Well, I think that these are all of the books I have read for the year. I know it's not so great compared with many peoples reading lists but it's better than I usually do so Back Off! Anyway, I had about a six month period where I didn't read anything because summer came around and then school started so I got distracted. Anyways, I was able to finish December with four books. I enjoyed every one of them and look forward to a new year of reading.

2001 A Space Odyssey
Contact
The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
Gateway
The Giver
Jurassic Park
The Lost World

Christmas at the Mckinlays

Rock Band Night Video

Rock Band Night

This was a fun night to play some Rock Band 2

The killers sing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"

Just thought this was awesome

Jurassic Park

I finished another book a few days ago. I thought I would take another look at a book to film adaptation. Jurassic Park is a clever and realistic piece of science fiction. It is a look into technology that we already have but limit the use of for moral reasons. It questions weather or not we should clone an extinct animal we hardly know anything about. Cloning an animal that was killed off not because of humans but because nature selected them to go.

The book also brings up a good point about corporate scientists and how they move forward. They are not as disciplined as someone that is doing ground up research. They grab a hold of something that is so close to being completed and they find a way to sell it without taking enough time to think about the consequences.

This book changed some of my views on responsibility over what we create. I see no problem with cloning something like a Wholly Mammoth because it is something that humans killed off so we know we can control it. I would like to see a dinosaur cloned yet we will never know if we can control it. It's funny to think that even after reading this book I would still go forward with it. How could I resist the ability to bring back one of the greatest mysteries of the past.

Joseph, better you than me

Brandon Flowers, Elton John, and Niel Tennant perform a Christmas song about Joseph. Proceeds from those who buy the song go to Project Red. If you would like to see the official video copy and paste the link is below into your address bar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK32yyTYmXw

Some good advice

Advances are made by answering questions. Discoveries are made by questioning answers.
— Bernard Haisch

I'm Reading again.

I went through the majority of my life reading only one book a year until I met Mandi. She reads on average two to four books a month. This year I have decided to challenge myself. I started off the year pretty good. By April I had read. 2001 A Space Odyssey, Contact, The Hobbit, Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers, and Return of the King, I was in the middle of reading the Silmarillion and work interrupted my life, like it always does. That's what managing a restaurant does to you.


Since then I have quit my job and I am now back in college. Last week I decided to start reading again. I found a book from the top sci-fi book lists. It is called Gateway. If you are into more practical science fiction this is a book for you. The story takes place probably 100 to 150 years from now. Humans find an asteroid orbiting Venus. It is not ordinary asteroid. Inside it are the remnants of an alien civilization that died off half a million years ago. They left behind almost 1000 spaceships. Each spaceship is pre-set to a destination. This destination could lead to fortune or death. Although this book can be vulgar at times it is a great work.



Gateway was just what I needed to start me up again. I plunged into another book a couple days ago called the Giver. I'm sure many of you had to read this in elementary school but I was in elementary school when it was written so I did not have the chance to read it at the time. It is a book about a society that has taken away anything that could lead to emotion. They felt that true emotion inflicted too much pain. After hundreds of year living this way only one man knows why. He passes this information down to a 12 year old boy and changes the village forever.

Now it's on to the next book. I picked up Jurassic Park from my bookshelf at 1 am this morning. I have seen the movie but I am always curious of how much more of the story I am missing. Until then. Rip Michael Chriton. 11-4-2008

just needed an image