Tony and I have been watching back episodes of Modern Family, and I have been trying to figure out why it is so funny. There's no denying it's hilarious---the kids came out to see what was up as I was laughing so hard it sounded like I was dying the last time we watched. But when I really think about it, it's not a terrible original or creative show. What's the setup? A man with a much younger wife who is beautiful and has an accent, a dopey, clueless husband with a pretty but non-brain-surgeon daughter, a bright but nerdy daughter and a son as clueless as he is, a gay couple that seem pretty stereotypical to me, and who also serve another stereotype in their hyperactive parenting of their adopted child. And the plots? They cover all the classic sit-com happenings. If identity can be mistaken, it is, if people can overhear what they shouldn't overhear, they do, if meanings can be misunderstood, they are, if a car is near a cliff, it will roll off. Everything happens as you expect it to happen.
And that's probably the genius. We are tired of cutting edge or realistic humor. Modern Family is the anti-Seinfeld, the anti-Roseanne. It's a flashback to just plain funny, without a cutting edge or a intricate plot. The show is well casted, the actors are likeable, and you can just sit back and enjoy yourself, without having to think a huge amount. There's a lot to be said for that.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Amazon Book Reviewing --- My story!
Back in the dark ages of the internet, I noticed that it was possible to write reviews of books on Amazon. So I started doing so---compulsively. I wrote many, many reviews, just for the pure fun of it, and because it was kind of cool to see if people liked them or not.
Then I got a surprise---a letter from Amazon telling me they were going to start ranking reviewers, and that I was in their top 100 reviewer list---something like 55. They sent me a hat saying as much, and put a note by my name. I was pretty excited, just for the pure coolness of it all.
Then something strange started to happen. All of a sudden, all my reviews had tons and tons of "unhelpful" votes. Reviews that had never gotten any votes before were overnight getting 10 unhelpful votes. It was obvious someone in that top 100 list wanted to move up. It just seemed so stupid to me, but it also bothered me. After thinking about it a while, I decided it just wasn't worth it, and I wrote to Amazon telling them I didn't want to be ranked any more. They agreed, and I was no longer ranked.
After about 2 years, during which I still wrote a lot of reviews, I thought it might be fun to see what my ranking was, so I wrote and asked them to re-rank me. When they did, I was something like 800, which still was fun. Life intervened, and I stopped having time to write as much, and recently I feel out of the top 1000, but I still love doing reviews here and there. About 5 years ago, Amazon started their Vine program, and invited me to join. Now every month, I get to pick about 4 books (and once in a while other products) to review, and the books are sent to me for free---usually in advance reader editions. That's a blast---seeing books before anyone else does, and just getting free stuff!
If anyone would like to read any of my 558 reviews (that's over about 12 years, remember!), here's a link...
My Reviews
One of the coolest things about reviewing is when occasionally an author writes to me to thank me for a review. That means a great deal to me! It also, though, makes reviewing a little harder. It reminds me that authors are people, and their books are their labors of love, and it probably hurts very much to read a poor review. However, I can't let that stop me from reviewing books honestly. I try very hard to be fair and polite in my reviews. I'm sure no-one sets out to write something that is less than good. But I feel a responsibility to those who might spend their money on a book to be honest.
Book reviewing has become one of my passions, one I wish I had a lot more time for. I love to read, I read very fast and I have a lot of opinions! Some day, when things are less hectic in my life, I'm going to go through my entire collection of children's books and write a review of every last one. That's the excuse, anyway, for collecting many more picture books than anyone needs!
Then I got a surprise---a letter from Amazon telling me they were going to start ranking reviewers, and that I was in their top 100 reviewer list---something like 55. They sent me a hat saying as much, and put a note by my name. I was pretty excited, just for the pure coolness of it all.
