Gardening became a passion the day I learned about this.

I'm not the most "green" of people.  Those of you who know my political side would say that's an understatement.  This post may confuse people that know me for my political leanings but I assure you that I am not joining Al Gore's Cult.  I am, however, very, very excited about things that grow.  In another life I may have been a farmer but only if it was as easy as it is now, under the tutelage of Mel.
Last year before Spring I went to a wonderful meeting where the Square Foot Gardening concept was introduced.  In this meeting they had some examples of gardens and dirt...yup, dirt.  I was a somewhat reluctant student because I honestly felt like the whole premise behind Square Foot Gardening was a bit too good to be true.  After listening in an uncomfortable chair for a couple of hours and caring for my newborn enjoying the growth of new life I think something inside me changed a little bit.  I have been an advocate of gardens ever since we bought our house.  We've had gardens for most of the five years since we moved into the house with varied success and effort.  After building our first square foot garden last spring we will never do gardening another way.  We planted corn, sweet peas, cucumbers, beets, onions, peppers, pumpkin, carrots, flowers (mixed including sunflowers) and tomatoes all from seed right in the Mel's Mix.  We harvested as well as we ever did with a row garden but we didn't have to worry about weeds.  We found that cucumbers were fine as long as we gave them a head start on other plants that might shade them.  We found that pumpkins grow vines that overrun an entire garden.  We learned a lot about gardening last year.  This year we started things earlier and we're trying more.  I hope to get more harvested this year than last year which should be easy because we know more about rotating, and plant times.  Check the garden pics below to see how we're doing so far. 

Leven Thumps and the Ruins of Alder

This is the end of the series and easily the best of the five books.  Leven's character is evident, the narrator becomes an unnamed character, and the ending is at once complete and purposefully incomplete.
Leven's adventure takes a very interesting turn as he battles against unfinished business and eventually fulfills the meaning of his name (you really need to read this book if for no other reason than to learn why he is called Leven).
The greatest part of this story as a whole and this book in particular is that when things are at their darkest there is always hope.  If you learn nothing from this book you should learn that hope is always present.  The unseen character, Fate, really takes Leven, Winter, Geth, Ezra, Dennis, and even Clover for a real ride.  Geth and Winter find themselves without Leven or Clover and the tension rises as they are joined by the Longing, Phoebe, and some other relatively minor characters trying to escape Foo with the Dearth and the rest of the Foovians.  Meanwhile, Leven and Clover, are mysteriously transported to the ancient island of Alder for an even more mysterious task.  For drama, humor, and a happy ending you really need to pick this book up and remember Foo.

Leven Thumps and the Wrath of Ezra.

This series is getting awesomer and awesomer.  I know that awesomer is not a word but this is my blog and I'll make up words if I want.  Foo is becoming a very dangerous place and Levin is becoming a very important part of Foo and the battle for dreams.  Fighting Azure, an evil Lithen (you'll have to read the books to know what that means), and the Dearth (again read the book) while trying to save not only Reality, but Foo and the Sycophants of Sycophant Run, Leven and his friends follow Fate as Leven fills his new shoes as the Want, and releases a Longing (she's very pretty).  He has his first kiss.  He grows to roughly the age of 18-22 years even though he's only been in Foo for a couple of weeks. This story was so fast paced that I often found myself reading way later than I should have just because I couldn't find a slow part to stop for the night.  In fact I'm nearly a third of the way through the final novel because the end of this novel is such a cliff hanger that I couldn't help but jump right into the next book.  It's an awesome story that gets better with each story and if you haven't purchased (checked out) the first couple of books, you better.  To make it a little easier on you I'm going to include links to Amazon to buy them or you can just go to the books section of my store and checkout through there.

SUPER Freakonomics

Did you know that car seats for children over 3 have pretty much the same rate of death as a regular seat belt?  Did you know that terrorists would be harder to identify by their purchases if they got life insurance?  Did you know that we could solve global warming for a fraction of the taxes that are being suggested under Cap and Trade?  All of these interesting facts and more are in this book.  Economics and economists never seemed so interesting as they do in this book.  This is the follow-up book to the very awesome and incredibly provocative Freakonomics.  This book is no less provocative and every bit as interesting.   These two authors have combined, again, to create something that is accessible, serious, humorous and should be read by world leaders and voters alike.  I laughed and scoffed and in general flipped pages like a mad man and not just because I needed to get the book to the library in a week.  This was an easy read with in-depth descriptions that would satisfy the most technical of readers.  It is full of the type of useless information that makes for great conversation at parties where there is nothing going on and it will excite the crowd in raucous debate for the rest of the evening.  Buy one today and be the instigator at your next get together.

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• What Bothers People About SuperFreakonomics? (freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com)

Pre-Release Avatar Review

I know most of the WORLD has seen Avatar by now and that this is really late but given the coming release to DVD and Blu-Ray I thought that it would be good to remind everyone (the two people who read this blog me and my, captive audience, wife) of the event of the Spring (after Easter of course).  When I watched Avatar in the theater it was no less than a month after its first viewing.  It was almost a crowded theater.  The glasses for the 3D were a little uncomfortable but the effects were worth the slight discomfort.
For an action movie this started out slow and really the characters were if not unbelievable at least unlikable.  This changed as the story developed.  Slowly the characters became more believable and more likable as the emotional connections to the setting caused the characters inherent apathy to disappear.  In fact the setting is perhaps the best actor in the whole movie.  Pandora is so beautiful that as a viewer you are drawn in and feel comfort and awe in the presence of a wild and loving world in which, if you are NaVi, you can literally become connected with.  The 3D effects enhanced that and made this movie great cinema even if the overt tree hugging was a little too much.  I will buy this despite what James Cameron may think of me.  While, politically, I'm not really excited about the message of Avatar, critically I'm in love with Pandora and the rich and wonderful world gives us reason to look at our own world and consider the beauty that it holds. Now stick around for the trailer advertising the home release of Avatar

Official Avatar Movie