I've Been Awarded!

Nutschell at The Writing Nut and Su at Cheekyness have awarded me in the past couple of weeks, so I think it's time for an awards post!

First, the Seriously Cute Award:

. . . which is adorable. Thank you, Nutschell! :) For this I have to list 5 books/movies/TV programs I've watched in the past 12 months. I've never been awarded this one before, so this should be interesting:

1. TV Program: The PBS NewsHour. I like keeping current with politics.

2. Book: The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp by Rick Yancey. I finished it earlier this afternoon, actually. I found it interesting that it says the character dies later in the story right on the first page. (Whether or not he does, I'm not saying. You'll have to read the book.)

3. Movie: I think the last movie I watched might have been the BBC's A Midsummer Night's Dream. (I know, I know . . .)

4. TV Program: NOVA. Yay for fascinating science shows.

5. Book: The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones. I was sorry to hear she died this March. She was one excellent writer.

I don't think there's a set number of people you have to award for this one, so I'm just going to award six bloggers:

RaShelle Workman at A No. 2 Pencil Stat! (Don't forget to wish her a happy B-day on July 22nd!)
Madeleine at Scribble and Edit (You have to sign up for her Novel Films Blogfest.)
Bethany Elizabeth at Ink-Splattered (She posts some very interesting questions, and I love her comments.)
Krispy at A Nudge In the Right Direction (Vlogs, blogfests, memes, it's a great place to visit. Head over!)
Samantha Sotto at the blog of the same name (Her book, Before Ever After, is coming out this August.)
Tere Kirkland at The Lesser Key of Tere (I always enjoy her posts.)

And now for the the Versatile Blogger Award:

Thank you, Su! :)

Seven facts:

1. I like Blogger-in-Draft's new interface. When I first saw it a couple days ago (it had been like regular Blogger's that morning) I was frantically hovering and clicking and thinking "Wait! What does that arrow mean? Why are there drop-down menus all over the place? Why is it white and orange? HUH?!" But I like it now. The only problem I have is with the fact it's hard to see the shading in some places (or maybe it's just the angle I'm sitting) and I can't scroll through a post when I'm viewing it in the Editor. I have to use the cursor and arrow keys. But the home page is LOADING SO MUCH FASTER. Really, it's great. See (and/or use) the interface HERE.

2. Dance competition was awesome. Sure, I had to hang around for about eight hours, and yes I had only one dance, and there were over 400 numbers there, but it was still a lot of fun. And our studio took home awards!

3. I have decided what I'm going to do my website on. I mentioned before I was learning HTML in another awards post, and I want to experiment with it a little--so I'm planning to set up a website. I'm not telling you what it's about right now, though. You'll just have to see. ;)

4. I am currently listening to Maurice Andre, Trumpet Masterpieces. I love it. And he can certainly nail those trills.

5. Writing is slowing down. I did manage to write 30,000 words in June, which was my goal, but I've written little in July and it's already the 9th. I know what's supposed to happen . . . the inspiration just hasn't arrived. But I'm still optimistic about the novel right now.

6. I have an absurd number of books out on my card right now. It's over 50, I can tell you that.

7. I know I haven't been doing as much blogging lately. And I've said that before. And I know, it's about time I got back into the blogging swing--I had been following a schedule for a while there.

I've been awarded as a Versatile Blogger many times, so I'm not going to pass it on this time. (If you want to take it, though, feel free to do so!)


-----The Golden Eagle

Herculaneum Was There, Too!

You've heard of Pompeii, I bet. You also probably know what happened that day, August 24th 79 AD. But did you know about Herculaneum?

I've noticed that in a lot of history books there's practically nothing about Herculaneum. The most I've found is a mention that it was buried under 65 feet of ash. You would think that there would be more about a city buried under 65 feet of ash, but unfortunately, no.

That's why I was thrilled when Secrets of the Dead: Herculaneum Uncovered was aired last night:

Watch the full episode. See more Secrets of the Dead.

Because someone had decided this Roman city was finally worth looking into!

I didn't know about much of what they said. Like, that the Bourbons looted the place through a maze of tunnel leading underground. Or that the citizens of Herculaneum hid in the boat sheds as the pyroclastic flows enveloped their city. Or that 2000 year-old-bread is in existence, and even has its owner's name on it. There's ancient, carbonized furniture, and some pieces of wood that were not carbonized.

But even Pompeii and Herculaneum weren't the only cities--Stabiae and Oplontis were also wiped out.

I always find less-discovered places and people fascinating. There's so much more to learn that way. :)


-----The Golden Eagle

Top Ten TV Shows Blogfest

Hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh over at the blog of the same name.