Then something strange started to happen. All of a sudden, all my reviews had tons and tons of "unhelpful" votes. Reviews that had never gotten any votes before were overnight getting 10 unhelpful votes. It was obvious someone in that top 100 list wanted to move up. It just seemed so stupid to me, but it also bothered me. After thinking about it a while, I decided it just wasn't worth it, and I wrote to Amazon telling them I didn't want to be ranked any more. They agreed, and I was no longer ranked.
After about 2 years, during which I still wrote a lot of reviews, I thought it might be fun to see what my ranking was, so I wrote and asked them to re-rank me. When they did, I was something like 800, which still was fun. Life intervened, and I stopped having time to write as much, and recently I feel out of the top 1000, but I still love doing reviews here and there. About 5 years ago, Amazon started their Vine program, and invited me to join. Now every month, I get to pick about 4 books (and once in a while other products) to review, and the books are sent to me for free---usually in advance reader editions. That's a blast---seeing books before anyone else does, and just getting free stuff!
If anyone would like to read any of my 558 reviews (that's over about 12 years, remember!), here's a link...
My Reviews
One of the coolest things about reviewing is when occasionally an author writes to me to thank me for a review. That means a great deal to me! It also, though, makes reviewing a little harder. It reminds me that authors are people, and their books are their labors of love, and it probably hurts very much to read a poor review. However, I can't let that stop me from reviewing books honestly. I try very hard to be fair and polite in my reviews. I'm sure no-one sets out to write something that is less than good. But I feel a responsibility to those who might spend their money on a book to be honest.
Book reviewing has become one of my passions, one I wish I had a lot more time for. I love to read, I read very fast and I have a lot of opinions! Some day, when things are less hectic in my life, I'm going to go through my entire collection of children's books and write a review of every last one. That's the excuse, anyway, for collecting many more picture books than anyone needs!
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Miniature Wildlife from my lawn
Here's a few more pictures!
This is a Red Admiral butterfly from my yard.
This one's a Variegated Fritillary. I love the name---it suits it!
A snail in the rain, also in my yard.
A couple of three lined potato beetles being, um, friendly with each other.
And because of the overwhelming demand, as promised, a fly picture! It's for you, Julie!
Monday, May 21, 2012
Meet The Brother Cats
I won't go on and on about cats, so this won't turn into a cat blog, but they were posed so well today I thought I should at least introduce them.
10 Things I hate about driving and drivers
This is one of those posts that is mostly an excuse to rant. I drive every week day from my house to Janey's school. This takes me across an edge of Boston, and it's city driving It's hard for me to believe sometimes I actually can even do this. I hate to drive, I've always hated to drive and it's only pure necessity that has made me able to drive, and even do things like merging, parallel parking and being slightly aggressive to not get crushed by the other Boston drivers. But still...I hate it. And here's 10 reasons why.
1. The diminishing use of turn signals. When I learned to drive, turn signals were kind of considered a "must do". I never remember being told they were optional. Lately, though, I must have missed a memo, as they seem to have become unfashionable. I'll be behind a car barreling along, and then suddenly taking a left turn. I guess it adds an air of mystery to driving..."Hey, I'm not going to go just telling everyone what I intend to do. That's my business only" I should embrace this freespiritedness, but I guess I'm just old school.
2. The heavy Boston use of horns. Boston drivers like to stay in touch with each other. This is shown by their use of horns. Horns say it all "Hey, buddy, the light have been green for 2 milliseconds! Move it!" "I don't really like this traffic back-up!" "Pedestrian, you are cramping my style with your walking on the crosswalk!" Yep, the Boston way is to just go ahead and beep what you need to say.
3. Perpetual construction. For the last two years, and I mean that literally, work has been going on at a major intersection on my way to the school. This results in torn up streets, detours, police half-heartedly directing traffic, long back-ups, all kinds of fun. So you would think that something MAJOR was being done at this site. Well, unless it's top secret, I have no idea what has been done. Nothing, from what I can see. It's the same as it ever way. Oh, that's a lie. They did put in some decorative bricks on either side of one crosswalk. I guess that's a two year job.
