Weekend Tidbits: Halloween

In a rare occurrence I’m glad it’s Monday. Of course it’s less about Halloween and more about the fact that my weekend stunk worse than fish emulsion on a hot day. If you don’t know how that smells… count your blessings.

I’m exaggerating a bit though, so I’ll give you the high points.

Kicking things up a notch

For the second weekend in a row I’ve actually cooked. I think maybe it’s the weather. Fall makes me crave vegetables like nobody’s business. Last weekend I made collard greens (still good even though I scorched them a bit) and oatmeal cookie dough. This weekend I did baked chicken and potato salad. I think my next attempt will be yellow squash which is incredibly easy to make but soooo good. We’ll see though. If I’m not in the mood to cook the food never comes out right so generally I don’t force it.

Reader Rabbit

I read four really good books this weekend. Yes I’m a fast reader but they are also young adult books so it’s not as amazing as it could be.

The first was incredible… as have been all of the other books I’ve read by Nancy Farmer. The House of Scorpions is a disturbing but incredibly human science fiction story that takes place some unknown time in the future. I had no expectations when I started it because I didn’t even read the cover flap. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t because I normally avoid futuristic sci-fi. I had to stop reading several times because things got too real or too overwhelmingly deep (which for me is about 6 inches… I like my reading light ;)). My little reality breaks never really lasted long because I wanted to find out what would happen next too badly. The story makes you think and for me stirred up some strong reactions. I would recommend this one to anyone of any age.

The other three were the first in Tamora Pierce‘s Protector of the Small series, her second series about a girl studying to be a knight. I’ve read them before and I will probably read them again. A bit under the radar of my audience but if you have a younger (precocious 8 to fantasy loving 16) sister, niece or cousin this is a good author to turn them onto.

In other news…

  • I got invited to a Halloween party. I’m becoming one of the popular kids maybe? Maybe not. But even if I don’t go thanks for thinking of me. 🙂
  • 19 more days until Goblet of Fire. I’m getting so excited. I don’t know if I’m going opening day or not but I am going. I would love to go with a big group of people but if that doesn’t happen I’ll go all by my lonesome and be just as happy.
  • I downloaded and installed the WordPress Tiger Admin plugin and now my WP admin is all sexy. It’s taking a bit to get used to the color scheme but I love the menu system. Fellow WordPress users (or those that like to develop back end interfaces) should take a look.

Weekend tidbits

A Winner Am I

I won an Xbox. It’s almost less about the prize and more about the confirmation that my internet search skills rock the house. Go me.

Obligatory Weather Chatter

It’s finally cooling off around here. Today was absolutely beautiful; sunny, windy and downright chilly at times. and lower temps mean lower utilities and better chance of Sunshine actually cooking something.

Non-Scary

I want to have a halloween party without scary movies (or scary anything else… My nerves are bad). Too bad my apartment isn’t primed for entertaining. Maybe one of my projects this week will be to rearrange furniture. I have a (round) table and chairs I’ve been wanting to get rid of if anyone is in the market for at set. They’re perfectly good… just too big for my little space.

Lowered Expectations

OMNI & Peoplefirst are perfect examples of the fact that systems don’t have to be great… or even good… hell a majority of users don’t even have to like them for them to be successful and widely used. Makes me think I should stop holding out for good ideas and start to act on the crappy ones that I have all the time.

Useful link of the weekend

Speed Demos Archive. Just in case you ever needed to see Max Payne frantically rolling through a drug trip.

Flashback of the weekend

Chip & Dale: Rescue Rangers Gadget was of course… my favorite. And the game was the best. I never beat it though.

Disgusting

How do you justify being an officer of the law and punching a 60 something year old man in the head? What kind of person makes catcalls as he watches it happen? What kind of government puts humans in a situation that makes this sort of incident likely?

I appreciate good police officers and what they do and how incredibly under-appreciated they are. I can understand that disasters I’m glad no one is dead. But responsibility is a bitch and I don’t care how stressed you were… you are always accountable for your actions.