30 Cheshvan/17 November, 2009
Nov. 17th, 2009 10:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bearshortyAfter finishing my non-fiction books that the library provided, I’m back with the book Papa gave me about two month ago by Francis Carsac (real name François Bordes), a French sci-fi writer, translated into Russian. In Russian, the title is “Lions of El Dorado” but I can’t find the equivalent on his Wikipedia page. He has never been translated into English and his sci-fi works are from 1950s and 1960s. I could tell the period the book was written from some racist and sexist slant to his story so far. Stella Henderson is an estranged daughter of a magnate; she is now a journalist looking to do a profile on a far away planet called Eldorado due to its enormous mineral resources. Unfortunately for people wanting to completely exploit those resources, the planet has a native population (roughly equivalent of native Indian/African/colonial tribes), so there is limited plundering. There is a sort of frontier town mostly populated by men. There is also an independent geologist, Terai Laprad, who pretty much lives with the natives most of the time and has a pet lion who is smarter than the average lion (the lion was genetically engineered). The guy is a patronizing asshole so far, but he is our girl’s tour guide into the native lands so she could write her story and probably a future love interest. There is a young geologist accompanying them on the travels, mostly to “preserve the reputation” of Stella who is trying to be so tough. But the story does flow and I’m allowing certain leeway because of when this story was written and some translation dialogue awkwardness and I’m trying not to overanalyze. Carsac was a professor of prehistory and geology and an expert on ancient stone tools. He loved archeology and had scholarly books on paleontology. Papa loves this book so I’m giving it a try.
SYTYCD. Top 14. A much better show than last week. Only one dance really sucked (Kevin and Karen’s broadway), three were standouts – Jakob and Ashleigh’s Tabitha and Napoleon hip-hop, Ryan and Eleanor’s Travis Walls contemporary and Legacy and Kathryn’s paso doble. Russell and Noelle’s foxtrot was OK and Molly and Nathan’s pop jazz I didn’t care for but that is mostly because they are just like little kids. Channing and Victor’s blackbird dance (Tyce’s jazz choreography) was certainly interesting but it was in the middle of the pack for me because of how others danced. I hope Jakob and Ashleigh and Ryan and Eleanor make it into the Top 10 because they are my favorite couples to watch. Travis has become a great choreographer, especially for what this show requires, all his three routines so far had great story and engaged the audience. Today’s show really worked.
While I was watching SYTYCD there was a Reebok commercial that was the worst commercial I ever saw. It was longer than the one on YouTube I’m linking. The whole time I’m watching it in perplexed horror wondering what exactly is being advertised. You want to sell women’s shoes, really? Can you, Reebok, not be so horrifyingly objectifying?
Deuteronomy WTF moment of the day: chapters 31 to 34 finish up the book with Moses handing off the leadership to Joshua, saying final song and blessings and dying on a mountain not on promised land’s soil. Moses was 120 years old so he knew the end was near. The song is supposed to reinforce the laws (Torah) especially if people dare to turn to other gods. These chapters are pretty straight forward. We end with death of Moses and mourning over him and a tribute to him. They is a ray of hope too with Joshua feeling the new power of leadership but the book firmly ends on why Moses was special and there will never be anyone like him who saw the face of God. That is it for Deuteronomy and that is it for the Torah. It took me exactly two month to read it and I’m just glad it is finally done. It was certainly an interesting experience to actually read the whole Torah. I started in Russian but ended up reading it online in English. I realize stuff is still lost in translation but still it is good to read the actual Torah not the children’s version.
SYTYCD. Top 14. A much better show than last week. Only one dance really sucked (Kevin and Karen’s broadway), three were standouts – Jakob and Ashleigh’s Tabitha and Napoleon hip-hop, Ryan and Eleanor’s Travis Walls contemporary and Legacy and Kathryn’s paso doble. Russell and Noelle’s foxtrot was OK and Molly and Nathan’s pop jazz I didn’t care for but that is mostly because they are just like little kids. Channing and Victor’s blackbird dance (Tyce’s jazz choreography) was certainly interesting but it was in the middle of the pack for me because of how others danced. I hope Jakob and Ashleigh and Ryan and Eleanor make it into the Top 10 because they are my favorite couples to watch. Travis has become a great choreographer, especially for what this show requires, all his three routines so far had great story and engaged the audience. Today’s show really worked.
While I was watching SYTYCD there was a Reebok commercial that was the worst commercial I ever saw. It was longer than the one on YouTube I’m linking. The whole time I’m watching it in perplexed horror wondering what exactly is being advertised. You want to sell women’s shoes, really? Can you, Reebok, not be so horrifyingly objectifying?
Deuteronomy WTF moment of the day: chapters 31 to 34 finish up the book with Moses handing off the leadership to Joshua, saying final song and blessings and dying on a mountain not on promised land’s soil. Moses was 120 years old so he knew the end was near. The song is supposed to reinforce the laws (Torah) especially if people dare to turn to other gods. These chapters are pretty straight forward. We end with death of Moses and mourning over him and a tribute to him. They is a ray of hope too with Joshua feeling the new power of leadership but the book firmly ends on why Moses was special and there will never be anyone like him who saw the face of God. That is it for Deuteronomy and that is it for the Torah. It took me exactly two month to read it and I’m just glad it is finally done. It was certainly an interesting experience to actually read the whole Torah. I started in Russian but ended up reading it online in English. I realize stuff is still lost in translation but still it is good to read the actual Torah not the children’s version.