4. People who don't stop at crosswalks. I try to always stop for pedestrians at crosswalks. This is partly because it's just the right thing to do, and partly because although I think I'm pretty good about doing it, twice I've been pulled over for NOT stopping. Those two times will be number 5, but regardless, I do try to stop. This makes many other drivers very annoyed. They honk to let me know this, and then sometimes just can't wait, and pass me and just miss hitting the mother with two cute little tots that was crossing. Lovely.
5. People who don't get what DON'T WALK means. As mentioned, I was stopped twice for not stopping for pedestrians. BOTH those times, it was when the pedestrians had a don't walk sign and I had a green light. Yes, they were in the crosswalk, but I think green lights and don't walk signs are supposed to send some kind of message. I guess not.
6. Cell phone use. This one has been done to death, but it still bugs me. Maybe I'm just not as popular as all those other drivers, but do they really have that many people they need to be in constant touch with? And things to say that can't wait a few minutes until they aren't driving?
7. Huge SUVs. In city driving, you often have to go around people. Streets suddenly get turning only lanes, and you need to be in the right lane. This can be a life-threatening experience when the car ahead of you is so big it literally blocks all sign of what is happening on the street. Unless you have about 10 kids, or do a lot of off-road driving, you don't need an SUV.
8. Delivery trucks. I do feel for these guys. The streets of Boston are often narrow, and if they have to deliver to a restaurant or store on them, they have to park someplace, and often the only place available is on the street. I mean, right on the street, blocking an entire lane, so you have to go over into the wrong lane to get by, hopefully first checking to be sure no cars will hit you head on while you do this. A novelty to try once, maybe, but after having this happen every day for about 12 years, the fun has worn off.
9. Potholes. You would think a great city like Boston would feel a little ashamed of leaving huge, huge holes in the middle of major streets for months at a time. Maybe they would, if those holes were in fancy parts of the city, but in Mattapan or Dorchester or Hyde Park, it doesn't seem to bother them.
10. Extremely loud car stereos. I have no problem with music in the car, and even with putting it up a little loud if, you know, it's one of your very, very favorite songs. What I don't like are those systems that boost the bass to the extent that you feel like you're having a heart attack from the vibrations as you get within a half mile radius of them.
Okay. I feel better getting all that off my chest. Thanks for listening.
1. The diminishing use of turn signals. When I learned to drive, turn signals were kind of considered a "must do". I never remember being told they were optional. Lately, though, I must have missed a memo, as they seem to have become unfashionable. I'll be behind a car barreling along, and then suddenly taking a left turn. I guess it adds an air of mystery to driving..."Hey, I'm not going to go just telling everyone what I intend to do. That's my business only" I should embrace this freespiritedness, but I guess I'm just old school.
2. The heavy Boston use of horns. Boston drivers like to stay in touch with each other. This is shown by their use of horns. Horns say it all "Hey, buddy, the light have been green for 2 milliseconds! Move it!" "I don't really like this traffic back-up!" "Pedestrian, you are cramping my style with your walking on the crosswalk!" Yep, the Boston way is to just go ahead and beep what you need to say.
3. Perpetual construction. For the last two years, and I mean that literally, work has been going on at a major intersection on my way to the school. This results in torn up streets, detours, police half-heartedly directing traffic, long back-ups, all kinds of fun. So you would think that something MAJOR was being done at this site. Well, unless it's top secret, I have no idea what has been done. Nothing, from what I can see. It's the same as it ever way. Oh, that's a lie. They did put in some decorative bricks on either side of one crosswalk. I guess that's a two year job.
4. People who don't stop at crosswalks. I try to always stop for pedestrians at crosswalks. This is partly because it's just the right thing to do, and partly because although I think I'm pretty good about doing it, twice I've been pulled over for NOT stopping. Those two times will be number 5, but regardless, I do try to stop. This makes many other drivers very annoyed. They honk to let me know this, and then sometimes just can't wait, and pass me and just miss hitting the mother with two cute little tots that was crossing. Lovely.
