A fantastic spoof! A great little piece with David Tennant and Catherine Tate!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
List: Children's Picture Books
A Top 10 of picture books!
1. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
2. Doctor De Soto byWilliam Steig
3. Jeremiah in the Dark Woods by Janet & Allen Ahlberg
4.The House at Pooh Corner: A Pop-up Book
5. Dinosaurs and All that Rubbish by Michael Foreman
6. Bright Red Kisses by Teresa Toten
7. There's an Awful lot of Weirdos in Our Neighbourhood by Colin McNaughton
8.The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss
9. Curious George by H.A. Ray
10. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
1. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
2. Doctor De Soto byWilliam Steig
3. Jeremiah in the Dark Woods by Janet & Allen Ahlberg
4.The House at Pooh Corner: A Pop-up Book
5. Dinosaurs and All that Rubbish by Michael Foreman
6. Bright Red Kisses by Teresa Toten
7. There's an Awful lot of Weirdos in Our Neighbourhood by Colin McNaughton
8.The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss
9. Curious George by H.A. Ray
10. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
List: Romance
Here's another list... My favorite Romance Writers & Novels
Authors:
1. Julie Garwood
2. Karen Hawkins
3. Julia London
4. Betina Kahn
5. Lyndsay Sands
6. Victoria Alexander
7. Stephanie Laurens
8. Christina Dood
9. Lisa Kleypas
10. Amanda Quick
Novels:
1. Ransom by Julie Garwood
2. Shadow Dance by Julie Garwood
3. The Taming of the Duke by Eloisa James
4.To marry a Duke by Julianne MacLean
5. The Last Bachelor by Betina Kahn
6. One Knight Stands by Jocelyn Kelley
7. The Seduction of Sara by Karen Hawkins
8. The Marriage Bed by Laura Lee Guhrke
9. The Duke by Galen Foley
10. The Rake by Susanne Enoch
Note: I'd like to also note the works of Gorgette Heyer... All of them! However, I'm still in ups on weather I'm going to consider that romance or literature.... in my opinion we'd have to put it in the same light as Jane Austen.
Authors:
1. Julie Garwood
2. Karen Hawkins
3. Julia London
4. Betina Kahn
5. Lyndsay Sands
6. Victoria Alexander
7. Stephanie Laurens
8. Christina Dood
9. Lisa Kleypas
10. Amanda Quick
Novels:
1. Ransom by Julie Garwood
2. Shadow Dance by Julie Garwood
3. The Taming of the Duke by Eloisa James
4.To marry a Duke by Julianne MacLean
5. The Last Bachelor by Betina Kahn
6. One Knight Stands by Jocelyn Kelley
7. The Seduction of Sara by Karen Hawkins
8. The Marriage Bed by Laura Lee Guhrke
9. The Duke by Galen Foley
10. The Rake by Susanne Enoch
Note: I'd like to also note the works of Gorgette Heyer... All of them! However, I'm still in ups on weather I'm going to consider that romance or literature.... in my opinion we'd have to put it in the same light as Jane Austen.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Riddle me this, Riddle me that...
Here's a poem by sylvia platt...
Metaphors
I'm a riddle in nine syllables,
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.
Money's new-minted in this fat purse.
I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I've eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there's no getting off.
Metaphors
I'm a riddle in nine syllables,
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.
Money's new-minted in this fat purse.
I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I've eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there's no getting off.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Hey Mr. Producer! I'm talking to you....
Originally I was going to do this post about the woman who'd had 8 kids in the united states, but after watching TV this evening, I've decided that the television industry is going to get the brunt of my anger.
Even though we, here in Holland, are a couple weeks behind in television, I'm not the kind of person to read ahead to see what's going on. So imagine my surprise when one of my favorite characters from Ghost Whisperer died. In the television world now, there are few shows that show marriage in a good light. There's lying, hurt, divorce, and much more. Ghost Whisperer is one of the few shows where that isn't the case. There's a loving relationship where the relationship isn't the issue, rather the science fiction is. That the foundation is steady in the relationship allows one to just enjoy it and he storyline. Now that they've killed off the rock of the marriage, it's turning back only the ongoing soap wheel that's today's television.
