Been Reading + Some History While I'm At It

Some friends of ours recently got me hooked on the Fablehaven series. Pretty cool. I really liked "The Grip of the Shadow Plague". The books are definitely written for younger audiences and the characters are "young", but it is really creative. It was actually inspiring. I read Harry Potter and think, "Wow. I'll never be able to write that." But this book, I read it and thought, "Wow. This is really creative. I could write something like that!"

I really like writing, almost as much as I like reading. I've got quite a few stories that circulate in my head and it's always been a dream of mine to be published. Really published. To walk into a bookstore and see my books. Awesome.

I've been dying to read "The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York." It's a non-fiction "...beguiling concoction-equal parts true crime, twentieth-century history, and science thriller." Honestly, this book is the reason I'm at the computer right now. It was setting the scene for Jazz Age NY and it started talking about Typhoid Mary. Now, I'll admit, deep down I'm a little (okay, maybe a lot) of a geek. I'm not talking nerd. I'm talking geek. I think hierarchal order in Nerdom, geek falls somewhere in between nerd and World of Warcraft-er. I digress. When I heard Typhoid Mary, I immediately thought of the Marvel comic book villain "Typhoid Mary". So I looked it up. Turns out Typhoid Mary was really Mary Mallon, Irish immigrant who was a healthy carrier of typhoid bacteria and worked as a cook, unknowingly spreading typhoid fever to all those she worked for. She infected around 6-7 different families after working as their cook. She would care for them after they fell ill, but would eventually find other employment and the cycle would start over again. She was eventually quarantined and died in isolation 30 years later. Wow. Tough break, Mary. (Mel, if you're reading this, is it any wonder I can only write about dead things ;)

Anyway.

I've also been studying Hokusai, as in this guy:

I've always been moved by this piece. Turns out, he's really one of the only Japanese artists known to the Western world and lived an interesting life. He incorporated Chinese watercolor techniques and rebelled against the studio system becoming an independent painter, painting what he chose. He chose common things in Japanese life, which the Japanese may or may not have liked as it showed intimate details of Japanese life to foreigners. Hokusai lived a poor and desolate life, changing his name and paying off the debts of his no-good grandson.


Hmmm. Appreciate the culture.

Now for pop-culture.

Handsome has recently been enamored of Star Wars. Joanna, every time I watch this I think of you. He only watches Episode V: The Empire Rises and only the Hoth battle. He's gotten far enough in the movie to learn how to laugh like Yoda, but after that, it's back to Hoth. He mostly likes these guys:

The AT-ATs or All Terrain Attack Transport... or something like that. Geeeeekyyy. I love it! Mr. Handsome will catch my eyes and say, "Evil Alien Robot" then sing "DUM, dum, DUM, dum, DEE, dum, DUM, dee dum." You know, the Imperial March. He also uses a vacuum attachment as a laser blaster. And Jo, he says one of your favorite lines from Solo: Who's Scruffy-lookin'?. We're working on "Laugh it up, fuzzball."

In fact, the other night he snuck out of bed while I was reading on the couch and caught my eye at the door. He looks at me and pauses, then says, "Evil Alien Robot" starts to shuffle, and sing the song. Then he stops. Looks at me and says, "Where's the couch?" I say, "I don't know. Where is the couch?" Then he pauses and looks at me and says, "Where's the "sit-down"?" I say, "Would you like to sit down?" He then runs over the couch laughing the whole way and sits down. Love that kid.

That's all for now!