Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
What are U doing today?
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What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread)
We put up with the mice & occasional smell when they eat the poison we also put out for them. We LOVE watching the birds & have a double Shepard's hook for 2 feeders attached to the railing of the back deck with wild bird seed & thistle feeders on it. I have a big pan under it that catches most of the seed they drop from the feeder & also serves as one. Beyond that, we have another double Shepard's crook in the middle of the lawn & a big tee with 4 hooks on it closer to the fence. Every hook has other feeders on it, including suet, peanut butter, peanuts, & the usual seeds in a couple of configurations.
We have several feeders in the front, but NO ONE has touched them in the past week. I think there is a feral cat out there & I think it's done a real number on the sparrows, which is fine. Erin is bringing her cats with her this weekend. Ariana will likely chase it off.
Jim, I love the birds but I can't stand finding mice turds in my kitchen drawers. About the mouse poison, we tried that and we had a terrible stink in the house for months when a whole nest of mice died inside the wall. It took us months to figure out where the smell was coming from. Finally Eddie cut thought the sheet rock and found the nest. So no more bird seed for us. We used to find bird seed stored all around the house by the mice. They get into everything!
I wonder if that's what's going on with my bathroom. It's had a stink for over a month, on & off. Can't figure out where it is coming from, but we haven't gone through a lot of mouse poison lately. A nest of mice would explain it, though.
Joy H. wrote: "I get a kick out of seeing who comes to our bird bath each day. This morning there was Mr. Cardinal. Yesterday there was a little squirrel. I just enjoy standing there and watching them from the wi..."I live in a squirrel ghetto. Couple years ago they gnawed my car cables to the tune of a $250 repair. I got busy box-trapping them and transported 45 across the river to South Glens Falls (they need them!). Now new owners own this little complex and I'm afraid to trap them. Their numbers have built up again.
Jim wrote: "I wonder if that's what's going on with my bathroom. It's had a stink for over a month, on & off. Can't figure out where it is coming from, but we haven't gone through a lot of mouse poison latel..."Jim, I'll bet that's it... a nest of mice. They make a big stink when they die. Start looking behind the walls if you can. The smell lasts a very long time otherwise.
Earl, that's something to worry about, critters getting under the hoods of our cars. I vaguely remember a related anecdote about that years ago, but can't remember the specifics.
I finished the book, "Crossing," which was interesting up until the last page. However, I wish the author had stopped two chapters earlier. That particular chapter gave me goose bumps as it was so beautiful; then he proceeded to add much grimness. I came away from the book thinking he had an ax to grind and that is the reason he wrote the book. I agree with the reviewers that he is quite talented. I actually don't know whether to recommend it or not.
Nina wrote: "I finished the book, "Crossing," which was interesting up until the last page. However, I wish the author had stopped two chapters earlier. That particular chapter gave me goose bumps as it was so ..."Nina, at the GR book description of Crossing, it quotes the author as saying: "The 2007 Virginia Tech massacre at the hands of Seung-Hui Cho added urgency to my writing. I feel that Asian American males have often been dealt an unfair hand by the media, and I was afraid of a backlash, afraid that we might get typecast as raging, hate-filled, gun-toting campus killers. For weeks after, I attacked the manuscript with renewed fervor and purpose, determined to add more dimensionality to Xing's character. Realistic complexity and nuance in characters, after all, kill stereotypes."
I guess that was the "ax" he had to grind. Perhaps he wanted to disprove the stereotype.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!
Click on thumbnail.Today we're going out to eat. We'll celebrate off-peak on Saturday when all the family will be able to be here. So Saturday will be our family's Thanksgiving Day.
Meanwhile, I get to eat out! Hurray!
Hope you all have a good Thanksgiving Day.
Thanks to all of you for keeping this group active. I feel I've made some good online friends at this group. Many thanks for your friendship.
Best wishes,
Joy
"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you', that would suffice."
-Meister Eckhart
Even in the midst of trying circumstances, Barb and I did have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family, and were reminded of just how much we have to be thankful for. If you celebrated the day yesterday (I realize it's pretty much a distinctly U.S. holiday), I hope you're able to say the same!
