ZOMBIES Part Deux...

Okay, so I know what you are all asking yourselves (all 3 of you that read my blog such as it is...).  You want to know what teachers do behind the closed door of the staff room while we are eating our lunches.

I can't speak for everybody, mind you, but I'm partial to "Deading" myself and "Deading" any unsuspecting colleagues I can find.  I had a bunch of really good pictures of some fellow teachers, but I lost them when I received a replacement for my Galaxy Note II.  Back at the end of August, I dropped it and shattered the screen - complete and utter desolation set in for about as long as it took me to contact Verizon about the insurance they said I didn't have.  Desolation was swiftly swept aside by blinding, raging anger, and the short of it is, I received a replacement yesterday.  It is now safely ensconced in a brand new case, so that if I should ever accidentally drop it again, it won't (hopefully) crack.

Anywho...I lost all the really cool "Deaded" pictures of my lunch buddies, but here's one of me...

I just think this is the coolest thing!!  This is an app called The Walking Dead Dead Yourself App.  All you do, is take a picture of either yourself or a loved one (surreptitiously is better), and you've got a ton of options to Dead them, each more gruesome than the last.  Last year I discovered The AMC series The Walking Dead.  Actually, I really already knew about it, but for some odd reason, I resisted watching.  Boy, was I stupid.  I love this show!  I started watching Season 1 and 2 on Netflix while Season 3 was running on AMC.  I managed to catch up, and actually chose to watch the Season Finale of The Walking Dead over the Season Finale of Game of Thrones.

The potential for a Zombie Apocalypse just got me all aquiver with ideas!  I mean, obviously, there's this horrible aspect of people you love turning into zombies and attacking you, the total breakdown of the government (oh...wait...), and the lack of creature comforts like phones and electricity and running water that all depend on humanity to keep them up and running...BUT...there is a geeky coolness about the whole idea.

I spend a lot of time driving back and forth to Dalhart on the lookout for places we could hole up and defend if something like this would actually happen (there are a couple of those conical metal silos that would make perfect places).

I now have about 15 zombie apocalypse books on my Kindle - and I can speak of this freely and without shame.  Me...side by side with the collected works of Thomas Hardy, and Shakespeare, and Myra Banks (Scottish smut in kilts), are these zombie apocalypse books.  The best ones are by Mira Grant:  The Newsflesh Trilogy, but there are about a gazillion out there.  Some are utter crap, so you kind of have to sift through the ratings.  It's a totally new genre for me, and one I love exploring!

So, there you have it.  ZOMBIES!!!

Zombies

I am a horrible blogger.  Almost 2 years since my last post!  Really?  You'd think in 2 years I could've found the time to add SOMETHING to this blog.

Lots of changes since I last posted.  Bo graduated from Channing High School, I went to visit my mom and sister in Virginia Beach, Molly died, Sophie came, I saw the Eiger, and so much more!

YEAH!!!!  We He did it!!

Sophie

Me, my mom, and sister

The EIGER!!

I've done a fair bit of stitching, entered and won in the fair, and started my 24th year of teaching! I just realized that I am out of time this morning, and I didn't talk about Zombies....maybe later...

Books on my Kindle!

I got a Kindle for Christmas from my loving husband and son.  For a long time I was adamant that no, I did not want a Kindle, I wanted to hold my books in my hand, turn the pages, smell the ink.  But then something in me shifted, and I decided I wanted one.  What a great, well, gadget is too trite a word, innovation?  I find that I read more, read in more places, and read more widely with my Kindle.  I read more because it's easy to carry around - I can have 4 or 5 books started, read what I'm in the mood for, and then put one small, tiny thing back in my bag.  I can read everywhere, because I take my Kindle everywhere.  I don't have to remember to pick up a book from my bedside stand and take it.  I have read more widely thanks to Amazon's Free Kindle Books - the word "free" makes it easy to download something that I wouldn't necessarily buy.  I am therefore exposed to new authors and genres (I tend to be an author/genre snob).

Kindles also hold games, and I have a few, but I find that I don't spend much time playing them.  I'd rather read!

My kindle:

As you can see, I have also succumbed to the "skin" phenomenon and have covered my Kindle in a skin from DecalGirl (Decal Girl website).  Even though my Kindle is in a lighted case, and yes it was expensive, probably too expensive, I like the idea of the skin - it makes it much more soothing to me!

So, what do I have on my Kindle (in no particular order!)

