Almost 100 degrees today, and tomorrow and again on Tuesday. Thank God global warming is a liberal fantasy.

Today I rated 3 books out of the 568 I have in my catalog, under links at the side here, MY BOOKS. I rated them all 5 stars -the highest rating. First is ANTHONY BURGESS's long novel Earthly Powers, at 600 plus pages; then Victor Pelevin's THE LIFE OF INSECTS, shorter, at 180 packed fantasy page; then lastly George Saunders' The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, the shortest, satirical fantasy at 144 pages, a divine escape. Burgess is demanding, expansive, realistic; the Life of Insects, well the main characters are mosquito's, ants, and more in an allegory where thy pull Gregor Kafka switchs; to the Reign of Phil, a satire on politics today with a bit of Animal Farm here and there.

So much to read, so little time. A crescent moon set about a half hour ago, an incredible orange color. I saw on tv that jet contrails may block out stars in the night sky in 50 years. Where would be if the ancients had not had the stars to wish on, to dream on, to think about?

Notice, I have learnt to insert links . . .

There was an article in the WSJ on Saturday about the moguls of MYSPACE.com People who use it as their 'market' for things or publicity. Made me wonder if there could be a myspace election for president. Register, join a group (there a a million of them, talk about a balkanized electorate), become an activist . . . of course the internet is just tubes and wires . . . I doubt if there are may Taliban types in burka's, or prayer groups in myspace, from what I've read its packed with degenerates, almost 100 million of them. (I do have an account, solely for research purposes of course). Oh look that screenname: Woman in a Burka and that aol Chatting Nun and that wild posting amazon shopping woman with a large Bible just burned (hacked) down a cyber theater!

God it was hot here in Chicago today. 13 witches melted to nothing before noon, thank god warlocks don't melt (unless its the 3rd Tuesday of a month with an r in it). I went out at 9:15 to the grocery story, it was delivered. Then I stayed in and watched TV and read papers. Saturday's Wall Street Journal had an interesting piece on inhabitants of myspace.com and the reality its is becoming. I wonder if there will be an election in myspace land? The internet is just a bunch of tubes you know! But then I still believe in books . . . does that make me a 'nostalgic elitist"? Nah, I would be flexible, a book published as a web page with room for comments after each 2000 words would be fun. Communal, opposed to the solitary nature of reading text on a printed FINITE page (those people who read alone are plotters, thinking their own thoughts, plotters!).

I only ordered two books today, but I did buy one, a whim precipitated by a borders coupon (25% off, who could resist). I have a lit criticism book, but the cover of TURING'S DELIRIUM caught my eye, then the title overpowered my mind. The author, Edmundo Paz Soldán is Bolivian. A different cultural point of view for SCI FI/ Fiction finished me off. A check for reviews pointed to this (still in a pile here):

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/16/books/review/16iyer.html?ex=1154404800&en=0be2ea72cd81c02b&ei=5070

a snip, how does it sound to you (opposite of newspapers and cnn?)

The author, who teaches at Cornell, is one of the charter
members of the McOndo
literary movement, an unmagic-realism camp that
believes South America today
lives in a different universe from the one in
Gabriel García Márquez's sleepy,
never-never Macondo, with its
ascending angels and insomnia plagues. It is a
point of pride with
McOndoites that, as here, the kids in their novels carry
"the latest Nokia,"
central events take place at an Internet cafe called Portal
to Reality and
Thomas Pynchon's recurring notion of entropy is at once honored
and updated
in a reference to a Web site called attrition.org. In
Paz Soldán's previous novel, "The Matter of
Desire," the protagonist goes
to a Bolivian cafe called Berkeley to talk to a
local band called Berkeley
about his deceased father's coded novel called — what
else? — "Berkeley."
In "Turing's Delirium," we first meet the most alive
flesh-and-blood
character — a drug-addicted prostitute — at a McDonald's. She
does herself
up at times as a "University
of California
cheerleader" (perhaps





unaware that the dreamspace of the
characters in the
new book seems to have relocated to the home of both global
circuit making
and antiglobalization protests, Seattle). (NYT, 16july06).

i can not resist this one....

It is very very warm in Chicago. All day and all night long. Tiring . . . all you can do to walk to and from work. It is, maybe, HELL?

Today started with an exciting 8:30 dentist appointment where a temporary crown was replaced with a fixture meant to last a lifetime (or what's left of it). Very simple, it just snapped off and then there wasn't even any drilling. And it was a hot humid day. SO we had takeout pizza from Gino's East. Paul found a hair -about 2 inches long - as he finished his first slice. God knows what I ate. The meal ended suddenly. Its now known as Gino's East Hair Palace. I called to tell them, they said 'impossible, we all wear hairnets.' Well neither Paul nor I have black hair.