A "Crossing" Spoiler. I think the author went too far in trying to prove the prejudice as he ended his story by showing the main Chinese character as being found guilty of crimes he didn't commit. I very much doubt that most people think that way. But something in the author's background must have caused him to feel that way.
A "Crossing" Spoiler. I think the author went too far in trying to prove the prejudice as he ended his story by showing the main Chinese character as being found guilty of crimes he didn't commit. I very much doubt that most people think that way. But something in the author's background must have caused him to feel that way.
We had a good Thanksgiving & another good day today. Erin & her boyfriend, Josh, are here along with their 2 cats & new puppy, Jasmine. Lily really likes having a running partner. Unfortunately, Jasmine is only 4 months old & can't keep up. She tries hard, though. I got a big project out of the way today. I had to dig out a couple of bucket loads of dirt from by the back gate, deck, & crawlspace entrance. It was never graded right & I did some quick piling then tossed gravel on it. That meant I had to dig all the gravel out of the way before digging out the dirt & regrading. The tractor bucket was just there to toss the dirt into, a power wheelbarrow. Still, it was a help. Anyway, I'm glad to finally get that out of the way.
Last night we played dominoes & tonight we played 500 Rummy after dinner. That's a lot of fun. We have a great time talking & laughing together. I hope everyone else had as much fun.
Glad to hear that you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving. I think it's great when a family plays games together.Speaking of chores and projects, our visiting grandson, 16 years old, cleaned out our gutters. He's such a wonderful help to us.
On Thanksgiving my husband, our oldest son, and I ate out at the Queensbury Hotel, surrounded by dozens of beautifully decorated Christmas Trees, which were on exhibit as part of a fundraiser called "The Festival of Trees". It was an added bonus to our day. The hotel ballrooms are elegantly decked out with crystal chandeliers. Everything came together to make the day very special. The food wasn't bad either. I brought home left-overs which I ate on Friday. I NEVER get tired of turkey and the trimmings!
On Friday, more of the family arrived. We sent out for Chinese food.
On Saturday, when the entire family will be here, we'll have the traditional Thanksgiving dinner at home, celebrating the holiday off-peak, as we say. We have a lot to be thankful for.
Today there is a problem with our ISP. We cannot send email, but we can receive it. According to the ISP rep I talked to on the phone, the problem is on the server-end and it covers a wide area in which no one is able to send emails. Lovely!Fortunately, we can still get out to the Internet.
BTW, the problem is with password recognition.
My oldest boy, James, & his girl friend, Lauren, are here for their Xmas visit. We went riding yesterday afternoon & I got a few pictures. I would have liked to get more, but Speedy was in 'whirling-dervish' mode. Between that & the late afternoon sun, quite a few shots got spoiled.https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...
Somtime ago I read, "Snowflower and the Secret Fan," by Lisa See. I thought it was a very good book. A couple of nights ago we watched the movie made from this book. It is one of the worst movies I have ever seen; didn't resemble the book in any way except for the title. They made it comtemparary and had so many flashbacks we almost were dizzy watching..My question is WHY mess up a good thing?
Jim wrote: "My oldest boy, James, & his girl friend, Lauren, are here for their Xmas visit. We went riding yesterday afternoon & I got a few pictures. I would have liked to get more, but Speedy was in 'whirl..."Great photos, Jim! Nice action. Good jumps! You live in a beautiful area.
BTW, I tried to "like" and post a comment at the Facebook site, but for some reason they wouldn't let me, even though I was signed in.
Nina wrote: "Somtime ago I read, "Snowflower and the Secret Fan," by Lisa See. I thought it was a very good book. A couple of nights ago we watched the movie made from this book. It is one of the worst movies I..."Nina, I read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and didn't enjoy it at all.
Below is part of my GR review of the book:
=================================================
"I finished this book. I didn't really enjoy it. I found much of it boring. I also found it repetitive, especially in its descriptions of the Chinese customs. The plot was thin even though it covered many years in the characters' lives. There was no real depth to the characters. Basically, it was the story of a friendship gone wrong and the sorrows suffered by the protagonists. The writing seemed stilted or perhaps that was just the style of writing. It didn't appeal to me. I kept reading just to see where the story was going. The ending wasn't satisfying; it seemed flat. I liked Lisa See's _Shanghai Girls_ better. However, the ending to that book wasn't satisfying either.
