Not a book review blog

The last few blogs I've put up have been about books and while that's fine and all I like to think there's other things I can discuss as well. So... , so I've also been reading through the Complete Works of William Shakespeare (it seems so funny not to write abridged here) I thought I'd go comedy, history, tragedy and then some sonnets, (wash, rinse, repeat) and save the long poems and the apocrypha until the end. And I did this until I read King Richard the Second which led right into The First Part of King Henry the Fourth which, by strange coincidence, led right into The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, which is where I am currently. Judging by King John I didn't think I'd really like the histories but these others have really moved right along and that's mostly thanks to Shakespeare's Falstaff. Falstaff and often Prince Hal spend a lot of time calling people names and Falstaff is constantly finding ways of getting out of doing things. For example the famous line, "The better part of valor is discretion..." is said by Falstaff after successfully playing possum to avoid a fight and then after Prince Hal has killed the other guy (I can't remember his name right now) and walked away, Falstaff gets up stabs the guy in the leg and throws him over his shoulder as though he's just slayed him. Hilarious. This isn't a book review in case your wondering because these are plays I'm reading. Okay that doesn't hold water. So what? What else should we talk about? Politics? Religion? I get on my nerves talking politics and religion to myself I don't want to drag you poor folks into that. Fitness? I'm still on my diet, though I'm still having a hard time sticking to a fitness regimen, life can be hard on us lazy people sometimes. Work? It's going good, finally got 40 hours in this week, first time all year I do believe. Oh!  The elephant in the room, Super Bowl XLV, I'm excited. I like football, I love the Super Bowl. Years when I've barely followed the teams I've watched the BIG game and this year we watched football every Sunday and we are soooo ready to see Pittsburgh vs. Green Bay. I say we because you see, dear hearts, my lovely wife loves football even more than I do. So every Super Bowl is a big event at the Spurling household, we have decorations even, but this year is even bigger because my number 2 team and possibly Rain's favorite team is the Steelers. I also really like Rodgers and the Packers, so I think this is going to be a great game. No blow out like it has been at times. So tomorrow is all about getting ready for Sunday and Sunday is like Christmas and Monday is like the day after Christmas but without the long return line at Wal-Mart. The game starts at about 6:30 but pre-game shows start at about 10 a.m. (I told Rain I might not be able to go to Sunday school with her). Well actually pre-game shows started this past Monday, but you know what I mean. Okay I've rambled on (it's in the blog name) long enough. Live long and prosper Orson, Mork out na-nu, na-nu. Shazbat, it's the finger thing makes me confuse them.

book review - Odd and the Frost Giants

This is a kids book written by Neil Gaiman and it's very short, in fact my only complaint about the book is that it's way too short. I've read longer short stories, it's more like a tale told in front of a fire place on a winters night by some avuncular character than an actual book. But it's a good tale, so that's not so bad. It's the story of Odd (which according to Gaiman wasn't an Odd name in those times and in that place but even though Odd's name wasn't odd, he was) who as a young viking had faced many difficulties in his short life when one day he rescues a trapped bear from a tree only to find that the bear is actually the Norse god Thor who, along with Odin and Loki, have been transformed into animals and banished from Asgard. Of course Odd saves the day and rids Asgard of the conquering Frost Giant. I thought it was pretty neat that instead of a white hat/black hat dual morality Gaiman presents Odd instead with Gods and Giants that are equally culpable in their distresses and has him find a suitable solution to the problem. I plan to try and read this to my two little ones if I can con them into turning off their games and t.v. programs long enough.

book review - The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Just (like 5 minutes ago) finished reading The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and I loved it, great story. It's considered juvenile fiction and is in large part inspired by Kipling's The Jungle Book but instead of a boy raised by wolves, instructed by bears and watched over by a panther it's the story of a boy raised by ghosts, instructed by both ghosts and a werewolf and watched over by a vampire. The story moves along at a good pace and probably is pretty good for kids (and adults that still like kid lit.), I'm going to try and get my middle children to read it. In an interesting, to me at least, side note Gaiman thanks Audrey Niffenegger in his acknowledgments, Niffenegger is the author of The Time Traveler's Wife which is the last non-Gaiman book I've read. I find little coincidences like that fascinating. 

