also collaborated with the Icelandic popular musician Björk on her 2007 album Volta.

In 1999 Diabaté released the album New Ancient Strings, a collaboration with Ballaké Sissoko and in September 2005, he released In the Heart of the Moon, for which he collaborated with Ali Farka Touré. The album went on to win the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Traditional World Music Album. On July 25, 2006 he released his latest album Boulevard de l'Indépendance, recorded with his Symmetric Orchestra. In the Heart of the Moon and Boulevard de l'Indépendance, are both part of the Hotel Mandé Sessions, recorded by Nick Gold and released on World Circuit Records. Both Boulevard and Hotel Mandé are references to landmarks in Mali's capital city, Bamako.

The Symmetric Orchestra led by Toumani Diabaté is composed of musicians (mostly griots)[1] from the across the old Mande Empire of west Africa, who play a mix of traditional instruments including the kora, djembe, balafon and bolombatto, as well as modern ones like the guitar and electronic keyboard.

Diabaté appeared in 2006 at the WOMAD Festival UK, Roskilde Festival in Denmark, and at the Sziget Festival in Budapest, Hungary. In 2007 he performed at the Glastonbury Festival and toured the U.S.A.. In 2008, he was at WOMADelaide (in Adelaide, Australia).[2] In early 2008, Diabaté released his new album of solo Kora music, The Mandé Variations, to widespread critical acclaim. Many reviewers praised the album for its detailed recording of the Kora and careful mastering, in addition to the improvisational skills and wide range of apparent influences displayed on the album.[3]

In October 2008 the Arabic language lyrics in Diabaté's song Tapha Niang (from Boulevard de l'Indépendance) were removed from the PlayStation 3 video game LittleBigPlanet, after it elicited objections from a Muslim individual due to their inclusion of verses from the Qur’an.[4] The publisher Sony Computer Entertainment Europe decided to delay the launch of the game by a week and recall most discs in order to replace the song with a lyric-free instrumental version. However, some copies of the original game had already been sold in the Middle East and United States.[5]

Diabaté was chosen by Matt Groening to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in May 2010 in Minehead. Diabaté also performed at Hay Festival in June. In July he performed at the Larmer Tree Festival to huge acclaim.



Friday, December 13, 2013

Friday the 13th

Happy Friday the 13th!!


Songs



Our Solemn Hour by Within Temptation
Burning in the Skies by Linkin Park
Like I Roll by Black Stone Cherry
Friday the 13th Bonus
Stay by Florida Georgia Line


Holidaze


from www.brownielocks.com

December 13 is Pick a Pathologist Day


Today in History


from www.todayinhistory.com

1967 – Birth of Jamie Foxx, comedian
1913 - Mona Lisa stolen in Aug 1911 returned to Louvre
1996 – Mae Barnes, singer, dies at 89


Word of the Day


from www.dictionary.com

umbriferous – casting or making shade.


Quotes


from www.brainyquote.com

“You may delay, but time will not." ~Benjamin Franklin

WikiWikiWikiWiki


from www.wikipedia.org

Paphinia hirtzii



About
The classification of this orchid species was published by Calaway H. Dodson in Icones Plantarum Tropicarum ser. 2, 6: t. 566. 1989 - Sarasota, Florida. Collected by C.H.Dodson & A.C.Hirtz 8 km from Chaco on the road to Santa Rosa de Chaco, off the road Ibarra to Lita, 1400 m, Esmeraldas (Ecuador, Western South America, Southern America). The holotype is kept at Herbario Nacional del Ecuador (QCNE). The isotype is kept at Rio Palenque Science Center (RPSC), Ecuador.

Plant Morphology
Description: Epiphyte. Rhizome short. Pseudobulbs appressed, laterally compressed, narrowly ovate, costate, to 2 cm wide and 8 cm long, 2 to 30 folite, with 2 to 3 distichous, foliaceous sheaths surrounding the base. Leaves thin, heavily veined on the underside, narrowly ovate, acuminate, to 8 cm wide and 32 cm long. Infloresence produced from the base of the pseudobulb, pendant, surrounded by 2 to 4 sheaths, 1 to 3-flowered.


Bookworm Fix of the Day


For all you bookworms out there like me.

Making Yesterday Available Today



This seller makes available books on CD and DVD-ROM. I have purchased for myself a CD on the history of dreams and the study thereof. I got the CD-ROM earlier this week, and I have to say, I am thoroughly impressed with the quality. These are books dating back decades if not centuries, and it makes me very happy that someone took the time to keep these books alive. They sell many subjects including paranormal, language, psychology, philosophy, and religion. Definitely worth checking out!!