"PS-I just found out that a film is being adapted from this book in 2011:
"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" (2011)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1541995/
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Snow_F...
The Netflix description says: 'Paralleling the story of Snow Flower and Lily, who communicate by writing on the folds of a white fan, are the modern-day tribulations of Sophia and Nina, who struggle to maintain their relationship.'
"(I don't recall the parallel modern-day story being part of the book. Perhaps it was introduced in the film only. I could be wrong.)"
FROM MY REVIEW AT: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
================================================
I doubt if I'll watch the movie.
The parallel was not in the book. What fascinated and repelled me at the same time in reading the book was the part about the foot binding.
Nina wrote: "The parallel was not in the book. What fascinated and repelled me at the same time in reading the book was the part about the foot binding."Yes, Nina, that was gross. Hard to believe, but that was the custom. Strange!
I've read about foot binding in several novels. It is a gross practice & gives even the cosmetic surgeries of today a run for weird, but true. I'm not much for them. If it is a health issue, I can see it, but most are just silly. Retirement homes are going to be a nightmare when I get there. All these old ladies with saggy everything except their rock hard boobs. Can you imagine what their tramp stamps (tattoos) will look like?!!!
Jim wrote: "... Retirement homes are going to be a nightmare when I get there. All these old ladies with saggy everything except their rock hard boobs. "Author John Grogan talks about that in his book, Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog. He refers, humorously, to the women in Boca Raton, FL, who try to keep themselves young through plastic surgery. It's an amusing passage in the book (which I'm listening to as an audio cassette).
Below is a link to a sample of the book at Google ebooks:
http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader...
Too bad it doesn't include the Boca Raton passage.
I'm sure a lot of humor can & has been made out of our vanity. All these people with frozen, botox features or their necks stretched up to their ears from all the face lifts. It's just silly. Gravity works, folks! Fun is OK, but so much of this stuff just goes too far for even a sick joke. Foot binding is one.
Jim wrote: "...Gravity works, folks! ..."Quotation:
"After age 50, gravity takes over". :)
Here'a a couple of quotes from the book, "I, Steve," by you know who..."Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."
"I would trade all my technology for an afternoon with Socrates."
Steve Jobs
Thanks for the quotes, Nina. Steve Jobs was an amazing person. Wiki says:=============================================
"Jobs was widely described as a visionary, pioneer and genius — perhaps one of the foremost — in the field of business, innovation, and product design, and a man who had profoundly changed the face of the modern world, revolutionized at least six different industries, and who was an "exemplar for all chief executives".
FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs
============================================
This is a small book containing his quotes and I would recommend reading it. Quite interesting. And easy read when you are in the mood for that sort of escape.
Nina wrote: "This is a small book containing his quotes and I would recommend reading it. Quite interesting. And easy read when you are in the mood for that sort of escape."What's the name of the book, Nina?
PS - Ooops, I found it. It's:I, Steve: Steve Jobs In His Own Words by George Beahm (published October 19th 2011).
Jobs also had a talent for not introducing a gadget until the hardware could support it. A lot of other people did what he made famous. They often did it first, but poorly. Whether it was a bad interface, sluggish work, or the poor thing was memory starved, it just didn't cut it. For instance, there was a music player way before (15 years?) the iPod, but it cost a mint & only had memory to play one song. Some of you might remember the Newton or the Microsoft tablet.
Jim wrote: "... They often did it first, but poorly. ..."There's a term for that: "fast and dirty". I knew a few secretaries like that.
No, I don't think it was fast & dirty, more like trying to anticipate the market & proof-of-concept. It's one of the things I dislike about Microsoft. They have had many innovative ideas, but seem to give up on them about the time the market comes around or bury them so deep that no one really knows about them. The Microsoft Tablet is just one example. They did the same thing with their .lit files - ereader files that were available very early on. I have a ton of books in .lit format, but they are only readable on a PC. I'm not sure if the reader even works with Vista or Win7 as they dropped support on them about the time these came out. How weird is that?
Very weird. Maybe after they put them out, they discover that they're not so good after all.I had a recent experience with the following product which I happened to see in town. I searched online for it and it was no longer available. I'm guessing that it was taken off the market because it was faulty:
Rubbermaid 3N83 Collapsible Cargo Crate
http://homegardenoutdoors.com/product...
