Just watched the first episode. HOLY AWESOME. I adore the little touches they add in from the books--I read The Valley of Fear last month, and they included a line from there with just a bit of a twist. All the pieces fit together in such unexpected ways. Loved it.

Speaking of The Valley of Fear, I suspect Conan Doyle really wanted to write a certain story, but he knew it would be more widely read if Holmes and Watson were in it. So he stuck a flimsy mystery onto the beginning. I barely got through the initial mystery, out of boredom or possibly narrative confusion because it took me about six weeks to read it, due to falling asleep after just a page or two. Once I got to the middle part, though, I couldn't put it down. Then I went back and reread the first part, and it was vastly more interesting.

I don't know why Sherlock Holmes stories are categorized as kids' books. Maybe it's because they're considered classics, and the most likely time to get people to read them is when they have to do it for school? When I was a kid, it was kind of hard, frankly, to read Sherlock Holmes. The syntax wasn't all that straightforward for a child of the 1970s, and there were a lot of cultural references (like Holmes shooting a patriotic VR into the wall of his flat) that I completely didn't get but still had to wade through.

But as an adult, especially one who has now read a fair amount of 18th and 19th century novels and historical fiction, the books are so much richer. The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard--it's awesome, even if you aren't a Napoleonic nerd like me. And if you are, well, your life isn't complete without reading it. The stories aren't about the battles, but little incidents in the brigadier's career. I tried to figure out Conan Doyle could evoke a mood or emotion so effortlessly, but kept getting distracted by the plot. He was truly a master.

Tags: books, tv

Currently reading Northanger Abbey. I have to say that one thing I really dislike about Jane Austen is how many awful people surround the protagonist and her love interest. Sometimes the heroine will have a best friend who is levelheaded and sane, but everyone else is boorish, bitchy, whiny, or otherwise obnoxious. It gets sort of tiresome to read.

Tags: books

My favorite thing about parenting a baby/toddler was watching the human brain develop. (Although as the parent of a 7yo, my long-held curiosity about the age at which sympathetic yawning begins has still not been satisfied.)

This woman has been watching human brains develop on a research level. Love this article. And this comment:

<i>Babies don’t follow instructions and often “fuss out” mid-test, taking their data points with them.</i>

I'd love to read more of Spelke's findings.

Tags: i love the ny times, parenting

The short version: doctor determined there is almost certainly no tumor. I didn't think there was, but still it's been sitting there in the back of my mind, and now it isn't. It made me want to go out and buy something, for some reason. Usually I want to buy something to cheer myself up; it feels like some sort of hunter/gatherer accomplishment to seek out my retail prey and bag it.

The long version: it was an interesting diagnostic process. ( Read more... )

Tags: health

Went to a show two weekends ago, had an awesome time. Sold lots of fiber, had customers come looking for me, had knitterati buy from me, bought a rare fleece.

Flew out the next morning to Las Vegas, where I met la familia (who drove down) to go camping in southern Utah. Froze asses off at night (temps were in the mid-30s), had child enter new "how come you guys don't love me?" stage when denied something that he wanted. Maybe not the most relaxing trip, but it was great to get away from home.

Currently in the last third of a wholesale order. I technically have until next Wed to ship, but since I haven't done my business taxes yet, I was really hoping to have all the dyeing wrapped up by tomorrow. I don't think it's going to happen, which sucks. My neck hurts from bending over the dye table, which has caused permanent damage to one of my pupils (wtf?). My doctor wants to check for tumors (oh, awesome), so she special-ordered some cocaine (wtf, again) eye drops and I'm going in tomorrow.

Hm, maybe that wasn't quite less than a tweet.

Tags: hbknits, health, travel

I'm currently reading The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard - free Kindle edition. Stories that combine Arthur Conan Doyle's knack for suspense and dry humor, in a Napoleonic Wars setting? From the French POV, no less? (I've been wondering what English-language fiction there is, from the other side of the fence's perspective.) I am SO THERE. I wonder if the BBC has a series based on these stories?

It's weird, this Napoleonic obsession of mine. When I can read a tome on military history, mutter to myself, "That's not how Wellington did it," and then the next paragraph mentions Wellington as the exception? Of all the things I might have predicted that I would like at 40, this would have been pretty low on the list.

Tags: books

The bell choir played at a service today. We've been playing a lot of Joel Raney arrangements the last couple of years, and today we played a particularly nice one--You Raise Me Up. I can never remember the pieces that I like after the season is over, so I'm trying to do a better job of tracking them in my journal. I can't find any YouTube clips of it besides one of Raney pimping the piece, but there's a link to it from this publishing company:

http://www.hopepublishing.com/html/main.isx?sitesec=1.2.4.0&workid=3495

The sermon today was part of a series on the seven deadly sins. Apparently the list was formulated by a 4th century saint while he was meditating on his adulterous past in the Egyptian desert. I tried to match up the sins with Winnie the Pooh characters, but could only figure out three: Pooh for gluttony, Owl for pride, Eeyore for sloth (this sin was a combination of worldly depression/sorrow and apathy).

Tags: bells

We just finished playing Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword tonight. As with Twilight Princess, Michael handled the controls most of the time, while the boy and I made tactical suggestions and sometimes stepped in to play. (The boy is better at flying than either of us adults; we oldsters usually feel sort of pukey after a few minutes, but the boy can do aerial acrobatics all day long.)

This was a fantastic game. I could never remember the right sequence of buttons to push to initiate particular sword attacks in Twilight Princess, the other Zelda game made for the Wii, and consequently sucked. For Skyward Sword, Nintendo was able to make swordplay more intuitive--Link's sword corresponded to the Wii remote's motion for the most part, which was way simpler. There were so many clever little uses of the Wii remote in this game--the ability to roll or throw bombs, the flying bug you could use to scout or pick up things, leaping while climbing vines, walking tightropes, spiraling attacks while swimming.

I think my favorite aspect of the game was the Timeshift Stones. It was such a clever way to reuse game areas and create a new layer of solving game puzzles. The same with the Silent Realms; very cool how they transformed the cheerful Kiki-like world of Skyloft into a creepy foreboding land.

After we defeated the final boss, I was reading reviews of the game. Many of them lament that just as Nintendo has finally demonstrated the Wii console's capabilities with Skyward Sword, there will be no more Wii games--they're focusing on the development of their new console. I find this to be more depressing than the end of the game (which is often a letdown, though more so with an RPG like Baldur's Gate or Knights of the Old Republic (the old one, not the new MMORPG, which I'm not planning to play), where you have NPCs who feel almost like actual friends). I don't have much time for games anymore, but I loved this one, and I enjoy the Wii in general, so the idea that there won't be any more Wii games is sad. The thought of this game being an evolutionary dead end instead of advancing game development, when clearly so much thought and love have been put into it, fills me with an odd sense of regret.

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

Tags: games, geekery

One of the things that kiddo's new school requires is an emergency preparedness kit for each student. The kit must include a letter from the parents, as a way to provide comfort during the emergency.

Writing it was an interesting exercise. ( Read more... )

Tags: grade school, parenting

I finally caved in and joined Pinterest yesterday. Good grief I am addicted. Like I needed another timesuck.

Anyone else on Pinterest that I haven't already followed? kcobweb and coffeeem, I think you in particular would love this site. And megastoat, the first thing I saw after I joined was one of Chawne's quilts--pretty cool!