As an amateur blogger, I read a lot of good blogs to see what my blogs could become. Today I want to set aside the books and movies for a bit, and review my most favorite blogs. Blogs from different hosts, from different people, from different countries; blogs of people with varied interests, from poetry to photography and sushi to sentence structure! I have bookmarked and read these blogs from the day I started blogging myself. I read them partly out of interest in other people's lives and activities and partly out of sheer admiration for people who can be so disciplined and regular in doing stuff like blogging and pursuing their passions.
Here, I give you 10 of the blogs that I absolutely have to read everyday, and why I love them:
1. Scribbit - A Blog about Motherhood in Alaska
Written by Michelle Mitchell, this blog is refreshingly full of recipes, kids on vacation, home makeover, writing contests (my favorite part), and superb give-aways. Great pics and even better humor. I love this blog!
2. It's Lovely! I'll Take It!
This blog gets top marks for humor! And I have come to love 'Chair'. Check him out...! The author of the blog is Sara Lorimer.
3. Dumb Little Man-Tips for Life
A great blog that gives you remarkably insightful advice/tips on just about everything from packing for a vacation, to dumping your girlfriend. Author: Jay White.
4. Hello! My Name is Blog!
This is the blog of Scott Ginsberg, who has worn a nametag 24x7, every day of his life, ever since he graduated!! Oh, and he was also on Ripley's Believe It or Not! Enough said...!
5. I Think This World is Perfect...
First of all, it is amazing to see a father who is so involved with his home and his family that he blogs about it. Watch out Mommy blogs. The blog also features some of the most poignant and beautiful moments between two little girls and their Dad. Author: Dad.
6. PS22 Chorus
A blog about amazingly talented little kids who sing like angels. This blog has pics, videos, audios, awards...the works. I am totally a fan. Written by: Mr.B (their choir director).
7. Mashable
This blog will win a post-update marathon hands down, any day. I have them on my Google Reader and by the time I've finished reading their post (which are atleast 10 on a daily basis), they update 2 or 3 more! They carry lots of really informative information on technology of all kinds, and make it interesting even for technologically challenged people like. The blog is written by Pete Cashmore and others.
8. Send Me Your Head
This blog is simply full of portraits by the blogger. Simple, yet breathtaking. Lucky folks who get to be subjects for the portriats. Art by: Karen Schmidt
9. Angela Booth's Writing Blog
Obviously, written by Angela Booth, it has expert advice on writing, getting published and generally directs you to the way to becoming a writer.
10. Clipping Corners
This blog is about how you can Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, and about how Jennylin follows this religiously at home.
Honorable Mentions: other blogs that I just could not ignore
People Reading
Growing a Life
Poem of the Week
Open Mouth, Insert Fork
Dooce
My Ice cream Diary
Endless Possibilities
Working Girl
When Tara Met Blog
Bottles, Barbies & Boys
Today I write this with extreme grief. Mr. C. Mohandoss, loving husband, wonderful father, beloved employee, one of the most inspiring individuals I've met,... and my Dad - went to be with the Lord on 13th June, 2009.
I pay my tribute to him here. Memories of him, and his words of inspiration and encouragement will always ring in my ears.
He was a wonderful father and will be sorely missed by his wife (Vijaya Mohandoss), his daughters (Jane Hamilton & Jone Dorothy), his son in law (G.J. Hamilton), his son Jacob Timothy), and his grand-daughter (Deborah Hamilton).
We love you Dad.
Today I review one of Michael Crichton’s many books, TimeLine, one of his best works and one of many that were later made into movies. The story is about a group of historians and archaeologists who, while studying a site in the Dordogne region of France, find a mysterious message buried in the earth, and the lens from one of the archaeologists glasses. Soon, Professor Johnston (the owner of the lens), who works for ITC, goes missing, and the rest of the crew travel back in time to the medieval towns of Castelgard and La Roque (which were believed to be located near the site where they were carrying out their research). Researchers Chris Hughes, Kate Erickson, Andre Marek, and David Stern, along with a marine travel back to 1357 to look for Johnston.
Here they come across many misfortunes. Chris meets Lady Claire, whom he helps to escape from the clutches of the evil Sir Guy. The men are forced to fight in jousts, and somehow manage to survive and win, to their surprise. The team finds that another person from the present has followed them into the past. It is Rob Deckard, an ITC employee and former marine, who has gone insane as a side effect of constant time travel. Deckard has remained in 1357 after his last travel back in time.
