Capricious Me

Thanks to my awesome friends, I’m the proud owner of a 3G Kindle (grey). I’m extremely happy with it – I’ve been using the kindle app on my Android for some time now to read. Using the kindle itself is soo much nicer because there’s no glare and it’s about the size of a book. I got the lit cover, so my kindle is protected and is able to power its own reading light. :)

What I love especially are the screensavers. It seems to be an automatic thing – because the kindle doesn’t actually use power once it displays a page (oh the magic of e-ink!), it’s extremely battery efficient and so after a certain time of no activity detected, the kindle will automatically put itself to “sleep” by displaying an illustration. Usually it’s a picture of an author, but there’s old timey illustrations as well. It’s quite fun.

I’m currently reading “Wives and Daughters” by Elizabeth Gaskell and “Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett. In the old fashioned paper book world, I’m rereading “I, Claudius.” I would be reading it on kindle, but amazon.com apparently doesn’t think Americans are cultured enough to warrant electronic versions, though they have no such reservations for the amazon.co.uk.

The majority of the books I have are from the public domain – I am a poor grad student after all, so why would I pay for books when there are so many good old classics out there? Among my ambitions are to pick up my French reading skills again. I’m going to reread Candide. I did it in high school, so let’s see how much I can remember.

I’ve had songs from Notre Dame de Paris stuck in my head for a while… so here’s links to one of my favorite songs from the musical: staged performance, another performance, Garou only (3 languages!). Lyrics below:
» Read the rest of this entry «

How do you not love a book where three little pigs are put on trial for murder of the big bad wolf? And complain that the investigating officer had the gall to eat a bacon sandwich?

I’m going through the Thursday Next series and the Jack Spratt Investigates series as well. I wish I’d read The Eyre Affair years and years ago!!

I’ve been reading The Queen’s Fool by Philippa Gregory and it makes me want more historical fiction!! Of course I’ll read her other books… This is my second Philippa Gregory; the first was The Other Boleyn Girl (which is also a movie I really want to see).

Any good recommendations for historical fiction, preferably set before the 20th century in Europe… with tons of court intrigue and maybe a little war? Judith Tarr had some nice, fun reads… but I think I exhausted her (non-fantasy) books. I want to read something comparable to I, Claudius and Claudius the God. The Romans knew how to do intrigue and conspiracy properly, and how to keep it going for generations. :)

Still on my reading list… the Baroque Cycle series by Neal Stephenson.

While reading, I was interrupted by some Mormons knocking at my door, asking me if I’d like to know about God’s church on earth. I resisted the urge to tell that I’d rather go back to reading my pagan literature, thank you, while I wait for Xenu to claim my soul. However, I was polite and they asked if I knew of other people who would like to know about God’s church on earth… persistent, they are.

Anyway, book was a fun read, but I was disappointed in some respects. (Trying hard not to give away anything here…) Lots of overly dramatic scenes and lots of sappy things, but whatever… gives closure to the series and ties everything up, for sure. And as to that one rumor about the last word of the book being “scar,” no.

Have just received Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Very VERY tempting not to flip to the last page… Alright. Off to read!

This morning did not start quite as well as the others. I suppose the primary reason was the woman sitting next to me, who clearly subscribed to the school of “Bathe in Perfume.” Bill Buxton spoke ranted today about the power of society to force trends in building more specialized technologies and less generalized, more mediocre all-in-one devices.

I went around to the 8th and 9th floors to take pictures. Banff is absolutely gorgeous this time of year. At the afternoon session, I bumped into Ming, my co-author on two papers thus far, who I’ve never met. As a further addition to these “It’s a small world” scenarios, I met one of Hao’s classmates from his grad student days.

The most interesting session, keeping in mind my biases, was the security session. Very real-world attacks and practical defenses… It makes me very excited about Oakland, which is coming up soon.

Tonight is my last night in Banff. I walked downtown once again and had dinner in Sushi House Banff, which was named as one of six best sushi restaurants in the Canadian mountain resorts. They serve sushi in a Sushi Train. So very cute. It was pretty cheap for sushi, and SO yummy…

And now, for the lovers of books and art (Taline, this is especially for you) : FromOldBooks.org. I ran into Liam Quin, who runs this site as a hobby. He wore a colorful hat, in the style of court jesters from the days of yore, and walked barefoot everywhere – even over paths of pebbles. I’d seen him walk about barefoot throughout the hotel, but I thought it was because he was indoors and trying to be comfortable. With nearly a thousand people here, at least one has to be interesting, eh?

I finally posted pictures of the Berkeley kite festival and Habanero burgers.

News of the RFID passports make me nervous. It’s yet another example of why security research is so crucial. If only academia would mesh more with the real world!

Flaming Dell laptops at conferences… Always tragic when a computer dies, yes, but I’m sure everyone in that session was wide awake.

Mice neurons and the universe… Douglas Adams was onto something there, eh? Speaking of Douglas Adams, my Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (of five) arrived, as did my Nintendo ds lite. Needless to say, I no longer lack for entertainment. However, on the social side, I’ve finally met nVidia people and went to Great America for the first time.

– update –
For you, Amy.

Went shopping yesterday. :) Finding really nice bargains always makes me happy. As does buying really pretty things.

My Time Life’s Lost Civilizations (this was a series of documentaries about ancient civilizations that aired in… 1996? well, a long time ago) came. Oh I love that show. We recorded it at the time, and I watched each episode over and over again. Of course, it was blurry and there are commercials. Annoying, cheesy commercials. These dvds make me feel like I’m rediscovering a better quality piece of my childhood.

I also got Orson Scott Card’s Enchantment. ^_^ I’ve never lost my love of fairy tales, which I guess explains my obsession with mythology, and at some point in middle school I discovered a few books that retold fairy tales. There was Patricia Wrede’s Snow White and Rose Red, Jane Yolen’s Briar Rose, Robin McKinley’s Beauty, various retellings of Tam Lin, and of course, Enchantment, my favorite by far. Why? :-) because it combined magic with time travelling, epic battles (ok, one epic battle) and a talking bear.

Getting new books always makes me giddy. :-D It’s just not the same as borrowing it from the library…

Sushi was Soooooo good on Saturday. Stopped by Konditori for some dessert (Esterhazy cake) and man that was good. I loooove nutty cakes. ^_^

It feels like summer already. Imagine my horror, if you will, when I expected to feel a cool breeze around 9pm and felt instead muggy, warm air. Oh Davis, why?

I bought “Shadow of the Giant” today. :-) I’m rather hoping it will be the last book in the Ender’s Shadow series. (Which really doesn’t involve Ender much except for Ender’s Games, and I think the entire Ender’s Shadow series is more a spinoff of Ender’s Game series.) I will miss Bean, as he is without a doubt one of my favorite literary characters. (Ender’s far too emotional for me.)

Ack, why did the weekend go by so quickly??