5. People who don't get what DON'T WALK means. As mentioned, I was stopped twice for not stopping for pedestrians. BOTH those times, it was when the pedestrians had a don't walk sign and I had a green light. Yes, they were in the crosswalk, but I think green lights and don't walk signs are supposed to send some kind of message. I guess not.
6. Cell phone use. This one has been done to death, but it still bugs me. Maybe I'm just not as popular as all those other drivers, but do they really have that many people they need to be in constant touch with? And things to say that can't wait a few minutes until they aren't driving?
7. Huge SUVs. In city driving, you often have to go around people. Streets suddenly get turning only lanes, and you need to be in the right lane. This can be a life-threatening experience when the car ahead of you is so big it literally blocks all sign of what is happening on the street. Unless you have about 10 kids, or do a lot of off-road driving, you don't need an SUV.
8. Delivery trucks. I do feel for these guys. The streets of Boston are often narrow, and if they have to deliver to a restaurant or store on them, they have to park someplace, and often the only place available is on the street. I mean, right on the street, blocking an entire lane, so you have to go over into the wrong lane to get by, hopefully first checking to be sure no cars will hit you head on while you do this. A novelty to try once, maybe, but after having this happen every day for about 12 years, the fun has worn off.
9. Potholes. You would think a great city like Boston would feel a little ashamed of leaving huge, huge holes in the middle of major streets for months at a time. Maybe they would, if those holes were in fancy parts of the city, but in Mattapan or Dorchester or Hyde Park, it doesn't seem to bother them.
10. Extremely loud car stereos. I have no problem with music in the car, and even with putting it up a little loud if, you know, it's one of your very, very favorite songs. What I don't like are those systems that boost the bass to the extent that you feel like you're having a heart attack from the vibrations as you get within a half mile radius of them.
Okay. I feel better getting all that off my chest. Thanks for listening.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Reading Science Fiction, or what I thought was sci-fi...
I have a feeling I'm going to be posting on this new blog a lot---probably way too much. But since anything except autism is a pretty broad range of topics, I keep thinking of things I want to write! I'll have to hold back, as it probably looks tragically nerdy or weird to post multiple times a day. This is the last post today (I think!)
I've always liked to read science fiction. Or I thought I did. I like actually a fairly narrow range within science fiction, mostly just short stories, and most ones that involve something weird happening, or an O. Henry type surprise ending. I don't like overly sciencey ones, or ones that are what I guess is called space opera, or ones that are so literary it's hard to get what is going on. I mostly read anthologies, because if I read too many stories by the same author in a row, I tend to get burnt out of their style. Picky, picky, picky. When I find a story I like, it feels like a huge treat. If for some reason you'd like to read what I consider the most perfect collection of stories I've ever read (although right away this breaks my rule, as it's all by one person), here's the link to a collection by Jack Finney. I like stories that start out as part of regular life---I don't like fantasy worlds usually much at all. Although the Narnia Chronicles or Alice in Wonderland or the Oz books aren't really considered sci-fi, they are all examples of what I like. Everyday people are in their everyday world, and then something bizarre happens, and they react to it.
Lately I'm thinking that what I like might not be really considered sci-fi. I don't know if there is a category for what it is considered. I was very surprised one time when I bought a collection of horror short stories on a whim, and realized I really liked a lot of them. I'd never have thought of myself as a horror fan, but the stories were close to what I liked---weird things happening. I didn't really like it that all of them had hugely upsetting and sad endings, but hey---they do call it horror for a reason. I've found a few collections over the years that fit my bill---just stories of uncanny things happening. I even like to read "true" stories like that, of people disappearing in thin air, or doubling themselves, or floating, or finding artifacts from the future. I don't believe any of them, but if you read them as realistically written fiction, they are very cool.
