“It is likely I will die next to a pile of things I was meaning to read.” – Lemony Snicket

Very quiet week, which is probably just as well since the next one will be so hectic.  I’m leaving for Michigan on Wednesday!  I’m very excited, and I hope it’s positively frigid up there.  Summer and I are through.  I’ll report on my adventures in the north country next time.

Hoodlums ran through our apartment complex parking lot, breaking into a whole slew of cars in one night, which is rather unprecedented in our area.  There were so many break-ins, the police just went door to door taking reports.  Fortunately, my and my roommate’s cars were spared.  The perks of driving boring cars and not owning anything tantalizing!

Hilarity:

• Boop.
• Three guys attempt the smokey eye.  I don’t get it either, boys.
• My friends will never know how fortunate they are that I don’t own a velociraptor costume.
• Jared Padalecki and the European train system.

Geekery:

• Star Trek: TNG characters in Star Trek: TOS uniforms.
• The full-scale Millennium Falcon project.
• It’s just something my grandmother used to say.
• 25 signs you’re a liberal arts major.  Disconcertingly accurate.  (Number four, man…)
• Why English majors are the hot new hires.  Makes me feel better after reading the previous article.

Fascinating:

• Humpback whales, dolphins, and sea lions chilling together.
• Bug with a gear in its legs.  Insect cyborgs!
• The monster of Rhayader.
• Puritans and their weird names.
• Raven from the Tower of London, tweeted by the Raven Master.

Bolstering your faith in humanity:

• Music from the landfill. 
• A moving beer commercial?
• And if that one didn’t tug your heartstrings, this gum commercial will.
• A soldier’s reply to anti-Muslim comments.
• After waking up from surgery, this guy sees his wife for the first time.  Brilliant.

Music:

• “Bleeding Out” by Imagine Dragons as a round.
• Cover of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” by bluegrass band Iron Horse.

Books:  A friend gave me Cat-a-lyst by Alan Dean Foster, author of more scifi than you can shake a stick at, including the original novel of Star Wars (mistakenly credited solely to Lucas), the story for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, novelizations for the two most recent Star Trek movies, and a host of his own scifi and fantasy works.  I’ve been meaning to read his stuff for ages…but, sadly, I found Cat-a-lyst disappointing.  The ideas were extremely imaginative, but the execution was dull, and the characters were flat and incomprehensible in terms of motivation.  As a writer, I recognized all the signs of lazy, sloppy writing that annoy me in myself; I suspect Foster just didn’t put his usual effort into this one.  I’d like to read some of his other works to compare, because no one gets to his level of acclaim without having done something right.