I highly suggest you go check it out. And follow. And link up. And also check out some of the other entries.

I actually don't watch TV beyond PBS. So you're probably going to think I'm a walking talking ad for the channel by the end of this.

But anyway.

On with the list!

1. NOVA

This is probably THE BEST science show out there. Really. It covers every topic and a some of it is about the new fields that are being explored as we speak. SETI. Microraptor. Evolution. Pluto. Green technology. However, it also looks into things like Darwin's history, scientists who have contributed to their field, the understanding of cold, and a lot of other things. Check out the site for everything else.

2. Nature

Second best science show out there. This is mostly animals, instead of science in general the way NOVA is, and I like its music better than I do NOVA's. And no, it's not just lions hauling zebras to the ground and cheetahs carrying dead deer, by the way. It's much more interesting than that, since it covers plenty of stuff beyond hunting.

3. NOVA scienceNOW

It's related to NOVA. Neil deGrasse Tyson (funny guy--have you ever heard of him before?) is the host of the series, which is almost as good as NOVA. It's geared more toward the younger generation--it's more new technology, innovation, instead of exploring key scientific topics. They should have made another series for last summer but they didn't. *sigh* I hope they do for 2011. I miss it.

4. The PBS NewsHour

It's balanced. It doesn't involve Glenn Beck shouting at Washington and the reporters are calm and usually reasonable. Sometimes their science reports are a little, um, weak (Jim Lehrer once asked if you could see bacteria) and not quite as good as they could be, (they should get someone who knows what they're actually talking about) but overall it's MUCH better than the other news outlets. Believe me, it is.

5. History Detectives

History isn't my top favorite subject, but I do enjoy this show a lot. It's focused on American History, although the artifacts can trace back to other countries. Seeing the museums, sites, etc. that they go to can be interesting and the results can be surprising. One or two segments were exaggerated a little, but it was still good.

6. Craft in America

Art, basically. All sorts of art. The people, the things they make, the methods they use, the tools, etc. One of the better art programs PBS has. One local art production isn't very good, (at least I think it's uninteresting) but this series explores a lot more stuff nationwide. Glass, pottery, beading, it's varied.

7. The National Parks: America's Best Idea

How about Ken Burns' Best Idea? Excellent job on this one. The sights, the images, even the music. John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt, and all the other people who influenced the Parks are in there and there are quotes and excerpts of what these people said. There are Rangers who worked in the park, authors, writers, people like that. I actually wrote four essays on this series--you'd think I'd be bored with this by now but I still think it's really good.

8. Nightly Business Report

Not as thorough about news beyond the business world, (for example, you're not going to see soldiers in Iraq in this show) NBR focuses mostly on what's happening in the markets and the economy. There aren't many long interviews and some things are compressed down to make it fit into the half-hour time frame, but it is informative when it comes to the economy. I'm not really interested in which ETFs to buy at the moment, but it's still interesting.

9. The Human Spark

Alan Alda did a good job on this (short) series. It looks into what makes us human, as opposed to just large bipedal apes, how evolution changed that, how we are changing now, human thoughts and instincts. The experiments they try and the scientists Alan Alda speaks to all have their opinions that make you think.

10. Antiques Roadshow

It's fascinating to see how much someone's "junk" can be worth. Some of the stuff they appraise doesn't particularly appeal to me, like beer mugs, but a few items here and there are like "Whoa now!" Sometimes it can get a little monotonous (then I start reading and only pay attention to the end of the appraisals) but overall it's a good show. (I love that commercial they have on the blanket that was appraised--have you ever seen it?)

There's my list. I did warn you . . . LOL. Anyway, do you recognize any of these titles? Comments on them? Thoughts? If you have your own Blogfest post, tell me! I want to see what your favorites are. :)

-----The Golden Eagle

Theremin

This is a theremin:

And this is Theremin with a theremin:

Can you believe this guy spied on us for the Soviet Union?

Watch the full episode. See more History Detectives.

Watch the video. (If it doesn't load, click the link that says "full episode" and then go to "Chapter 4 of 4: Theremin".) Or if you don't have time, I'll give you gist of it. Leon Theremin, a Russian inventor, invented the Theremin, and is widely credited for the beginning of electronic music. However, while he befriended RCA and other companies who wanted to buy the rights to his inventions, he also spied on company practices for the Russians. He reported what he saw back to his home country, and later, invented "The Thing", an espionage device that needed no battery, and could transmit everything the Americans said through the passive device.

Pretty sneaky, huh?

-----The Golden Eagle