A Holiday For All Ages

Halloween is one of those great holidays that has something for everyone. New Year's is for adults, let's face the kids only enjoy the fireworks and that lasts 10 minutes at most. Valentine's is for the lovers. 4th of July comes close, but for kids it's really the fireworks again. Christmas is for kids (adults have fun too, but after buying all the presents, the tree, and dealing with Santa's everywhere Christmas is both wonderful and dreadful).

Halloween is for everyone. Kids get to dress up and go to their neighbors houses and get free candy!! Adults get to eat all the left over candy and not feel guilty, while dressing up as a fun charecter (such as a Bumble Bee or Tarzan) and stay out late at a few parties.

Yesterday my roommates and I threw a Halloween extraviganza. We had been decorating and preparing for 3 days and the place looked amazing. Everyone was in costumes. We had a Dorthy, Tarzan, Optimus Prime, Jesus and many other wild and crazy charecters.

Halloween is a great time to let the little kid inside take over.

$40,326

On of the origional hard cover "Harry Potter and the Philosepher's Stone" was auctioned off the other day for $40,326. The book was from the origional printing in 1997, of 500 copies, and signed "Joanne Rowling."

This is a testament to the success of JK Rowling. Not only has she successfully credited an enterpirse for herself, selling nearly 400 million copies of the various books, but she has stepped into the world of collectables. Diehard fans who can offered to buy rare copies of the Harry Potter series seem more than willing to do it. In May, a copy of "Philosopher's Stone" inscribed with a personal dedication to the owner sold for more than $55,000.

Harry Potter has been translated into at least 64 languages. It has been adapted for all ages, including special childrens versions, and for multiple cultures (an example is the "Philosepher's Stone" of England and the "Sorcerer's Stone" of the US).

Meanwhile my parents threw out my orgional copies of the books, thus making me have to buy them new as a box set. Oh to have the originals back again...of course I doubt I'd get over $40,000, or even $1,000 for that matter, but who knows what will happen with time, I could make $50.

Pictures of the Week

California Wildfires continue to strike havoc. The destruction is horrid, while more and more families are being evacuated out of the area.



A cat sits in his custom made kitty stroller on the last day of a cat competition. I had no idea that they even made these and am shocked that any cat would actually stay seated in it once the stroller started to move. This must be one behaved kitty.



Participants in an underwater pumpkin carving contest, hosted in Florida, pose with their unique pumpkins.



In the past U.N. sanctions kept tourists from visiting this Libya for more than a decade. Now this North African country is opening its borders for tourism. Libya is the home to a great many ancient cities and ruins. The opening up of it's borders will provide tourists and anthropologists a rare glimpse into a part of history that has been closed for many years. The country has ancient ruins that rival Greece and Italy, including the ancient city of Cyrene. The Sanctuary of Apollo in Cyrene is pictured here.



The Black and White Ruffed lemur is one of the many endangered species today.

NYC

This past weekend I was in New York. It was a blast. I went there to visit my best friend (who I will refer to as Brooklyn, since that is where she lives), whom I hadn't seen since June. That alone made the trip worth while, despite the outrageous fees that Amtrak likes to place on travelers. Where are the days where taking the train was cheaper than a plane? Overall the weekend was better than I could have anticipated, and because of that I want to share it here.

We woke up bright and early on Saturday. I had arrived late the previous night and Brooklyn and I had stayed up talking about nothing. Down the street from her apartment is this little "restaurant." It's kinda a dive, but the food is good. We both got the breakfast special: 2 eggs, french fries and toast for $2. Amazing!

After breakfast we went to see where Brooklyn teaches. A nice private school. A huge upgrade from the school she taught at in France. Here the students actually listen and respond to discipline. The best part of her school is the walk way along the river. It's just a couple blocks from her school. We went there and watched the helicopters fly around the city. There was one helicopter that were pretty sure had a student driver (although others have theorized that they were filming something for the news). This helicopter hovered in the same place for a good 15 minutes. then he flew down the river and hovered again, then he landed. I know this doesn't sound interesting, but we were engrossed in trying to figure out what it was doing and why. It's amazing how much life an animated conversation can give a far odd piece of machinery. There was also a light blue helicopter that was really pretty, but it didn't do anything of interest.

After watching the helicopters we went for lunch. Then we went to the Met. This is when things got really interesting. Somehow we ended up in the exhibit rooms with out having gone through the main entrance, and thus not paying the suggested fee. Now I'm not sure if the suggested fee is really a suggestion or if it's in fact a permanent fee, but we did not pay it! We did get caught by a security guard and had to leave the exhibit at one point, but due to a little quick thinking we did not get in trouble. We had tickets for a lecture latter in the evening, and used those to get a pass into the main exhibit. The met is truly a beautiful museum.

