91. Read and review 100 books (6/100) The Sea of Monsters - Rick Riordan

'In this second adventure in Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, Percy is anticipating the end of seventh grade and a summer at Camp Half-Blood with kids who are the offspring of Greek gods and mortals. He dreams that his pal Grover, a satyr, is in danger. After monsters attack in his school gym class, Percy and Tyson, a homeless kid, are picked up by Annabeth, a half-blood friend, and rushed to the camp, which is under attack. The tree that guards the camp is dying, and Chiron, the activity director, has been dismissed. Another dream reveals that Grover, whose peril is increasing, is on the same island as the legendary Golden Fleece, which may be the cure for the troubled camp. With the help of Hermes, Percy and his pals set off to the Sea of Monsters, where they encounter legendary dangers. Riordan's clever mix of classical mythology, contemporary teen characters, and an action-packed adventure will bring new readers to the series.'


Second book in the series, and its still got me rushing to download the next! Quite a bit shorter than the last Percy Jackson adventure however the author still manages to cram in enough action to keep you turning the pages without realising you're getting perilously closer to the back of the book! Still very much easy reading, and not anything to heavy or groundbreaking.. but I'm hooked and looking forward to the next instalment...  


On a side note... really surprised (tho I shouldn't of been) to realise that the Gorgon gas field off of the Western Australian coast line is actually named after a Greek monster (actually now that I think about it... it makes sense...) Gorgon, which means 'dreadful' refers to the three sisters of the underworld, one of which was Medusa, whom had snakes for hair and a horrifying gaze that turned people to stone... interesting... 

49. My Two new words of the week...

My words this week are all about the fact that I've been a lazy little fatty since I've started working and its all starting to catch up with me... back to the gym I go this week... sigh

en·er·vat·ed  [en-er-vey-tid]

–adjective

without vigor, force, or strength; languid.

AND

cor·pu·lent  [kawr-pyuh-luhnt]

–adjective

large or bulky of body; portly; stout; fat.

91. Read and review 100 books (5/100) The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan

'Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school... again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen prperty and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.'

I have found my Harry Potter replacement... his name? Percy Jackson... yes I'll be the first one to admit that I like children's books, and I'm not being facetious here. This really is like Harry Potter - only a Greek version! The series is all about a boy, who doesn't really fit into the real world, who finds out that he is actually the child of a Greek god, and is squirreled away to a private and secret 'summer camp' that normal people can't see even through its right in front of them, where he is taught how to be a good little demigod.. but alas, war is brewing and only our special young hero can stop it by going on a quest to retrieve something that was stolen... sound familiar? It should, if you're at all familiar with Mr. Potter! However don't let that influence your judgement of the story - it is different enough to stand on its own merit and it kept me interested on a flight between Seattle and Houston for 4 hours! An easy and quick read (remember, children's book) I found the writting to be entertaining and the premise to be unique enought that the tired and overused ideas didn't detract from the main story line. Looking forward to starting on the second book this weekend... hopefully it can keep me entertainined through my next flight or two!!

19. Spend at least 24 hours in 10 states (2/10) Washington State

Who is crazy enough to attempt a journey across the country for one day of snowboarding? If you said we are, you would be correct!! We, being the overly ambitious and sometimes stupidly enthusiastic travelers that we are, decided that it was indeed completely within our ability to attempt a weekend trip from Houston to Mt Baker...yup!! We decided that a four hour flight, combined with a two and a half hour drive whist battling a two hour time difference at the end of a working day (for me anyway) really wasn't all that much to deal with... after all, what's travelling a couple of thousand miles at the end of a Friday?? Where are those men in white coats with those pretty straight jackets??

So we arrive at our gorgeous log cabin up in the Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forrest, less than 100 miles from the Canadian border, after a delayed flight and a less than agreeable experience with the rental car company and of course we both fall straight into a deep sleep... zzZZzZzzzZZ....

