When I was in elementary school; I used to get in trouble for talking to the other kids during class. Eventually, this got bad enough that the teacher called my Mom in for a parent-teacher conference to discuss the problem…

Teacher: Mark keeps talking during class and it’s very disruptive.
Mom: When is he doing all this talking?
Teacher: After he finishes his assignment.
Mom: Did you give him something to read?
Teacher: Yes, but he finished that book.
Mom: Did you try giving him another one?
Teacher: Yes, but he finished that one too.
Mom: *glare*
Teacher: In fact, he’s already read all the books in the room.
Mom: Why don’t you get him another one from the library then?
Teacher: I did but he finished it already.
Mom: *glare* Then why don’t you let him go to the library and get another one?
Teacher: Wha…. I can’t do that!?! He could get into all sorts of trouble walking down the hallway.
Mom: *glare* If you let him go to the library; he’ll stop talking in class.

Eventually, I was allowed to walk those halls, wander the shelves of the library and seek out new books to read. As Mom predicted, once I had something to read; I was quiet in class. This is a habit that has stuck with me over the years and I ended up spending much of my youth in school & public libraries. I bring this up today because for the first time in a long time; I went down to CPL and checked out some books. This sudden trip to my local public library was prompted by their advertising of an adult summer reading program. The basic idea is you have to read 6 books, turn in a log and then you’ll be entered to win a gift certificate to a book store. I never could turn down free books; so I decided to go sign up2.

As I wandered around the library looking for some books to read; I felt a sense of nostalgia and loss. There were entire summers in my youth were I barely went anywhere else besides the library. These days, the rarity is when I do go. I miss those fabled days of yesteryear when life was simple and I could relax with a book in my hand all summer long. *sigh*

So why haven’t I been going? Partly because I’m an ornery cuss who doesn’t like having to wait and if the library doesn’t have the next book in a series I’m reading; it irks me. Partly because I can afford to buy more books for myself than I could when I was younger. Having my own copy of a book means I can read it whenever I like 24/7/3653 and the copy of the book I’m reading is likely to be in better condition (plus it’ll stay that way). *shrug* Not sure what else I have to say, except that I hope to be making visits to my public library more often. It’ll let me relive parts of my past (and beat some of this summer heat).

1 For some reason, employers don’t like it when you read books all day instead of testing their software.
2 Besides, money has been a bit tighter of late and borrowing books from the library is cheap entertainment. 😀
3 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (366 in a leap year).

The Wheel of Time is a series of books by Robert Jordan. The series started out very promisingl, interesting characters, good descriptions, better dialog than I could ever come up with but the last couple of books, Crossroads of Twilight in particular, have failed to deliver on that early promise. The description has been focused more on how worried everybody in the story is without really giving a good sense for why they’re so worried. For all that Jordan has tried to make his villans, the Forsaken, seem to be horrendously powerful; the heros never seem to be truly overwhelmed by them. Rather the heros seem to simply lack the necessary self-confidence to deal with them. The other problem that the series is suffering from is “feature-creep”. First we had the Dark friends, then Padan Fain, then the Whitecloacks, then the Forsaken, then the Seachan. Is there going to be any end to the villians that are going to be thrown at the heros? Will we ever see a resolution to all the diverent plot threads that make up this series? From the way that last book read, I think Jordan has lost or forgotten whatever it was that he originally intended to do with the series and these days is more interested in turning just another book to continue the series because like George Lucas; he knows people might hate it but they’ll buy it anyway.

The Doctor

Earlier this week the first episode of the new Doctor Who series, by the BBC, was leaked onto the internet. I was able to obtain a copy and give it a quick whirl1. I have to say that I’ve not enjoyed watched the Doctor so much since Tom Baker played him and while I still miss that massive scarf; the new Doctor’s look suits very well. At least from what one can tell in a ~40 minute episode, Mr. Eccleston seems to have captured that playfully annoying essence which is so esstenial to portraying the Doctor properly. I look forward to seeing more of this new season and hope that it will be quickly released to DVD (to make it easier to get here in the States).

1 Actually, it wasn’t all that quick as I was trying to figure a way to make the AVI file into a SVCD. I came really close with Tovid but the quality wasn’t all that great to begin with and the video was totally corrupted towards the end. Still, I did get a lot closer with Tovid’s CLI tools than with Tovid GUI, so maybe with some more work I can figure this out. That’d be great as I’d really like to burn some quick&dirty SVCDs using CD-RWs to watch various downloads on my real TV rather than my PC. What can I say, the futon is way more comfortable than my desk chair.

Back in his ST:TNG days, I couldn’t stand Wesley Crusher. Fortunately, as an author Wil Wheaton is much more interesting and the annoyance level is way, way, way down. 🙂 Earlier today, Wil mentioned on his blog that TV Guide is running a poll asking various questions about Star Trek. One of the questions on the poll is “Who was the most annoying character?” and as one can easily imagine Ensign Wesley Course laid in, sir. Crusher in one of the options for that question.

If you decided to take the poll, you can be harsh and pick Wesley for that question…. Or you can rise about your sad, pathetic life in your parent’s basement and forgive Wil for the bad lines he was given, not to mention for the fact that he was the one on ST:TNG and not you. Just make up your mind quickly, I hear your Mom yelling at you to take out the garbage.

P.S. Personally, I picked Lwaxana Troi for that question. Good grief, she made everybody miserable every time she showed up and she wasn’t even a villian!

Chrno Crusade

One of the great advantages of having a broadband internet connection and fat hard drives; is the ability to download large quantities of stuff and then do something with it later. One of the things I like to do is download the latest/greatest fansubbed anime; however my schedule is such that it is much easier for me to download it than it is to watch it. I finally got around to watching an one of the older series that I had sitting on my hard drive. And tonight, I figured I’d finish off the series; unfortunately, fate decided that such was not to be.

I’d watched through sixteen episodes prior to this even and tonight I made it happily through another six. The plot was building, you could see that the final battle of Good vs. Evil would happen very soon. Then upon starting episode twenty-three; I learned that life is a funny old thing. Funny like a broken arm that is. My copy of episode twenty-three turns out to be a fansub done by a French group. ARRRRGGGGGHHHH! It’s been over 10 years since I took a French class! I could sort of understand what was going on but not much more than I would have gotten if the episode had not been subtitled. Then to add insult to injury; 23 was not the final episode! ARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!

So if any of my friends out there have the final episodes of this series, can I borrow them from you? I know the series is really all that wonderful but the artwork is kind of nice and having sat through 23 episodes; I’d really like to see the finale.