Dumb Technology

NEWS.COM -- Philips has invented technology that takes your TV captive. You can't skip ads, unless you agree to pay the broadcaster. Yeah? Well they can't make me keep my eyes open and my fingers out of my ears! More...

Unseasonable

All I remember from growing up around here was rain. Lots of rain. I liked rain. We haven't had a lot of rain as of late. In fact today it was 82 degrees out when I got in my car at 5 pm to come home. I really love leaving for work at 7:40 and arriving home at 5:30, as opposed to when we lived down there and carpooled... we'd leave at 7:10 and get home maybe 6, 6:15. Brutal.

I learned that the lake in our private park used to have river otters and eagles, but they ate so much of the bass that they were trapped and sent elsewhere. A shame.

S is for Silence (Sue Grafton)

Working backwards, I was a little disappointed with the outcome. No explanation in the epilogue of how Kinsey solved the crime. One other thing, but I don't want to spoil the story, so I won't say what.

Grafton, in the 18th installment of her alphabet series, decided to mix it up a little bit. Lori's mom did not care for it, but Lori and I found it intriguing.

If you're familiar at all with Lost, while the story progresses forwards, we the viewers are treated to backstory/flashbacks that allow us to learn more about the motives of the charcters, insight that the island's fellow castaways aren't privvy to, until such time as one of them tells the others (not the others) about something from their past.

Maybe it's because we like Lost, but in this particular book we, the reader, were presented with flashbacks. Every so often we'd start a new chapter, presented with the name of one of the people in the story and a date thirty years prior. Through all the flashbacks, we'd learn of something and then hope that eventually someone in present day would explain it to Kinsey.

The story itself is a young woman trying to find out what happened to her mother thirty years before and Kinsey agreeing to take on the job and try to succeed where the police and private eyes have failed in the past.

If you've been a fan of the Kinsey Milhone series, then you'll probaby like this one.

Your Moment

During your life, you will have moments. What you do at these moments will be defining in your life. You may step up and take your moment, or you may be oblivious to your moment and turn down the wrong path, or continue on blindly when you should have turned your life in another direction. Or, you may eagerly embrace your moment and change the course of your life.

Your moments will not be random, God will have prepared you for them. Before the moment occurs, you will have become aware of a need. You will become consumed, obsessed by the need and you will begin to see the role you might play.

If you feel compelled, but unsure of what to do, then the moment isn’t here yet, but it’s on its way. Pray. Watch for -- expect even -- open doors. Prepare as much as you can. Get ready.

And when the moment arrives, seize it boldly.

What will happen? You may succeed! You may not. You could die. (Literally or figuratively. But hopefully only figuratively.) You will honor God. You may choose to completely ignore the moment. If you do, you may find yourself driving around in circles until you stop to ask for directions and re-arrive at the moment. (Caution: Choosing to ignore a moment may cause the moment to come back to you repeatedly until you act. And when you finally do act, you may end up kicking yourself for not having acted sooner.) Or, the moment may be gone for good.

Moments in the Bible: Jesus in Matthew 21 (Palm Sunday), Esther in Esther 4 (saving the Jews), Nehemiah in Nehemiah 1&2 (rebuilding the city).

paraphrased from a message provided by Jeff MacLurg at Our Savior’s Baptist Church in Federal Way on April 4, 2006.

The Witness by Dee Henderson

I don't know if I can describe this story without spoiling it, but I guess that's fine because I wouldn't recommend it anyhow, so let me save you the trouble by just telling you what it's about.

Kelly sees a bunch of people get killed where she works by the ex-boyfriend of one of her colleagues. She, in shock, hides in the bathroom. Eventually someone reports her and she tells them what she saw, including who did it. Conveniently, the man she talks to is a pretty senior police officer in this semi-little town.

Then she disappears.

He figures out who she is and goes to her house. They talk a little more and form a bond. She leaves, but gives him one more opporunity to talk. She's embroiled in something big and has been on the run for years from a multi-faceted criminal who's running his operation from jail.

She has information that will dismantle his operation and allow the feds to seize all his money.

Then she disappears. By the way, her name is Amanda, not Kelly, but her friends call her Amy and her family calls her Mandy.

Then three years pass.

The police officer is now chief. Someone dies who was very wealthy and he leaves the money to two sisters who never knew he was their dad. They wish their third sister, who died years ago, could be with them to share in the windfall, even though he wasn't her dad.

Before I figure out the connection, still wondering where this is all going, I pick the book up to start reading again and read the back cover which mentions "Amy and her two sisters." Well, while that was obviously about to come out quickly, it ticks me off because it does spoil it temporarily.