The next morning we wake early (damn two hour time difference) and its raining... don't worry Paul says... you know this means it'll be dumping up on the mountain, woohoo fresh powder for us this morning... Unfortunately we forgot the 'Curse of Paul'! You see, every time we go sonwboarding somewhere, no matter how lovely and cold it is the days before we arrive, no matter how many inches of new powder they receive the week proceeding, no matter how wonderful the extended forecast looks.. the moment Paul steps off of that plane into that State, the sun comes out of hibernation and the weather turns to unseasonable warmth!! (Strange that he doesnt have the same effect on beach holidays??).. SOOOOO of course we're travelling up the mountain... up switchback after switchback, watching the rain fall against the windscreen, thinking to ourselves, 'dont worry it'll turn to snow soon, it has to'... up the mountain we continue, our eyes glued to the temperature display on the dash that is tormenting us with its stupid positive numbers.. higher and higher we climb... the entire time the temperature not falling one single measly degree... we arrive at the top... to a slushy rainy wet mess!! What to do?? What to do?? Grit our teeth, bear it and make the most of a wet situation... Needless to day it wasnt the best day I've ever had on a mountain.. thank god the scenery was soo pretty.. (when you could see it through the fog and clouds) and the lift tickets sooo cheap!!

Washington State is a gorgeous part of the country, the scenery is breathtaking, everything is soooo green, the water is crystal clear and even the air smells sweet (Ive been in Houston too damn long!). The weekend was over waaaaay too quickly.. thank goodness we have a second chance at some snow this weekend when we head to New Mexico... wonder what the weather will be like.....

91. Read and review 100 books (4/100) Free: The Future of a Radical Price - Chris Anderson

'The New York Times bestselling author heralds the new future of business in Free. In his revolutionary bestseller, The Long Tail, Chris Anderson demonstrated how the online marketplace creates thriving niche markets, allowing products and eager consumers to connect in a way that has never been possible before. Now, in Free, he makes the compelling case that in many instances businesses can profit more from giving things away than they can by charging for them. In order to succeed in the twenty-first century economy, Free is more than a promotional gimmick: It's a business strategy that is essential to a company's successful future.

Traditional economics operates under fundamental assumptions of scarcity. After all, there's only so much oil, iron, and gold in the world. But what if the fundamentals of an economy aren't governed by constraints?

The growing online economy is built upon three cornerstones: processing power, hard drive storage, and bandwidth. The costs of all these elements are trending toward zero at an incredible rate. Just think that in 1961, a single transistor cost $10, and now Intel's latest chip has two billion transistors and sells for $300 (or 0.000015 cents per transistor-effectively too cheap to price).

Never in the course of human history have the primary inputs to an industrial economy fallen in price so fast and for so long. This is the engine behind the new Free, the one that goes beyond a marketing gimmick or a cross-subsidy. In a world where prices always seem to go up, the cost of anything built on these three technologies will always go down. And keep going down, until they are as close to zero as possible.

In Free, Chris Anderson explores this radical idea for the new economy, and demonstrates how this revolutionary price can be harnessed for the benefit of both consumers and business alike.'

Very interesting book, however I found the first couple of chapters to be the most interesting as the further through the book I got the more the author seemed to focus on the internet and how it was responsible for the changing idea of free economies. It did however, explain some interesting facts about Google (and I'm considering abandoning my gmail account after reading this book, if it wasn't for the fact that its the only email provider that iphone supports!!) and I think Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything has now made it onto my reading list... some interesting facts however I would of liked to have seen the author explore a few more areas of his topic.... oh but thanks for the free download!! 

86. Send a birthday card to every member of my immediate family for a year (3/11)

I awoke bright and early on Tuesday morning to the most wonderful announcement, my sister in law, Paul's younger sister Belinda, had given birth to her first little bundle of joy a teeny tiny fellow they named Logan Joseph. Therefore our third perfect little nephew is of course now deserving of a 'birthday' card (and I've had to increase my tally on this task +1) but for the little guy I think I can manage... So off I trudged on a wet and rainy Houston afternoon during my lunch break to seek out a card store in the drab and lifelessness that is downtown... Thankfully I managed to stumble across a little store in the Continental Building that had the most perfect little card!! 

Funnily enough I found out after I'd bought the card that the little guy was named for Wolverine from X-Men... oh and a character from the Bold and the Beautiful... but the second just doesn't have the same ring to it does it :D  

Congratulations Bel and Gav.. may your little one bring you a lifetime of happiness, joy, laughter, fun and of course unidentifiable stinky smells, burps, and spit up... poopy diapers (well hopefully not a lifetimes worth), and sleepless nights... I'm sure you'll love every single minute of being mum and dad!! 

49. My Two New Words of the Week...

vivify

  \VIV-uh-fy\ , transitive verb;

1.

To endue with life; to make alive; to animate.

2.

To make more lively or intense.

AND

gastronome

  \GAS-truh-nohm\ , noun;

1.

A connoisseur of good food and drink.