Bugs

I was attacked by a swarm of flies yesterday.

Well, not really.

But here's what happened:

One fly/bee flew straight into my right ear and got stuck...it buzzed around and I felt it in my ear and it was ticklish and really gross.

One gnat flew into my right eye.

Another bee/fly hit me on the right cheek.

Stupid bugs.

Cheap/Free Food

So....
I got a couple emails today/yesterday.

First off is this one: Baskin Robbins is offering ice cream at 31 cents/ scoop tonight only. Which is always cool. I will be sure to take advantage of this opportunity. No coupon needed (I don't think...); Once again, this is tonight only.

Secondly, Jack in the Box is giving out free sandwiches (this one needs the coupon which can be found here). You can grab one of these Deli Trio Grilled Sandwiches (which look pretty durn good, by the way) if you make another purchase as well. This coupon expires on 5/2/10.

Well, that's that.

I'm exhausted. I need some water.

See you all around.

Doesn't it pay to follow my blog?

Thursday- The Day I Almost Got Hit By A Car

I've completely forgotten to put up this post on Thursday, and now that I've remembered, I will.

On Thursday, around 4:15-30ish, I was really tired and I was walking through the parking lot. I passed behind a big dark blue (indigo blue, if you will) van. And I think to myself: "What a big van."
And next to the van is parked a white mini-van. A mother is there, and she smiles at me. I smile back.

Then, in my side vision, I see the blue van start to back out. I freak out-- I mean, this thing is going to hit me if I don't move.

But I'm so darn tired and my legs hurt so I can't move out of the way. Instead, I raise my hands up and throw my body away from the van in hopes that the blow won't hurt as much.

Then I realize that the van didn't actually move at all, and it was me just being tired that made the world around me spin a little.

And, of course, the woman in the white van saw me flinch and dodge a parked blue van, so she laughed for a good chunk after that.

But that's that. And I have been hit by a parked car before. So I consider dodging this one to be quite an improvement.

The Spark of American Culture: Review of Next, by Michael Crichton

As you all might have known, a good chunk of time ago (see the first post about it published Sunday, July 19, 2009) I obtained an audio-book of the Michael Crichton’s futuristic Sci–Fi Next. I finished it somewhere around mid-December. Here’s the review which I so duly owe:

Starting off from the beginning—the very first words the narrator (remember, it’s an audio-book; I can’t tell where things are positioned—only what comes before the next [as a side note, some of the chapters were damaged, too, so I couldn’t listen to them]) heard as follows:

“This novel is fiction, except for the parts that aren’t.”

The dryness, the simplicity, and the truth of this line—the realness, in other words—is the best way to summarize the entire mood of this novel.

Plot wise….

In this novel, gene-research company BioGen is involved in a variety of law suits—and its employees are extremely shady people. Like I said before, there are a number of minor plot threads in this novel—and most of them are here, within the company and the employees. (But these are so minor I’m not going to dive into them.)

The three biggest plot lines, however, aren’t within the company of BioGen.

First off, Henry Kendall realizes that his other company’s research with genes has produced a transgenic chimpanzee—with his own genes. Such transgenic experiments are outlawed, and, the talking chimp, named Dave, must be killed. However, Henry steals Dave away, and his wife, Lynn reluctantly allows him to stay. Their son, Jamie, becomes attached to Dave, even though Dave’s primal, animalistic instincts make the chimp hard to keep secret.

The second thread is the tale of fleeing Alex Brunet. Her husband’s (Frank’s) cells have been bought by BioGen—and they need more. Frank is gone. The company hires bounty hunters to find Alex’s son, Jamie (yes, there are two Jamie’s), but Alex is aware of their plan and runs away with her own son Jamie. Alex flees along to her long-time friend named….Lynn Kendall.

Yes. The two Jamie’s are now united—and most of the plot threads tie together.

Dave, Jamie, and Jamie all make friends quickly. So when the bounty hunters come, Dave (the violent chimp) tries to defend the kids from the bounty hunters (he bites off an ear!). However, the bounty hunters grab the wrong Jamie—they grab the Kendall Jamie instead of the Brunet Jamie.

Meanwhile, Alex and the Kendalls manage to track down the bounty hunters within a couple minutes. They find that the bounty hunters have taken refuge into a health clinic at a resort, where they plan to extract the cells from the boy. With the help of a genetically engineered parrot named Gerard and Alex’s gunmanship, they are able to recover the kidnapped boy.

Now, here’s what I think about the book:

The Good: The plot is excellent. The characters are well developed. Everything about this (expect what is below) is very, very nicely done.

The Bad: Goodness, all the swear words! Really! Throughout the novel, there are tons and tons of cuss words, both in narration, and many spoken. While they give credibility, I really think they weren’t needed.

The Ugly: The plot threads, in my opinion, are the worst part of this entire novel. They’re usually scattered (Plot Thread A, Plot B, Plot C, Plot D, Plot A, Plot D, Plot C, Plot A, Plot B) so you forget what’s happening and you lose track of the characters. Goodness, it gets a little annoying.

So all in all, this novel’s not that bad…One of the better ones I have read in a while by a contemporary writer…

Though not extraordinary, Next is at least, a tiny spark of what we used to call American culture.