Nurk

Nurk: The Strange, Surprising Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew

I ordered Nurk sight-unseen, as a fan of Ursula Vernon's art and her blog, and I wasn't disappointed.

It's a delightful story about Nurkus Aurelious Alonzo Electron Maximilian Shrew. Most folks just call him Nurk. He is the Bilbo Baggins of this adventure tale, and I fell in love with him immediately.

Though paced for children, Vernon's writing is clever enough for any adult with a well developed sense of whimsy to enjoy thoroughly, and the vocabulary level isn't at all childish.

I'm likely to re-read this story many times over the coming years.




Review copied here from my review at goodreads.com.

#teapix Blogged

#teapix Blogged

A bit of fun news.

The Twitter #teapix event triggered by Neil Gaiman was blogged at geeksaresexy.net and my Four Teapots of the Apocalypse was used as an example.

I'm still having fun surfing the other entries and seeing what other folks have been submitting. Much creativity to be found among Gaiman fans. Surprised? Not hardly.

Take that, Monday!

(Typed while humming the tune to the song All My Internet Friends by Amanda French.)



edit: Ok... fangirl time... more fun than being blogged,
Neil Gaiman left his Twitter Mark on my image post on Twitpic.

Mr B Peach

So, I dreamed about one of my oldest friends three times last night.

Once in a very surreal, sci-fi-esque setting kind of dream in which he was a prince, a misfit, and also responsible for saving civilization - though nobody knew that last bit. That dream went on for hours. I woke up once in the middle of it, fell back to sleep, and the thing kept on going from where it left off.

The second dream was me dreaming about blogging about the first dream, and trying to figure out what name to use so he'd know I meant him, and others would know I didn't mean them. I settled on Mr. B. Peach.

The third dream was very much like a cross between an episode of Heroes and the book Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi Corps, by Gregory Keyes. A bunch of us had "abilities" as they'd say in Heroes, which always seemed to also include telepathy of one level or another. Mr. Peach had been captured and sent to a "boarding school", which was a brainwashing facility, where the "students" were held until they could be rendered effectively "normal". The whole story revolved around getting him out of there, and getting him safe. He had some kind of sensitivity to strong sunlight - not all sunlight, just the really bright stuff. By the end, there had been a certain amount of blowing things up, skulking around in a maze, practicing using the telepathic skills to coordinate our escape, and riding around in a very old pickup truck - not necessarily in that order.

Dog-sitting

Going along for the ride

I'm spending a big chunk of this weekend dog-sitting while some good friends are out of town for a wedding. Maxine is the easiest dog there is to hang out with, so it's no hardship. But, what's the one thing you expect to find when you arrive at someone's house to dog-sit?

A dog, maybe?

I know Maxine. So when I walked into the house and she didn't greet me at the door, it seemed odd. I checked around the house. I checked the back yard. No Max. I checked the gate to the yard - shut tight.

I checked for a note saying she was out with someone else. Nothing. No ransom note, either, for that matter. I started composing the phone conversation in my head... "I've just arrived and I've already lost Maxine." Wasn't liking my options. Decided it was better to keep looking.

To my huge relief, before I had a chance to panic, one of the neighbors showed up with Maxine and her food bowl. She'd felt sorry for Max being alone all day until I got there, so she'd brought Max over to her house.

I thanked the neighbor without letting on that I'd been about ready to jump in my car and start combing the neighborhood.

The rest of the weekend has been much less exciting, so far, and I'm all for keeping it that way.

We took a trip to my house to help my Mister with some yard work, and Maxine was a very well behaved guest. I've spent some time learning a few new techniques in photoshop. Browsed the interwebs. Gave Maxine lots of loves and pettings. And tomorrow I expect to spend the morning reading more of The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman (and providing more pets and lovies for Max, of course).

Landfills hurting as consumers repair, reuse

All over the US, consumers are throwing away less and reusing or repairing more. Goodwill thrift stores see rise in sales and drop in donations. "Environmentalists applaud the trash slash."

Landfills hurting as consumers repair, reuse

By JAMES HANNAH, Associated Press Writer James Hannah, Associated Press Writer – Sat Apr 25, 12:21 pm ET

DAYTON, Ohio – Thrift-driven Americans are fixing up, making do and reusing so much to cope with the recession that the drop in throwaways means less fill for landfills.

To deal with the drop-off in dropoffs, landfills are laying off workers, reducing hours of operation and hiking disposal fees, with the increases passed along to cities, businesses and consumers. read more

It reminds me that I've been meaning to take some more donations to the Goodwill near us. It's amazing the things you find when you move that you don't need, want, or even recognize.

flickr in the real world

Wall-e's Instant Fave!
Originally uploaded by meddygarnet

Yesterday I posted an entry on my blog musing about what the office would be like if it was like flickr... today I found a flickr group called Flickr In The Real World - Instant Fave! They print up little cards that look like the "favorite" icon in flickr, and take photos of things they like with them.

I had to join, of course. Now to get me some of those little cards.

In the meantime, here's one of my favorites from the FITRW pool, Wall-e's Instant Fave! by http://www.flickr.com/photos/meddygarnet/.

If the office was like flickr

If the office was like flickr, when you walked past that really pretty calendar in your co-worker's cube, you would stick a post-it note near it with a comment saying "Wow! Beautiful image!"

Your co-worker with the photo of his kittens on his desktop would have notes left on his desk letting him know just how cute those kitties really are. Some commenters would leave little photos of their own kittens along with their comments, hoping to draw people to their own cubes.

People would get flurries of praise on colorful little notes for having the most robust potted plants, or geeky compliments for having a bright red swingline stapler.

And people who got the most comments on their cubicle walls from passers-by would be so very proud.