Meet the Pixie

I found that MIT will provide, for free, with no registration, the notes and course load for a bunch of their class offerings  online.

WOOO! HOOO!

So, for some this may be an odd thing to be happy about, but I loved my literature classes in college and am happy to see that there are some on the MIT site.

So I can learn more, widen my knowledge base, etc.

I will span out and look at all the options available, I just went for what I know first off, to see what the offerings looked like.

Perhaps I can apply some of what I learn to making this blog a bit more interesting for any of you still reading...

:-)

Dictionary Series - Science: knowledge

The frightening saga of a young boy whose visit to a mysterious freak show leads him on a journey into a dark world of vampires. - From back of book

I thought I should read it before the movie comes out.  Cute, very young, a quick read.

Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare

Darren Shan

Richard Mayhew is a plain man with a good heart -- and an ordinary life that has changed forever on a day he stops to help  a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk.  From that moment forward he is propelled into a world he never dreamed exsisted -- a dark subculture flourishing in abondoned subway stations and sewer tunnels beneth the city -- a world far stranger and more dangerous then the only one he has ever known. - From back of book

 Very cool!

 I fully enjoyed and recomend this to anyone who liked Alice in Wonderland (the book, not so much the Disney movie) or the old Grimm Fairy Tales.

Neverwhere Ltd: The Author's Preferred Text

Neil Gaiman

From Amazon-

Like the one-time bestseller Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Alchemist presents a simple fable, based on simple truths and places it in a highly unique situation. And though we may sniff a bestselling formula, it is certainly not a new one: even the ancient tribal storytellers knew that this is the most successful method of entertaining an audience while slipping in a lesson or two. Brazilian storyteller Paulo Coehlo introduces Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who one night dreams of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. And so he's off: leaving Spain to literally follow his dream.

Along the way he meets many spiritual messengers, who come in unassuming forms such as a camel driver and a well-read Englishman. In one of the Englishman's books, Santiago first learns about the alchemists--men who believed that if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all its individual properties, and what was left would be the "Soul of the World." Of course he does eventually meet an alchemist, and the ensuing student-teacher relationship clarifies much of the boy's misguided agenda, while also emboldening him to stay true to his dreams. "My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy confides to the alchemist one night as they look up at a moonless night.

"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself," the alchemist replies. "And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity." --Gail Hudson

Last night some friends of ours, hubby and I  participated in a Thrill the World event.

Thrill the World is an attempt to break the world record for the most people worldwide participating in a simultanious group dance of Thriller.

I think the venue I was at said they had 350 people.  I'm not too sure though.

It was fun, it will eventually be on You Tube if I understand correctly.  This is an annual thing, so if you might be interested, there will be another attempt on 10/24/10.  Look into your local theaters, gyms and such in early Oct if you want to try!

On a side note, I woke up feeling really off yesterday.  I felt like my ear was clogged up so much that I was essentially deaf in one ear and it hurt to open my mouth.  I had felt a bit of pressure the day before, but thought it was just sinus stuff (as I am alergic to the state I live in).  So off the doctor I went, turns out I have an inner ear infection and a ear canal infection in the same ear.

Gross.

So  I am (thankful that I have insurance!) on various drugs to knock this out.  Tend to be easily infected, so we have lots of wound cleaning and anti-whever salves around, but what do you do to prevent an ear infection?

We do not have a pool, so I don't regularly swim.  We have not been to the beach in months and I do not make a habit of trying to get water in my ear when I bathe.

Oh well, it is what it is (horribly painful and annoying) and will be over soon (I hope!).

What can I say, it's Halloween!

Short story collection from the likes of Stephen King and George A. Romero.

Renée Michel is the dumpy, nondescript, 54-year-old concierge of a small and exclusive Paris apartment building. Its handful of tenants include a celebrated restaurant critic, high government officials and members of the old nobility. Every day these residents pass by the loge of Madame Michel and, unless they want something from her, scarcely notice that she is alive. As it happens, Renée Michel prefers it that way. There is far more to her than meets the eye.

Paloma Josse also lives in the building. Acutely intelligent, introspective and philosophical, this 12-year-old views the world as absurd and records her observations about it in her journal. She despises her coddled existence, her older sister Colombe (who is studying at the École normale supérieure), and her well-to-do parents, especially her plant-obsessed mother. After careful consideration of what life is like, Paloma has secretly decided to kill herself on her 13th birthday.

These two characters provide the double narrative of The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and you will -- this is going to sound corny -- fall in love with both. In Europe, where Muriel Barbery's book became a huge bestseller in 2007, it has inspired the kind of affection and enthusiasm American readers bestow on the works of Alexander McCall Smith. Still, this is a very French novel: tender and satirical in its overall tone, yet most absorbing because of its reflections on the nature of beauty and art, the meaning of life and death. Out of context, Madame Michel's pensees may occasionally sound pretentious, just as Paloma might sometimes pass for a Gallic (and female) version of Holden Caulfield. But, for the most part, Barbery makes us believe in these two unbelievable characters.

In 16-year-old Zoey Redbird's world, vampyres not only exist but are also tolerated by humans. Those whom the creatures "mark" as special enter the House of Night school where they will either become vampyres themselves, or, if their body rejects the change, die. To Zoey, being marked is truly a blessing, though she's scared at first. She has never fit into the human world and has always felt she is destined for something else. Her grandmother, a descendant of the Cherokee, has always supported her emotionally, and it is she who takes the girl to her new school. But even there the teen stands apart from the others. Her mark from the Goddess Nyx is a special one, showing that her powers are very strong for one so young. At the House of Night, Zoey finds true friendship, loyalty, and romance as well as mistrust and deception. She realizes that all is not right in the vampyre world and that the problems she thought she left behind exist there as well.

Marked: A House of Night Novel (House of Night Novels)

P. C. Cast

The Zing family lives in a world of misguided spell books, singular poetry, and state-of-the-art surveillance equipment. They use these things to protect the Zing Family Secret -- one so huge it draws the family to the garden shed for meetings every Friday night.

Into their world comes socially isolated middle grader Listen Taylor, whose father is dating a Zing. Enter Cath Murphy, a young teacher at the elementary school that Cassie Zing attends, suffering from a broken heart. How will the worlds of these two young woman connect? Only the reader can know!

I excitedly suggest this book.  I found it by complete accident, was in the library, the cover caught my eye and I figured I would give it a try.  I got through the first 50 pages before I got out of the library.  So funny, heartrenching.  Loved it.