Good-bye August...

So sad, I know. I was going to write, "Good-bye summer" so as to include June and July as well, but summer doesn't technically end until September 21st, and mentally most people are saying good-bye to summer  way before then. Summer as an ideal, a thought, a feeling ends, when in reality summer doesn't end for another twenty days or so. All these solstices and equinox in the middle of months seems very sloppy, and annoying. Who came up with that? I suppose I could wait until September 21st to do this post, but by then everyone is onto hot chocolate, fires, playing in the leaves, school, and mitten. No one, including myself, won't really be saying good-bye to summer, as an idea. 

August fades (I would say summer, but I've already had this discussion with my computer screen) and the only thing I can do is reflect upon the bright summer days that it has represented, represented deep in my soul as days free of care and schedules (to a point) that will stay with me forever, or at least as long as I can remember them. August fades, like the flesh of a person who is dead, growing pale because the blood that once kept them strong and beautiful has stopped moving and the days grow cold, again, much like the flesh of a dead person. When a person dies, a memorial is often appropriate, and so I shall give August a memorial, mentioning the highlights of the summer.

The first thing I would like to mention in this memorial of summ...August is parks. Specifically Farewell Bend park. If you live in Bend Oregon, you will probably know what I'm talking about, for everyone else click on the picture. 

In the connection to parks and such, is the river float. It is one of the things that are very near to defining Central Oregon summer/August. One is not a true Central Oregonian until he has floated the river, and it is a perfect way to spend a day hanging with family and friends outside on a hot day.

Kenny Chesney. Is there any other music artist who captures the carefree days of summer? Should I take your silence as a resounding no? Steel drums, guitars, the fact that the majority of his songs are about summer? There is no competition.

Roasting marshmallows. 

Going to the movies.

Bun Head. (Basically it's Gilmore Girls, exactly, but with ballerinas.) The show aired this summer, plus the show is set in California. If there is any state in the world, (or, I guess, in the United States) that is summer-esque it's California. 

Iced Chai

Munchkins, the game. It's a bit like Dungeons and Dragons, but with cards instead of a game board and dice and no role playing. I know this isn't a very summery thing in of itself, but my sister Colleen got the game for her birthday and I played it a lot this summer. A lot. So much that when I think of this summer, it's one of the things that comes to mind. It's meant for younger kids, but I think actually liked the game more than my younger siblings. I got pretty good at it too. 

Barbecues.

Watermelon.

Ice cream. 

Lazy days, but not in the slothful, sluggard kind of way. Just more in the, there isn't an over whelming amount of stuff to do so I'm going to take my time to do things and take my time to enjoy it. I could think of no better picture to represent this than the iconic "lazy frog" picture.

I would continue to add things like beaches, staying up late, sleeping in late, beaches, hot days, and summer cloths, but the first three are things I didn't participate in. The forth didn't really happen that much this summer. I think we had about on month of authentic summer heat through the second half of July and the first half of August. It used to be hotter during our Central Oregon summers, but recently it's been staying cold until July, but then staying hot till November in the fall. Global warming? More like global season shifting. And as to the last I couldn't find any decent pictures. 

Good-bye August, and good-bye all of the things that we think of as we think of you. While I am still unsure if it was appropriate (ethically, not logically, speaking) or not to compare you to a dead person, I hope you will appreciate this memorial when you have a chance to see it when you reincarnate next year. 

The Shield, Sword, and Crown

If any of you can recall, or care to go to the columns this is a book review. The problem is, I read a lot of books, at least one a week, sometimes more, and quite frankly I did not feel like writing that many book reviews. Luckily, I came up with a clever solution. 

I read a lot of series, and I could cut the number of reviews I would have to write if I lumped in all the books in the same series into the same book review. Look at this as more of a place of recommended books really. If a book is terrible I probably won't bother posting about it, unless of course it is to warn others. 

The series I want to talk about today is a trilogy called, The Shield, Sword, and Crown by Hilari Bell. 

The story is told from the perspective of three people. Weasel, an ex-pick pocket who is now a clerk of the law, Arisa, the daughter of the rebel bandit the Falcon, and Edoran the young prince of Deorthas. The shield of stars, the sword of waters, and the crown of earth are items of legend, and all three must be found to return balance to the politically unstable kingdom of Deorthas. 

The series is fantasy, and could probably even be classified as epic fantasy, but it doesn't have that over-the-top thing that many fantasy stories have. No sweeping epic battles where the forces of evil and good battle in an unbelievable power match where the action is explained in overly flowery language. There is magic present, but it feels almost natural and believable. The villains in the story is realistic; regular people. The characters are well-drawn with good development, and are just as realistic as the villains. I personally liked how the series handled the idea of religion. Technically none of the religions on the books were actual religions, but the series still did a good job and presenting religions in a real light, whether you are religious yourself or not. 

There is some mild language and violence, but other than that the books were very clean, which I also enjoyed. For future reference, I plan on using the rating scale from Fiction Ratings, and I would give this book a K+. 

And for the other form of rating I give this series 4 out of 5 stars. While this series was written with a younger audience in mind, the author doesn't dumb down the ideas of evil, or right and wrong. In fact a saw a depth that is lacking in many books written with adults in mind. I think the series is a good read for anyone who likes fantasy.

A Very Interesting Topic

In light of the title for today's post, I am very sad to tell you that it isn't true. Not even a little bit. So here is a video that you should all watch, whether you found this post by following my blog, or you found me on google, or some other way that I probably don't want to know about.

Once you're done laughing or being angry, please read on if you care to. An explanation of sorts can be found below. 

My last post, if you will remember, was about the Olympics, and how I wasn't going to watch them, and how it was cool that Matt Smith carried the Olympic torch part of the way, even though it would have been better if David Tennant would have done it. Well, I noticed something. 

A lot more people were viewing my blog than before.

And I mean a lot. Way more than when I ever consistently blogged about the very interesting things you all loved so much. Looking through the provided by blogger, I discovered that the majority of those views were due to people looking up "David Tennant Olympic torch." Though they must have been pretty desperate for any kind of information on "David Tennant Olympic torch" because when I looked it up on google I gave up looking for my blog by the time I got to page five. How many pages did these people sort through before they found my blog? That got me thinking. Could I possibly use this as an underhand way to get more people to view my blog.

Yes, yes I can.

But the real question. I'm I really vain, petty, and superficial enough to do it? Maybe, maybe not, but if there is one thing I know, it's that apparently I like conveying the the same thing, but saying it slightly differently, three times in a row. 

Then I realized, this has nothing to do with being vain, or petty, or superficial, this has everything to do with being an amazing blogger. I must do this, so that others may come to my blog and see for what's it's worth!  They day you see my blog is the day you change, and change for the better, or at least change in a neutral way. Not change in a bad way, that would be bad, and I probably would have gotten complaints. 

So if by now you still don't understand what the whole point of this video is here are some lists of some of the most googled things. Hey, don't judge, I'm only helping those who need to find me, find me. 

Rebecca Black                                     Google +                                     Ryan Dunn 

Casey Anthony                                     Battlefield 3                                 iPhone 5

Adele                                                   Fukushima I Nuclear Plant           Steve Jobs
iPad 2                                                  The World Cup                           Olympics
Haiti EarthQuake                            Oil Spil                                          Ash Cloud                                   Justin bieber                                         Nicki minaj                                  Friv

Myxer                                                  Katy Perry                                  Twitter

Gamezer                                              Facebook                                    Chatroulette

Sorry about the funkiness of the list, I'm not sure what happened about that. No wait, I meant to do that to be artistic.