...so I have been listening to ABBA for the past hour while working on the CSS.
I have added more links.
I unfortunately changed the color, something about a UN convention forbidding the colors I was using. Stoopid UN.
Now I have two books I am reading, but, the pictures seem to only show up in stoopid Internet Explorer, but not in Mozilla. What's up with that??
How do I fix it?
:-jon
Hey sports fans, sorry about the wonky bright pink.
My friend over at the Tiki Lodge was trying to school me on CSS, that's a Cascading Style Sheet. So much to learn....
We picked this one up over at the CSS Zen Garden. It's the "pretty in pink" style sheet, if you couldn't geuss.
Well, I guess I best go make coffee for my co-workers.
Every now and then, some people decide they have too many books, and they gather them up in an airplane hanger in foist them off on the public. My better half used charms to talk me into going on Friday night. And what is more romantic than rummaging through used books on a Friday night?
And we went again on Sunday with a good friend. I had fun hanging out, chatting, seeing what books they got, but I blame them for me getting too many books. They should know that I have no self-control.
Boring list of books warning: Flashing Red
So I can sort of sort them out.
Literature Short stories
Mark Twain’s Best
50 Great Oriental Stories (by Asian authors, published 1965)
American Short Story Masterpieces: (36 post 1945 stories, published 1987)
20 Grand Short Stories: (American, from Scholastic Magazine, published 1947)
50 Great Short Stories: (published 1952, suggested by literature professors)
Best American Short Stories 1962
Ten Modern American Short Stories (published 1965)
So maybe after I read all of these I will know what makes a good short story. Maybe even then be able to write a short story. So I got 195 short stories, average 12.5 pages per story, for 2,445 pages.
Sci-Fi short stories
Dark Masques (modern masters of terror, published 2001, 48 stories from the 1980s)
17 x Infinity (17 sci-fi stories, published 1963, )
Best SF: 1972
50 Strange Stories of the Supernatural (published 1974)
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame (vol 4, Nebula winners 1970-1974)
The Year’s Best SF ( 1996)
World’s Best Science Fiction 1967
Fifty Years of the Best Science Fiction (from Analog, published 1980)
Well, with this I should be able to write a dated sci-fi story. 191 stories, 3040 pages, averages almost 16 pages per story.
Ich habe fuer sechs Jahre Deutsch studiern. Ich soll meine Deutsch nicht vergessen.
American Love Stories: Yes, more short stories, left page in English, right page a German translation.
Der Prozess Fanz Kafka
German though Pictures a good first year review of common phrases
Geschichte der deutschen Literatur more short stories, 1820-1885
A German picture dictionary, in german.
Biographien bedeutender Mathematiker: biography of mathematicians, interesting, they list David Hilbert, but not Henri Poincaire.
Sometimes I play DnD, and I think that Holli should use poetry. So I couldn’t pass up a W.H. Auden edited anthologies:
Medieval and Renaissance Poets
Restoration and Augustan Poets
Victorian and Edwardian Poets
TS Eliot, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats my favorite poet, at his most bleak :-)
Shakespeare’s Macbeth – none of that over rated Hamlet
Fiction: some classic, some popular, some both.
Ender’s Game Orson Scott Card, excellent
Speaker for the Dead Orson Scott Card
I, Robot Isaac Asimov, I think I read this
Dune Frank Herbert, excellent, but the rest of the series gets progressively worse
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert Pirsig excellent
Watership Down Richard Adams
On A Pale Horse and Ogre, Ogre Piers Anthony
The Once and Future King T.H. White
Drangons of Winter Night and Dragons of Spring Dawning by Weis & Hickman
And sometimes I believe that if I read certain books, I will become smart and educated and stuff. These ones I’m sure will gather more dust, but won’t people be impressed when they have to sell them at my estate sale?