Don't miss this, either: 50 Reasons You Should Be a Bookworm. Short and sweet and complete with book covers.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Kickstarter

Yup. That's right. I have started a Kickstarter project. You can view it here.

Also, you have view my updates on my progress on both the Kickstarter funding as well as my progress in the books on my other blog.

Annnnd.......just an update, I will be mainly posting to this blog on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays with the exception of days I do not work. I hope you are all having a dorktastic day.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Cusp

There is a man at work who, without fail, reminds us all of two very important days of the week. The first is timesheet day - the cutoff day for us to make sure our tinesheets are correct so we do not have payroll issues. The second is, of course, hump day. Thanks, Gus!


Songs



Sleep Well, My Angel by We Are the Fallen
Nemo by Nightwish
Ghost Riders in the Sky by Johnny Cash
Hump Day Bonus
Everybody Knows by Leonard Cohen


Holidaze


from www.brownielocks.com

December 9-15 is Computer Science Awareness week
December 11 is International Mountain Day


Today in History


from www.todayinhistory.com

1475 – Birth of Leo X (Giovanni de' Medici), Italy, Pope (1513-21) 1844 – 1st dental use of nitrous oxide, Hartford, CT 1911 – Thomas Ball, US sculptor/painter/singer, died at 92


Word of the Day


from www.dictionary.com

cusp – a point or pointed end.


Quotes


from www.brainyquote.com

“At the heart of any terror is the fear of losing what we find meaningful." ~Mark Z. Danielewski

WikiWikiWikiWiki


from www.wikipedia.org

Erikson's stages of psychosocial development



Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, as articulated by Erik Erikson, explain eight stages through which a healthily developing human should pass from infancy to late adulthood. In each stage, the person confronts, and hopefully masters, new challenges. Each stage builds upon the successful completion of earlier stages. The challenges of stages not successfully completed may be expected to reappear as problems in the future.

However, mastery of a stage is not required to advance to the next stage. Erikson's stage theory characterizes an individual advancing through the eight life stages as a function of negotiating his or her biological forces and sociocultural forces. Each stage is characterized by a psychosocial crisis of these two conflicting forces (as shown in the table below). If an individual does indeed successfully reconcile these forces (favoring the first mentioned attribute in the crisis), he or she emerges from the stage with the corresponding virtue. For example, if an infant enters into the toddler stage (autonomy vs. shame & doubt) with more trust than mistrust, he or she carries the virtue of hope into the remaining life stages.[1]


Bookworm Fix of the Day


For all you bookworms out there like me.

BOOKish



This website is just full of fun stuff, including news articles, gift guides, books to read before you die. You can get notified of recommendations, personalized for you, and check out new and notable releases. Truly a great website!

And there is this. Talk about a rant. I imagine every time someone misspells something, uses improper grammar, etc., this person is right there to correct them. Not that I have a problem with that, but this struck me as a little...too far. I imagine this person to be very serious, with fake laughs at proper times and a flaring anger problem. I might be wrong.

Monday, December 9, 2013

New & Improved

Well, hello there strangers. It’s been a while. My apologies. I…had 3 more kids. But I’m back! Somewhat.

Of course, with a full time job and 4 kids…I will never be completely anywhere. LOL

Let’s see if I can keep up with this between job, children, cooking, husband, and Christmas shopping. (I’m purposely leaving reading out of this because…well…any spare moment is usually spend with my nose in a book. You know that!)


Songz/

Frozen by Delain
Never Enough by Epica
Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker
Moody Monday Bonus
Monster by Eminem



Holidaze
from www.brownielocks.com

December is Awareness Month of Awareness Months Month (yup)
December 9 is International Anti-Corruption Day


Today in History
from www.todayinhistory.com

1902 – Birth of Margaret Hamilton, Cleveland, OH, actress (Wicked Witch – Wizard of Oz)
1965 – “A Charlie Brown Christmas” premieres
1982 – Marty Robbins, country singer, dies


Word of the Day
from www.dictionary.com

calorifacient – (of foods) producing heat.


