Book Reviewer

So, I found this thing where Thomas Nelson Publishing is trying to sign up 1000 bloggers to review their books.  I’m thinking:  Free books?  Ok.  All you have to do is write a review on your own blog and post a review on a commercial web-site like Amazon.

Unfortunately, I didn’t think to check and see what kind of books Thomas Nelson publishes.    The first time I logged in (after being accepted into the program) they gave me about 6 books that I could choose from to review.  None of them looked interesting.  In fact, they all pretty much grossed me out.  That’s why there’s a review of the I Believe Bunny on my blog.   I figure that if I’m going to need to read a book that I’m not interested in, make it the kid’s book so that it won’t take me long.

As far as that goes, the book wasn’t too bad.  But who the hell am I to be critqueing a book for 3 year olds?

The I Believe Bunny by Tish Rabe and illustrated by Frank Endersby

Apparently, The I Believe Bunny by Tish Rabe and illustrated by Frank Endersby is the first in The I Believe Bunny Series.  I can only conclude that because of the matching titles.  There’s no “#1” written anywhere or list of additional books.  (This sort of thing annoys me.)

Bunny is annoyed by a rainy day.  A small mouse had fallen in the river and didn’t know how to swim.  The Bunny rushes to help, although worried the he won’t be able to reach, prays to God for help.  No sooner does he pray than his friends come running to help also; saving the desperate mouse from watery doom.

This story is written in relatively simple rhyming and rhythmic poetry that make it fun for parents to read and children to listen.  Most of the book handles this very well, with just a couple of instances where the lines/verses seem forced and don’t really propel the story.  When faced with a problem, I appreciated that Bunny didn’t just throw up his hands and pray, but also took action however he could.  The illustrations seem adequate and support the story well. However, I’m not sure the pictures are interesting enough to hold a young child’s attention without a reader.  I’d think this book would be appropriate for little one ages 1-5.

Apparently, The I Believe Bunny by Tish Rabe and illustrated by Frank Endersby is the first in The I Believe Bunny Series.  I can only conclude that because of the matching titles.  There’s no “#1” written anywhere or list of additional books.  (This sort of thing annoys me.)

Bunny is annoyed by a rainy day.  A small mouse had fallen in the river and didn’t know how to swim.  The Bunny rushes to help, although worried the he won’t be able to reach, prays to God for help.  No sooner does he pray than his friends come running to help also; saving the desperate mouse from watery doom.

This story is written in relatively simple rhyming and rhythmic poetry that make it fun for parents to read and children to listen.  Most of the book handles this very well, with just a couple of instances where the lines/verses seem forced and don’t really propel the story.  When faced with a problem, I appreciated that Bunny didn’t just throw up his hands and pray, but also took action however he could.  The illustrations seem adequate and support the story well. However, I’m not sure the pictures are interesting enough to hold a young child’s attention without a reader.  I’d think this book would be appropriate for little one ages 1-5.

What do you think?

I couldn’t really get the hair right.

Welcome, Facebook Fans

I finally got around to fixing/adding a music page on facebook.  If  you’re new to this page,  thanks for stopping by.

Check out the music page here at shacknotes.   Come back to visit.

grrr….

I shouldn’t even think about posting when I’m in this frame of mind.  1) I have too many things swirling in my head to even THINK, let alone compose coherent thought.  2) I’m too angry and irritated because of different parts of the swirling eddy of my thoughts.

#1: Snide comments about Michael Jackson.

First off, I’m not really a fan.  I never owned Thriller, and honestly I get annoyed everytime the video is named greatest video of all time.  Mostly just because I’m sick of it.  The man could sing.  The man could dance.  He was an exceptional entertainer.  He brought a lot of music into the world, and I think he did a lot of good in the world.

Was he a child molestor?  He was acquitted of all charges.   I don’t know.  I do know that there are some people who got lots of money and publicity just for raising the question.   Was he jacked up? duh.  Was he creepy and strange? obviously.   He also lived his ENTIRE life outside any kind of range of normalcy and most, if not all of that circumstance was beyond his choosing or control.   How could you expect him to not be at least creepy and strange?  Does that make him a monster?  Instead of your conviction that he’s a child molestor (since, obviously you have inside info that the jury didn’t), or comments about his misguided beliefs (Jehovah’s Witness and or Islam) and condemnation and declaration of where he must be right now (as if it were your place to decide), maybe you should take a sec to repent of your own self-righteousnees and judgement and the putrid, disgusting, ugly glee at the demise of a severely broken human being who is just as much a child of God/Allah/Jehovah as you are.

#2:  “Gayby Boom: Children of Gay couples speak out” (click title to follow link)

Just found this article.  Got me all fired up about Arkansas’s prohibition of unmarried cohabitating couples from adopting or caring for foster children.  I know it was passed like 9 months ago, but it still pisses me off.   Wouldn’t it be best if orphans/foster children were raised by heterosexual, married couples? Well, maybe.  I know a lot of hetero/married couples that suck at being married and suck at raising kids.  It’s not difficult to imagine children would be better off with a loving homosexual couple.  And it’s just plain stupid to suggest children would be better off in an orphanage than with a loving family whatever the gender/makeup/orientation.

God, save us from our pride.  Save us from our ugly self-righteousness.  Teach us to love.  And for those who have it all figured out (except the loving part) at least shut them up so they stop representing you in such a horrific way.

impending wipe

I’d been proud of the fact that my computer booted quickly.  Pride cometh before…you know…

All the sudden it was being wonky.  When it would boot, it wouldn’t let me do anything with the start menu but would let me start lots of programs that I had shortcuts on the desktop, except chrome.  It wouldn’t even let me ctl-alt-delete to get the task manager going.  It would let me run my scan and after about 15 minutes, it would it would finally finish booting.  At first, I thought I’d picked up a virus/worm etc. that was jacking my groove.  I’d been trying every trick I could figure to try to get it back to normal.  No dice.  I finally broke down and called my buddy, Joe, to see if he could fix it.  I’m a hack.  He’s a real computer guy.

