Saturday ponderings

Last night, I watched The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.  Seeing Aslan choose to take Edmund's place was especially poignant since it was Good Friday.  I also watched The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  I had seen it in the theater, and again, I was bothered by the line that Lucy would pay when she, Edmund, Eustace, and Caspian were captured by the slave traders.  After that, it cuts to the next day so I'm left imagining the worst of what had happened to Lucy the night before.  Although the film is PG, I found it disturbing that the line was included.  Narnia is a fantasy story, and although it does have elements of danger, having it hint of Lucy being defiled was one vision that was hard to forget.

Did you know?

It's National Library Week.
"I may not be an explorer or an adventurer or a gunfighter, but I am proud of what I am...I am a librarian"
 -memorable quote from The Mummy
So, if you haven't already, show some love to your local library or your favorite librarian.

I just finished reading this book.  It follows the adventures of a young (age 14) Sherlock Holmes.  Although the onset of it took a bit to get going, the mystery was rather clever and engaging.  And, Lane's description of Sherlock hits the mark.  I can see why the book was endorsed by the Conan Doyle Estate. It looks like the author is making a series out of it so I hope that my public library acquires the 2nd one (Rebel Fire) when it's published this fall.
I am still waiting for the library to get the third (Sealed with a Kill) in the Decoupage mystery series by Lucy Lawrence.  Of cozy mystery series I've read so far, it was one of my favorites because it had a little bit of romance and small town quirkiness besides the heroine finding a corpse.

I feel so

insulated of late. Maybe because I don't have a television so I feel so out of the loop with what's happening in Japan and Libya. Granted, I could read a newspapers, and I've read a few stories of their online counterparts. But, a picture is really worth a thousand words. Not that I'm enthusiastic to see people face disasters like earthquakes, nuclear explosions, or stealth bombers. Its just that the human aspect is somewhat lost, and I feel disconnected to those involved.
Now I'm rambling...I've continued to read what I've found to be called "cozy mysteries." The best series that I've found is by Anna Dean. Since her mysteries are paced like a Jane Austen novel, I find them enjoyable, but I have to be in the mood to read something that delves more into the characters involved than the other whodunit mysteries that I've read. I'm also a fan of Jennifer McKinlay's books. In posting this, I realized that she also writes under the name Lucy Lawrence, but both her Decoupage and Cupcake Bakery series were quick, fun reads.

I finally got around to...

watching Downton Abbey. Wow! I was quite impressed by its character development and period detail. That sounds like a trite thing to say, but Maggie Smith and Penelope Wilton were a delight to watch as their characters verbally bantered with one another. I liked most of the stories of the staff downstairs and some of the people upstairs. It was 6 hours well spent and kind of left me with the same feeling of delight as when I watched the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle for the first time.
I've also delved into classic Doctor Who, a bit, by watching a few episode with Tom Baker and Peter Davison. I think that I like Tom Baker's portrayal of the Doctor a bit better, but the jury's still out because I was distracted by the campy sets and costumes in the Peter Davison's episodes.
For books, I've been on a food mysteries kick where often the protagonist is a store owner selling food and a murder occurs where the store owner's product is to blame so the protagonist has to solve the case to defend her name. They have been a fun diversion from being depressed by the snow and cold temperatures that haven't quite left yet. And, there's all kinds store types (doughnuts, cupcakes, coffee, etc.) to choose from. I've also found a few mystery series where the protagonists is a conservationist of books, book-seller, or librarian.

investment books

Although I'm not normally a fan of non-fiction (it reminds me too much of being in school), I have been recently trying to increase my investment knowledge. As it is with anything, the more information that I have, the less I know. My public library has supplied me with about a dozen books or so. So far, two have stood out from the pack.

The first is Malkiel's and Ellis's book pictured on the right. I found it easy to understand. They covered a lot of elements like saving, diversifying, and my favorite - keeping it simple. The language was easy to understand and reading it didn't seem like a chore.

The other book that I found interesting was by Susan Hirshman. She compared investing to going on a diet. The way that she presented this was interesting for the first part of the book. Towards the end of the book, I found my interest waning a bit but that might be because my enthusiasm for reading about investments had decreased.

I'm still have a few more investment books checked out. So far, I've just been scanning through them because they look like they cover similar information as these two books.

new year, more doctor who

Recently, I checked out the third season of the Sarah Jane Adventures. I was most curious to see the "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith" episode because it has the last scenes of David Tennant being the Doctor.
Watching the episode, I was so happy to see David Tennant as the Doctor again. I had warmed to his replacement (Matt Smith), but after seeing David's portrayal, it couldn't compare. Not sure if it was David's acting or the writing from the episode, but I felt like I was re-united with an old friend which is one sign perhaps that I'm watching a bit too much Doctor Who. Another is that I woke up from a dream, and Bruno Langley (the guy who plays Adam in season 1) was in it. Weird.
I have been re-watching Lark Rise to Candleford, too, but to my knowledge, none of the characters are appearing in my dreams.

goodbye 2010, hello 2011

2010 Wrap-Up
Went a 13 mile raft trip
Discovered Doctor Who
Avoided one wedding bouquet toss
Survived 2 years without owning a car

2011 ???
I am not sure what 20111 will bring. So far, it's been some of the same. My rafting adventure in 2010 gave me a great memory (and story of falling out of the raft). I want a similar experience for 2011, but I'm not sure what it's going to be, yet.

As for upcoming books, movies, etc.
I found out that Syfy is doing a re-make of the BBC series Being Human. I am not sure how I feel about this because the BBC series was a guilty pleasure, but the sex and violence in it was more graphic than I want a TV show to be. I might check out it out because Sam Huntington is playing the werewolf.
Another thing that I discovered was that Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibilty is being made into a movie that's set in the modern day. Although from the trailer and title change, From Prada to Nada looks like a loose adaption of Austen's work. Still, I might check it out if it makes it to my town's movie theater.
Masterpiece has started their new programming on PBS. I've been hearing good things about Downton Abbey that starts airing this Sunday. And, I'm looking forward to seeing more Inspector Lewis and Sherlock episodes, but they will not come until this fall.