Quotes
from www.brainyquote.com

“Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it well.” ~Nelson Mandela
“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


WikiWikiWikiWiki
from www.wikipedia.org

The Bush Stone-curlew or Bush Thick-knee (Burhinus grallarius, obsolete name Burhinus magnirostris) is a large, ground-dwelling bird endemic to Australia. Although it looks rather like a wader and is related to the oystercatchers, avocets and plovers, it is a terrestrial predator filling an ecological niche similar to that of the roadrunners of North America.
Like most stone-curlews, it is mainly nocturnal and specialises in hunting small grassland animals: frogs, spiders, insects, molluscs, crustaceans, snakes, lizards and small mammals are all taken, mostly gleaned or probed from soft soil or rotting wood; also a few seeds or tubers, particularly in drought years. Birds usually forage individually or in pairs over a large home range, particularly on moonlit nights.
During the day, Bush Stone-curlews tend to remain inactive, sheltering amongst tall grass or low shrubs and relying on their cryptic plumage to protect them from predators. When disturbed, they freeze motionless, often in odd-looking postures. For visual predators like raptors (and humans), this works well, but it serves little purpose with animals that hunt by scent such as foxes, dingoes or goannas.
Despite their ungainly appearance and habit of freezing motionless, they are sure-footed, fast and agile on the ground, and although they seldom fly during daylight hours, they are far from clumsy in the air; flight is rapid and direct on long, broad wings.
The Bush Stone-curlew is probably heard more than it is seen. Its call sounds like a wail or a scream in the night. When scared, it screeches – a sound similar to the screech of a possum.[2] When threatened (presumably in the presence of a nest), they may raise their wings wide and high in an impressive threat posture and emit a loud, hoarse hissing noise.


My Life is Average
from www.mylifeisaverage.com

I made my favourite soup today. I was very eager to start eating it and because of my haste I burnt my tongue. Sadly I couldn't taste the rest of it.

Today after reading about Dumbledore's death I cried for half an hour while my 6 year old daughter comforted me. MLIA


Customers are Fun
from www.notalwaysright.com

I Don’t Work Here Does Not Work Here, Part 13

SUPERMARKET | IN, USA | CRAZY REQUESTS

(My roommate and I are doing some shopping at a popular supermarket chain. The employees wear red shirts with white name tags. My roommate works at a day spa and hasn’t changed out of her uniform yet, which is a black dress with a bronze name tag. As we are heading to check out, an elderly woman grabs my friend’s arm.)
Woman: “Can you tell me where the house robes are?”
My Roommate: “I’m sorry. I don’t know.”
(The woman is still holding on to my friend’s arm, so my friend gently pulls herself loose.)
Woman: “Excuse me! I asked you a question!”
My Roommate: “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but I really don’t know where they are. I don’t work here.”
(At this point, a store employee has noticed us and approaches.)
Employee: “Can I help you ladies?”
Woman: “This lady won’t help me find the house robes! She isn’t doing her job. I asked a simple question, and she’s ignoring me to hang out with her little friend instead. I want to speak to a manager.”
Employee: “Ma’am, I don’t believe she works here.”
Me: “She doesn’t.”
Woman: “Well, then why is she wearing a name tag?”
My Roommate: “I work at a day spa down the street and I haven’t had time to change out my uniform yet.”
Woman: “Oh. How was I supposed to know that?”
(She’s being very rude and I’m getting fed up with it.)
Me: “Because her uniform looks absolutely nothing like his?”
Woman: “Excuse me? I won’t be talked to like that.”
Employee: “Ma’am, I apologize for this misunderstanding. If you’ll come with me, I’ll show you the—”
Woman: “No! I want to see a manager! I want both of these girls fired!”
My Roommate: “Neither of us work here!”


Bookworm Fix of the Day

For all you bookworms out there like me.

There are two websites I’d like to share with you today.


The first is www.bookriot.com. I love this website. It has reviews of books, gift guides, giveaways, recommendations, and then there’s this: http://bookriot.com/2013/12/02/20-things-happen-youre-book-nerd/ which describes me perfectly.

Also, I’d like to share http://imaginebookstore.com/. This bookstore is located in San Antonio on Culebra and I just adore this place. I can’t promote it enough because the owner, Don Hurd is living **my** dream. And even though I’m not the one living my dream, I have absolutely no problem living vicariously through him, his wife, and his two sons, all of whom run the store.

Imagine Books and Records boasts not only being a family owned and ran bookstore, but also the added amazing quality of providing a venue for local bands to play, authors to come and sign books, and poets to gather and commune.

They are having some upcoming winter events which I am hoping to be able to make, if I can find someone to watch my 4 kids.

And! They have started a publishing “house” which publishes paperback books under the name Toad Press Paperback.


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