How Can You Read This? It Has No Pictures!

Intoxicated with that fact that with a click of a button I can order materials from any branch of the San Francisco library system to be delivered to the library at the bottom of my street, I requested books like crazy online. So now here I am, like a college student who doesn't understand how credit works. It was so easy to order all these books, but now I have to acknowledge the fact that I'll probably never get to them all. These books are like another stray to a cat lady or a child to Angelina Jolie. Putting my gluttonous behaviors aside, I can't read them all. As it is, there are books I've been working on since last summer.

1. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo. I'm on page 1180 out of 1463 and for the last dozen pages Hugo has been talking about not only the barricades built between the Rue de la Chanvrerie, but every barricade built in the city of Paris since then - their size, composition, etc.

2. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I haven't read this in so long I forget what it was about...besides the fact that everyone has the same name...

3. Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi. A wonderful book I got for Christmas about a group of girls who meet secretly to discuss banned books and life. I bet Oprah loves it.

4. Empires of Light by Jill Jonnes. The late 19th century has to be one of my favorite time periods ever. Combine that with a fascinating look at the evolution of electricity, and it's a recipe for Haley reading on the Muni. Plus, George Westinghouse was a hottie.

5. Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf. I just got this one from the library and read the prologue, but I've been itching to read it ever since I saw it at Borders. It's a look at how the brain has actually evolved to read language - written by a neuroscientist. "Computer scientists use the term 'open architecture' to describe a system that is versitile enough to change - or rearrange - to accommodate the varying demands on it," writes Wolf. "Our brain presents a beautiful example of open architecture."

6. Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression, by Mildred Armstrong Kalish. After I read about this book on the New York Times top ten list of 2007 I really wanted to read it. I love love love memoirs and books about the depression, and a book by someone named Mildred has to be good.

7. Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla, by Marc J. Seifer. Oh Tesla, you are so weird and fascinating. You only do things in multiples of threes and hate women's earrings, but I can't stop reading about you. Sadly, this book looks pretty thick - I don't know if I'll be able to get through it before I have to return it.

Reactions On Watching Sixteen Candles

"I see you've gotten your boobies!"

In what universe does a father wink and give his daughter the "ok" sign as she gets into a stranger's car to go lose her virginity?

Ew. 80's people are weird.

Sisterly Advice

"At 23 I dont think it's quite time to settle for drug dealers or prophets."
--a girl close to my heart

They Called Him the Man Who Invented the 20th Century

Before last night this was about all I knew about Nikola Tesla.

Then, I heard a radio show about him as I was driving through the rain-drenched streets of San Francisco and couldn't stop listening to his amazing history.

Born at midnight during a lightning storm (or so the story goes), Tesla began his career working with Edison, but their differing views on electrical current (Edison's DC current required a power station every two miles, but Tesla's stronger AC current could light a whole city) began a lifelong feud.

Tesla gained notoriety for hundreds of inventions, including remote control, spark plugs, radio, and wireless communications. With financial support from tycoon JP Morgan, Tesla began building his Wardenclyffe Tower - a huge transmitter which would supply unlimited energy worldwide. When Morgan heard about this, he exclaimed "If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter?" and promptly withdrew his support, forcing construction to end. Sadly, the remains of the 187-foot tower were used for scrap metal during the first world war.

In addition to his fascinating contributions to life today, there's an eerie mysticism surrounding Tesla. He was very eccentric, obsessed with germs, celibate, spoke eight languages, would listen to radio waves for hours thinking he heard signals from Mars, and at the time of his death was working on a machine that could read memories.

Years after his death, during the Cold War, officials became concerned The Enemy had gotten hold of Tesla's writings for a "Death Ray" - a theoretical machine involving charged particle beams and enormous amounts of energy. Though so far the energy could only be manifest in a vacuum, the fear prompted the Star Wars initiative.

Want to know more? Me too. Here's an interesting short video. Click.

Bienvenue, Mon Petit Chou

My cousin had a baby today!

Kairo Alexander Hook getting his hair washed for the first time.

I didn't know hospitals do that.

Tonight's Sunset from My Room

Wow. I'm still speechless.

I was making some chai on the stove when I noticed the intense light streaking sideways across the kitchen floor. It seemed bizarre, since it was grey and rainy all day. I peeked out the front window and the houses across the street were luminated a bright orange against the denim sky. I grabbed my camera and shot this photo from my bedroom right before the sun faded.

Tuesday, Wednesday Break My Heart

Sometimes my heart literally hurts when I think about how much I miss SLO...

The good news is, two days 'til I'm back! I can't wait.