This weekend I hope to figure out if I can put pictures on this blog thing.

OK, I spellcheck this blog, right. SO see 'blog' as in blog thing. THE SPELLCHECKER did not like the word BLOG! and made suggestions! like Block, blowes, bloke!! God, it does not like spellcheck either!....

be well. TECHNO POWER RULES!

An early morning post:

Think you have read the ultimate in absurd?

http://www.babelguides.com/view/work/54681

I had to stick this in early. This page, babel guides, covers literature in translation. When you really want to escape its like a double feature: fictional fantasy from a different culture. Check it out:

http://www.babelguides.com/

Ah, almost time for the Farmers Market. Maybe some beets?

Mondays are fundays. I got to work: my PC's connection to the net was dead. TECHIES came, 'its in the wiring' so it was booted to a different tech group. More time. Without a computer there is nothing to do. No email, no searches, can't even type a note sans WORD. Read and cleaned my desk......

The big search of the day was for myself: the screenplay for SLEEPER -1973. I found a messy copy posted by an individual. In a nutshell its about a guy who went to the hospital for a simple routine (woody Allen); and does not come out of the fog so he's frozen. He is brought back in the future and is labeled a rebel. Madcap with meaning. I ordered the DVD . . . as well as a few books. (today a nice copy of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE arrived, check my catalog - I had the dvd). I did order "Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English" for obvious reasons.

and a WILLIAM GOLDING OMNIBUS (including Lord of the FLIES, my copy is missing in action) . . .

my book catalog now has 541 titles, with 129 of them signed by authors (a few by illustrators tho).

Its late Sunday night , 3 minutes left. I hoped for 30 minutes a day at this. But I could fall (COULD YOU SAY?) into inane chatter. That's what I am sure 99% of cellphone conversations are.

Just ordered a copy of PEYTON PLACE (the book) for Paul. He has books for his favorite movies (Rebecca, Mr. Blanding's Dream House, The Graduate . . .). From alibris -- my first alibris purchase.

I added a book to my amazon cart. I add anything and everything, them move it to buy later. Then amazon notifies me if the price has changed, IDEALLY DROPPED, and I think about the item again when its achieved better bargain status.

Today's book was WOE IS I, it was mentioned in a NYT article, quoted actually,

THAT night I read in “Woe Is I” by Patricia T. O’Conner that the semicolon is
like a blinking yellow light between two connected but independent sentences.
You read through the first sentence, but before going to the next, the semicolon
warns you to slow down and look both ways. (The Semicolon Was Our Blinking
Caution Light By JAMIE CALLAN, NYT, July 23)

I wonder if that is some kind of product placement? But I could understand the explanation and if I am going to write this daily I'll need a great deal of guidance. I have 539 books in my online catalog now.... do I really need another title?

your link to the spook world:

http://econo-girl.blogspot.com/ the blog of a former CIA contract worker see the NYT, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/washington/22intel.html

I thought the most fascinating story in the NYT was "Feeling Strains, Baptist Colleges Cut Church Ties," by Alan Finder, about Baptist liberal arts colleges breaking away from State Baptist Conventions, some of the telling quotes include:

Dr. Crouch said. “I sat for 25 years and watched my denomination
become much more narrow and, in terms of education, much more interested in indoctrination.’’

and

Professor Key said. “In fundamentalism, you have all the truths. In
education, you’re searching for truths.’’

and:

Dr. York asked the college to look for a religion professor who would teach theologically conservative positions.

“You ought to have some professor on your faculty who believes
Adam and Eve were the first humans, that they actually existed,’’ Dr. York said.

Isn't that broad minded tolerant fundamentalism akin to wild eyed Islamic clerics exhorting crowds to act mindlessly to destroy the infidels? But the colleges are breaking away in many cases.

Paul and I walked downtown today. On the way we found oursevles passing by hundres of pro-Palestine, anti Israel Arabs. Then we found ourselves with them as they marched across the Michigan avenue bridge chanting FREE FREE PALESTINE (we were not chanting).

I bought a BED in a BAG at Carsons, that way I don't need to expend thought on color coordination.

HUM, Seems if I want to enter something this is where it should be done. As I said, so many blanks, either they (mysterious cyber gods, look like tubes I hear) move them or I forget where they are. How does this look?
-JOHN

I am learning how to blog, on my own. Something any 15 year old can do. I did change my signature line on my hotmail, to: When it's three o'clock in New York, it's still 1938 in London. - Bette Midler. (It had been a quote by Oscar Wilde, the quote master -“One should not be too severe on English novels; they are the only relaxation of the intellectually unemployed.” -- Oscar Wilde)

Now to figure this out, reading books is easier though.

What is going on here?