2011 Reading Challenge

Rosa has read 0 books toward a goal of 100 books.
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Thursday, June 16

A study in scarlet...Sherlock Fever!!!!

I didnt realize Sherlock had a clear beginning. Lol! The beginning narrative is very good. We are introduced to Watson and Holmes. We get to know their habits and characters and a certain personal background. We learn how they meet and end up living together and how they end up solving crimes. All of it is precious background I didn't even know was out there, so it was very much appreciated and enjoyed.

What I DIDN'T like was book II. WTF? Here I am very much into who killed these men and how they did it and hurray, Sherlock tricks and captures a cabbie and just when I am the most invested and at the edge of my seat waiting for the explanation........BAM! We begin Book II and start a whole new narrative somewhere in buttville Utah with characters I don't know or care about! This painful Drabble goes on for 3 whole chapters! I was so confused. I had to google it and make sure I was still reading the right story. Maybe if the point of view would have shifted earlier on, kind of like how some modern authors, switch between the antagonist and protagonist or between the past and present from the beginning it would have made it more palatable and easier to follow.

As it was, for me, it came out of left field, and even though it explained a lot as to WHY these murders were committed, I could have done without it. I'm still mad I had to read it! We get it. Revenge. Move on!!!!!

Grrr! The other major thing I took exception to, was when we FINALLY get back to our story and it's regular narrative, by now I don't really care and I've lost interest for the why (even tho we are STILL tortured with another in-depth narrative) and want to know the how. How did Sherlock solve it? Well, by the time we get to the last 3 pages that has the answer, I read it more just to read it than because I'm actually interested.

I'm pretty critical, but I try not to sugar coat it. I still give it 4 out of 5 and I do take into account that the book was not originally published as a full novel, but as snippets in a magazine, also that it is Doyles first book, so all in all, not bad. I did enjoy the story (most of it anyway) and am looking forward to The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, which thankfully, is back to short stories.


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Thursday, June 9

What's the world going to be like for my child in 10 yrs time....




So I caught up on Steve Jobs Keynote yesterday followed with an E3 re-cap showcasing Wii U and it's new touch controller, and I ended the night with Sony's PS future and more Xbox kinect tweaking.....now I'm not much for gaming (especially RPG) but Forza Motorsport 4 had me salivating. Not only does it look good, but it's splashed full of sexy cars with so much realism AND to top it all off, it includes an episode of Top Gear and the cars are introduced by Jeremy Clarkson...

I wake up to a text message next to my head and opened my iPad lock screen to the latest edition of WIRED Magazine where I read articles about viral videos and Quora (which I just signed onto with my Facebook) and I HAVE to take a minute to step back and just think.

It's been ten years exactly since I graduated high school. I need absolute silence, so I naturally crank up the pandora station and blog. In ten short years life is almost unrecognizable. Not just the look and feel of the youth and the culture (tho I still don't really GET emo kids and hipsters) but I'm talking about this technology revolution that happened while we were all just living. Now these things that are INDISPENSABLE today, were just a gleam in their developer momma and poppa's eyes. They were limited to a scifi channel special and good authors following in Jules Verne's, Jorge Lucas, and of course Duck Dodgers in the 21st and a half Century footsteps.

I would DIE without my cell phone. I probably never use it for actual phone calls, but I text and google, and mapquest. I obsessively Facebook "liking" my friends and families quips, I YouTube Daniel after Dentist or other Tosh.O virals I DVR'd earlier in the week....I listen to tailored radio stations streaming through Pandora, and lord forbid it if I wasn't able to access my ebook downloads (and community) or couldn't watch my favorite movies and tv shows on Netflix.

I remember watching John Travolta in The Bubble Boy ignoring constant buffeting and pixelation on my Windows98 thru Netflix when it was just another webpage. I remember Star Tac phones for Christ's sake!

Kids as young as 3 and 4 KNOW the difference between toy cell phones and real iPhones. I see my friends kids playing on complicated Android and iOs devices that their parents barely know how to use, like little pros. I work in IT and have parents shelling out $200+ to fix computers, they never even touch. Its always the kids. If I'm ever lucky enough to produce progeny, what will their worlds be like?

Hell, what does it mean for me? I am a jack of all trades. I know a little something on everything and excel at nothing. I want to know everything, read everything, see it all, hear it all and then i want to write about it. What a perfect time for me to be alive. Don't know how to do something? Google it. I Facebooked my friends to find out how much water I need to make rice. I bs my way thru my job thanks to certain websites and YouTube instructionals.

Soon, are we going to be obsolete? My kid will be GPS'd to within an inch of his life. He will practically be able to make his own iPod and geo-friendly tablet. He will code and pirate and freaking rule this world. If he doesn't waste all his time reading comic books online, trolling free porn 24/7 and waste away playing WOW, or Xbox live, or angry birds, or PS. And if he doesn't post drunken crazy nights on whatever the coolest social network is at the time, he has a shot of becoming president, or start up CEO.

That is of course if I can squeeze dating into a world where information is changing every day and I feel I'm always playing catch up. I'm no where near my hundred book goal, my instant queue just keeps growing, my dvr says im at 90% capacity, the wiki changed or grew, my CNN app luckily has push notification, as does my TMZ app (gotta keep up w serious news AS WELL as popular culture). I (stupidly) decided to "lose" my phone on my days off and now have 5 missed calls and 3 voicemails, 10 txt messages, some Fb friend requests and messages, not to mention 98 emails to sift through.

I love technology. I do. And I can't wait ton see the coolest devices, but ever since I got my iPad (which I got to read books) I've read less than before I had a library card. What is it making us into? I talk about my hypothetical kid I may never have cuz I'm too busy to slow down and procreate.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Friday, June 3

Mini celebration

So I've lost 30lbs in a month. I just put on some jeans I haven't squeezed in, in ages. To celebrate I bough myself 2 fabulous new dresses. They are fitted and although they fit, they would look even better w a little more slack, so they are becoming my motivation for summer. If I keep on 30lbs a month, I would be ecstatic.

Gotta go. Starving. Btw, right now my life revolves around working and not eating. I am taking a week off soon because I'm afraid I'm going to wear myself out. And I need a new multivitamin. those gummies are looking pretty good. We shall see...


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