Goodnight Moon with a Twist

As a fan of speculative fiction, I absolutely love this review of Goodnight Moon. It's so good, I couldn't keep it to myself.

(Please don't read it if you want to continue to think of Goodnight Moon as a sweet children's book.)

Photographer Shout Out

My photographer friend Liz had a photo shoot with the boys a few months ago. She did such an amazing job that it's taken me this long to decide what to have printed. (The printer she uses also does amazing work. The photos look so much more wonderful in person.) If you're looking for a photographer in the Boston area, or possibly UT if you could convince her to work while vacationing, check her out here.

Here is a very small sample of our favorites. More of Ethan b/c he's just so photogenic.

Counting

The Wink

Those eyelashes just make me melt

And our little guy, who loved having his picture taken

EDIT: The pictures seem to be visible now. I'm not sure why though, b/c I didn't get rid of the code Blogger stuck in. Weird.

Sci-Fi

I'm a huge fan of science fiction. I'm particularly partial to the older stuff (Heinlein, Asimov, etc.), but there are a some great contemporary authors putting out novels and short stories. Lately, I've been enjoying reading and listening to short-stories. It's the route most sf authors take to become known and to try out new ideas. It's also allowing me to sample types of sf that I wouldn't usually choose.

So here is where I find these stories.

I really like Orson Scott Card's web magazine InterGalactic Medicine Show. (This one does cost a little, but for the month of Feb, one story from each of the first four issues is available for free. Just click on each issue to find it.) Besides featuring some newer authors, Card writes a new story in the Enderverse for each issue.

For listening, I highly recommend Escape Pod. A free podcast, they have a new story every week. And really good intro/exit music.

(If you clicked on that last link, I should probably admit to you that this classically trained alto listens to alternative rock and heavy metal most of the time. You should hear me sing along to guitar solos! And my older son yells if I try to change the radio station away from this type of "mewskit". He likes even harder stuff than I do! So, Daikaiju is pretty mellow for us, but it's fun and kind of energizing.)

A Great Article on Who We Are

This article was in the Wall Street Journal on Friday. It has some shocking statistics about how well Mormons are accepted in American society. It's a really good overview of who we are and why we should have as much respect as other religions. And no, it wasn't written by a Mormon.

(And for those of you who aren't LDS, I highly recommend checking out Mormon.org to have a few of your questions answered. Especially the overview of the Plan of Salvation under Basic Beliefs and the short videos included in that section. I promise your perspective on both Mormons and your own life will change.)

Our kind of Christmas music

Ethan and I have been listening to Christmas music in the car and at home for weeks now. Cheesy radio music in the car and typically Handel's Messiah or The Nutcracker at home.

But today we busted out our favorite while decorating the tree. We played The Trans-Siberian Orchestra nice and loud. For anyone who doesn't know, they are a rock orchestra. Definitely our kind of Christmas music. So after the tree, we were all at the table eating dessert when suddenly, we all start dancing in our chairs. Even Ethan. It was hilarious! I couldn't help but think "The family that dances to Christmas rock music together, stays together." We're glad that we're raising our son to appreciate the good stuff.

(For anyone who might be interested, we just discovered that the Smashing Pumpkins have a Christmas song, called Christmas Time. Go to the link to hear it! It's motivated me to find more in the same genre.)

Eragon - Two Thumbs Down

Let me start off by saying that I liked the book very much. No LOTR, but a good read. The movie on the other hand...I can't believe I actually finished watching it. I'm pretty convinced that the screenwriters never even read the book. They jumped through the story so much that it didn't make any sense. They threw in characters willy-nilly without explaining who they were or why they were important. Even though I knew the story, I was confused. They even changed the basic rules of the world!! And don't even get me started on the obvious changes they made simply to save money. (Human Urgles???)

So, don't see the movie. EVER. Not even if it's free and you're bored out of your mind. But do read the book.