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Video Game Addiction

Cracked.com ran this article in March. There is a bit of language, but it makes a point.

Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted

By David Wong Mar 08, 2010

Top Twenty Books Checked Out This Year

1    FIC CAS    Marked    Cast, P. C.    

2    FIC HOP    Crank    Hopkins, Ellen

3    FIC MEY    Twilight    Meyer, Stephenie

4    FIC SPA    Dear John    Sparks, Nicholas

5    FIC MEY    New moon : a novel    Meyer, Stephenie

6    FIC SHA    Tunnels of blood : the saga of Darren Shan.    Shan, Darren

7    FIC SPA    At first sight    Sparks, Nicholas

8    FIC CAS    Hunted : a house of night novel    Cast, P. C.    

9    FIC CAS    Untamed : a house of night novel    Cast, P. C.    

10    FIC HEA    North of beautiful    Headley, Justina Chen

11    FIC HOP    Impulse    Hopkins, Ellen.    

12    FIC PIC    The pact : a love story    Picoult, Jodi

13    FIC SCH    The school for dangerous girls    Schrefer, Eliot

14    FIC SHA    Lord Loss    Shan, Darren

15    FIC SNI    The fallen.    Sniegoski, Tom

16    FIC SPA    A walk to remember.    Sparks, Nicholas

17    FIC STO    A bad boy can be good for a girl    Stone, Tanya Lee

18    FIC CAS    Betrayed : a House of Night novel    Cast, P. C.    

19    FIC CAS    Chosen : a house of night novel    Cast, P. C.    

20    FIC CLA    City of Glass    Clare, Cassandra

Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer

     Anybody who has read Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer has been delighted by it. The author is from Nebraska and a short interview from the Lincoln Journal Star follows. Here is more information about the book from the publisher.

Lincoln Journal Star: Why Pinocchio and vampires?

Van Jensen: At the start, the artist, Dusty, had this basic idea of Pinocchio killing a vampire in this one-panel gag cartoon. At the time I thought it was clever and then forgot about it. Then he called me out of the blue and asked what I thought of doing a book out of this. At first I wasn't sure how to make a whole book out of this. But then I went back to the original Carlo Collodi story. It's just such a brilliant story, so subversive and funny, and there's a lot of stuff that's not in the Disney cartoon. There were a lot of elements left hanging that I could pick up and weave together in interesting ways. I thought, OK, there's potential for a real story here and not just a joke. It's something that's totally ridiculous, but we make it so that it has some meatier elements infused into it.

LJS: The book got a glowing review on USA Today's Pop Candy blog. The review noted that this is not just another story capitalizing on the vampire bandwagon. Is it frustrating that the book might just get lumped into that genre by a lot of people?

VJ: I haven't heard this yet, but I'm expecting people to say, "Oh, this is just another vampire book; I can just disregard it because of that." That would be annoying. But the book is doing well so far. And part of that owes to the fact that vampires have buzz right now. I don't think of myself as a pop author. I'm not someone who just cares about making money. But at the same time I want as many people as possible to read what I write. If being about vampires helps me get more readers, that's good.

LJS: And you're not even a vampire fan, right?

VJ: I'm trying to be. I've read "Dracula" and a couple of the "Blade" comics. But the whole vampire scene doesn't mean anything to me.

LJS: In your book, Pinocchio is this kind of surly, grizzled action hero. Were you basing his personality on any particular character or group of characters? He seemed to me like Pinocchio as mentored by John McClane.

VJ: It probably comes across that I watch a lot of action movies, especially bad action movies. I'd like to think of myself as a serious writer, but I do love some cheesy action. The other side of his personality is just the character of Pinocchio from the original. He was totally over the top and getting into trouble and not listening to anyone.

LJS: What kind of comics did you grow up reading?

VJ: I was limited. There's a grocery store in my hometown, and it's literally called The Store. In Lewellen, they don't need to create names. It's just "the whatever." The Store had a handful of issues. I read the superhero stuff, G.I. Joe comics. It wasn't until college that I even had an awareness of indie comics. I try to read tons and tons of comics because I think you can learn something from everything you read. I'll spend 10 minutes looking at a panel, thinking, "How in the hell did this guy do that?"

I don't think I'm ever going to get to this level, but I'm going to give it a shot.

Curious About the iPad?

Two Words

 

 

Laptop Buying Advice

Many of the seniors are searching for the right computer for college. CNET Reviews has the following advice for students. 

"Students typically require low prices and portability above all. A laptop that can be carried from class to class is key, so many students turn to low-cost Netbooks, which are small, low-power systems that generally cost less than $500. The downside is that these have small screens and generally use underpowered single-core CPUs.

Another option is a 13-inch thin-and-light laptop, which is somewhat less portable, but makes for a better experience when sitting down to write papers and do research. These have dual-core CPUs and often include optical drives. Apple's 13-inch MacBook is a prime example.

What to look for: At least 1GB of RAM; 160GB or larger HDD; 13-inch or smaller display."

My advice is to know what you plan to use the computer for and buy something that will do those things. For example, if you will just be checking Facebook and writing notes and doing a little research, you do not need anything expensive or fancy. However, if your computer will be your entertainment center, your right arm, and your library, you'd better splurge. Honestly think about how you will actually use the computer.

Do a little research on the web.

Go to Best Buy or some other retail outlet where you can put your hands on the computers you are considering.

Think about price last. If you just want the cheapest computer available, you don't need to think about any of this. Just buy the thing and learn to live with the consequences. You will probably be pretty happy with it, at least for a while. If you live and breath through your computer, you will be more particular. You can still buy a very nice computer that will do everything you need it to do for a reasonable amount of money, but do not compromise good design and  the solid technical specifications that you require to do what you need to do.

The Lightning Thief

 After all the hullabaloo about the movie, I decided to read the book. Despite the fact that it is written for people much, much younger than I am, I enjoyed it thoroughly and thought it was action-packed and funny.

Here is one of my favorite bits:

"Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, a dirty, unnaturally pink stuffed animal.

No. It wasn't a stuffed animal. It was a pink poodle.

The poodle yapped at me suspiciously. Grover said, 'No, he's not.'

I blinked. 'Are you . . . talking to that thing?'

The poodle growled.

'This thing,' Grover warned, 'is our ticket west. Be nice to him.'

'You can talk to animals?'

Grover ignored the question. 'Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy.'

I stared at Annabeth, figuring she'd crack up at this practical joke they were playing on me, but she looked deadly serious.

'I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle,' I said. 'Forget it.'

'Percy,' Annabeth said. 'I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle.'

The poodle growled.

I said hello to the poodle.

American Car Brochures

American Car Brochures scans and displays the brochures that you would have found in automobile dealers' showrooms in the 20th Century. The brochures are organized by manufacturer and by year. The scans are of a very high quality which makes it easier to read the fine print.