book/movie review - Stardust

I read Stardust by Neil Gaiman earlier this week in my on going attempt to read all things Gaiman. It's a short, to the point fairy tale. It's an interesting story that I'm sure could have been expanded and made into a longer novel or even a series of novels, but that wasn't the point of Stardust. Gaiman, I believe, set out to right a fairy tale and that's just what he did, complete with unicorns and witches and fairies and marauding princes. There was an interesting speech that Gaiman had given included at the end of this edition about Neil's view on the power of fairy tales and on how fairy tales had originally been intended for adult audiences but when they lost their popularity they were moved to the 'nursery'. This book is set up like a kids chapter book, 10 chapters and an epilogue,  with each chapter telling an important part of the story and moving the plot along at an very fast past. It's a 'kids' book for adults. I did enjoy this story but I felt that perhaps it was Gaiman's expert fantasy weaving that saved it from being a contrite, predictable story. So good, quick read but not an American Gods or Anansi Boys. On an related note I watched the movie, I feel I should say inspired by instead of based on, this book this week also. I know when a film maker takes a story they use it to tell a story of their own and perhaps had I waited a while between reading and watching I wouldn't have compared so much but there were some things I just couldn't figure out why they felt needed changing. The movie was okay, had I not just read the book I might hold it in higher opinion but I can't help but think it would have been better without the big name stars hogging up the screen time. The story should be about the story not about how often you can show Robert DeNiro or Michelle Pfeiffer. I can't quite make up my mind though which ending I like better, the movies happily ever after or the books more realistic (within the realm of fantasy that is to say) one.

The Time Traveler's Wife - a book reivew.

This is about the third time I've tried to write this, first on a facebook book site that I couldn't get to work and then here on my blog but I tried to get technical and thorough and couldn't concentrate and got very aggravated with myself and gave up. So here is a quick and easy review of The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I wanted to read this book because it had garnered lots of accolades and had a neat premise but I really didn't expect a whole lot from it except for a maybe a good love story, I figured it would be a Nicholas Sparksian book and in the end that's pretty much what it was. The beginning of this book however was surprisingly good and I wish it could have carried through to the end. The beginning contains most of the time traveling and it's great how the main characters Clare and Henry meet. Clare is six and Henry in his thirties the first time Clare meets Henry, however Clare and Henry are both in their twenties when Henry first meets Clare. The beginning has lots of the fantasy side of the story as well as lots of foreshadowing of both romance and mayhem to come. Then we get to the middle of the story, which unfortunately is the Achilles heel of many a writer, and the story slows ,way, down. Clare and Henry spend much of the time in sequential time, getting married, trying to conceive, trying to find out what causes Henry's time traveling and basically trying to live a 'normal' life. Once or twice the author goes back and shows Henry coming back to the present from one of the times he spent with Clare in her past and I wish she had done more of this in the middle of the book and perhaps shown more of the future, I think this would have buoyed the middle more. Then we come to the third part of the book that, for the sake of argument, will call the end. I really liked parts of the ending and really disliked parts of it as well. There's plenty of room for tears (and really this is where it gets real Sparksish) but I couldn't get to emotional over it for being aggravated at the writer for taking an interesting story down a maudlin chick-lit path. That being said the ending isn't all bad, there are some redeeming qualities to it as well. When I finished the book and my wife asked me how I liked it, I wasn't real sure how to answer. Finally I said yes, mostly. Would I recommend it? It's got some language and sexual scenes that would keep me from loaning it to my mom or daughter but for my peers I'd say if you'd like a possibly tear jerking love story with an interesting twist , a sort of fantasy chick-lit, then go for it.

You know your getting old when...

You know your getting old when...

• you get up off the couch and your joints loudly crunch and crackle.
• you look at your sons i-tunes and you don't recognize any of the bands. And speaking of i-tunes,
• you have to have your son put music on your i-pod for you. I feel bad now for making fun of my mom when her vcr use to flash 12:00 all the time.
• you've been married for 20 years.
• 7:00 at night is just to late to drive to another town for dinner.
• for your big anniversary you eat left over chicken and watch two episodes of Jeopardy, and you enjoy it.
• you dvr Jeopardy.
• you subscribe to a word-of-the-day email (today's word was guttural).
• you want coffee, with every meal. And finally,
• you start hurting in random places for no apparent reason.

Yep, I'm getting old. But as a lovely older woman I use to work with always said, "It's better than the alternative."

Forget Santa, I'd rather kiss the dog.

 We were at the mall Saturday and there wasn't a line to see Santa and so my two middle boys hopped up onto the jolly old elf's lap. Ben told Santa he wanted wrestlin' stuff for Christmas and when Santa asked what else he wanted he said, 'just wrestlin' stuff.' Then he told Santa he'd been a good boy but that, 'daddy was on the naughty list.' Then Santa asked my 8 yr. old what he wanted and he said, 'a laptop and a cell phone.' At 8! What happened to G.I. Joe and race car tracks? I hope he's not to disappointed on Christmas morning. Then we tried to sit the 'baby' on Santa's lap, he started crimping up real fast and reaching for me, so I got him back right before the water works started. So? Where does the title from this blog come from? Well Saturday evening as we were pulling all the boxes of Christmas decorations out of the storage building the 'baby' was all hugged up on our dog, Danny Boy, and Danny Boy was trying to lick him and I said, 'Look Sam, Danny's trying to kiss you.' Now Sam loves to give kisses and sometimes he'll go back and forth between me and his mom saying 'kiss' and giving us kisses. So I should have know better than to say kiss and dog in the same sentence, but I didn't. So about that time the child that would have nothing whatsoever to do with Santa Claus leans over and kisses the dog square on the mouth. Hence the title, 'Forget Santa, I'd rather kiss the dog.'