In the same way a lot of other shows were cancelled and good characters were cut. Look at for example Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. A fantastic show, and cancelled before the 1st season could even end properly. Or, how about Firefly, Angel, Amsterdam, or Dirty Sexy Money. All shows that were cancelled before their time.
Or how about Birkoff from La Femme Nikita, Doyle from Angel, Kate in NCIS, Janet Fraiser in Stargate SG-1, Mrs. Landingham from the West Wing, Admiral Fitzwallace from the West Wing... I'm sure everyone has a couple characters they can think of.
I understand the need to go in a different direction, and for most of the above named shows a death is a great way to introduce new characters and keep the storylines fresh, but the above named characters are for the most part replaceable. In the case of Ghost Whisperer I'm not sure if that's possible. They built the character up too well to just replace him in my opinion. And after going back on my origional promise not to look ahead, there was no way after tonight's episode that I wasn't going to do that. Lukily because it's a sci-fi show they're able to bring the character back for a couple episodes. But how will the show survive into the next season? Especially after a lot of the viewers are contemplating never watching the show again.
So here's what I say to producers and the people sitting behind the desks at the television corperations: Give us real television. We're smart enough to understand well written television, and we're looking for variation. Don't fill all the tv spots with the same junk. If I really wanted to watch a soap opera I would. Instead what are you offering us? Half a dousan of the same types of shows. FBI Shows? atleast 4 I can think of at the top of my head, and all of them are in some way bringing science/math into the foreground.
Whatever happened to originality?
We have the choice nowerdays between the same types of shows and reality tv. Which I wont get into. That would need an entire rant in itself.
Bring back good television.
Please.
Even though we, here in Holland, are a couple weeks behind in television, I'm not the kind of person to read ahead to see what's going on. So imagine my surprise when one of my favorite characters from Ghost Whisperer died. In the television world now, there are few shows that show marriage in a good light. There's lying, hurt, divorce, and much more. Ghost Whisperer is one of the few shows where that isn't the case. There's a loving relationship where the relationship isn't the issue, rather the science fiction is. That the foundation is steady in the relationship allows one to just enjoy it and he storyline. Now that they've killed off the rock of the marriage, it's turning back only the ongoing soap wheel that's today's television.
In the same way a lot of other shows were cancelled and good characters were cut. Look at for example Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. A fantastic show, and cancelled before the 1st season could even end properly. Or, how about Firefly, Angel, Amsterdam, or Dirty Sexy Money. All shows that were cancelled before their time.
Or how about Birkoff from La Femme Nikita, Doyle from Angel, Kate in NCIS, Janet Fraiser in Stargate SG-1, Mrs. Landingham from the West Wing, Admiral Fitzwallace from the West Wing... I'm sure everyone has a couple characters they can think of.
I understand the need to go in a different direction, and for most of the above named shows a death is a great way to introduce new characters and keep the storylines fresh, but the above named characters are for the most part replaceable. In the case of Ghost Whisperer I'm not sure if that's possible. They built the character up too well to just replace him in my opinion. And after going back on my origional promise not to look ahead, there was no way after tonight's episode that I wasn't going to do that. Lukily because it's a sci-fi show they're able to bring the character back for a couple episodes. But how will the show survive into the next season? Especially after a lot of the viewers are contemplating never watching the show again.
So here's what I say to producers and the people sitting behind the desks at the television corperations: Give us real television. We're smart enough to understand well written television, and we're looking for variation. Don't fill all the tv spots with the same junk. If I really wanted to watch a soap opera I would. Instead what are you offering us? Half a dousan of the same types of shows. FBI Shows? atleast 4 I can think of at the top of my head, and all of them are in some way bringing science/math into the foreground.
Whatever happened to originality?
We have the choice nowerdays between the same types of shows and reality tv. Which I wont get into. That would need an entire rant in itself.
Bring back good television.
Please.
Saturday, February 07, 2009
He said it didn't happen... was he living in a hole?
In the 1960s there was a group of 4 members of the Catholic church that rebelled against the church's modernization and consecrated men in an unsanctioned ceremony. In 1988 they were excommunicated.
