The Nerd Fantastic

So I haven’t written an actual text post in a while, and I apologize for that.  But hopefully this story will make up for that.

I was driving home last week and taking what would normally be the longer way home, but thanks to massive construction on the big fast road I have to take back streets.  Anyway, I was quite pleased indeed that I was forced to take this other way because as I was driving through my residential area, I discovered

a house

with a toilet

laying down on the lawn.

This raises many questions in my head.  Namely, why is there a toilet laying down on your lawn?  Were you redoing your bathroom by yourself?  Did you run out of places for this toilet?  Will the garbage men actually pick it up?  But then that got me thinking—if construction guys redo your bathroom, what do they do with your old toilet?  Do they scrub it down and put it up for sale in a used furniture shop?  Do they take it to a cartoon-style landfill and throw it on a big pile that consists mainly of tires and banana peels?  Do they break it down for parts and sell them Watto-style?

I suppose I should have gone and knocked on their door and asked.  I sort of wish I had the chutzpah to knock on a stranger’s door to ask about their lawn-toilet.  But now the garbage men have since come and I couldn’t tell you what house it was without the toilet firmly marking it.

But if anyone ever finds out, please let me know.

pucknography:

I LOVE THIS.

I saw the midnight show of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides!  Anyone else see it?  I was happy!  It wasn’t as good as the first one (but seriously, no matter what they put in any sequel it won’t be), but it was SIGNIFICANTLY better than 2 and 3, which was really all I hoped for.  It was actually a little weird that Jackums was the main character.  But it worked and was awesome and I’ll need to see it again, as I was quite tired during the movie after a day downtown.

I wish I knew how to make GIFs/had access to scenes from the movie.  Until I do, though, please use your imagination here to show Barbossa quietly but strongly mouthing to Jack “DON’T. TOUCH. THE MAP.”

With my laundry and a rrrrrrrroll of qua-rters….

And you can too!  Go to savethewords.org to meet your new friend.

Here’s the story (from their website): Each year hundreds of words are dropped from the English language.  Old words, wise words, hard-working words.  Words that once led meaningful lives but now lie unused, unloved, and unwanted.  Today, 90% of everything we write is communicated by only 7,000 words.  You can change all that.  Help save the words!  If not for yourself, then for future generations to come.  Now, you may ask, “What have future generations done for us lately?”  Well, not much.  But one day they’ll be grateful.  You never know, they may even have a word or two to say about you.  Help spread the word.

It’s being run by the Oxford English Dictionary, and everyone should know how awesome they are.  It’s free to adopt a word, too!  You have the option of buying your word on a t-shirt if you like, but if you’re poor like me, all you have to do is pledge to use the word as often as you can.

On an entirely unrelated note, I miss Ben because of his kind nature and squiriferous manner.

As a member of Librarything.com’s Early Reviewers program, every now and then I get a free Advance Readers Copy of a book before it comes out in exchange for writing a review.  I like this program. :^) I just finished Tassy Morgan’s Bluff by Jim Stinson courtesy of Early Reviewers, so I thought I’d share my review here.  Enjoy!

I kept going back and forth as I was reading this book between liking it and finding it extremely “meh”.  The basic premise is interesting: Tassy Morgan, a middle-aged divorcee, lives on a bluff in San Andreas.  Trouble is, the bluff is collapsing underneath her house and threatening to take her with it.  Her request to tear it down and rebuild it on safer ground is rejected the city, so she takes increasingly outrageous steps to find a way through the paperwork.  And could handsome middle-aged widower Linc Ellis be of any help to her?

It’s fairly obvious where this book is going, but I respect the book for not attempting to hide it.  For the most part, Tassy and Linc handle their developing relationship like adults, which is a refreshing change.  They are open and honest and you genuinely want them to get together because they seem like a good match, not just because they’re both single.  The characters of the town are also fun and quirky, just like the back of the book promises.

However, those promises made stop right about there.  Jim Stinson does such a good job with his characters that you want to see them interact and find out everything about them.  But he focuses much more on the plot, which, to be frank, isn’t all that interesting.  Perhaps if you’re a lawyer or on a zoning commission you might enjoy the descriptions of the work the characters do, but otherwise I had a hard time following the more detailed stuff and didn’t really care.  Part of what initially interested in me in this book was a comparison to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, but I didn’t get that same level of familiarity with these characters as I did in Guernsey.  Overall, I was a little disappointed, but there were certainly many good points of the book as well.

Thanks to all who recommended I read Percy Jackson!  I will definitely put it on my To Be Read list.  Movies do tend to oversimplify the books they’re based on, and since the movie seemed to have a good start, I would imagine that comes from the books. :^)

I can always count on Tumblreaders to help me out with book advice!