After a series of skirmishes, the team get ready to go back home through the marker beacon that Chris has managed to get from De Kere. Noble Andre stays behind with Lady Claire to help her people win the battle against Arnaut, another bad guy.
The team saves Professor Johnston and, minus Andre and some people who don’t deserve to live, return to the present. Chris and Kate fall in love and Kate is pregnant. They find the tombstone of Andre and Lady Claire and are happy to know that Andre lived a good life.
Crichton reveals the depths of quantum leap, and the theory of the multiverse. The theory is that time travels in different speeds in different universes and that when one person jumped from one universe into another, he would land in a different time, either in the future or in the past based on whether time moved faster or slower respectively.
Another important concept is that changes made in one universe affect the events of a future time of other universes. Crichton explains these theories in such a simple manner that any reader, whether familiar or stranger to scientific theories, can understand the principle behind time travel, albeit as Michael Crichton sees it.
Michael Crichton is one of the world’s best novelists, thinkers, and filmmakers in the world. A doctor by profession, he is one of those rare human beings who transcend race, countries, social strata, educational and professional disciplines, media, genres, and languages to touch the lives of people whom they will never meet. No college professor or scholar can explain the complicated scientific theories of DNA reconstruction, time travel, Quantum physics, and air travel to the common man better than this writer can. And what an ingenious way to impart scientific knowledge to the masses, through the simple method of story-telling that has been the most effective way to get any message across to people, from the very beginning of humanity.
I admire this man as much for his personality as for his works that will always stand tall as beacons that other science fiction writers should follow. The world suffers a great loss on his death. Crichton passed on on November 4, 2008. He will be missed.
In honor of his work, I will be reviewing some of his books and comparing them with their movie versions, the next few days.
America's Sweethearts - I can't decide whether the title is sarcastic or straightforward! The story is as old as the hills, only this time there are lots of famous names in it. Stuck up beautiful sister Gwen Harrison (Catherine Zeta-Jones), whom all the men swoon over, marries a wonderfully spineless creature of a man Eddie Thomas (John Cusack). Both are also famous film stars, which makes them amazingly neurotic. Wife is looking for a man with a stronger back bone, ends up with a man who's... well... got only that. Husband, now on his way to becoming the 'ex', hides himself behind the vague drivel of his psychiatrist about flowers and flames .
The wife's previously 'calorifically challenged' sister Kiki (Julia Roberts in a terrible fat-suit) is now an attractive size 2. She is falling for her ex-bro-in-law, and he is beginning to see her now, when she has lost all the weight that was clogging her smile. Convenient! By the way, what's with the silly nickname 'Kiki'?! Poor Julia Roberts!
Gwen and Eddie have co-starred in a movie that won't get promoted if they are not together anymore (I thought split-ups got all the attention and not happy marriages!). Anyway, this becomes a very contrived situation for all parties concerned to meet, and for all the guts to spill when the psycho director shows personal conversations of the stars at the very-public press junket.
Some jaw-dropping; many threats of suing and libel; and eventually some break-ups and make-ups. Gwen's Spanish boyfriend is furious, Eddie and Kiki get together and I'm not sure what happens to the movie. The stars, though, are definitely America's sweethearts. You know, like Britney Spears - people do not generally approve of her, but boy do they gawk when they spot her in public!
The movie is like an adorable baby that looks the same but grew too big in size, and is not endearing anymore. Too many stars, if you ask me. Julia Roberts is wasted in this role. She is too huge a phenomenon to be playing anyone's chubby sister. Catherine Zeta-Jones is okay, but really there is no room on screen for Two fabulous women! I have never been a fan of Cusack, and I kind of wished that Roberts finally fell for Billy Crystal instead. He is a much better watch than Cusack any day.
Gawd! and no comments on the Spanish guy. And Why, oh Why does Chris Walken go for such silly roles when he clearly has a lot more talent?
This movie is okay if you have absolutely nothing to do on a lazy afternoon, and feel like doing something unhealthy like eat a lot of fat and carbs and laze on the couch, and generally get wasted. I say this because you don't have to be in your senses to take in this movie. Enjoy!
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