While waiting for the lecture to begin we sat outside and judged people. That's right we said out loud what everyone thinks, but no one says. We rated the dress of both men and women on a scale of 1-17, 17 being the best. Yes 17 is a random number, and I give full credit to Brooklyn for that. I apparently am a much harsher critic. My lowest score was a 5, while Brooklyn's was an 8. Her highest was 16.5, compared to my 15, although we typically agreed on whether an outfit was good or bad.

The lecture was on archaeological findings in Egypt. It was given by the head of Egyptian archaeology. This guy was hilarious. He kept throwing joke in between talking about Kings and Queen of Ancient Egypt.

"I was excited to find his (King Tut) erection, because erection in ancient Egypt meant resurrection!"

You could hear the passion in this man's voice. I hope that when I have been in the discipline for as long as he I can still feel that way, and show my enthusiasm in a way that reaches those of all ages.

"The Valley of the Kings still contain mystery and magic"

After the long day out we went home to make dinner. Spaghetti O's, followed by Strawberry shortcake ice cream bars.

Liberal Quaker

I took an on-line quiz and found out that I am a "Liberal Quaker." Here I've been trying to find my spiritual self for so long and the answers were just one electonic quiz away!

1. Liberal Quakers (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
3. Neo-Pagan (94%)
4. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (91%)
5. New Age (87%)
6. Secular Humanism (79%)
7. Mahayana Buddhism (78%)
8. Reform Judaism (78%)
9. Theravada Buddhism (72%)
10. New Thought (68%)

check it our yourself.

Reading Material

I graduated from college this past May, and ever since I've been reading romantic novel after romantic novel. As fun as this is, recently I've noticed people around me talking about books that I haven't read, i.e. non-romantic novels, or about topics I'm not all that informed in. So I've decided I need to start reading something a bit deeper than what's been on my nightstand of late.

It's great to dream about reading topics of great depth and having enlightened conversations, but is it really practical. I've gone through this phase before. Whishing I was more informaed about culture, history and science I have stopped reading "fun" books and gone on long excursions through the non-fiction side of the library. This has never lasted very long (hence my 6 month hiatus in the real of romance). So how will it work this time.

I came up with a theory. It isn't based on any facts, but I'm going to test it out. 1 "heavy" book is intellectually equal to 3 "fun" books. I base this theory on the idea that 1 of the former category will take the same amount of time as 3 of the later. Also, 1 of the former will drain your brain, and body of energy that is equivalent to the amount of energy you regain from 3 of the later. So I am off to test my theory. I just read a series of fun books, and now have started my "heavy" book: The Closing of the Western Mind by Charles Freeman. I have even been taking notes on the book.

Hopefully my theory will prove true, and I will be able to read these heavy books while managing to keep my energy up, and not lose my desire to read. This will hopefully warm me up before I start Graduate School next year.

Pictures!

Here are five pictures that I like that are from this week. Enjoy!



This is of the tallest Lighthouse, Cape Hatteras, in North Carolina (and possibly all of the east coast, but I'm not positive about that). I didn't visit the light house during this past trip to NC, but I did go the time before that.



I believe this picture captures nature in her purest sense. It's beautiful yet violent. There a group of penguins seem desolet on the blueiceburg as the harsh sea crashes around them.



Archaeologists discovered the wall painting among the ruins of an 11,000-year-old house in northern Syria—making it the oldest wall painting ever discovered. French archaeologist and team leader Eric Coqueugniot stated that "There was a purpose in having the painting in what looked like a communal house, but we don't know it." This painting and Eric's statement shows the wonderful and frustrating aspects of archaeology.




Scientists explored a deep ocean basin in the Philippines in search of species isolated for millions of years found marine life believed to be previously undiscovered. This basin is believed to have been secluded from the rest of the ocean, both physically and biologically, and thus many of the species have evolved separately. Here are pictures of a Juvenile Box Fish and a Jelly Fish.

R2-D2

George Lucas has plans to create two new additions to his Star Wars empire. The first is a possible animated film. As much as I love Star Wars I really can't see how an animated film is supposed to add to the Star Wars franchise. The origional films were great because they pushed the barriers of the imagination and special effects. With animated films, such as Shrek and Beowolf, I am having difficulty seeing how George Lucas can push the animated envelope. Perhaps I am not giving George Lucas enough credit and am not being creative enough in my ponderings, but I do not see an animated film adding anything to what already is Star WArs.