After messing with it for awhile, Joe confirmed my suspician that it’s not really a virus issue.  He said that for some reason (possibly a virus, although I’d effectively blocked it), for some reason explorer was hanging up.  He even showed me how I could get the task manager up before everything started up, kill explorer and let it restart.  The problem is that he could mess with it for 4-8 hours and not be able to figure out what was causing the problem.  However, I could just wipe the machine and re-install windows and everything in just a couple of hours.

I have not doubt that the actual installation process might only take a couple of hours.  Sorting, deleting, filing, backing up, important (or maybe not even real important; I am a packrat in the cyberworld as well as real life) files in order to be ready to wipe and re-install windows fresh has taken me a couple of days.

So, I’m ready.  I’ve got, or think I’ve got everything on external drives or backed up to dvd.  Why I lack faith in external drives that I’ve not had any problems with when I’ve let important files sit on the system drive without proper backup for months, I don’t know.  It’s still scary.

The upside is that I hope to partition the ginormous system drive into two drives.  From here on, I’ll just save files to one partition that’s separate from the system.  That way, if I have to do this again, I won’t have to go through this winnowing process.

I know that I should have everything.  It’s just the psychosis of a pack rat.  ”What if I need this?  What if I forgot to back something up that I’m going to need?”  gag.

Commencing operation wipe. See you on the flipside.

sum, sum, summertime!

-On the Thursday before school got out, got this crazy idea to drive to Louisville, KY to see friends Brian, Debra and Sadie.  Brian said that if we made it there, he’d have Coldplay-with-PeteYorn-opening tickets waiting for us.  It’s totally outside my nature to decide to decide to do this, but we did it.

-Left on Tuesday and drove to Saint Louis to spend the night with my sister.  Ivy travels better than I do.  She even did very well in the potty power department.  Hung out with sister Wednesday morning then ventured on to Louisville Wednesday night.  Had fun being lazy and hanging with friends that we’ve not been with for two years.

-Thursday night: left Ivy with Debra and Sadie (she did great and had a blast) while Holly, Brian, Brian’s friend, and I made our way outside Cincinnati.   It was a gorgeous night.  Pete Yorn was good, but they didn’t have the big screens on yet and it was difficult to see from where we were.  I’ll probably get his new record coming out soon, anyway.

-Coldplay:  Words fail.  Awesome?  Incredible?  Moving?  The word that continues to come closest that I can come up with is transcendent.  Keep in mind, I am the WORST concert audience member.  I typically just like to watch and listen and I’m old and grouchy enough to mostly just be annoyed at all the people around me either talking, singing, dancing, freaking out too much who make it difficult for me to observe.  This was not the case on this night.  I jumped.  I clapped.  I danced.  I sang.  I yelled.  I cried.  I am so glad that we drove all the way to Louisville, KY.  It was the best church I’ve had in a long time.  Thanks, Bribrow.

1 Day Left!!!

Two kinds of students:  1) The kind that you just tell them they really don’t need to come to school tomorrow.  2) You hold up a big packet of worksheets and tell them that if they do show up tomorrow, that’s what’s in store for them…  We’ll see.  It’s amazing to me that the kids that have missed so much all year and it’s hard to keep them up to speed because they’re never there are suddenly concerned with their attendance when we’re not doing anything.

All I have left is to pack up my room.  I feel like I’ve not gotten very far, but I think I’ll have enough time.  I think I’ve got all my paperwork stuff ready to turn in.

On Tuesday, we’re heading to Saint Louis and then to Louisville, KY on Wednesday.  Will be home on Sunday afternoon.  I just decided for sure today.  How’s that for spontaneous?

Our friends, Brian and Debra and Sadie have been trying to lure us to come see them for awhile.  We’ve never even got to meet Sadie and I think Ivy was just a few months when they moved.  I’m all for visiting friends, I’m just NOT for big road trips.  Dangling Coldplay/Pete Yord tickets in front of me did the trick.

By the way: Ben Folds freaking rocks!

and summer break rocks, too!

Final personal day

I enjoyed my personal day last monday so much, I figured I might as well schedule my final personal day of the year for the only Monday I have left.  (Of course, that’s not counting the last day of school, but I don’t think I could do that.)

Unfortunately, I started getting the sneaky suspician that a sinus infection was coming on Thursday night and knew it to be true on Friday.  I went to the Dr. on Saturday and got an antibiotic, but it seems slow in getting me back to full power.  So, it was a beautiful day on Monday, but I don’t feel like I got to enjoy it very much.

This week is the week of getting in days, although we’re doing anything but school.  Today we had an assembly.  Tomorrow: Naturals game.  Thursday: Play day with Awards ceremony.  Friday: Talent Show.  I’m not complaining.  I just don’t know what we’re going to do all week next week.

And then…

Not sure.  I need to be productive.   somehow.  With something.

That’s all I know.

Personal Day

So mostly, I just wanted to get another post on here so that the title of the last post wasn’t the first thing…scary.  About that:  Jeff was just saying some things on Sunday that were making me think I need to try to chillout about my friend.  Not only does sin separate us, most of the time it is a symptom of our deception.  I said what I needed to say, I shouldn’t be so angry with him for still being deceived.

Monday I took a personal day. My mom and sis were here.  We didn’t really do much, but just not having to go to school on Monday made Sunday night SO MUCH nicer.

I’ve got one personal day left.  I’m thinking that I might use it next monday if I can get away with it.  Which means I only have one monday left: June 1st!