Review: "Death's Excellent Vacation", an anthology edited by Charlaine Harris

Death's Excellent Vacation by Charlaine Harris

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


First off, I have to admit I only read the Sookie Stackhouse and Cat/Bones stories. I do not know the other authors, and I have way too much reading material at the moment to add anyone knew to the list.

"Two Blondes" - this story occurs after book 10. Sookie and Pam do an errand for Eric, and run into somewhat unexpected trouble. I found the story light-hearted, funny, and well-written. Anyone, even people who have not read Ms. Harris' series, will enjoy this book.

"One for the Money"- this story occurs between "Destined for an Early Grave" and "This Side of the Grave", and it explains why Bones and Cat have fallen into Versus' bad graces. There is only one juicy scene, but as always Ms. Frost delivers a crisp, exciting story.



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Review: "A Touch of Dead" by Charlaine Harris

A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I loved this book! The short stories fill in details between books, such as when and how Sookie meets Claudette and Claude, and how Sookie learns of her inheritance from Hadley. For those reasons alone, I recommend this book to Sookie fans. But mostly I love Charlaine Harris' writing - she creates such believable characters (once you accept magic and such in the world), as well as building a believable environment. I found myself really enjoying the short stories for that alone.



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Review of "Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies"

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


To be honest, I am not a big Jane Austin fan. I find her characters rather flat, the dialogue boring, and the interactions not really active enough. I also think her "heroines" need a back bone and a stronger sense of self-worth.



But I love zombies, so my darling husband bought me this book. I started reading the book, and I discovered that I like the zombies better than the original.



However, too much of the original problems with the book still exist, and I was unable to get through more than about a third of the book.



If you like Jane Austin and zombies, you will completely love this book.



Otherwise, it makes a good conversational piece.



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Poem: Will's Magic Potion Advert

Imagine that William Shakespeare were alive today. He might be writing the text for advertisements, catchy jingles that people will remember when shopping. Now imagine he got a job writing for the next diet craze...

**********************************************************

Blubber, blubber
Toil and trouble
Cellulose burn
Under skin and stubble

With Death by Chocolate and  
Cold Champagne,
Pickled herring,
Your BMI Bane!

When Fate brings heart attacks
That soar and surge,
Will a deadly rose help you
Poison and purge?

Grecian Formula for your hair,
Contact lenses for your eyes,
But what fool-proof plan appears in your head
To handle those rotund thighs?

My Cure-All Potion is what you Need,
100% Risk-Free Guaranteed.
It will make those stones just melt away,
Without making your wallet bleed.

Trust me.

Poem: Burning

We burnt gasoline and oil
Driving to work
Driving to school
Driving to stores, museums, the movies
Driving to gas stations
To buy more gasoline

We burnt diesel
Driving trains
Driving tractor-trailers
Moving coal, lumber, sheet metal
Moving cars to people
To use to burn gasoline

We burnt, burnt, burnt
Until the offspring of our burning
Burnt the ground in Africa
Killing plants
Killing animals
Killing crops, crops, crops
Until millions of people starved

****************************************************************

Background:

I wrote this poem after watching a science show that discussed the drought in northern Africa in the early 1980s. You see, the rains usually travel from southern Africa to northern Africa once a year, and people in such countries as Ethiopia depend on the rains for their survival. The seasonal rains stopped in the early 1980s, and the subsequent drought killed millions of people. Then, in the late 1980s, the seasonal rains returned. For the longest time, we didn't know why.

Then, some scientists stumbled across the reason while researching the effects of particulate pollution. To sum up their findings, the air pollution generated in the US during the 1970s and early 1980s traveled across the Atlantic Ocean, and disrupted the rain cycle in Africa.

After watching this show and thinking over their evidence and conclusions, I sat astounded for several minutes. Who knew that the world was so interconnected? Who knew that Americans had accidentally killed millions of Africans simply through driving cars?

I felt sickened at the thought, and a little guilty because I love driving around. So I wrote this poem, to capture the mood.

ECP: A Call for Geeky Art

I am a geek.  I love my new Android tablet!  My husband and I wired our house for Ethernet, even though we also set up a wireless router.  I watch Nova ScienceNOW, and I research the shows afterwards.  I get the NASA newsletter, then I drag my kids to astronomical events, though “drag” is the wrong word because my kids are geeks too.  We discuss things such as how frozen water on the moon increase our chances of setting up a successful moon base, and how thorium/fluoride reactors solve the power problem, being so much safer than uranium reactors.  Plus thorium is abundant not only on Earth, but on the moon and Mars as well.