FANTASY/HISTORICAL
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
A Dance of Cloaks by David Dalglish
The Half-Orcs by David Dalglish
The Grey Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
Acacia:  The War with the Mein by David Anthony
Shatter (The Children of Men) by Elizabeth C. Mock
The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch
The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick
The Glass Virgin by Catherine Cookson
North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

STIEG LARSON
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest


NONFICTION
Everest:  The West Ridge by Thomas F. Hornbein
A Child al Confino by Eric Lamet
The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter
The Jacobite Rebellions by James Pringle Thomson
South:  The Story of Shackleton by Sir Earnest Henry Shackleton
Folklore and Legends of Scotland
Admit One:  My Life in Film by  Emmett James


CLASSICS
Works of Thomas Hardy
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
A Girl of the Limberlost  by Gerne Stratton-Porter
The English Orphans by Mary Jane Holmes
The Clue of the Twisted Candle by Edgar Wallace
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes  by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Grimm's Fairy Stories by Jacob Grimm


CONTEMPORARY FICTION
The Necromancer by Pamela Richter
Roseflower Creek by Jackie Lee Miles
Don't Die, Dragonfly by Linda Joy Singleton
The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch
Invisible (Ivy Malone) by Lorena McCourtney
The Grove by John Rector
The Traitor's Wife by Susan Higginbotham
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Favorite Places

My favorite places in Scotland all seem to be incredibly rural and out-of-the way.  For example:

This is a picture of the beach and the sea from the Isle of Iona on the northwest coast of Scotland.  I first visited Iona in 1997.  It's a bit difficult to get here.  You have to take a ferry from the mainland port of Iona across to the Isle of Mull, then you board a coach for an hour-long drive across the island, then you board another ferry to be taken to Iona.  Iona was used by St. Columba and his followers and is home to a beautiful Abbey with a churchyard of early carved Christian stones ranging in age from AD 600-1600.

The Abbey as seen from the ferry.

Another of my favorite places is Glenfinnan.

Glenfinnan sits at the northern end of Loch Shiel.  The monument is to Bonnie Prince Charlie and is near the spot where he raised his standard to begin the Jacobite uprising of 1745.  This disastrous uprising marked the beginning of the end of the Highland clan system and eventually led to the bloody battlefield of Culloden on Culloden Moor and the end of the Highland way.  I am proud to call myself a Jacobite (or supporter of Bonnie Prince Charlie's claim to the throne of Scotland!)

And finally, Eilean Donan Castle:

Eilean Donan is famous mostly for its use in the Christopher Lambert movie Highlander.  It's famous for me, because I watch the location from the 9-1-4 Outdoor Shop's webcam:

9-1-4 Webcam

I was finally able to see Castle and Shop in person during my last trip to Scotland in 2010.  The photo shows Trey, Marsha, me, and Bo in the carpark before our visit.

The waiting game...

There are several really cool projects that I am waiting for, and they fall into 2 categories:  Books and TV shows.  Let's start with the books.

I am a big George R.R. Martin fan, but I am totally hacked off that the man can't seem to finish A Dance with Dragons.  The wait has been nearly 5 years!!  CRIMINAL!!  A Game of Thrones is truly one of my favorite books of all times; I love the characterization, and the fact that nothing (as in real life) is black and white.  That was the first book in a long time that I can remember wanting to throw across the room because I was mad at what happened.  Then came A Clash of Kings - just as good, and A Storm of Swords, which although quite a bit longer than the other two (and of dubious binding) was riveting despite the fact the fact that the plot and the character list grew by leaps and bounds.  Then came the pronouncement that the 4th book was to be split into two parts.  I was okay with that at a certain level.  Storm was big, and the binding was not good, so I thought okay, 2 books, better binding, more chance to tell the tale.  WRONG!!! A Feast for Crows was quite a bit weaker than the other 3, had half the characters and advanced the plot, well, not at all.  I was so bored with Brienne's endless wandering...and my favorite character (Tyrion) was non-existent.  Not to mention the fact that Cersi seems to have gone right over the edge.  The only redeeming quality was the change Jamie seems to be going through - I know a lot of people don't like it and think it detracts from his character, but I found it quite believable.  Now HBO is getting ready to air A Game of Thrones in April, and we still have no 5th book.  At this rate, and with as old as Martin is, I don't see that we will ever get to the end!

A Game of Thrones at Amazon

Now for the TV Series.  First, A Game of Thrones on HBO.  This is going to be absolutely stunning.  If you liked Lord of the Rings, I think that this will be right up there with the beauty of those films.  Fortunately, this airs April 17, unfortunately, I don't have HBO.

Another series I am looking forward to is Downton Abbey from Britain's ITV network.  It premiered on PBS in the States in January, and WOW!  I haven't watched a PBS series in a long time - in high school, PBS seemed to be in its heyday with Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, Mountbatten:  The Last Viceroy, and others.  But Downton Abbey has revived my interest in PBS.  It's sort of an Upstairs, Downstairs lite version, but very addicting!  The season ended with the beginning of the First World War, and they start filming Season Two in a month or so, but it will be next year before I know what happens!!

In this age of technology, overnight shipping, and immediate gratification, I have to relearn the waiting game!