The third sister resurfaces and this semi-small police department has the money to keep her in some safe house and the two sisters are brought out to the safe house to learn that their sister is still alive, but that they can't stay reunited, it's just a brief visit.

By now, the police chief is in love with Amy, one of his best deputies is engaged to another sister (they had been dating for years) and the deputy's partner, the police chief's other best deputy, is falling in love with the third sister. It's beginning to feel like a Saturday Night Live movie where everyone gets paired off in the end.

But then someone rather gruesomely kills the dead rich guy's former driver. That sucks. Is it a warning? Is it the criminal coming after the sisters with the new-found money since he knows Amy was their sister?

And then a second former life-long employee dies, the bookkeeper. Again in the victim's blood at the crime scene is the words "I know the family secret." Something funny about the money?

All the while, some characters pray to God and others fret about their friends who don't know Jesus. I asked Lori if Dee Henderson was trying to evangelism in her books and she said that Henderson was a Christian writer. Other than the characters being pretty squeaky without any vices, I didn't understand what all the murder and stuff had to do with Christianity and the evangelism was too blatant to be effective, in my opinion.

And then one of the sisters is murdered. The one who was engaged. I didn't see that coming and it kinda sucked. One of the local reporters seems to know a lot about the crimes and has even managed to get photos where he shouldn't have had access. Is someone on the police force providing him with copies of the negatives from the police crime scene photos?

I haven't competely finished the book yet and Marley is still #1 so I wondered if the Christian Bookstore near Barnes and Noble has a Bestseller section of its own. It doesn't, but it has one entire endcap devoted to this book. And a big professional sign, either done by the company who owned the chain of stores or (more likely) the publisher, asks something to the effect of "Can the police protect Amy and her sister long enough to find the killer?" Which is an odd thing to put in a Christian bookstore, but worse yet, "sister" is singular. That is, now you know Amy/Amanda/Kelly is connected to a sister, but when you open the book and find two sisters, now you know before you get to the end that one of them is dead.

Who dunnit? The reporter from the newspaper, also a legitimate son of this wealthy dead guy, but not at all mentioned in the will.

Everyone lives happily ever after. Except all the dead people. And the people in jail. And the people who don't know Jesus. Ok, I added that last part.

Poor story, poor writing, really bad job at evangelism and crummy marketing that ruins the story ahead of time. Personal opinion, not sure that Dee Henderson would sell too many books if she didn't get placement in Chrisitian bookstores. On the other hand, Lori and her mom both read it and I think would give more favorable reviews.

Just for fun...

TOUR BUS

A tour bus driver is driving with a bus full of seniors down a highway when he is tapped on his shoulder by a little old lady. She offers him a handful of peanuts, which he gratefully munches up.

After about 15 minutes, she taps him on his shoulder again and she hands him another handful of peanuts.

She repeats this gesture about five more times. When she is about to hand him another batch again he asks the little old lady why they don't eat the peanuts themselves.

"We can't chew them because we've no teeth", she replied. The puzzled driver asks, "Well then, why do you buy them?"

The old lady replied, "We just love the chocolate around them."

Walking in L.A.

Vastly an incomplete list, but here's all the stuff we never did get around to doing. (Almost - we did do some of the more obvious ones.)

Museums:

1. Getty Center
2. LA County Museum of Art
3. Museum of Contemporary Art
4. Huntington Gardens
5. Autry Museum of Western Heritage
6. Hollywood Bowl Museum and Tour
7. Page Museum - La Brea Tar Pits
8. Museum of Miniatures
9. Peterson Automotive Museum
10. Guiness Book of World Records Museum
11. Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum
12. Hollywood Wax Museum

Theme Parks:

1. Disneyland
2. Universal Studios, etc.

Animals:

1. LA Zoo
2. Aquarium of the Pacific, etc.

Street Fairs, Parks and Malls:

1. Monrovia Street Fair (Friday Night)
2. Griffith Park and Observatory
3. Hollywood and Highland
4. The Grove/Farmer's Market
5. Paseo Colorado, etc.

Other:

1. Forest Lawn Museum - (click on "Hall of Crucifixion/Resurrection" and "The Last
   Supper Window")
2. Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels (new Catholic Cathedral)
3. Walt Disney Concert Hall
4. Spring Street Tour - Los Angeles Conservancy Walking Tour Experience the area that recently has become a hub of downtown revitalization
5. Hollywood/Walk of Fame
6. Olivera Street
7. Westwood
8. Angel's Walk
9. Angel's Flight