Where in the World are Chris and Tiffany

Upgrading to Wordpress 2.7.  You know it’s been a while when you come back and there’s been 3 releases of your blogging software in the interim.

NPR’s posted their summer reading list, and I’m happy to report that they loved Samantha Hunt too.  There’s an excerpt there along with several other books I hope to be adding to my list in the next month or two.  Check it out: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90995424

“Someone in that room has stolen all the electricity,” Louise, notes in the beginning of Samantha Hunt’s new novel. As she investigates she comes to know Nikola Tesla, the inventor of Alternating Current electricity whose brilliance briefly outshone that of Edison, and who today is often overlooked despite his accomplishments. Tesla’s life is one of rags-to-riches-to-rags again, and Samantha Hunt tells it with surprising charm in The Invention of Everything Else.

The story takes place in the New Yorker hotel, 1943. Tesla is no longer the rich genius briefly and brilliantly seen in The Prestige. He’s an old man, prone to talking to himself and pigeons, seeming to live in the past, present, and future all at the same time. Louisa works as a maid in the hotel and stands dramatically on the brink of her future. Louisa brings the disparate arms of Tesla’s story together - his past in Serbia, his loves, his failures and his successes, even as her own begin to unfold.

Samantha Hunt brings outlandish fact and fiction together seamlessly, breathing life into 1940’s New York. The Invention of Everything Else reflects Tesla’s own wish is to see the glimmer of wonder in the eyes of those who come to believe that anything’s possible.

Amazon link

Hit the Oregon Trail with style!  Inspired by this clip (youtube), the latest set of church announcements features our generation’s best educational game.

The people are amused.

This one may be a little more obscure. It’s subplot reference from The Postman.  The Holnists were supersoldiers called “Augments” before America went down the hole.  So…

Original ad:

For all you Browncoats out there, here’s a tall drink from Firefly (episode link here, if you’ve forgotten).  Be sure to click through to the full size images and catch the fine print!

Original Ad:

My take:

One more, I think, then it’ll be time for bed.

Newest CA announcement project involves some love to the Apple II games that I grew up on.  I decided I’d better hurry up with this tribute because the freshmen already don’t remember Oregon Trail.  Here’s a preview .gif ripped straight from my raw feed of the game, just for nostalgia:

…man.  I still stink at Oregon trail.  Sorry Heather.

Because I’m a big Star Trek nerd, I couldn’t pass this one up. http://markarayner.com/blog/archives/1231 is holding a contest for a Vintage ad featuring sci-fi products.  If I’m allowed more than one entry, I’ll post some more. Hopefully one in color. But here’s a fun afternoon accomplishment, anyway.

original ad:

My take:

heh.

Buy.com sent me an unintentionally cruel promo today.  500gb for $1?! I know the price of hard drive space is going down, but wow! Oh, if only it were true.  Cursed ellipses….

www.boingboing.net brought my attention to a photoshop contest worth my slim amounts of time: Vintage Ads of Fictional Futures.  Author Mark A. Reynor’s offering a walk-on role in his next novel, or some other goodies from his desk, to whoever wins.  Really, how can I pass this one up.

Time to sacrifice some evening time.  I’ll post my entry when I get it ready.