Bigfoot spotted in Marysville, California

http://cbs13.com/seenon/local_story_057234544.html

To Chuckles

Here is a link just for you. When you read this, remember: it's not too late for you to start.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007090038,00.html

Pictures

Here are some pictures for all of the dear readers of my blog:

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/Kazakhstan/photo411563.htm

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/Kazakhstan/photo452614.htm

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/North_America/Canada/Northern/photo125499.htm

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/North_America/Canada/Northern/photo283251.htm

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/China/West/photo293024.htm

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/Mongolia/photo375992.htm

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/Mongolia/photo130255.htm

OK

To make certain people happy, I will post what you wanted me to:

Something

I don't like Ted Dekker

As the title says, I don't like Ted Dekker. His books, while action packed, are full of poor writing. I just finished reading Black, so I feel the need to complain about it. Although Black is the first book in a series of three, I do not want to continue and read the two others. I never want to read another one of his books again. There are other books that are well written, and have realistic characters that would be much better to read. Hear that, Ted?
Here is a review that I wrote on Black:

BLACK

Ted Dekker

Black by Ted Dekker is a book of unbelievable reality. As the first book in the Circle trilogy, it was published in February of 2004, and it has two sequels that came shortly afterwards in May and September 2004. It is 408 pages of pure action and Dekkerisms.
The weakest part of this book is it's writing style. The series of books was published in less than a year, and it shows. The fact that Dekker does not know how to really write also shows. A lot. He uses many sentences like the previous two; making one sentence into one sentence with a little fragment afterwards. It is used not only in dialogue, but also in the actual writing. Here is an example from Dekker himself: "Deeper and deeper into the jungle they ran. Straight for the lake. There were birds on almost every tree it seemed. Monkeys and possums." Well, monkeys and possums to you too, Ted. Also, on multiple occasions, he starts out a sentence with "and" when, if the period was taken away, and the "a" changed to lowercase, it could be added to the sentence before it to make them a single, real sentence. I honestly do not like Dekker's style of writing. I wonder how he was ever able to get published.
Another weak point was the character development. They are unrealistic, stale, and on occasions, ridiculously funny. When Thomas Hunter, protagonist, is trying to get the people at the Center for Disease Control to believe him that the Raison Strain meant death, he starts acting like a misbehaving child. To quote the book, "Tom smashed his cheek against the glass, tightened his choke hold [on himself], and stuck out his tongue. 'I'm dying! Help, help!'" For putting on that show, Tom gets exactly what he wanted: to talk to someone from the infectious disease department. If he is still doing this as a grown man, he must have had quite the parents. If this had been done in the real world, either the police or some nice men would have taken him away to a special place of his very own.
The story that Dekker has is an unusual one. Thomas Hunter, when awake, is on earth as we know it. When he sleeps, he dreams dreams that are as real as reality. He becomes confused between which is reality, and which is not, all while he tries to save earth from the Raison strain. From a few mistakes on Tom's part, both worlds have something bad happen. On earth, he gives the antagonists the key to making the Raison Strain of death they so desperately wanted, and in Tom's dream world of the bats, he is the one who unintentionally leads one of the inhabitants drink the forbidden water. Both of these were disastrous consequences of Tom's curiosity. Unfortunately, Thomas hunter was a human, not a cat (as the "curiosity killed the cat" phrase goes), so he was able to survive death. Twice.
Thomas Hunter is the protagonist in Black. I've covered him in the above paragraphs. The antagonist was Valborg Svensson. He's pretty much the stereotypical villain. A third character is Rachelle, the beautiful woman that Tom was in love with in his dream world. I don't have much to say about her, either.
Black was a book with an unusual plot, poor writing, and unbelievable characters. I would not read this book again, and neither would I recommend it to anyone, although, if someone that I knew did read it, I would ask the person's opinion of it. If you want to read this book, go ahead, but I just remember that I never told you to do so.

If you have an opinion on Ted Dekker's writing, please leave a comment. I will be more than happy to discuss it with you.

Celtic Music

Here's a list of all my Celtic Cd's:

Clannad

The Celtic Voice

I got this CD only a short while ago, and it quickly became one of my favorites. The first day I had it, I listened to it twice. Now, after listening to it many more times, I'm still not tired of it; in fact, I'm listening to it for the second time today as I write this.
The CD has 14 songs, and runs 53:34. It is sung in both English and Gaelic. The instruments are all the typical kinds used in Celtic music, but there is no fiddle, and lots of harp.
The first two songs, Dúlamán (Seaweed) and Éirigh Suas A Stóirín (Rise up my Love) are both sung in Gaelic. The third song, By Chance It Was, is sung in English, and the three after that are instrumental. The rest are sung in English, Gaelic, or a combination of both.

Solas

Sunny Spells and Scattered Showers

This CD runs 56:01and has 13 songs. It is another CD that I have just gotten. Like the Clannad CD, it tends more towards the traditional. The music has lots of banjo in it, and a bit of accordion (good accordion!), so if you don't like these, you might want to skip this CD. I would recommend the Clannad CD over this one; some of the songs are a bit slow, but I still like it (especially the first song.)

Putumayo: Celtic Tides

This is another good CD of Celtic music, especially if you are new to it. I found out about Clannad and Solas from the song they each had on it. One person who has two songs on it, Dougie MacLean, I did not like, but he could have been worse. It starts out with traditional music, but towards the end, it starts to get more contemporary.The entire CD is 52:26 minutes long, and has 13 songs

The Rough Guide to Irish Music

As it's name suggests, the music on here is a bit more 'Rough.' It has more traditional music, although there are some contemporary songs. This is another good CD if you are new to Celtic music. The only drawback was that some of the people whose songs I liked were not listed on Amazon

Pictures

Here's a link to some nice landscape pictures:

http://kirgiz.chinabroadcast.cn/7280/2006/04/19/1366@346929.htm