The Story of Philosophy: from Plato to John Dewey arranged chronologically by philosopher
Basic Teachings of the Great Philosophers arranged by topic
Concise Readings in Philosophy: anthology of original material, arranged by topic
The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science EA Burtt, I wonder how this compares with Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions?
The Rights of Man Thomas Paine I am proud of this find, and proud to be an American
And don’t worry sports fans. I still heart math, and got the books to prove it.
Problem Solvers Algebra & Trigonometry 1275 problems with solutions
Problem Solvers Pre-calculus
Plane Geometry Problems with Solutions
A Concise History of Mathematics, this one has a picture of Poincaire, but not of Hilbert.
The World of Mathematics, vol. 2…maybe I can later find the other three volumes
You know, I don’t think I’m crazy, I think I am flippin’ insane.
I believe that everyone has their own talents, and everyone has their own strengths.
If Sting were to sing off key, or if Shaq were to miss an uncontested dunk then that would be a clue that something was wrong.
weight issues warning. RED
It is natural for men, to gain weight, as they get older. I am worried, some would say needlessly, that I am getting old and out of shape. Let’s review the numbers.
Quarter, average weight, workouts per week
Winter 2004 157.4 lbs 2.7
Spring 2004 159.7 lbs 2.9
Summer 2004 159.3 lbs 2.3
Fall 2004 160.2 lbs 3.6
Winter 2005 162.1 lbs 2.8
Spring 2005 163 lbs .9
Summer 2005 163 lbs 1.7
August 2005 average weight 165
September 2005, average weight 167
So weight gain of 10 pounds in less than two years. And from the frequency of my workouts I think we can assume that is not a gain of muscle mass.
And remember, that Fall 2004 I got a new job, and it is physically (and emotionally) a lot easier. So basically I think that I am getting old and out of shape.
We’ll see how I do for getting back in shape.
:-jon
Once upon a time, Zorloc was our DM for a little play of Dungeons and Dragons. Our first adventure was in the Dragon Lance setting, and later I found out that we were basically playing out the plot to a book.
It was mostly fun, but I thought I could make it better. The main complaint I had about it was that there was too much background information that our characters would know, but that we didn’t know. Maybe we should have read some of the 100+ books that have been written for the Dragon Lance setting.
So, a bit later, I foolishly became a DM. I wanted to make my own world, and design it myself. I think the best improvement on the game with me as DM is that we were using the 3rd edition d20 system. Maybe more later about my feelings about my DM experience.
Currently Alecks B Cix is our DM…he should be going insane soon…but he is smart enough to be using a pre-made campaign setting of Ebberon.
So far this month I’ve read three Dragon Lance books.
“The Magic of Krynn” is a collection of short stories. Short stories are nice little morsels, and I believe that the best short stories have a little twist at the end. It was a fun collection of stories. One of the most moving was about the motives of an evil wizard.
“Dragons of Winter Night” is the second book of the adventure that we started. This series is one of the main stories of the world. I like the characters, there are I think 9 main characters. I like the way they interact and I like that none of them are perfect, each has a distinct strength and weakness and fears that they wrestle with. My main criticism of this series is that sometimes when all is bleak, something jumps in to save the day. I like it when the characters have to come up with their own solutions, not have to rely on luck time and time again. It seems that that they had few real choices, but, of the few choices….the kender made one that shocked me, and someone appears turned to evil. I am interested in how this turns out.
“The Covenant of the Forge” the forming of a Dwarven nation. A look at dwarven culture that I appreciated, tells of jealousy and infighting and mistrust amongst dwarves. One saying amused me “Kender happen.” And I really appreciated “to most Dwarves…the primary test of any situation - the primary test of anything – was its practicality” pg 251. That explains the Dwarves saying of “look to the left side of your tools.” Their tools for mining could be used as deadly weapons, and they could be ready at a moment to stop work, to defend themselves. Pgs 48-50.
It was some nice entertainment. I liked the study of Dwarven culture the best.
:-jon