Properly Awry

If Izzy found out that when Denny is not in the hospital he’s out leading an alternate life as a Hunter would she still be pining over him?? She thinks he’s all sweet and caring and maybe he is, but he also is a ruthless killer of the supernatural, which is sure to make her a bit queasy. Also, he has 2 sons that are closer to her own age and who are hot, alas, they too are Hunters. I guess she’ll have to go back to Alex.

So, I gave in and bought a book Stephen King said was great and was truly disappointed by it. The Mad Cook of Pymatuning by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt is described on the publisher’s website as a “no-holds-barred story of terror” and “a wicked, suspenseful, and deeply original tale”, this description combined with King’s recommendation convinced me to buy it (in hardcover even, though I did have a giftcard burning a hole in my purse). The book drags on, is not suspenseful by any sense of the word, and certainly the word terror does not apply. I expected a higher-brow Richard Laymon style of horror - blood, guts, and the sense of what the fuck else could happen to these poor saps - but instead was ripped off. This book does not have “undertones reminiscent of Lord of the Flies” - Lord is a far superior book and if you are at the store holding a hardcover copy of Mad Cook in your hands, put it down and pick up a nice cheap softcover copy of Lord of the Flies instead.

If you happen to be an enormous dork like me, you will certainly appreciate cataloguing programs, such a Delicious Monster’s Delicious Library.  The newest release 1.6.1 is pretty awesome, and if you are lucky enough to have the new MacBook Pro, the built in camera actually works as a scanner to import all your books, cd’s, movies, and games.  With our last Mac I painstakingly input all the book data manually by typing in each ISBN because I thought spending $200 on a wireless barcode scanner was too dorky even for me.  Unfortunately our Mini Mac then kicked it and all my work was lost.  I am now taking the time to get all the data back in there and am very happy the the webcam on the MacBook actually scans the barcodes (about 85% of the time) and  I can take the MacBook into my library without having to remove books from shelves, transport them to another room and return them.  The newest release also syncs with your iPod.  A silly person asked me why on earth I would need that information on my iPod - Answer: As a collector I often forget items I already have and this results in duplication, also, if my house burned down everything would be gone, including the computer containing all the data for insurance purposes but my iPod is always with me.  There are other similar programs out there and if you use a PC then you are stuck with one of the other programs as Delicious Library is only for Macs.  At only US$40 this is a great program not only if you are simply a dork and need to catalogue your library, but also if you want to keep track of cd’s, movies and games for insurance purposes.