Larklight by Phillip Reeve

Told from the viewpoint of Art Mumby, this is about the adventures that he and his sister Myrtle have across space. Set in the Victorian era and written as if the Victorians were right about everything that they thought about how science was going to advance (steam power for everything, alchemy, inhabitable planets, etc...) I really enjoyed this book.

Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

By LessWrong

In light of my previous scathing review,
let me share a few words on something I actually like today.
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is Fanfiction of unusually* high quality**, here is the setup.

The Blurb: "Petunia married a biochemist, and Harry grew up reading science and science fiction. Then came the Hogwarts letter, and a whole new world that had never heard of Science. And new friends, like Hermione, and Professor McGonagall, and Professor Quirrell."

While this is technically accurate, it leaves out some of the more awesome^ parts, like the extracurricular student battles, Harry^^ being a Chessmaster, or the sheer number of shout outs, references, and jokes that make it awesome.

Content Rating: I would put it at Teen/10+
Swearing: Mild to none (I honestly do not remember)
Anything Else: Mild, some battles between students with stunning spells,oh, and the (nonlethal) duel in azkaban
Recommended For: Audiences both mature and geeky enough to enjoy it.

*Not hard. Probably.
**Good writing, solid characters, no need for (drastic) rewrites after posting***
***Apparently, Miles Vorkosigan is still at Hogwarts.
^DISCLAIMER: All opinions expressed are mine, and probably not laws of the universe.
^^And Draco, and Lucius, and Dumbledore, and Professor Quirrell.

Temple Dress Bag Pattern

My Relief Society asked me to make up this pattern; I thought this would be the easiest way to make it available to everyone who might want it. 

These images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.  If you want to use them for something outside the scope of that license, contact me by leaving a comment on this blog (this post or the most recent post), and we will discuss it. (Mostly this means: you can use it, but say where you got it, and ask me first if you want to charge.)

Tuesdays At The Castle by Jessica Day George

When princess Celie's parents leave to get her oldest bother from wizarding school they leave everything in her and her two older siblings' hands. It was light and funny but it nevertheless kept a hold of my attention the whole way through, and I quite enjoyed it.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

This book is more of an overview than an in-depth look at any of the sub-facets it touched on - but as an overview, it was fantastic.  I now want to read through his references: about the cataloging of facial expression, the definitions of taste and texture, and the experience (and measurement) of unconscious prejudice. 

It was a very ambitious book - exploring the experience of unconscious decision-making, when it happens, when it can be relied on, and when it leads us to error.  And at the end of it, I feel like I do have a better idea of when it's useful to follow those lightning impressions, and when they really need to be re-examined.  It's not a complete picture - something I've been trying to sort out for a long time - but as far as it goes, it's a well-reasoned model.

The calendar I've been looking for

I don't usually use a planner with so much detail, but when I want an overview, it seems helpful.
As a homeschooling mother, the least flexible day of the week is often Sunday - it's also when I find out about most of the non-school activities and events for the coming week, month, etc.  Also, I like one column per day.
On the off chance that someone else has the same calendar requirements that I do, here it is (blogspot doesn't seem to allow the uploading of documents; tutorials purporting to teach one how just teach you how to join another blog-creator, so I've put it on google docs and here's the link:
1-column-per-day-Sunday-Saturday

I guess since this is my own creation, I should say this: feel free to use it for yourself, family, friends, etc.  If you're going to charge money, take the trouble to make your own - don't charge for something you got for free, and they could get for free.  (That's my short version of the Creative Commons license.)
The two other best fit free calendars I've found (we may still use the Edwardian one come fall) are:
http://www.studenthandouts.com/01-Web-Pages/Lot-01/Weekly-Hourly-Planner.pdf
and
http://donnayoung.org/forms/planners/planner.htm

Leave it to Beaver

I was recently looking for something "mostly harmless" for my children to watch on netflix, when this caught my eye.  Now, I grew up with very limited TV viewing, so even if this show (or the reruns, more likely) were on, I don't think I ever got to see it.  And all I knew about it as an adult was the occasional scathing feminist criticism of June Cleaver, with her beautifully pressed dress, beauty-parlor hair, and immaculate housekeeping - and no apparent ambition to do anything other than what she is doing.
As a wife and mother myself, who has recently started enjoying this show, I have this to say:  the humor is gentle.  The parents love each other, and love their children.  The children like each other, and are kind to each other.  When they aren't, it isn't the cue for a laugh, it's the problem to be resolved in the episode. Does June Cleaver set an unrealistic standard for women?  Certainly no more so than shows which portray women working outside the home, raising children, and maintaining the same standards of beauty and organization that June Cleaver appears to spend her day on - with less outside help than she evidently hires.   It's an idyllic picture of childhood and growing up in America; I don't know if it's anything more than that - or if it was ever meant to be.  But as pictures - necessarily limited in their scope - go, it a pleasant one.