Last week the excommunication was lifted by Pope Benedict XVI. What people are most confused about isn't that they were allowed back into the church, but rather, that the Pope embraced them just days after the Sweedish news released an interview with Bishop Williamson, who stated: "I believe that the historical evidence is strongly against -- is hugely against -- 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler." He then went on to say that he didn't believe in gas chambers. The Bishop did not deny the death of "200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, but none of them [died] by gas chambers." Aparently he thought that the death of 6 million Jews wasn't possible.
As you can imagine, this sent red flags all over the place.
The head of the society Williamson belongs took distance from him, stating that his colleague made his own statements, and the Pope tried to mend ties with the Jewish community by not denying that he believed that the gas chambers had existed. However, he did not openly take action against the bishop.
Was this wrong?
I'm as open as they come on a lot of issues. I uderstand that there are always two different sides to an argument. But was this guy living under a rock? Williamson is 68, which means that he was born in the second world war, and although this happened in the UK, the fact that he doesn't believe it happened begs the question of how did he come to believe this? Doesn't the fact that some countries consider such comments punishable under hate-crimes, ring something for him?
He did send a letter in appology, but the appolgy was to the Pope and his head of PR, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos. In it he didn't deny what he said, nor did he say he had made a mistake, but rather he was sorry for the rukus he had caused the Holy Father.
The Jewish community is supposed to get an appology any day now. But is that enough? Should the pope appologise for reinstating the priest? Can he be excommunicated agian? Should we be happy he's old and in ill health and that he'll probably die at some point?
I personally think that the answer is no. Perhaps I'm looking at this through my partial catholic upbriging, but I just do not see how any of this will help. It won't fix years of work and talk between the church and the Jewish Community. Nor will it retract the statement that has been put out.
Perhaps the solution is to reeducate those that speak out that way. A fieldtrip to Auswitz perhaps. Maybe they need to be sat in a room and hit on the head with the overabundent information from the time.
But I think that it is important to remember. This is all the doing of one man and not the institution. And though he may be misled in thinking that he should be dipping into a political arena, when his job is to help his congregation to enrich their christian lives.
The damage is done. Let us hope that it can be cleaned to a point that both parties can move on in their relationship to bring the Catholic Church and the Jewish Community closer.
Last week the excommunication was lifted by Pope Benedict XVI. What people are most confused about isn't that they were allowed back into the church, but rather, that the Pope embraced them just days after the Sweedish news released an interview with Bishop Williamson, who stated: "I believe that the historical evidence is strongly against -- is hugely against -- 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler." He then went on to say that he didn't believe in gas chambers. The Bishop did not deny the death of "200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, but none of them [died] by gas chambers." Aparently he thought that the death of 6 million Jews wasn't possible.
As you can imagine, this sent red flags all over the place.
The head of the society Williamson belongs took distance from him, stating that his colleague made his own statements, and the Pope tried to mend ties with the Jewish community by not denying that he believed that the gas chambers had existed. However, he did not openly take action against the bishop.
Was this wrong?
I'm as open as they come on a lot of issues. I uderstand that there are always two different sides to an argument. But was this guy living under a rock? Williamson is 68, which means that he was born in the second world war, and although this happened in the UK, the fact that he doesn't believe it happened begs the question of how did he come to believe this? Doesn't the fact that some countries consider such comments punishable under hate-crimes, ring something for him?
He did send a letter in appology, but the appolgy was to the Pope and his head of PR, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos. In it he didn't deny what he said, nor did he say he had made a mistake, but rather he was sorry for the rukus he had caused the Holy Father.
The Jewish community is supposed to get an appology any day now. But is that enough? Should the pope appologise for reinstating the priest? Can he be excommunicated agian? Should we be happy he's old and in ill health and that he'll probably die at some point?
I personally think that the answer is no. Perhaps I'm looking at this through my partial catholic upbriging, but I just do not see how any of this will help. It won't fix years of work and talk between the church and the Jewish Community. Nor will it retract the statement that has been put out.
Perhaps the solution is to reeducate those that speak out that way. A fieldtrip to Auswitz perhaps. Maybe they need to be sat in a room and hit on the head with the overabundent information from the time.
But I think that it is important to remember. This is all the doing of one man and not the institution. And though he may be misled in thinking that he should be dipping into a political arena, when his job is to help his congregation to enrich their christian lives.
The damage is done. Let us hope that it can be cleaned to a point that both parties can move on in their relationship to bring the Catholic Church and the Jewish Community closer.
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