The second addition is a TV series based off of the films. I do not know if the series will continue the story after the Fall of the Empire or be a side story, ment to add to the events that we already know. Lucas has stated that the series will not involve the Skywalker family. It would be interesting to see the events from another perspective, but It just feels wrong to have a Star Wars media production, I'm not including the various books on the subject here, with out Darth Vadar. Lucas has hinted that the show may follow the story line of the androids. As much as I would love to see a show centered on R2-D2 and C-3PO I hope that they would be able to keep the story lines interesting enough to compansated for the fact that one droid doesn't speak (although it has a wonderful variety of beeps) and the other lacks emotion (except for fear).

I hope that Geogre Lucas is going to make these two additions better then the last 3 movies. I feel that he may just be making these things because their almost garunteed to bring in money. While that's great for him, it stinks for all those Star Wars fans who have grown loving the origional films only to find them being darkend by new, comercial, additions.

Rest and Relaxation

This past weekend I went to the North Carolina beach. My Godparents have a beach house there. It was a calm weekend. I hadn’t seen my Godparents in a little over 2 years and I hadn’t seen their Godson, who also visited for the weekend, in 4 years. We reminisced and rested in beach chairs our on the deck. I got to play with their two dogs, Primo and Moosey, and their cat, Baby (which made me miss my Trampies even more).

Although the weekend was calm, full of reading and watching movies, it was far from relaxing. I’ve never been more aware of the fact that you can do nothing all day, but still feel utterly exhausted by evening. I don’t think I’ve gotten more sleep than I did this weekend in months, yet on Monday morning I was far more exhausted than I would have been if I had played Frisbee or partied all weekend. It’s strange how the body works.

5-0

Dallas goes into this weekend with a great and heavy record. There is a lot of glory that comes with starting the season 5-0, but there is also a lot of pressure. On top of the typical pressures to maintain an undefeated score this week Dallas is also facing the pressure of the Patriots, who are also 5-0. Most American will tune into this afternoon game on Sunday (I unfortunately will be on a train and unable to get anywhere near a tv screen.)

TO, a man who is all talk, all media, and always in the spotlight, has taken a new approach to this weeks game. Instead of doing interviews and catering to the media he is staying away from reporters. Leaving them with only a note:

"Due to the magnitude of this week's game and high volume of questions for the Original 81 about the other 81. I will be taking all questions immediately following Sunday's game.”

Although this note is filled with the cockiness we have all grown to love and expect from TO, it is uncharacteristic. I appreciate the note, and can only hope that since TO isn’t talking about how great he is, he will show us on Sunday.

Home sweet..Mall??

To live in a mall. That’s the dream of every 15 year old girl. A few artists started to live that dream in secret in 2003. Unfortunately their mall housing was swiftly taken away when they walked into their humble abode recently to find Mall security.

These guys must be excellent pranksters.

They were able to live in a room since 2003 unnoticed by shoppers and security alike. They constructed a 750 sq. foot apartment our of red brick and attached a relatively non-descript maintenance door to the front. Inside they had electricity (fit with a Playstation 2) and all the amenities, except for running water. The water was easy enough to live with out, especially since they were attached to a mall filled with public restrooms.

Congrats guys, you have come up with one of the most inexpensive and creative ways to avoid paying rent.

Car vs Home

“A Harvard School of Public Health report issued last year said secondhand smoke in cars can be up to 10 times more of a health risk than secondhand smoke in a home.”

Although this study’s findings may be obvious they are important. Think of all those people who were told to smoke outside instead of in the house so the smoke wouldn’t be trapped in the house. Now imagine that in a car. Of course it’s worse, it’s a smaller space, thus your breathing it in a more condensed form for a longer period of time.

No, it does not help to have your cigarette poking out the window. As a non-smoker who has many friends who smoke and thus have been subject to riding in a car with them, I can attest that it is still pungent.

But I digress. The point is that studies like these have recently become a fad. Due to their popularity more information is flooding the general public. This has been putting pressure on the government, and thus, creating legislature. Recently the Governator signed a bill that bans smoking in cars while anyone under 18 is present. California is the third state to pass a bill that bans smoking in cars around children. The first two were Arkansas and Louisiana.

I have to cheer these states on in there efforts. There may not be any clear and complete evidence linking smoking or secondhand smoke to the world’s worst illnesses (or at least not that I know of), but no one can deny that smoking isn’t exactly a healthy choice. As more and more diseases are spreading to areas of the world they have never been in, (Take a look at a recent article in Times magazine, “The Changing Face of Breast Cancer,” and you’ll see how one disease is expanding its reach.) it is important to try to reduce the amount of dangerous chemicals and forces being introduced to today’s youth.

I’m not saying that we need to ban all things that can be seen as harmful. After all what’s the fun of living without a little risk. But risk should be something that we choose to do and should not be chosen for us by others. So again I say, this new legislation against secondhand smoke is a responsible choice by California and other states. At least until we learn more about why diseases like breast cancer are spreading faster and farther than ever.