My mother reads mysteries, and likes mostly what are called "cozy" mysteries. It's strange, as mysteries for adults are just about 100% about murder, so it's hard to picture how they can also be cozy or domestic, but they are. The person that dies is always someone bad, and the person solving it is usually a novice with another real passion in life---knitting, cooking, book collection, cats---and the mystery solving is just kind of a glue to hold the book together, from what I can gather. I don't read a lot of mysteries. But I guess that intrigues me because it's a sub-genre, and my kind of sci-fi is a sub-genre. I wish I could figure out exactly what it is named, if it has ever been named, because I'd like to read a lot more of it, without having to pick through a lot of what I don't like. Although, to be fair, that is how most of us get exposed to writing outside our comfort zones.
I've always liked to read science fiction. Or I thought I did. I like actually a fairly narrow range within science fiction, mostly just short stories, and most ones that involve something weird happening, or an O. Henry type surprise ending. I don't like overly sciencey ones, or ones that are what I guess is called space opera, or ones that are so literary it's hard to get what is going on. I mostly read anthologies, because if I read too many stories by the same author in a row, I tend to get burnt out of their style. Picky, picky, picky. When I find a story I like, it feels like a huge treat. If for some reason you'd like to read what I consider the most perfect collection of stories I've ever read (although right away this breaks my rule, as it's all by one person), here's the link to a collection by Jack Finney. I like stories that start out as part of regular life---I don't like fantasy worlds usually much at all. Although the Narnia Chronicles or Alice in Wonderland or the Oz books aren't really considered sci-fi, they are all examples of what I like. Everyday people are in their everyday world, and then something bizarre happens, and they react to it.
Lately I'm thinking that what I like might not be really considered sci-fi. I don't know if there is a category for what it is considered. I was very surprised one time when I bought a collection of horror short stories on a whim, and realized I really liked a lot of them. I'd never have thought of myself as a horror fan, but the stories were close to what I liked---weird things happening. I didn't really like it that all of them had hugely upsetting and sad endings, but hey---they do call it horror for a reason. I've found a few collections over the years that fit my bill---just stories of uncanny things happening. I even like to read "true" stories like that, of people disappearing in thin air, or doubling themselves, or floating, or finding artifacts from the future. I don't believe any of them, but if you read them as realistically written fiction, they are very cool.
My mother reads mysteries, and likes mostly what are called "cozy" mysteries. It's strange, as mysteries for adults are just about 100% about murder, so it's hard to picture how they can also be cozy or domestic, but they are. The person that dies is always someone bad, and the person solving it is usually a novice with another real passion in life---knitting, cooking, book collection, cats---and the mystery solving is just kind of a glue to hold the book together, from what I can gather. I don't read a lot of mysteries. But I guess that intrigues me because it's a sub-genre, and my kind of sci-fi is a sub-genre. I wish I could figure out exactly what it is named, if it has ever been named, because I'd like to read a lot more of it, without having to pick through a lot of what I don't like. Although, to be fair, that is how most of us get exposed to writing outside our comfort zones.
Wildflowers Up Close
Why A Second Blog?
Well....because I like to write. And because sometimes what I feel like writing about has nothing to do with autism. My mind was awash this morning with ideas to write about, and I was trying to rein them into an autism-related theme. It suddenly felt like when you are having a conversation with a friend, and you want to talk about something else all of a sudden. Not because you are bored with the current topic, but because you have something else you want to share. The usual conversational convention is to say "On a completely unrelated topic..." and then go on with your new idea, so that is what this blog will do. I think I'll write about books, television, things I take pictures of, cats, annoying drivers, the wacky life of a mother of teenagers and food. I'll probably toss in some sarcasm and pathos, and some attempts at being ironic and nasty, as well as sentimental enough to drive every reader to tears, if there are any readers. There might not be---there are many blogs out there that are general like this, and I'm not vain enough to think the interest in an autism blog means I can write a general one, but if you like to write, sometimes you just like to write, and the fact that no-one might be reading doesn't stop you! I'll put on the first "real" post a little later today.
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