Random Thoughts

Sorry I haven't been blogging lately. Even my Friday Five recurring post has ceased to exist. It's not like I haven't tried to write a blog entry, I just haven't had anything interesting to say. I'm forcing myself to blog now, mainly because I'm bored at work. Also to give the few of you that still check my blog something to read.

I found out by reading the Sunday paper my age group (25-34) is the largest age group in the city. We make up 30 percent of the population. Where are all these people? I've decided they all work in banks. We have 22 or 23 different banks in town. It's insane. Other than that, I don't run into people my age very often. Why isn't the college population the largest percentage? The age brackets split freshmen and sophomores from juniors and seniors.

School starts Monday. The freshmen from half the colleges in town moved into the dorm over the weekend and there was a noticeable rise in traffic.

I'm growing jalapenos and green bell peppers and they have suddenly started sprouting. Unfortunately, the peppers are rotting before they are fully grown. I'm trying to feed them more water. This is my first time to grow produce and I don't know how big or small to expect the veggies, so I am probably letting them grow too long, thus rotting. I made jalapeno soup with my last batch of jalapenos, but I don't know what I'll make this time.

54,000 adults in my community of 200,000 people are illiterate.

Has anyone read the His Dark Materials trilogy. The first book, The Golden Compass is a movie staring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig (aka James Bond.) The book is anti-religion, but I read an interview with Nicole saying that aspect has been played down in the movie. II actually wondered how they would handle that aspect in the movie because the religious right is so vocal about representation like that. I'm reading the second book right now. It's a enjoyable read. I bought the second book by the author of the Kite Runner. That book is also being made into a movie. If you haven't read it, I recommend you do so. It was one of the best books I read a few years ago. Can't wait to start A Thousand Splendid Suns. Not a fan of the title. Can't ever remember it. (I just had to look it up on amazon.com to include it here.)

That's all I got folks. Not much going on.

Music and Lyrics

Does it drive anyone else crazy when you hear a popular song on the radio with bad grammar? The new Nelly Furtado song came on - "Say it Right" - and when it got to the chorus, I just rolled my eyes. This is why:

Oh you don't mean nothing at all to me
No you don't mean nothing at all to me
Do you got what it takes to set me free

It's much harder to notice bad grammar in music because we don't give the lyrics our full attention.
But it's out there and people sing along and then repeat the grammar mistake in their own
conversations. I don't want to hear any more double negatives in conversation than I have to.

On a different subject, I read the book Bridge to Terabithia last night. This was one of my favorite
books in elementary school. I think I read it in fifth grade, but I'm not really sure. We read it
out loud as a class. I generally borrow books from the library, but occasionally I'll decide a book is
worth a purchase. Books you loved as a child belong in that category. Outside of school, I think my
favorite book was The Girl with the Silver Eyes. Anyone else read that as a child. I need to own
that book. I read it again in high school when my senior English teacher suggested I discover why
I loved it so much. The main character was different from her peers and never fully belonged. She
had silver eyes and paranormal abilities. In the end she finds out there are people like her and she
finally feels like she belongs. I was always a shy kid and could relate to not fitting in with the masses.

What books did you love as a kid and why?