Below is a page with the negative criticisms:
http://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-3N83...
I quite liked the .lit ebooks & can convert them to other formats that are readable on my ereader, so it's not a huge deal, but it just seems counter to any business sense. They have the resources to really push things, if they want to, but they just don't seem to want to. We know they're not shy about publicity the way Novell was - another company that had some fantastic innovations that no one knew about & they never supported. Novell had a free, very nice portal before portals were cool. They had a better file system than any other network operating system (yes, including Unix), a wonderful email system & a huge lead at one time, but they had horrible marketing & let too many good things die half-baked, so they're gone.
I hope Apple keeps going well, but they're very proprietary & consumer oriented. So long as they can keep coming up with shiny new toys that work really well & hit the market correctly, they'll be OK. A couple of flops & they may well go the way of Novell or SCO, though. It took those companies a decade to ruin themselves, but I don't think Apple has that kind of time.
Consumers are fickle compared to businesses. It's easy to replace one device, but expensive to get 100 new ones - that's why Microsoft has more failure room. No matter what the consumers do, the businesses give them time to get their act together.
On a somber note, our (American) son-in-law Phil died last night, ending a long battle with cancer; we've known for a year that he was terminal. He was in great pain, so death in this case was a mercy; but for Deborah and the couple's four small kids, this will still be a trying, hectic and stressful time for awhile. Thanks to those in this group who've provided ongoing sympathy and moral support! Continued prayers (or good thoughts, for those not of a praying disposition) for the family are very much appreciated.
Werner wrote: "On a somber note, our (American) son-in-law Phil died last night, ending a long battle with cancer; we've known for a year that he was terminal. He was in great pain, so death in this case was a m..."Werner, that is such sad news.
Sincere condolences to you and your family.
Hugs to Deborah and her children.
Thank you, Joy! (I'll hug them for you.)
Your son - in- law will be remembered at Mass Sunday by my prayers and communion which will be offered up for him. I attend a lovely one hundred in 2012 year old Gothic church that is inspiring just to sit in and gaze in wonder at the stained glass windows. I won't forget him when I am sitting there.
Thanks, Nina! (Phil was Catholic, so he'd especially appreciate that.) Sorry to be so slow in replying; I'm way behind on my Goodreads updates.
Werner, at this time of year I suppose most of us are behind in everything!
Glad to know I'm not the only one, Joy! :-)
Finally, I'm almost all caught up. The family has started to arrive.Merry Christmas to all!
Happy New Year to all!I've got a terrible cold. Not much energy for anything.
However, last night, New Year's Eve, I did manage to go to the "Midnight Fireworks Party Cruise" on Lake George's steamboat, Lac du Sac. I went with my sister because our husbands didn't want to go. It was a great evening, full of fun and dancing. Good band. We had an excellent table right next to the dance floor. The food was good too, a buffet-type set-up.
Here's a pic we took at the party showing my sister and me:
Click on thumbnailThere was a group dressed up as pirates. You can see one of them in the photo. She was full of fun and added to the celebration.
Joy, that's a cute picture; thanks for sharing it! Happy new year to you and yours, and hope you whip that cold really quick.
Thanks, Werner. I'm feeling a bit better now but am really wiped out. Right now I'm looking forward to watching a rerun of the annual New Year's concert from Vienna on PBS-TV at 1:00 AM. It aired earlier but I was taking a nap. It's always exciting, especially the Radetzky March at the end where the audience claps to the rousing rhythm. I love that part and am always roused to clap along. Here it is on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46k7Gp...
Now, that isn't how I look when I have a bad cold. How can you look that good and have fun besides? I hope the rest of the New Year is good to you. Lucky you, to have a sister. I am blessed with great almost sistets even if they are in laws.
Yes, Nina, I am very lucky to have a sister to do things with. She's lots of fun too.You wouldn't know it from the picture but I was fighting the cold even then. The party distracted me from all my discomfort but when I woke up the next morning, I felt as if I had been beaten up. That's what comes from partying all night when you're not used to it.
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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I saw some tufted titmouse birds in the bushes of our front yard today. They're so cute. I miss seeing my bird friends since we stopped putting out seeds in order to discourage mice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tufted_T...