Month: December 2011

Young Adult Lit

I read a lot of young adult literature even though I’m an adult. Keep in Mind that I also read a lot of adult books and the odd volume strait out of a section far “too young” for me.

I am not ashamed of this!

I never will be, either. Good stuff lies in those sections, some that connects with my youth and some of it that just gives me hope because kids read this stuff.

Tamara Peirce, for example, is amazing. I love tortall and have no plans to leave it anytime soon. I don’t understand why she hasn’t gotten the attention that J. K. Rowlings got for Harry Potter. She has good plots and rounder characters than jk does.

Meg Cabot is another good example. I had a rough time in middle and high school. The kind of time that makes me act crazy during movies like the Breakfast Club that make believe that cliques are good for us even when we’re “all the same”. I felt like Mia a lot back then. Sometimes even in my day to day life. I think it’s healthy for me to find a character that helps me work through all of those negative emotions and find a positive spin for that part of my life.

And finally, a nostalgia author for me. Everyone should read Erickson’s Hank the Cowdog books when they’re 10 or younger, and then revisit them at 30. I want a kid to read these to. They’re incredible fun and beg to be read aloud.

In short: Don’t let a shelf classification keep you from reading anything, ever. Sometimes you don’t want 1000 pages of dancing dragons. Sometimes you only want 100 pages where the dragon dosent turn anybody into a cinder (calling on dragons, perhaps, when you need a break from Martin’s epic A Dance of Dragons). They say don’t judge a book by its cover, but don’t judge it by its page count, either!

Another Visual Change

I figure now that the “Brand New Day” is done dawning, it was time to swap to a more serious skin to reflect the “more serious” approach I’m trying to take to this blog. Go me, right?

Yes, it is a monster change, but I felt like a layout that reflected my current goals was in order, and seemed prudent. There are still going to be silly things, but I really want to up the amount of serious content, and maybe end up driving a little bit of real traffic through this website. Maybe try and make something of it…

Big Question: Will we Talk to Animals

Discovery News is currently running a series of articles about the “Big questions for 2012”. On the 15th of December, the big question was “Will we talk to the animals?”.

If I could pick a superpower, this would be my superpower.

Studies have already shown that dolphins and humans use the same mechanics to create sound (Ie: the blowhole functions shockingly like a larynx). Studies indicate that children, in particular, are keyed in to understand dog barks (though I’m a part of this club, still. I can identify different types of barks from my dogs, and associate those with the correct meaning much as a parent works out what different sounding crys from their infants mean). Strides have also been made with our closest relatives, the Bonobos, in understanding how their vocalizations communicate information about the food they eat.

Jennifer Viegas, who wrote the original article goes so far as to speculate that their might be a primitive communication method that lies under the surface in all mammals, including linking to an article about the subject from 2006.

I hope this gets worked out in 2012. Nature won’t give me a superpower. I’d love to be able to buy the one I’ve always wanted…

Kitsu Got a Kindle

As of the 18th I acquired a Kindle Touch 3G (with special offers) for Christmas from my father.

So far I’ve enjoyed the device, finishing up a book I had started on the iPad’s Kindle App on it, and the whispersync between devices has worked phenomenally. I’m really liking the eink screen, and find it easier to read from for long periods than an LCD like the iPad.

It charged quickly, and the user interface came to me (though I am a techy type person) very very easily. I figure there will be followup comments as I adapt and develop a closer relationship with the device, but we shall see. Nothing like being able to bring your entire digital library on vacation without a fight, though. And once summer dawn’s again I’ll really put the eink to the test in full sun, I promise.

Invisibility Cloak: A Reality?

Just when you thought you’d heard or seen everything, the invisibility cloak is on its way to reality. That’s right… Reported by Tracy Staedter of Discovery News on 5 October 2011 a team from the University of Texas at Dallas have created a carbon nanotube float that visually hides objects, as shown in the video below.

A Brand New Day

I decided that it was time for a brand new day here at Kitsufox.com . I’ve lost interest in the LOL-posting and just… haven’t been able to make myself do it. So I think I’m doing to start making myself sit down and… You know… write real stuff for blog entries every day.

I don’t know what the topics will be, but I’ll be shooting for an entry a day. It might be works I like on dA, it might be a book review… It might be anything that takes my mind, even rehashing news stories. I might even do the occasional LOL post, though for the sake of everyone who wants to skip those, I’ll start buying them under cuts.

Thus, see y’all tomorrow, with the first of these new fangled posts.