And for shopping, I love ThinkGeek.com!!!  This place has everything for geeks - coffee mugs with a caffeine molecule on the side, T-shirts that proclaim “Stand back!  I’m trying science!”, replicas of the 10th and 11th Doctor Who sonic screwdriver...  For the record, I prefer the sonic screwdriver that Tenant used - it includes an pen snub with invisible ink and an ultraviolet light to view message written with such.

Last week, ThinkGeek.com issued a call for geeky art.  They received a letter from Christina Nemeth, who is currently stationed overseas with the Air Force.  Christina would like to decorate her boring, plain office walls with pictures of monkeys!!  Monkeys - The official mascot of ThinkGeek.com!

So I am passing this call on to you, East Cobb.  If you have artistic skills, or you just like to draw monkeys (though other primates are welcome), please consider sending something to Christina.  She can use all the monkeys and cheer that’s available.  

Contact information is in the ThinkGeek.com blog.

ECP: Arguments for the Balanced Calendar

As the balanced calendar ended this year, several Cobb parents decided to collect some data to determine how successful or unsuccessful this year was.  The evidence is clear - the balanced calendar is not the “vacation” calendar that some people in the county want to believe it is.

I am not copying their data here - but if you want to read it we’ve uploaded it to the East Cobb Patch.  You can find the information here (Wendy - please link the data here).

Basically,  these areas showed improvement this past year:

• Test Scores:  Test scores are up this past year.  In fact, the ITBS scores, which have declined since 2007, went up again.
• Student Absenteeism:  Student were absense less last year - approximately 7.5% district wide.  In the first semester alone, about 75% of the school reported a decrease in student absenteeism.
• Teacher Absenteeism:  Teachers were absent less as well.  Not only does this favorably effect the kids - who don’t need to adjust to substitute teachers, but it saves the county money in substitute costs.  Cobb School District saved over one million dollars in these fees, and that after lowering the payout for substitutes from $79/day to $69/day.
• Student Morale:  This is less concrete, but from experiences with my own kids, and their friends, last school year I witnessed significantly less burn out, and a better attitude  towards school the entire year.
• Teacher Morale:  Again, this is a less concrete measure.  But I know several teachers, and every one of them enjoyed the breaks as much as the kids.

So, with what appears to be overwhelming data, why is there such a controversy?  Where is the data for the traditional calendar?

Supposedly, Kathleen Angelucci and Scott Sweeney have data to show the benefit of the traditional calendar, but as far as I know no one has seen this data.  Do you know what I think?  I think that they simply want the traditional calendar, so they have lied to us about their data.  Because every time anyone requests this data,  Angelucci and Sweeney give that person either the silent treatment or  the run around.

I think lots of people out there want the traditional calendar, not based on facts or logic, but because it’s close to the calendar that they remember as kids.  It is easy to get nostalgic about school, and believe that things were “better” when we were kids.  But honestly, we’d still be living in grass huts, wearing leaves, walking around barefoot, and eating bugs if we never changed.

One argument for the traditional calendar is that the kids need a long enough summer, with the mistaken assumption that the balanced calendar shortchanges kids.  But let’s be honest here, the balanced calendar left a ten week summer!  Typically, an American school district has 2-3 months, which translates into 8 to 12 weeks.   So our 10-week summer break falls smack dab in the middle.  Why, then, do people think our break is substantially shorter?  My guess is the timing of the summer break - from late May until early August, instead of mid-June to late August.  In summary, it's not as though the kids aren’t getting a summer.  They are simply getting a summer with different start and ending dates.

The other argument for the traditional calendar would be potential tourism dollars lost for local businesses.  First, my child’s education is more important that tourism.  Period.  Second, we Georgians don’t typically use our own tourist locations in August - we can go there during the cooler times of year.  Third, the week long breaks in September and February actually open up more possibilities for tourism in a time other than summer.  And finally, our children’s education is more important than tourism.  (This needs to be restated; it is that important.)

The traditional calendar also has a large negative.  There have been several studies that show children who receive free or reduced lunch actually lose significant ground academically during the summer break, but children who do not receive a free or reduced lunch either lose a little ground or gain ground academically during the summer break.  This means that the 46% of children in Cobb county lose ground all summer.  Why would we want to increase the time in summers?  So that the “haves” can outperform the “have-nots” even more?  

In conclusion, I ask everyone out that who supports the traditional calendar to ask yourself why.  If you have some actual reason, with data to back it up, please post your reasoning here in the comments.  We supporters of the balanced calendar would love to learn why you believe that way.  But if you simply like the traditional calendar for the sake of tradition, don’t bother.  You’ll never convince us, and we’ll never convince you.